TIME-TURNER: Plot Hole or Not?
Olivia Yi (ISB 9)
Having binged all 8 Harry potter movies and devoured the original 7 novels, author Olivia Yi (9) is— without a doubt— a Harry Potter buff. In her article on the famous time turner appearing in Prisoner of Azkaban, Olivia examines different time travel theories with an astoundingly critical eye and answers the age-old question of why Harry Potter couldn’t travel back in time to kill Voldemort.
“I mark the hours, every one, Nor have I yet outrun the Sun. My use and value, unto you, Are gauged by what you have to do.”
- Inscription on Hermione Granger’s borrowed Time Turner.
Courtesy of the Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban film
The magical world of Wizarding London, depicted in the seven-book series Harry Potter, has become one of the most widely acclaimed fantasy universes. One of the reasons Harry Potter has a huge fan base is due to its allure of the world’s magical community. The Magical World of Harry Potter is filled with an abundance of objects: Hermione’s bottomless handbag, Extendable Ears, Ice Mice, Foe-Glass and a lot more. According to an article titled “10 of the most useful objects from the Wizarding World” by the Wizarding World, the Time Turner is ranked third out of the top tens. The Time-Turner is a magical object that has a Hour-Reversal Charm on it, which allows people to go back in time. Fans and critics often misunderstand how the Time-Turner works. They wonder why Harry couldn’t go back in time to kill a young and innocent Voldemort with the device. Why didn’t Harry do that? It would have made his life much easier! There is a very specific reason why Harry didn’t do that. The creators of the third movie, Alfonso Cuarón, the director, and JK Rowling, used cinematic effects to help the viewers understand the purpose of the Time-Turner and how to use it correctly.
Firstly, the Time-Turner uses the predestination timeline. The Time Turner makes its first appearance in the third book of the series: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The book introduces it as a tool to help Hermione keep up with her ridiculous homework. As seen in the quote be- low, Harry and Ron are often confused because she seems to be appearing in two places at once.
“‘Where is she?’ [...] ‘She was right behind us.’ said Ron, frowning. ‘How did you do that?’ said Ron. [...] ‘What?’ said Hermione, joining them. ‘One minute you were right behind us, and next moment, you were back at the bottom of the stairs again.’” (Rowling)
Courtesy of the Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban film
The Time-Turner uses the Predestination Timeline. In this timeline, the person that goes back in time is still in the same universe. Most people assume that the Time-Turner is capable of transporting a person to an Alternate Universe. The Time-Turner does not do this. If the Time-Turner sent the person into an Alternate Universe, then the current universe won’t be effected in any way. However, when someone goes back in time with the Time-Turner and changes the past, the present world does not look the same anymore and there would be drastic consequences. Altered timeline is traveling to another universe, so when a paradox is created, the world that was started from wouldn’t be affected in any way.
“Why couldn’t Harry go back time and kill a young and innocent Voldemort?”
When using the Time-Turner, the user must not change the past. The Time-Turner itself uses the Novikov’s self-consistency principle. Meaning that when one uses the Time Turner and goes back time, they are not doing something new. When Harry and Hermione rescue the Hippogriff in the film, Novikov’s self consistency principle is seen in action. When Harry, Hermione, and Ron are in Hagrid’s hut, the vase holding the sand breaks with a specific stone. When Harry and Hermione go back time, Hermione uses the same rock she saw before and breaks the jar. Hermione is not doing something new, she is just making something happen that already happened before. The Time-Turner allows the person from the future to experience a period again with a different perspective. To everyone except the users of the Time-Turner, nothing has changed.
Courtesy of the Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban film
When the user of the Time-Turner changes the past and causes a shift in action or an interception in the primary timeline, they are in Paradox Territory. Once in Paradox Territory, no one can interfere. This is why in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child when Harry and friends go back time, they cannot help Harry’s parents and have to watch them die. Anything they do will change the past and if they are seen by people in that time- frame, they will enter Paradox Territory.
In conclusion, Harry couldn’t go back time and kill Voldemort because of the Novikov’s Self-Consistency principle and how the Time-Turner works in the Predestination Timeline.
“Time-Turner must not change the past...”
If Voldemort died, they would be in Paradox Territory since Harry killing boy Voldemort is a shift in the timeframe that was already established. Even if Harry manages to come back from the past after killing Voldemort, the universe would be very different compared to the one he had left. Think about it this way. Harry went back in time to kill Voldemort, but Voldemort does not exist when the job is done. How can there then be a form of Harry that goes back in time to kill Voldemort? Harry wouldn’t even know who Voldemort is.
Time Travel is a prevalent theme in films, books, and many science fiction mediums. They are almost too common. Just like the Harry Potter series has a Time Turner, other films have a fictional object that can help the characters travel back in time (i.e. Doctor Who has TARDIS). Many might think that the time travel trope might be overdone and uninteresting. That is why they are quick to judge when a new text introduces time travel into its plot. Therefore, the question becomes, why do people still like it so much? Why is it a very common trope?
Courtesy of the Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban film
In a interview with James Gleick, a scientist who explores the implications of Science and Technology on society through writing, Gleick states that “humans are obsessed with time”. Time is gold. No human has ever been able to establish control over it. Time doesn’t wait for you, it just keeps going on. We have to catch up with time and every human struggles with that. Everyone wishes that they could go back in time to fix their mistakes. But if we had the opportunity to do so, would we be bringing a positive impact into the world? Or would we be causing irreparable dam- age? In Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Scorpius and Albus go back in time to save Cedric Diggory. When trying to save him, they create a paradox as they interfere with the basic timeline. As a consequence, when they come back they see that Voldemort has won the final battle at Hogwarts, and thus the war. It would be difficult to create a fully functioning Time-Machine that could yield no negative repercussions. We’d have to make sure that we wouldn’t cause mass destruction when we get back. Though I urge all of us to try!
“Time doesn’t wait for you, it just keeps going on.”