Time

The Seeds of Time

‘If you can look into the seeds of time
And say which grain will grow and which will not,
Speak then to me …’
Shakespeare, Macbeth, I.3.57-8

‘No,’ said Dumbledore. ‘Divination is turning out to be much more trouble than I could have foreseen, never having studied the subject myself.’ (HBP20)

‘This is the weirdest thing we’ve ever done,’ Harry said fervently. (POA21)

A brief history of time-travel in the Potterverse … and some thoughts on its possible use in Book 7

We know from previous experience that when a really clever device is introduced in the septology it is seldom used just once. To take a few prominent examples:

1. Animagi: Professor McGonagall is still the only *registered* Animagus we have met (PS1). Animagi form a major part of the plot in Book 3 with the Marauders’ backstory (POA18). However, there is also an unlooked for Animagus in Book 4 (Rita Skeeter, GOF37).

2. Polyjuice Potion: the trio experiment memorably with this substance in Book 2 (COS12). However, it is used most effectively by an enemy, Barty Crouch, Jr. to disguise himself for an entire year in Book 4 (GOF35).

3. Patronus Charm: introduced to counter the Dementors in Book 3 (POA12&21). Needed again by Harry in Book 5 (OOtP1). Used by members of the Order of the Phoenix to send messages in GOF28, OOtP37 and HBP8. Harry teaches the charm to members of the DA in OOtP27. Then in Book 6 we learn that a Patronus can change its form after ‘a great shock … an emotional upheaval …’ (HBP16).

4. Fidelius Charm: crucial to the plot of Book 3; the Potters were betrayed by their Secret Keeper (POA10&18). We learn in Book 5 that Dumbledore is Secret Keeper for the Order of the Phoenix and their Headquarters at number twelve, Grimmauld Place (OOtP6).

5. The Pensieve: first used to provide crucial backstory in Book 4 (GOF30). Vital Pensieve scene in Book 5 allows Harry to witness what no-one would have shown him (voluntarily) of his parents’ school days with Snape (OOtP28). Then Dumbledore uses the Pensieve as a teaching aid throughout Book 6 (HBP10, HBP13, HBP17, HBP20 & HBP23).

6. Horcruxes: OK, we didn’t know that Riddle’s diary was a Horcrux (COS13&17). We first hear the term ‘Horcruxes’ in HBP17 to be explained in HBP23.

On this basis, I think that time-travel (Book 3) has hitherto unrealised potential in the Potterverse. Below are some of the questions raised by its first outing in POA21 …

• ‘What we need,’ said Dumbledore slowly, and his light blue-eyes moved from Harry to Hermione, ‘is more time.’ How does Dumbledore know what to advise? Is he aware of the time-travelling duo in POA21? ‘How extraordinary,’ said Dumbledore. There was a note of amusement in his voice. Does this suggest that DD might be something of an expert in the field?

• ‘No!’ said Hermione in a terrified whisper. ‘Don’t you understand? We’re breaking one of the most important wizarding laws! Nobody’s supposed to change time, nobody!’ But since when has *that* been a deterrent? (Only one of the five Animagi we’ve met so far *isn’t* illegal.)

• ‘Professor McGonagall told me what awful things have happened when wizards have meddled with time … loads of them ended up killing their past or future selves by mistake!’ So it’s definitely happened before then? Interesting… (though how anyone would *know* about it is a whole other issue!)

• ‘Harry, what do you think you’d do if you saw yourself bursting into Hagrid’s house?’ said Hermione. ‘I’d – I’d think I’d gone mad,’ said Harry, ‘or I’d think there was some Dark Magic going on –’ Have any Dark Wizards been time-travellers?

• ‘You must not be seen. Miss Granger, you know the law – you know what is at stake … you – must – not – be – seen.’ As many people have already commented, this rule seems to have been invented to keep them from violating a deeper principle: that is, to maintain the internal logic that allows this form time-travel to happen, you can’t change what has already happened, i.e. Harry can’t save his parents or Sirius Black. However you can go back to explain *how* something happened, i.e. Harry saving himself from the Dementor. Buckbeak never died in POA16: the trio only thought he did!

