[HPforGrownups] Paradox of Time Travel in PoA

[heather the buzzard]

No: HPFGUIDX 132012

davenclaw wrote:

>Hi, I'm new to the group, so I apologize if this has been hashed out 
>in extreme detail in the past.  But here is my question: if time-
>traveling-Harry conjured the Patronus that saved original-Harry's 
>life, then how did Harry survive in the first place to end up in the 
>hospital and become time-traveling-Harry?
>
>
>The problem with time travel is that as soon as events are changed, 
>there is basically a "lost" past that happened, but that no one 
>remembers.  It gets complicated when you are showing how things 
>originally happened and how they were changed. 
>

heather now:

Basically, the resolution of the paradox is that there *IS* no change.  
That it is impossible to *change* history.  Harry was saved because the 
future Harry saved him, it had "already" happened.  Heh.

This is a bit clearer if we think it through... say there WAS an 
original 'lost' time.  Perhaps, as you suggested, Dumbledore saved 
Harry.  This Harry went on to cast the patronus, which now replaced 
Dumbledore's saving and saved himself.  Now the Harry that was just 
saved is a DIFFERENT Harry, with different experiences and memories than 
the one that DD saved.  Who's to say that's he's going to do exactly the 
same thing that the first Harry did?  This sets up a never-ending loop 
as well, rather than a single time stream with a 'fold' in it.

Of course lots of sci-fi does use this 'loop' idea of time travel, and 
it can be quite entertaining.  Several Star Trek episodes come to 
mind... heh...

Here's another issue... if DD 'originally' saved Harry, then Harry went 
back in time, wouldn't he see DD trying to save Harry?  DD wouldn't know 
that "this time" he shouldn't do it, because it's still the "first time" 
to him. 

Also, Harry was able to cast the Patronus because he had seen himself do 
it and knew he could.  If DD saved him, then how would he be able to 
conjure it up in order for himself to see it?  If he was able to do it 
anyway, then the whole point of seeing-therefore-knowing would have been 
lost.

It is hard on the brain, which is why time travel is such a delicate 
subject to write about.  But I think the way to think of it in JKR's 
Potterverse, is that there is no 'originally happened' and 'how they 
were changed'.  It only happened one way, and that one way included the 
time fold, and always did.  You have to look at time from the outside, 
rather than from the inside of a straight line.

heather the buzzard