Time Turners

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 142245

unix4evr wrote:
>
> Excuse me if someone already raised this, but -- 

> BUT apparently you can go back in time and change events so they 
> never happened.  I'm thinking of Buckbeak's execution.  Harry, Ron 
> and Hermione used her time turner to go back in time and save 
> Buckbeak who HAD been killed.
> 
> Get where I'm going with this???

zgirnius:
I see where you are going, yes. But we don't know that Buckbeak was 
ever killed. I would say that he was not, he escaped the executioner. 
All we read about it is that (out of sight) the sound of the axe is 
heard. This still happens, in fact, the executioner (again offstage, 
we just hear it) swings his axe at the fence in frustration. 
Dumbledore knew this. It why, when he told Harry and Hermione to use 
the Time-Turner, "If all goes well, you will be able to save more 
than one innocent life tonight". He knew Buckbeak had somehow gotten 
away, and was hoping this meant that the Time-Turning duo had freed 
him in order to help Sirius. Which turned out to be the case.

Dumbledore, on the other hand, has died right in front of us. (Unless 
it was all a fake, in which case no need to Time-Turn to warn 
anybody, anyway...)

unix4evr:
> Also -- I've gone back and forth on the Snape "good" Snape "bad" 
bit 
> and have concluded he is a rotter.  My reason?  I'm re-reading The 
> Goblet of Fire.  Early in the book we are told that Voldemort's 
most 
> faithful servant will return to him and this may allow him to 
> succeed.
> 
> Harry assumed the servant was Wormtail.  Wormtail isn't that strong.

zgirnius:
Harry assumed this because Wormtail was the only servant of Voldemort 
he knew about at the time who was not in Azkaban. So it was the only 
guess he could make at the time.

unix4evr:
> The faithful servant was Snape.

zgirnius:
By the end of the book our menu of choices has grown to include not 
only Snape, but also Karkaroff and Crouch, Jr. In the graveyard scene 
Voldemort refers to six missing Death Eaters. (p. 651 US 
paperback). "three dead in my service. One, too cowardly to 
return...he will pay. One, who I believe has left me forever...he 
will be killed of course...and one, who remains my most faithful 
servant, and who has already reentered my service." How to match the 
three new DEs we know about to the three who are missing?

The coward I think is Karkaroff. This makes sense in light of he fact 
that Karakroff (we learn in a Pensieve scene from GoF) gave evidence 
against other DEs in exchange for a lesser sentence. Crouch makes no 
sense as the one who has left forever, since he has clearly been 
working for Voldemort all year. Which leaves that role for Snape. 
Lucky for Snape, when he shows up later that evening he is apparently 
able to convince Voldemort not to kill him after all. (I conclude 
this as he is still alive after that meeting).

Of course, you are free to decide Snape is a rotter anyway, for any 
number of other reasons...
;o)