Paradox of Time Travel in PoA

[tylerswaxlion]

No: HPFGUIDX 132071

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Jonathan House <jonathan at t...> 
wrote:
> Although the book does hint towards theory 2 (in my humble 
opinion), 
> there is nothing there that says that theory 1 isn't valid.JKR 
wrote the 
> duplicated time sequence in such a way that you couldn't tell what 
had 
> occurred to Buckbeak (which would have given us the major clue) 
the 
> first time through.
> 
> Again, I think that JKR learned a lesson about writing time travel 
here. 
> Unless it is severely limited, it has the potential to blow huge 
holes 
> in the plot. Here are a few examples:
> 
>  In PS/SS, Dumbledore could have picked up a time turner while at 
the 
> Ministry and spun himself back to the point before Harry, Ron and 
> Hermione met up with Fluffy.
> 

Except JKR *does* give us a clue to how time-travel works in her 
universe, and she directly points to one unaltered timeline where 
time turners *travel* in time.

Hermione sleeps through Charms!  When Ron and Harry ask where she 
was, she has a fit.  Now, if the past were changable, why couldn't 
she just time-turn her way back to Charms?

If there is an "original" timeline that is altered when she 
timeturns, why can't she timeturn her way back to Charms?

If the Star Trek timeline--an original that is altered--holds true, 
then Hermione should *expect* Harry and Ron to experience a Charms 
class without her before she TTed back to it.

But that's not what happens.

Hermione can't go to Charms b/c she WASN'T in Charms.  That time has 
past without her being there.  She's not going to be able to get 
there, no matter what she tries, b/c a future version of herself 
wasn't there.

It's not as good as having Fudge grumble about Buckbeak not being 
executed in the infirmary before they go back and save Buckbeak, but 
it is a clue that in JKR's world, time happens once.