• ‘I knew I could do it this time,’ said Harry, ‘because I’d already done it … Does that make sense?’ (POA21) Well, no, not really, Harry (this is sort of paradox is known as a ‘causal loop’) … but it does set an exciting precedent in terms of what is possible in this world!

The strongest evidence that time-travel might occur again in Book 7 comes in OOtP when Harry visits the Time Room in the Department of Mysteries (reintroducing the devices). The jet of red light flew right over the Death Eater’s shoulder and hit a glass-fronted cabinet on the wall full of variously shaped hourglasses. The cabinet fell to the floor and burst apart, glass flying everywhere, then sprang back up onto the wall, fully mended, then fell down again, and shattered … the glass cabinet that Harry now suspected had contained Time-Turners continued to fall, shatter, and repair itself on the wall behind them. (OOtP35)

Then in HBP, we are told by Hermione (apropos of nothing) that ‘the entire stock of Ministry Time-Turners’ was destroyed in the summer (HBP11). Paradoxically, this suggests the possibility (to me at any rate) that while time-travel will be off limits to the majority of wizards, if one or two unauthorised Time-Turners are still at large it allows the possibility for prominent individuals to make use of them, with the advantage of surprise. Also, JKR has refused to confirm whether or not Harry will time-travel again (making it a good bet that he will, IMHO!)

Of course, there’s a lot that we still don’t know about Time-Turners … for example, can you turn them the other way (clockwise or anti-clockwise) to travel to the future? Having mastered the technology, I’d be inclined to suggest that wizards are unlikely to have restricted themselves to small devices (like the one Hermione uses in POA), which only enable you to travel a few hours at a time. Useful for a keen student wishing to attend more classes than there are hours in a day … but for serious stuff, I’d suggest that more powerful Time-Turners would be used … enabling one to travel back years.

So who will be revealed as a time-traveller in DH?

IMHO, the main candidates are:

1. Albus Dumbledore: Dumbledore certainly seems to be a prime exponent of the idea that “a wizard is never late” (to quote Gandalf in the LOTR: FOTR movie!). He arrives “precisely” on time to save the day in PS/SS, GOF and OOtP. Indeed, Dumbledore’s timing is superlative:

‘Quirrell screamed and tried to throw Harry off – the pain in Harry’s head was building – he couldn’t see – he could only hear Quirrell’s terrible shrieks and Voldemort’s yells of, ‘KILL HIM! KILL HIM! KILL HIM!’ and other voices, maybe in Harry’s own head, crying ‘Harry! Harry!’ // He felt Quirrell’s arm wrenched from his grasp, knew all was lost, and fell into blackness, down … down … down …’ (PS/SS17)

‘Moody raised his wand, he opened his mouth, Harry plunged his own hand into his robes – // ‘Stupefy!’ There was a blinding flash of red light, and with a great splintering and crashing, the door of Moody’s office was blasted apart – // Moody was thrown backwards onto the office floor. Harry, still staring at the place where Moody’s face had been, saw Albus Dumbledore …’ (GOF35)

‘I have nothing more to say to you, Potter,’ he [Voldemort] said quietly. ‘You have irked me too often, for too long. AVADA KEDAVRA!’ Harry had not even opened his mouth to resist; his mind was blank, his wand pointing uselessly at the floor. But the headless golden statue of the wizard in the fountain had sprung alive, leaping from its plinth to land with a crash on the floor between Harry and Voldemort. The spell merely glanced off its chest as the statue flung out its arms to protect Harry. … Harry looked behind him, his heart pounding. Dumbledore was standing in front of the golden gates. (OotP36)

Apart from the fact that Dumbledore advises Harry & Hermione on time travelling in POA21 and has an interest in magical horology (commenting on Molly’s ‘excellent clock’ in OOtP22), we know that Dumbledore has secrets – and indeed we’ve never found out where he went during his brief periods of exile from Hogwarts in Books 2 and 5 (though I suspect that he was staying with Aberforth for at least some of the time). Nor has JKR necessarily accounted for all of his many absences from Hogwarts in Book 6.

