Paradox of Time Travel in PoA

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 132020

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Madam Marozi <madam_marozi at y...>
wrote:
> 
> 
> davenclaw:
> 
> > 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.  


> Marozi:
> 
> This isn't how it works in the Potterverse, though. 
> There is no "first time" or "lost past," the two
> Harrys coexisted in a single linear time.  By the time
> Harry wound up in the hospital, he had already saved
> himself, he just didn't know it yet.  History didn't
> change (and in this model, could not be changed),
> Harry just understood his own part in it better.  

bboyminn:

Well, I won't go into this in depth because Marozi has already made
the key point, time only happens once. I have responded to this before
and have several long essays on the subject, but it doesn't seem
necessary to post them again. 

In linear time, at 5:59pm, Harry, Ron, and Hermione arrive in the
Entrance Hall and hide in the broom cupboard/closet. They hide there
waiting to make sure the Entrance Hall is clear. At 6:01pm, they hear
footsteps, those foot steps are TimeTravel!Harry and TT!Hermione
hiding in another cupboard/closet. That's the first clue that JKR
gives us that both the normal characters and the TimeTraveling
characters are existing at the same time. A clue that is re-enforced
when we view the scene a second time from TT!Harry and TT!Hermione's
perspective.

>From that point on, each set of characters travels through the events
and sees them from their own unique persepctive, and there in is the
second key to the events. We don't seem time happen twice, we see time
happen once from two different perspectives. Another way to look at it
is, we don't have two times, we have one time with two Harrys.

People often wonder why someone doesn't go back in time and, for
example, save Sirius from falling through the Veil. The answer is that
if TT!Harry had been there to save him, then Sirius would have been
saved. Since he wasn't saved, then no time traveler was there to save
him. 

Again, linear time marches forward, at some point before Sirius's
death, Harry or the appropraite time traveler enters the time line.
That happens BEFORE Sirius's death which means someone is there to try
and prevent the death. Since Sirius died, either the time traveler
failed or the time traveler was never there.

There will always be a degree of paradox in time travel, we have to
accept that. But in simple terms, the fact that no time traveler saved
Sirius tells us that no one time traveled in an attempt to save him. 

Since Harry was there to save himself from the Dementors, then it is
an established historical fact that he was there the whole time just
waiting to step in and save himself.

Again, the heart of understanding is to accept that time only happens
once. Because of time travel PEOPLE can happen twice, but time only
happens once.

Longer that I intended, but you get the general idea.

Steve/bboyminn