Paradox of Time Travel in PoA

[davenclaw]

No: HPFGUIDX 135591

Just reading through some old messages I missed and had to comment on 
my favorite debate:

smilingator81:

> IMO, JKR is operating the Potterverse under Theory 2... in which 
there
> is one time with possibly many perspectives. An important aspect of
> this theory is that events can not be changed during time travel. If
> someone attempted to change the past, they would fail. TTH! and TTHr!
> could not have gone back and changed anything because this is
> impossible. What happened the first time from 9-12 on that night is
> exactly the same thing that happened the second time from 9-12. We
> just saw the story from two different perspectives.


If time can't be changed, then why would Dumbledore need to send the 
kids back in time at all?  Everything had already worked itself out, 
right?  This theory requires that the impact of having gone back in 
time is seen before the point in time at which the time travelers 
actually go back in time.  It means that you would make the decision 
to go back in time with the understanding that the impact of this 
decision had already been experienced, but that the traveling itself 
was required in order to fulfill what had already happened.  Now who 
in the world would waste their time (no pun intended) going back in 
time to make happen what, from their perspective, had already 
happened?  Why bother?  This basically means that if they choose NOT 
to go back in time, then they never went back in time.  This means 
that NO MATTER WHAT DECISION THEY MAKE when given the opportunity to 
time turn, THAT decision will be what makes events occur as they have 
already occurred.  This means that Dumbledore could have 
said "Buckbeak escaped and Sirius is escaping right now, but only 
because you are about to go back in time and make that happen, so 
go."  And somehow they have no choice in the matter, since they are 
essentially predestined to go back in time.

There is just no logical way that this is the way time travel works in 
this story. I don't buy that theory for half a second. I think the 
only thing that comes close to making sense is that time is changed, 
and we are only shown the same series of events AFTER they have been 
changed, first from the perspective of the non-time-travelers and then 
from the perspective of the time-travelers.  Some other series of 
events was altered and never shown, and in my opinion never even 
considered in JKR's mind - I think that we she writes is the extent to 
which she envisioned time travel and didn't really get this far into 
the consequences of that portrayal.

- davenclaw