In HBP, we learn that Dumbledore has systematically researched Voldemort’s past, collecting information from those who knew the young Tom Riddle – a task that would have been a lot easier if Dumbledore had possessed the ability to time-travel. ‘Well, as you now know, I have made it my business for many years to discover as much as I can about Voldemort’s past life. I have travelled widely, visiting those places he once knew.’ (HBP23) ‘What I know I found out after he had left Hogwarts, after much painstaking effort, after tracing those few who could be tricked into speaking, after searching old records and questioning Muggle and wizard witnesses alike.’ (HBP17) It is also the case that Dumbledore was a great friend of the alchemist Nicholas Flamel who (with his wife Perenelle) lived to the ripe old age of 666 – and presumably would have appreciated regular trips back in time to visit his family. Indeed, Dumbledore’s profile on the Chocolate Frog Cards offers the tantalising possibility that Dumbledore met Flamel in the past, for Flamel’s great age was solely owing to the Philosopher’s Stone and it is suggested that Dumbledore collaborated with Flamel on the Stone’s discovery: Dumbledore is particularly famous for … his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicholas Flamel. (PS6)

But the most intriguing clue of all relates to Dumbledore’s watch (definitely one of Chekov’s guns, IMHO!). Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it … a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. (PS1) Might Dumbledore’s famous watch turn out to be a time-travelling device? (The description of Ron’s watch in HBP – a ‘coming of age’ present – suggests that it is similar but not identical: a heavy gold watch with odd symbols around the edge and tiny moving stars instead of hands (HBP18). However based on past events (the infamous Wand Order Problem etc.), I wouldn’t rule out a mistake here.

So what the implications of a time-travelling Dumbledore? Most exciting, IMHO.

As some of you will know, I’ve suggested a meeting between a time-travelling Dumbledore and Harry Potter at Godric’s Hollow in DH: http://book7.co.uk/nine.

There are several reasons why I think this might be the case:

a) JKR has suggested that Dumbledore will have a role to play in Book 7 despite having confirmed that he is definitely dead. Given the limitations of portraits and other devices which preserve the merest likeness of a person, it would be simplest to allow Dumbledore to travel from the world of HBP to DH only to return to be killed in HBP27. Then there are DD’s numerous absences in Book 6 – were they all connected with the third Horcrux? ‘So they still don’t know where you go?’ asked Harry, hoping for more information on this intriguing subject, but Dumbledore merely smiled over the top of his half-moon spectacles. ‘No, they don’t, and the time is not quite right for you to know, either.’ (HBP21)

b) The poignancy of such a meeting would be obvious: with Harry having already witnessed Dumbledore’s death and Dumbledore knowing that this is his final meeting with Harry. Indeed, I believe that Dumbledore’s unexpected emotion during his first lesson with Harry after Christmas in HBP might be as a result of him having already met Harry in the future and said goodbye. ‘I can’t see why the boy should be able to do it better than you, Dumbledore.’ ‘I wouldn’t expect you to, Phineas,’ replied Dumbledore, and Fawkes gave another low, musical cry.’ (HBP17)

c) This would also explain the extraordinary foresight which I and many others attribute to Dumbledore in HBP. IMHO Dumbledore was aware of Malfoy’s plot in advance and timed his trip to the cave with Harry to coincide with Malfoy’s attack on the school. Certainly, he stationed Aurors at Hogwarts to protect the students and allowed himself to be lured back to the school just as Malfoy intended without seeming at all dismayed by events. Throughout his remarkable last conversation with Malfoy, Dumbledore behaved as if the Death Eaters were part of *his* device. ‘Well, well,’ said Dumbledore, as though Malfoy was showing him an ambitious homework project. ‘Very good indeed. You found a way to let them in, did you?’ (HBP27) Of course, if Dumbledore had already travelled to meet Harry in the future then Harry would doubtless have attempted to warn Dumbledore of this outcome. In which case, the possibility that Dumbledore knew of his impending doom but did nothing to avoid it lends support to the idea that Dumbledore was planning to die and that Snape was his reluctantly appointed executioner.

