PoA FINAL Section: In Which Harry Goes Back In Time

In Which Harry (with Hermione) Goes Back In Time

Chapter 21 – Hermione’s Secret


Chapter 22 – Owl Post Again


Discussion Questions:

1. So anyone is not allowed to tamper with the past, but we perfectly know that Harry and Hermione changed the past by saving Buckbeak and Black. What makes it different if they tried to capture Pettigrew as well, or tried to get the map before Snape sees it on his desk, or made sure that Lupin had his potion?
   
   
2. Animagus. Do you think that this new information on his father convinced Harry to try to become an Animagus as well? What will his Animagus form be?
   
   
3. How do you compare Rowling's Time Travelling scheme to other time travelling stories such as Back To The Future, Time Traveller's Wife, and The Time Machine? The secrecy, the changing of the past, and the devices involved.

Note: The last question was brought up in DADAF's Rowling Class before, but Time Travel is such an interesting topic to bring up again... and again... and again...

1. Technically, the future Harry and Hermione already changed their 'past'. If the present Harry and Hermione did not change what was ought to be changed, then there will be a grand change and conflicting realities. So they must change the past to what is ought to be in the present. (I know the idea seems jumbled up, but try reading the theories about time especially that of the Quantum Mechanics)
"History holds tightly to her truths." - Absolute Power, Batman and Superman

2. I think that it did not convinced Harry to become one. First off, he is not that of a rascal to do such a thing.
If he would be an Animagus, I think he would be something like that of his parents, coz' I find it that most of animagus has the same animal that they have in their Patronuses. eg: Professor McGonagall has a cat patronus and can also shapeshift into a cat. James potter's patronus and shapeshift is both a Stag. Snape is a bat and his patronus is a bat (joke, LoL)

3. Time Travel is a very long topic, especially in the field of Quantum Mechanics, so I'll cut it short.

J.K.'s idea of Time Travel follows the scheme of a linear time. The concept of a linear time is one of the complicated schemes in the theory of time travel. In this scheme, there exists a certain observer, for most people they call it a God, that dictates what is ought to be. Films that have the same idea are those of the latest Star Trek movie, Back to the Future, and many others. Time Machine, The One (Jet Li), Kamen Rider Den-O series and movie has a different Time Travel concept. In the field of literature, I can make reference to Stephen King's Dark Tower series, Westerfeld's Leviathan Triolgy, the Magic thee Gathering novels, and the book entitled World War Z (I forgot the name of the author. It talks about a world war and zombie apocalypse) It is the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Hugh Everett. In this concept, there is no linear measurement of time and instead presents alternate realities. This theory is adapted to the different Comic book hero movies like Batman and Superman (which explains why there are so many versions of those characters. eg: in a certain reality Superman died "Doomsday", but in another he is alive. In another reality he is evil, in another he is Russian, and many other). To make an easier understanding of these concepts, reference to "No e in" anime. Related terms include Hyperspace, Parallel Universes, Wormholes, Fantasy multiverses.

So anyone is not allowed to tamper with the past, but we perfectly know that Harry and Hermione changed the past by saving Buckbeak and Black. What makes it different if they tried to capture Pettigrew as well, or tried to get the map before Snape sees it on his desk, or made sure that Lupin had his potion?

Here's the deal, and this is something I'm willing to explain further, even in person. Harry and Hermione didn't change the past. Nothing was tampered with. Even if they used the time-turner, they didn't change anything that already happened. Why not? Because in a block universe scenario (where time travel is possible), changing events is impossible to happen because it is illogical. One can't be in one particular event one moment and then do something different the next. There was nothing in the narrative/this particular chapter to suggest that events actually changed because of Harry and Hermione.