Time turner theory

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 161878

---  Nina Baker <sweety12783 at ...> wrote:
>
>I think that Harry will go back in time but for different
> reasons. What if Harry goes back in time and destroys 
> the Hocruxes before his family is attacked? Harry would
> change the course of history. .... Everything would end
> with Harry surrounded by the people he loves. ...
>    
>   Tell me what you think.
>    
>   sweety12783

bboyminn:

I'm very reluctant to respond because I don't want to 
dampen you enthusiasm, but there are some potential
flaws in you idea.

On one hand, by going back and finding existing Horcruxes
where they are hidden, Harry is not really altering
human history. The Horcruxes are intangible artifacts that
are hidden away some where, and they themselves don't 
effect history at all.

But, if the Horcruxes are gone at the time Voldemort
originally attacks Harry and the rest of the Potter
family, then Harry would still have lived, Lily and James
would have still died, and Voldemort would be totally
and completely dead too. But we know that Voldemort did
not die, so we can know that Harry did not destroy the
Horcruxes.

The next problem is that we have only seen backwards 
time travel. That doesn't mean forward time travel 
doesn't exist, but we haven't seen it and we haven't
heard any references to it. Our available information
implies that forward time travel doesn't exist.

Note when Harry and Hermione go back in time, the only 
way to move forward, is to live through the time equal 
to which they move back. That is, they move forward 
through natural time until they reach the point where
they went back. At that point, the current selves 
disappear, and their time travel selves arrive to take
their place.

That was easy enough when they only when back a few hours,
but what happens when they go back a few years? The only 
way to get back to the present is to relive those few
years until the past catches up with the present. Harry
would have to go back over 15 years to find the Horcruxes
and prevent Voldemort continued existance after Voldemort
kills his parents and tries to kill him. That means Harry
spends over 15 years in the past waiting for time to 
catch up with his present. Seems like a long time to 
hang around doing nothing.

At one point people speculated that Dumbledore was really
Ron who time traveled back from the future, and to 
disguise his continued existance in the past, he adopted
the Dumbledore persona and continued to live in the wizard 
world for over 100 years waiting for the past to catch
up with the present. Seem like a pointless theory now that
Dumbledore is dead.

So, while there are some interesting aspects to your 
theory, in practicality, it doesn't solve that much since
Voldemort still attacks the Potter, but does so not 
knowing he doesn't have his Horcrux protection. James 
and Lily still die, Voldemort truly dies, and Harry 
continues to live. That is still a better life than he 
is having though.

Still, when you make massive changes to the past, you 
can't simply look at the consequences from a narrow 
perspective. By alterning the past, you spawn a new 
alternate timeline, and your one change in the past can
cause many many changes in the future. Much like 'The 
Butterfly Effect' and 'Back to the Future', the future
you return to is completely altered in every way, not 
just change with regard to yourself.

So, I'm going to stick with the idea that IF someone
time travels, it will be for a short span of time, and
it will simply be to gather information that can be used
in the present. Though it might be to help create a
history as it is already known to exist.

For what it's worth.

Steve/bboyminn