d) It’s also that case that Dumbledore owes Harry an explanation regarding Snape. The chronic misunderstanding between DD’s most loyal adherents must be resolved IMHO or Dumbledore himself will face accusations of irresponsibility, especially as DD has deliberately refrained from answering Harry’s questions on the subject: ‘Professor … how can you be sure Snape’s on our side?’ Dumbledore did not speak for a moment; he looked as though he was trying to make up his mind about something. At last he said, ‘I am sure. I trust Severus Snape completely.’ (HBP25) Now Snape’s killing Dumbledore has raised the stakes and has left readers with great expectations of what will happen when Snape and Harry meet again. JKR has hinted that this will be an incredibly important scene. While all expect a furious Harry to accuse Snape of murder (and perhaps even to attack him), I wonder if Harry might have found out something *before* he next encounters Snape? Indeed, if DD travelled forward in time to meet Harry at Godric’s Hollow halfway through the school year in Book 6, then this conversation has (in a sense) already happened. In which case, DD hopefully knows that Harry will come to understand Snape’s actions; presumably, he has also told Snape of Harry’s future forgiveness, which might have been a factor in persuading Snape to go through with the deed. Of course, there was still the potential for something to go wrong in the meantime; hence Dumbledore’s very real shock when Harry unexpectedly learnt (part of) the truth from Trelawney, on the very night of his planned death: ‘Dumbledore’s expression did not change, but Harry thought his face whitened under the bloody tinge cast by the setting sun. For a long moment, Dumbledore said nothing. ‘When did you find out about this?’ he asked at last. (HBP25)

For a time-travelling Dumbledore, one final mystery remains. Did DD use his mastery of time to return to the night of the Potters’ murders at Godric’s Hollow? Apart from Voldemort himself and the infant Harry (and possibly Wormtail), there are no known witnesses to the events of October 31st 1981, though Albus Dumbledore seems to have a good idea of what happened. Certainly, he tells Harry that ‘Your mother died to save you’ (PS17) though admittedly this is only after Harry told him that ‘Voldemort said he only killed my mother because she tried to stop him killing me.’ However, in OOtP37, DD strongly suggests that he had known of the circumstances of Lily’s death from the beginning: ‘Your mother’s sacrifice made the bond of blood the strongest shield I could give you.’

It is possible of course that Dumbledore had found out (from Snape?) that Voldemort was not intending to kill Lily – indeed, had promised her to Snape as a reward from the Prophecy(?) – and so deduced that she must have died in defence of her son. Yet the most likely explanation remains that DD had an informant at the scene. Moreover, JKR has told us that it wasn’t Snape (the explanation so beloved of fandom!). Of course, DD might have used a portrait or other monitoring device; indeed, given that the Potters were in hiding this might have been a sensible precaution. Or he might have stationed Fawkes the phoenix at the scene (there is every suggestion that Fawkes and Dumbledore understood each other well). The suspicion recurs, however, that Dumbledore was somehow present at Godric’s Hollow that night; with or without time-travel.

We know from PS12, for example, that DD can make himself invisible without a cloak – ‘I don’t need a cloak to become invisible,’ said Dumbledore gently – though this has not been of any great significance so far. (Dumbledore also has the ability to see through invisibility cloaks.) We also know that Dumbledore cares deeply for Harry and the suggestion that he witnessed the harrowing deaths of Harry’s parents (and maybe Harry’s own end: see http://book7.co.uk/sixteen) should not be easily dismissed. It would account for Dumbledore’s emotion around Harry. Moreover, there has been a great deal of speculation in the fandom about Dumbledore’s whereabouts during the so-called ‘missing 24 hours’ between the horrific events of Halloween and Harry’s arrival at Privet Drive (with Hagrid) on the evening of the following day. And is it significant that we see Dumbledore looking at his watch soon after his arrival at Privet Drive on November 1st? Might this be a clue that the Dumbledore we meet at the beginning of PS/SS1 is a time-traveller? (Not necessarily, IMHO.)

