The point of Time-Turning (was Paradox of Time Travel in PoA)

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 132030

davenclaw wrote:
"Then what are people going back into?  The past that they already 
created?  What for, if they have already altered things as they 
intend to alter them?"

Del replies:
Yes, they go back to the past that they helped create. And they do so
because they HAVE to. That past was created BECAUSE they were in it
twice, so they HAVE to go back. 

Take Hermione for example. She can go to Class A, and at the end of it
she could ask someone in Class B if she was there (and hope that that
person doesn't forcefully take her to see Madam Pomfrey :-P). That
person will answer "yes", so Hermione will know that she Time-Turned
correctly. But in order to have Time-Turned, she now needs to
Time-Turn, or she will never have Time-Turned!

That's why she was so upset when she missed her Charms lesson: because
she couldn't change that event. She was NOT in Charms, and no amount
of Time-Turning is going to change that. Because she was never in
Charms that day, she will NEVER be in Charms that day.

So one way to look at it is: 

The whole point of Time-Turning is to make the past happen the way it
happened.

Del