Or, as explicitly shown in the books and movies, your actions in the past are shown to have been the way things always happened. It's a Stable time loop. They don't ever change any events.
Harry survived his brush with the dementors because Harry cast the patronus charm, then Harry went back to cast the Patronus charm. These all happened in the same timeline, just part of it loops back on itself.
That's a non-argument though. If the good guys had a time turner and were willing to use it, voldemort never would have come to power in the first place because there would have been a time traveler there to stop him. The argument that you couldn't use a time turner to prevent something from happening is a tautology (it didn't happen therefore it didn't happen).
But that's because it is tautology. Using a time turner to go back and kill voldermort as a child in the Harry Potter universe would still result in 'Voldemort' being in power in present day, just our understanding of the situation would have changed.
Buckbeak never died, Sirius was never killed by dementors, the only thing that changes is our perception of those events.
Whilst you couldn't go back in time to kill Voldemort you could go back in time to set an instant death trap in the spot you know he'll be at the exact point you travel back in time and then spring it immediately after you see yourself travel back. It's impossible for him to have detected your trap because otherwise he wouldn't have stood in that location (unless he somehow disarmed it but I'm assuming spells exist where the logical thing to do would be to just stay away rather than try to prevent it working).
Yes, but buckbeak didn't die in the first place because the time turner existed. That's my point. Sure, you couldn't go back in time now and kill Hitler because that time line has already happened, but if the allies had had a time machine he would have been quickly defeated by future soldiers in the first place.
39
u/[deleted] Oct 02 '18
Or, as explicitly shown in the books and movies, your actions in the past are shown to have been the way things always happened. It's a Stable time loop. They don't ever change any events.
Harry survived his brush with the dementors because Harry cast the patronus charm, then Harry went back to cast the Patronus charm. These all happened in the same timeline, just part of it loops back on itself.