However, we now face a difficult dilemma: for both the scenario in which DD was present on that fateful night at Godric’s Hollow and the scenario in which he did not choose to witness the events of Voldemort’s first downfall, create problems for the narrative.

a) On the one hand, a godlike Dumbledore who knows too much represents a danger to Harry’s free will and heroic status (Tolkien faced a similar problem with the character of Gandalf in LOTR!). It is for this reason, principally, that Dumbledore was killed in HBP. Given my pet theory that Harry’s story will end on the night it began, I am reluctant to believe that Dumbledore already knows of this outcome, still less that it is Dumbledore who tells Harry what to do. I don’t want to see too much Deus ex machina in DH! There is also the moral and emotional problem posed by Dumbledore’s non-intervention in such circumstances: despite much brilliantly clever speculation from the likes of Red Hen concerning DD’s ‘deliberate’ release of the prophecy etc. I still regard this Dumbledore as AU: being disinclined to believe in DD the cold-hearted puppeteer.

b) On the other hand, if Dumbledore has the power to travel in time and make himself invisible, but has not used it to witness the most significant event of recent wizarding history, despite doing everything else possible to thwart Voldemort, then this is distinctly odd, IMHO. Perhaps, however, Dumbledore didn’t trust himself *not* to intervene to prevent the double murder of two of his most-loved students and/or perhaps he just believes that the past (like the truth) should be treated with great caution.

In my final scenario, I should consider the possibility that Ron – left behind in the ruins of Godric’s Hollow with baby Harry and Fawkes the Phoenix – should have a final encounter with Dumbledore (either a time-traveller from the future on a research mission (DD with a damaged hand), or DD as he was then, arriving in the aftermath of the Potters deaths). Such a meeting would allow Dumbledore to know that Harry has completed his task – at a cost – (something that dead DD would know anyway if one believes in a wizarding afterlife). It is a distinct possibility though I am reluctant to commit myself further.

2. Tom Riddle aka Voldemort: ‘Harry, what do you think you’d do if you saw yourself bursting into Hagrid’s house?’ said Hermione. ‘I’d – I’d think I’d gone mad,’ said Harry, ‘or I’d think there was some Dark Magic going on –’ (POA21) This quotation raises the intriguing possibility of Dark wizards manipulating time. Certainly, if Dumbledore is a time-traveller then it seems logical to assume that his mighty opposite possesses similar powers. And given Voldemort’s deep and abiding terror of death (his greatest fear according to JKR), then one might expect him to take an excessive interest in time.

Consider Voldemort’s words in GOF33: ‘I, who have gone further than anybody along the path that leads to immortality. You know my goal – to conquer death. And now, I was tested, and it appeared that one or more of my experiments worked …’. So, the Horcruxes weren’t the only experiment, methinks? In HPB23, Dumbledore tells Harry that: ‘At the same age as you are now, give or take a few months, Tom Riddle was doing all he could to find out how to make himself immortal.’ IMHO, a wizard who is obsessed with immortality in a world where Time-Turners exist, must have considered time-travel. And Voldemort (like Shakespeare, if one can make so unsavoury a comparison!) had ‘missing years’, which not even Dumbledore’s formidable intelligence has penetrated: ‘But now, Harry,’ said Dumbledore, ‘now things become murkier and stranger. If it was difficult to find evidence about the boy Riddle, it has been almost impossible to find anyone prepared to reminisce about the man Voldemort. In fact, I doubt whether there is a soul alive, apart from himself, who could give us a full account of his life since he left Hogwarts.’ (HBP20) ‘Ten years separate Hokey’s memory and this one, ten years during which we can only guess at what Lord Voldemort was doing …’.

