Time-travel

Book 5: HP & the Order of the Phoenix Forum

I know that this has been brought up in another thread so I'd be happy for this post to be moved if necessary. But anyhoo...
It's been suggested that Harry could have used a time-turner in the Department of Mysteies to go back and save Sirius but after hours of pondering it, I've arrived at the conclusion that this is not how Rowling approaches the time travel paradox. At Buckbeak's execution, we hear what we think is Buckbeak being killed, but is actually MacNair striking the post in anger at Buckbeak's escape. Therefore, his rescue is pre-determined, even if Harry and Hermione misinterpret what they hear. I think that using the time-turner was not an option for Sirius, as if Harry or anyone were going to use it, we would have seen someone turn up from the future and save him before he fell through the veil, so that he would not have died at all in the first place. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go away and have a headache.

Great thoughts, Mike... I never looked at it that way.

Hmmmmmmmmmm

If I could drop my two pennies, being a Sci-Fi fan, I've pondered the use of time travel and have come to realize there are only two main avenues of thought on the matter:

First- time is constant. Like agent mike stated above, this rationale states that time is pre-determined, even all the travel therein. Time would be a strait line with multiple loops in it, but constant nonetheless. All the changes you will ever make in time are already embedded in the very fabric of time. It’s like the chicken and the egg.

Second- time is ever changing. Time would be a zigzagged line that changes with every incursion into the past or future. So, changing past events would be possible, thus changing the outcome of the future.

Once you introduce a plot device that enables time travel, you have to be careful. JK took the safe road and really didn’t commit to one or the other. Although I did read that HP book and interpreted it the same way agent mike did.

-HECK!

Great thread Mike. I never thought of it that way. I also wonder if there is a time limit for using the time turner. Hermione turned it back in to the Ministry, so they did not have it close at hand to use. Dumbledore may also have thought that if it was used, things could have changed and Voldemort could have gained an advantage from the change in circumstance.

Cheers for the feedback guys. By the way, there are some reviews of POA over on www.imdb.com for anyone interested. They're all positive at the moment. AND, it's been a year and three days since this perplexed 17-year-old wandered into INREVIEW looking for a forum to help him understand the first Matrix sequel. Who'd have thunk there'd be some Potter maniacs here too?!

Who indeed would have thought!

I think your thoughts are right on the money here mike

Great Mike,i dont think i would have been able to think abt that.

But using the time turner the only way is to attack Ballatrix before she use her spell at Sirius,that means that Harry would see himself and the other Harry might start attacking his other self and in the end he wont get to save Sirius and even if he does,he would be in big trouble with the MoM.

Harry fighting with himself eh Sirius? Funny thought

I don't like the way time travel is explained in most cases, like Back to the Future, for example, and (I thought up til what Agent Mike said up top) in the POA... It's fairly hard to explain in speech, and almost impossible to put it into comprehensive text, but the concept's used in time travel don't make sense. Take, for example, Marty McFly stopping his parents meeting... This would result in Marty not being born, which in turn would mean he wouldn't have been able to travel back in time to stop his parents meeting, so he would have been born... I much prefer the way 'Time Travel' is explained in the 'Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy', which is:

'There is no problem about changing the course of history- the course of history does not change because it all fits together like a jigsaw. All the important changes have happened before the things that were supposed to change, and it all sorts itself out in the end.'

I think this is kinda on the lines of what Agent Mike was saying, that if Sirius had been saved, then we would have seen it from the beginning. Now I've got a headache too!