Tags
book, books, Destiny, fantasy, fiction, Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, time travel, urban fantasy
I love the Harry Potter books, but this was one aspect that bugs the bageebers out of me. I hate predestination in novels because I feel like it cheats the characters by negating their free will. How is this related to Harry Potter? Because of the scene at the lake in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, time is a solid, unalterable line. Unlike in other scenarios where the person goes back in time to alter events, in Harry Potter, if it was possible to alter an event, you would have done so already, thus making your decisions irrelevant. If this is going to ruin Harry Potter for you, please stop reading.
The first time I reread the novel, I wondered why Hermione wouldn’t have gone back to correct missing her charms lesson, but because everything is happening on a single timeline, she can’t rewrite the past because she would have done so already. If you’ve read the book, you know Harry and Hermione were able to be in two places at once when they used the time turner to travel back, and yet they did not actually alter any events in the past because it had already happened when they were living it the first time. For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to refer to Harry and Hermione before they use the time turner Harry-A and Hermione-A, after thy use the time turner Harry-B and Hermione-B.
Now let’s go over the events. Harry-A, Hermione-A, and Ron think they hear Buckbeak’s beheading, but they don’t actually see it because Harry-B and Hermione-B have stolen Buckbeak before we as the audience are aware of their existence. They hear the swish of the ax hitting the fence and interpret it as Buckbeak’s death.
At the lake, Harry-A watches Harry-B produce a patronus to drive off the dementors. Harry-B explains to Hermione-B that he was able to produce the patronus because he realized he had already done it, negating the possibility of another rescuer. There is never a timeline in which only Harry-A and Hermione-A exist, no original which gets rewritten. It’s like the chicken and the egg, which came first? Without Harry-A and Hermione-A using the time turner, there would be no Harry-B and Hermione-B and yet, there’s no scenario in which Harry-A and Hermione-B live to use the time turner without the interference of Harry-B and Hermione-B. Had there been, something else would have happened to save Harry-A so that Harry-B would never have had to step in. He only steps in because he saw it happen as Harry-A.
Since Harry-B has already lived as Harry-A, everything that happens to Harry-A is predetermined because Harry-B cannot change the past. Therefore, the entire timeline for the series is in question. How much is predetermined? Do the characters have a false sense of free will? What do you think?
-Eliabeth
Ermilia 
My huge problem with the time turners actually wasn’t the predestination thing. My issue is that they HAVE TIME TURNERS!!! Why don’t they ever use them again? Think of all the problems they could have fixed? Although I guess with your predestination theory, they didn’t use the time turners because they weren’t destined to. Maybe JKR slipped in the predestination thing on purpose so she wouldn’t have to explain the appalling lack of time turners throughout the rest of the books. 😀
Haha exactly. If they were able to use the time turners to fix anything, there never would have been a problem in the first place because a B version of the characters would have been fixing it while the A characters lived in ignorant bliss, thus creating a paradox because then the A’s would never have had to go back in time because there would be no problem to fix. The whole thing bugs me.
I can’t really respond here as I have never read the books nor seen the movies of Harry Potter, but I do know that you are an excellent writer, so I couldn’t pass the comment section leaving it blank!
Awe, thank you Terry. It’s always good to hear your thoughts.
Time travelling, it messes a lot of things up. Never. play. with. time. travel.
I actually agree whole heartedly. I dunno about Ermi, but that’s not something I forsee writing for our novels.
“The first time I reread the novel, I wondered why Hermione wouldn’t have gone back to correct missing her charms lesson, but because everything is happening on a single timeline, she can’t rewrite the past because she would have done so already.”
Because she is a) human, b) a kid, and c) didn’t think of that. Simple. 🙂
It’s called ‘suspension of disbelief’.
When my literary agent helped to run a sci-fi fanzine (he loves telling this story), someone sent him a script for a film that they were going to send to a studio. He read through it and ripped the plot to shreds for its inconsistencies. It was ‘Alien’. The rest is history.
I’m not saying I didn’t like the book, or that it was poorly written. I just didn’t like that particular aspect. You may remember I’ve griped about the Greek understanding of fate as well. Hermione couldn’t have gone back in time because she had forgotten; the fact that someone had to remind her negated her ability to change the past given that A and B exist on the same plane. I’m familiar with ‘suspension of disbelief’ but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth discussing. My boyfriend enjoys watching Eureka but he’ll still announce when one of the plot points is disrupted by incorrect science.
I think I needed coffee before I read this. 🙂
Haha, I made Ermisenda read it before I posted it because I knew it made sense in my head, but I wasn’t sure if I was able to explain it in a manner that would make sense in anyone else’s.
That is the beautiful thing about magic in writing, sometimes you are simply not meant to know. It just feels right.
Indeed. It’s a hard line between spoon feeding the audience or leaving them with too many questions.
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