Time Turner

Good point. But everyone else seems to have given you the answer. Oh well, I like your idea of Dumbledore trying to go back in time and save Harry's parents!

ok, here's my take on the Time Turners...
Trying to see this from JKR's point of view, the Time Turner was a really good invention of hers, one that had an irreplacable part in the story. But the problem is that Time Turners cannot be used to fix every problem and struggle in the HP series or there would be no story to write. I mean, if someone could use one, at any point in the timelime - any point at all - wouldn't someone fix things so that Volde's parents never became parents?
JKR has set the rule for the Time Turners and the whole series in general, as unfair and illogical as they may be: Nothing, nobody, nohow has the power to restore life to the dead. It's frustrating, yeah, but it's not my rule.
comments welcome

(1) Ok, here's how it works.
Hermione and Harry were able to save Sirius & Buckbeak because they had already done it.

The first time through, they didn't see their later selves hiding in the bushes or stealing Buckbeak. They heard the thump of the axe, but did not hear the discussion about Buckbeak's absence. They heard Hagrid's howl of joy and mis-interpreted it.

The first time through, Harry saw SOMEONE fight off the swarm of dementors, but did not yet know who.

It's tricky, and the past & present must cooperate, deliberately or accidentally.

I can imagine ways to use it deliberately and intelligently.

(2) Saving Lily and James would not have been desirable. Yes, it was sad, but their deaths were contributing factors in Voldemort's twelve-year vacation, and will still be contributing factors in Voldemort's final retirement. I wouldn't touch it.

(3) Saving Dumbledore might be tricky. We don't know all the facts yet. Maybe his death at that moment was preferable to the alternative time-line.

I'm still hoping that his portrait can tell us something.

FOR EXAMPLE (If I were Harry)

First Loop:

I would assign Hermione to a massive research project. Tell her to finish school and become an unspeakable. They are already working on that Love thing in the Department of Mysteries, and might already have done half of the job. We just need Hermione's knowledge of Harry and Voldemort, combined with her special brand of genius to finish the job. What we need to know is, how can Harry control and use this special power? If it takes her twenty years to figure it out, that's Ok.

Meanwhile, McGonnagle would be assigned to the TimeTurner. She would prepare the SPECIAL PLACE (I'll explain later) and keep a JOURNAL that only a few special people can read. If she dies along the way, the Journal will be passed along to another member of this small group. The Journal will carry questions, information and instructions for the Messenger.

When we are ready, we will find a volunteer to carry the Message. This will be some trustworthy person who happens to have a terminal illness, and only a couple of months to live. This Messenger will use the time-turner to carry the results of Hermione's research project, along with any other information we need, back to 2005.

=====================

Second Loop:

Meanwhile, McGonnagle will prepare a SPECIAL PLACE for the Messenger, most likely a room in St. Mungo's. We can't know specifically what the Messenger will need, so we'll cover as much as we can imagine. One thing we can reasonably expect is that s/he will have medical needs. S/he will also need a comfortable, isolated place to live out the remainder of his life -- we don't want to contaminate the time-line any more than necessary.

His only reward will be money for his family. Maybe he will be allowed to toss a few galleons into the 2005 stock market, using 2025 knowledge. This investment will have been there all along, but he will not know that it exists until the day before he leaves 2025. And his family will not know about it until the day after.

No Bragging rights, ever. The Messenger will spend his last few months, more or less in isolation, and history will never know of his sacrifice. He will be buried in an unmarked grave in 2005, the location of which will be revealed to his family in 2025, after he uses the time-turner.

All concerned (the smallest number of people possible) will take the secrets to their graves -- both the results of Hermione's project and the fact that they used the time-turner. And she will still have to do the project. The knowledge that she was/will be successful would be encouraging, but she still has to do the work without any help from her future.

I can imagine of a few possibilities that are more complicated, but I think I’ll stop here. They can have any number of other little projects going on at the same time. But if your head is already spinning, maybe this is enough.

The point is, I can imagine loads of ways Rowling might use that handy little gadget.
I just can't see a way to bring back Lily and James, or to save Dumbledore.

=====================

I like this thread. I started a topic in the Restricted Section/Div Class VII/ TimeTurner (by me, August 5), but I think I should drop a note to say that this one is better.

Maybe Dumbledorethought time run its course and if he did who would of stop Voldemort(You - know -who )

These time turner thingys seem to come up in about every post-theory! They are so popular in other threads, that I thought I'd post something here in order to bring this thread back into the loop (while beating off the relentless on-slaught of annoying new topics ruthlessly posted on this site like:
''footage of Radcliffe going shopping' from' HPANA. Administrators! What are you doing posting this boring drivel that we can\'t reply to even if we wanted to!!)

I don't understand how time and reality-altering works. Either in theory or literary practice. What I do know is that Jo has made timeturners crucial to one plot and mentioned them in another (the Ministry of Magic has/had a whole wall of them) therefore, they have got to come into the story later surely!???

Sorry !!! I didn't see this forum and I just posted about this somewhere else. Thank you BuffyBuff.

ginevra: No worries my friend.
psyduck: That made my head hurt. I am WAY too dumb to understand that. sorry.

This time turner shinnanigans is a worry. When you stop to think about them, don't you think that they kinda contradict the central moral of HP? Surely, HP's about the idea that you are the person that your choices make you. The whole notion that you can go back and change your choices and change consequences, flies in the face of that moral.

Have any of you ever heard of Evenescence? I love them!! ok back to harry potter!!! I loved the 4th movie, didnt yall??!! OK, with the time turner, if in a dangerous situation, i would go back to right before it happened or evacuate and if the person who was evil was there, id go back to get away and avoid them. A very handy device i9n the right hands in MY opinion!

i'm quite sure it is snape