Those of you who are familiar with book7.co.uk will know of my conviction that Voldemort travels back to the night of his former defeat at Godric’s Hollow, to do battle with Harry from the future. The idea of Voldemort using a stolen Time-Turner (or possibly the Bell Jar in the Department of Mysteries) to escape into the past at the end of DH (requiring Harry to follow him) is somehow especially appealing.

However, my ideas about Voldemort’s potential time-travel derived a considerable boost from a fascinating post by Celia on HPFGU and her ‘egg clue’. The passage which caught Celia’s attention relates to the now-dead Aragog’s backstory in Book 2: ‘I was not born in the castle. I come from a distant land. A traveller gave me to Hagrid when I was an egg.’ (COS15) The obvious mystery is what kind of ‘traveller’ would be handing out Acromantula eggs to a thirteen year old boy and/or would seek out Hagrid as a likely recipient of such a gift? I suppose this detail could just be filler … but I agree it does feel like it might be significant. On the one hand, JKR tells us more than we need to know (couldn’t Aragog have arrived in a crate of bananas or been purchased from the pet shop, the owners being under some mistake?!) …. on the other, she refuses to provide a full explanation (‘traveller’ is mysterious in a way that ‘merchant’ is not, for example). It’s also worth noting that Acromantula eggs are defined as Class A Non-Tradeable Goods by the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, meaning that severe penalties are attached to their importation or sale (FB). So increasing the possibility that Hagrid’s ‘traveller’ was a dark wizard.

What is interesting is that Quirrell!Mort tries exactly the same technique to get Harry in trouble in Book 1: ‘Don’t you think it’s a bit odd,’ said Harry without slowing down, ‘that what Hagrid wants more than anything else is a dragon, and a stranger turns up who just happens to have an egg in his pocket? How many people wander around with dragon eggs if it’s against wizard law? Lucky they found Hagrid, don’t you think? Why didn’t I see it before?’ (PS/SS16) Yet we are spun exactly the same line in COS (the mysterious ‘traveller’); this time without the suggestion of foul play. Coincidence: or not?

Therefore, bearing in mind my previous suppositions as to Voldemort’s time-travel, I am very much inclined to support Celia’s contention that ‘during the missing years of Tom’s transformation into VM, he time-turned into the past and WAS the ‘traveller’ who came to Hogwarts and gave Hagrid the egg, to help his young self.’ Furthermore, Celia proposes the extraordinary idea ‘that an older and more corrupted VM existed alongside the younger version of himself for a number of years, possibly able to advise and guide his younger self towards darker and darker magic’. This I find extremely compelling.

The quest for Voldemort’s Dark Mentor has been a preoccupation of Potter fans for some time; the most likely candidate remains the elusive Grindelwald whose defeat by Dumbledore in 1945 occurred about the same time as Voldemort’s coming of age. JKR refuses to conform whether Gindelwald is important to the story or not, but the theory that he had once possessed a Horcrux remains one of my favourites: As far as I know – as far, I am sure, as Voldemort knew – no wizard had ever done more than tear his soul in two.’ (HBP23) After all, as Slughorn tells the young Tom Riddle: People wouldn’t like to think we’ve been chatting about Horcruxes. It’s a banned subject at Hogwarts, you know … Dumbledore’s particularly fierce about it …’. Which would make sense, given Dumbledore’s history with Grindelwald.

