Time-turning

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 167454

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboyminn at ...> wrote:

> Yes, technically there is a loop or loop-ish events
> since the did go BACK in time. But in linear time,
> they arrived at 6:00pm and they were always there. 
> 
> Again, as to the question of whether Harry could have
> or would have changed his mind and not time traveled,
> that is theoretically possible, but it is not 
> realistically possible because Harry would have done
> anything to be able to save Sirius. 
> 
> As I said in a previous post, arguing time travel is
> like arguing religion, there is simply no way to reach
> a firm mutually agreeable conclusion. But it is still
> a fun discussion.
> 
> Time Happened Once = Bliss
> Time Happened Twice = Misery
> 

I understand how this is not to be viewed as a loop but that
still does not get me to bliss, I am forever mired in misery
when I read this section of the story.

Here's the problem. We are coming up to the point where
Harry is about to get his first kiss (yuck! but that's right
isn't it?). Because time travel exists in the Potterverse and
conforms to the self-consistent, recursive causality model,
a future Harry Potter either will come back and save the 
day or Harry's life will essentially be over, he will be 
a soulless hulk until the death of his physical body.
The decision has to be made right now, not some time
later by Dumbledore or Hermione in the hospital wing.
Who or what decides or even causes the decision to be
made? I don't think there is an answer. Recursive
causality is a mumbo-jumbo answer, it is absurd.

Harry's survival of this near kiss experience is unexplained,
unexplainable, and therefore unsatisfying. The time travel
mechanism Rowling employs does tell me HOW Harry was
saved, it fails to tell me WHY Harry was saved. Harry saving
himself by means of time travel is exactly as unsatisfying 
to me as if she had said "and then a miracle occurred and
all the Dementors ran away for no reason that anyone could
ever explain".

Ken