Time-Travel in PoA: Yay or Nay?

[Holly Golightly]

Okies, I think that the prob with people understanding the time travel here is that they are trying to understand it relating to other instances of time travel that they have read/heard/seen/whatever.

You basically have to ignore previous thought about it, and just take what we have been told by JK in this series.

it seems nothing is altered because you see life as how it was when it was altered

is exactly right, as I see it anyways. and no, you cannot change history at all, becuase it has already happened. Harry and Hermoine didnt' change anything. They were just doing two different things in different places, at the same time.
So, someone could not go back in time to when Voldie was little and kill him... because it didnt' happen... make sense?

And I know that you are not saying that they are the same, but to continue to use the time machine for an example, time travel worked very different in that circumstance (btw, I only saw the movie, never read the book!) While it was true that similarily, he couldnt' change the basic jist of the past, he could still do different things... not so in HP... they dont' change anything that has happened, they can't.

An I just repeating myself??? *hrmm, I never know when I do that!!!*

Anyways, that's my understanding of it all!

[Lizzy Bennet]

Time-travel is *so* confusing to explain as well as to understand!

I understand it, for the most part, due to my boyfriend explaining the ins and outs of it after we watched "Kate and Leopold" together (and I got quite confused!). It's hard to explain it in words . . . in fact, he drew a time-line and 'showed' me how it worked, and that helped . . . so I give all of you my kudos for attempting to explain!

You basically have to ignore previous thought about it, and just take what we have been told by JK in this series.
Boycey wrote:
it seems nothing is altered because you see life as how it was when it was altered
is exactly right, as I see it anyways. and no, you cannot change history at all, becuase it has already happened. Harry and Hermoine didnt' change anything. They were just doing two different things in different places, at the same time.
So, someone could not go back in time to when Voldie was little and kill him... because it didnt' happen... make sense?

Both Boycey and Holly Golightly are correct . . . in a sense, if time-travel existed, whatever has happened in the past (with people who lived during that time as well as people who travelled back to that time to do things) you are *living* the result of that right now. I think the reason Dumbledore warned Harry and Hermione to be careful is because of what would happen if they encountered themselves or other people realized there were two sets of them . . . all chaos would break loose. To me, the confusion has always come about when you think that on the one hand, you can't be seen because it would have damaging effects yet you can't really change anything because it's already happened. Arrrrrggggh! Now, I've confused myself!

HELP!

[Violet]

i just spent like 20 minutes writing a post trying to figure out this whole time travel thing b/c i didn't understand it, and then it finally all clicked!
but doesnt it have implications of pre-destination?
i mean before harry had actually gone back and changed things, he already saw the patronus across the lake, so is that saying that he was gunna do it all along, but didn't have a choice in it? sorry i'm havin trouble understandin it!!!

[Holly Golightly]

but doesnt it have implications of pre-destination?

Hrmm, not really. You see, it's seemed to be being taken as one event happenng after the other, but in the reality of HP, when Harry was saved from the dementors by the partonus, he was over the other side of the lake... it wasnt' predeistined, he was actually doing it at the exact same time. You just look at it as such becuase we read them one after the other. You've just got to get your mind around it.

Umm, and Lizzie... not quite. In Kate and Leopold, it was different, mainly because HP was at the same time,and K&L were centuries apart. But they changed the future by doing things differently... that's not the case in HP... Very close though!

You should note though, that it is impossible to say what is actually fact, as no one can possibly know. We can only relate how things work here to the info that JK gives us, and try not to base understanding of it on any other source of info...

[Blaise Zabini]

More about the predestination, I think it's easiest to think of it in terms of two time-lines. Both occurring simultaneously. While Present Harry was being overcome by the Dementors, Future Harry was standing on the other side, comprehending what was happening. Both Harry's were there and both sets of events occurred at the same time.

[Mint]

This is SOOOO confusing!!! Thats why I am totally against time travel!!!! and now after reading all of your posts - Im against it more than ever.

Pre-destination? Here are two choices to write Harry barely escapes the monster senario:

1)Harry(1) was about to die - than he(Harry2) went back from the future and tried to stop the monster, then in the further future he(Harry3) found out that he didn't have to stop the monster and went back again to stop Harry2, than Harry4 realised that he HAD to stop that monster to stay alive and went back to stop Harry 3. This was all predestined to happen.

2) Harry stopped the monster.

The outcomes of 1) and 2) are absolutely the same! But look at the difference!!

[Neo]

If Harry is meant to live in the moment that dementors attack him, then there is no way to change that; if you time travel to try to prevent, you were supposed to do so, and also there is a way in which you won't achieve your purpose.

[Mint]

X_X

I better leave before I aggravate someone.

Before I go......Time Traveling is confusing!

buy

[Neo]

Ok Mint didn0t really hope for you to understand; but just try to see it this way, time doesn't change, if you time travel, that is part of the time also; and things happen just the same if you know that some time travel or not.

[HuffleDuck]

Yeah it is, Time-traveling is too confusing... I might save my questions cause i might end up confusing myself and others It would be best if we can ask JK for answers. I think somebody had answered me before when i asked the same question about T-T, i think he/she says that Harry using time traveling didn't change the past but altar it.. i think,.have to find that post.Her answer seems to be a little bit understanding when i thought about it all day, it kinda make sense for my question about time traveling