Time turner theory

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 161911

Lana:
> "If Beaky didn't die, then
> why would you need to save him?"
> 
Tina responded: 
> I totally agree with Sarah.
> 
> Buckbeak didn't die indeed but they thought he died when they heard
the axe which is actually the axe against the fence. That is all that
they need to go back and 'save' buckbeak. Therefore, it doesn't change
anything coz Buckbeak never did die.
> 
> It's just like a circle, it has no beginning and no end. Not like a
> straight line where you start and things go on and on. Not like that.
> 
> Everything happens, has to happen. Thus, making things the way they
> are and why when you time-travel you must never change anything.

Carol adds:
I also agree with Sarah, having already presented my arguments earlier
in the thread. I just want to add that when Hermione Time!Turned
throughout the year in PoA, she never changed events. There was never
a class she didn't attend and went back to change. She was always in
two, or even three(?), classes at the same time. Note that when she
sleeps through Charms, she doesn't use the Time turner to go back and
undo her mistake. She just runs to Professor Flitwick to apologize.

Hermione warns Harry that they must not be seen, probably because
McGonagall has warned her not to be, but it can't be for the reasons
she gives. How can you kill your past or future self? Your future self
wouldn't kill your past self because you'd know who it was and that
you'd be killing both selves. And unless your future self looks
exactly like you and you think it must be a Polyjuiced DE, why would
you kill it? You'd just think, hey, that person looks a lot like me!
But in Hermione's case, the two selves are just two hours apart and
dressed alike. Normal!Hermione, who uses a Time Turner every day,
would recognize her Time-Turned self and realize that she was about to
use the Time Turner to go back and do something, which would, of
course, spoil the plot but wouldn't do any harm to either self.

I don't think Hermione really understands the operation of the Time
Turner, that they aren't so much saving Buckbeak and SB as preventing
what would have happened if they hadn't gone back. But there is no
alternate past to be undone. They always went back, and IMO,
Dumbledore knows they're out there, so he stalls to give them more
time. I think he realizes as he speaks to them in the hospital wing
that they used the Time Turner to get back there and sends them to
"save" a creature and a man who have already been saved because he's
already sent them. (Cf. "I knew I could cast it because I already
did," badly quoted from memory.

The Time-Turning was always part of those three hours. Harry just
doesn't know that he can be in two places at one time, and Hermione,
who does know perfectly well that such a thing is possible, doesn't
make the connection until DD says "Three turns should do it."

IMO, we haven't read any other in which someone is miraculously
rescued by anyone or anything who could be a Time!Turned Harry. DD
wasn't rescued, so he won't be. The same applies to Cedric, Sirius
Black, and Harry's parents. Time occurs only once for everyone except
the Time-Turned characters, who experience it twice. "No spell can
bring back the dead, Harry"--including the charm that turns hour
glasses into Time Turners.

Even if it were possible to alter time in the Potterverse, and I'm
sure it isn't, having Harry undo even one or two unhappy events would,
IMO, spoil the effect of those events on the story and on his
character development, not to mention that, as DD points out, every
action has unintended consequences. Just as evil deeds like the
attempt to murder Harry can have good consequences, in this case
separating Voldemort from his body and creating his nemesis, good
deeds like preventing Harry's father's friends from becoming murderers
can have bad consequences, in this case the resurrection of Voldemort.
Who knows what consequences changing even one event would have. The
whole series would have to be rewritten.

Carol, who thinks that using a Time-Turner to alter the past would be
tantamount to "it was only a dream," the ultimate copout ending