Yet the idea of a self-taught Voldemort is somehow even more attractive. (Interestingly, JKR also describes Dumbledore as ‘mostly self-taught’.) Throughout the series, it is emphasised that the Dark Lord prefers to operate alone. Significantly, Dumbledore tells Harry that ‘Lord Voldemort has never had a friend, nor do I believe that he has ever wanted one.’ The possibility that Voldemort acted as his own Dark Mentor (however circular and unsatisfactory a solution to the *moral* problem of Tom Riddle) has considerable aesthetic appeal. The boy You-Know-Who (as Ron terms him!) was ‘already highly self-sufficient, secretive and, apparently, friendless’ (HBP13). Harry observes to Dumbledore that Riddle ‘believed it much quicker than I did – I mean, when you told him he was a wizard … I didn’t believe Hagrid at first, when he told me.’ One notion that (belatedly) occurs to me is that the young Tom had already met the older Riddle in the cave where he (or they) tormented the orphans. ‘Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop were never quite right afterwards, and all we ever got out of them was that they’d gone into a cave with Tom Riddle. He swore they’d just gone exploring, but something happened in there, I’m sure of it. And, well, there have been a lot of things, funny things …’. It certainly seems as if we might not have heard the last of this mysterious incident: ‘I never did anything to little Amy Benson or Dennis Bishop, and you can ask them, they’ll tell you!’

I also wonder if Voldemort might have used time-travel to hide some of his Horcruxes in the past. In which case, Harry will have to travel back in time to look for them.

3. Lily Evans-Potter: There is no direct evidence to suggest that Lily Evans Potter is a time traveller. However, despite the lack of encouragement (or discouragement!) from JKR the idea that Lily was an Unspeakable (employed by the Ministry of Magic to study the mysteries of time, death and love etc.) is gaining ground in the fandom. We know that Lily’s sacrifice invoked an ‘ancient magic’ so mysterious (and powerful) that it surprised Lord Voldemort. It is this which has protected her son as he grew to manhood. We also know that Lily was a gifted witch who might well have been at home in such an environment: certainly, Horace Slughorn described her as: ‘One of the brightest I ever taught.’ (HBP4)

And there is some further circumstantial evidence. Lily, as Harry’s mother, most likely knew about the Prophecy if it was this which forced the Potters into hiding. If she worked in the DOM then she could conceivably have researched it. Did she know how to behave on that night? Was there something which prevented her from taking baby Harry and Apparating
with him to a place of safety? Did she shout a warning to a hidden Harry not to intervene? Are there parallels with Biblical nativity stories in which the mother of Jesus is given an early – and tragic – insight into her son’s ultimate fate? And might Harry receive a Time-Turner from his mother (on coming of age) as a bequest to match his father’s Invisibility Cloak (to be used together on that night)?

4. Harry Potter: JKR has famously refused to comment on the possibility of Harry time-travelling in Deathly Hallows, inviting speculation that it will happen. Certainly there are a number of scenarios in which time-travel would be of (potential) benefit to our hero:

a) to hide from Lord Voldemort during Book 7 (once his protection has expired on reaching maturity) – this might become complicated if Voldemort is a time-traveller himself of course.

b) to hunt for Voldemort’s Horcruxes some of which might be hidden in the (ancient?) past.

c) as a fact-finding mission similar to those excursions into the Pensieve with Dumbledore in HBP (but live and therefore dangerous!) – remember, Harry has been warned against trying to change the past.

And finally, to fulfil his destiny. My central theory proposes that Harry’s journey will end on the night it began – the night of his once and future defeats of Lord Voldemort. (See http://book7.co.uk/sixteen and http://book7.co.uk/sight for more details.)

Partly in response to some of your interesting criticisms of this theory I have developed a number of (possible) safeguards:

Question: how would Harry work out that he has to go back?
Answer: There are several possibilities: ranging from Harry experiencing flashbacks to the events of that night (when his infant self was a witness), to instructions from Dumbledore or his mother, or (my favourite) to information from Wormtail. I rather like the idea of Wormtail (in rat form) as a hidden witness to some of the events of Godric’s Hollow, having to decide ultimately to release the information to Harry (sixteen years later) in payment of his debt.

Question: don’t we know why Harry survived the first time (Lily’s sacrifice) and aren’t you detracting from the importance of her love?
Answer: Well, I certainly hope not! I’ve never disputed that Lily’s sacrifice conferred on Harry a lasting protection which made it impossible for Quirrell!Mort to touch him (and has protected him at Privet Drive throughout the series), as Dumbledore explains: ‘It was agony to touch a person marked by something so good.’ (PS17). It is interesting that Dumbledore suggests: ‘that love as powerful as your mother’s leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign …’ so might the scar be the result of something else? My point is basically that we’ve been lead to believe that Harry’s survival is mysterious in a way that Lily’s dying for him is not (though tremendously moving). And Dumbledore implies right at the beginning that there is a mystery: ‘how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?’ ‘We can only guess,’ said Dumbledore. ‘We may never know.‘ (PS1)

Question: why would Harry not automatically intervene to save his parents in that situation?
Answer: I agree that Harry would be severely tempted to do just that – which is why I hypothesise the presence of a second traveller (Ron – the recipient of DD’s watch) to prevent Harry from the inevitably dangerous consequences of changing history. (I emphasise that according to my theory, Harry goes back in time to explain history, not to change it.) I also suggest the idea that Lily Potter – having some idea what was happening – might have cried out a warning to her son.
Question: if Voldemort follows Harry back in time to a period when he still has Horcruxes then will he be protected by these Horcruxes, even if Harry has destroyed them in the future?
Answer: This is an intriguing one! We know that Voldemort had made some Horcruxes prior to his first defeat, since Dumbledore is convinced that this is what saved his life. How do you a destroy a Horcrux? Is there a way to remove them from the time-continuim altogether (but if so, might this change history, meaning that Voldemort did not survive the first time)? (There is a – remote – possibility that Harry did something like this so that the only Horcrux around on that night resided in Harry’s own scar; thus explaining why Voldemort survived the first time but not the second, if Harry died with him. But what about the diary?) Otherwise, would it be possible for a time-travelling Voldemort simply to revisit a period in which his Horcruxes still existed in order to live safely? If there was a future Voldemort also killed on that night at Godric’s Hollow then would he be protected by the same mechanism as past Voldemort (allowing for the potential resurrection of two Voldemorts at the same time)? Or can that last desperate protection – ripping the soul from the body to survive as a fragment – only work once in the same time period, as I instinctively supposed? If JKR has used time-travel in Book 7 then these are the sort of mind-bending questions she must have considered. (The Quaffle stops with her!)

Question: if a second Voldemort died at the scene then why wasn’t his body found?
My answer to this has always been that Voldemort’s second body was returned to its constituent parts (dissolved) by means of Sectumsempra (the cutting spell). If this sounds far-fetched then it might be worthwhile to recall Voldemort’s hideous rebirth from a cauldron of poisonous blue liquid (GOF32, ‘Flesh, Blood and Bone’).

(Ron, in my theory, returns Harry’s body to the present day.)

Question: but wouldn’t Ron be stranded in time?
Answer: that depends on whether time-travel in the Potterverse allows you to move forward as well as back. So far we’ve only seen backwards time-travel in POA, with Harry & Hermione travelling back three hours and having to return to the present in real time. However, I would argue that there is nothing intrinsic to the idea of a Time-Turner to suggest that travel to the future is impossible – what would happen if you turned it the other way? Wouldn’t it make more sense to allow travel in both directions – clockwise and anti-clockwise?

Question: doesn’t your version of time-travel result in a continuous loop?
Answer: I don’t think so (though it depends in what sense you mean). If I were to go back in time, help my baby self and then die, then to all intents and purposes ‘I’ would be dead. From my perspective, my baby self has already grown up to get to the point ‘I’ am now. Doubtless from a different perspective that baby self still exists (in 1984) to grow up just as before, though the same applies to all of us, if time-travel is possible. It doesn’t mean that I (or Harry) would be aware of a loop – though it does bring the story to a nice, circular conclusion, if Harry’s death has helped to ensure his own (infant) survival as well as the ultimate survival of the wizarding world.

Time is come round,
And where I did begin, there shall I end.
(Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, V.3.23-4)

The wheel is come full circle; I am here.
(Shakespeare, King Lear, V.3.175)

Harry. He really is the whole story. The whole plot is contained in Harry Potter; his past, present and future—that is the story.
(JKR, Edinburgh Book Festival, 2004)