Ginger Bread Children

I am starting with the assumption of the "Albus, the Time Traveler" theory.
See other thread. If you don't buy it, or can't suspend your disbelief for
this thread, please don't bother.

Putting my superstitions in writing (the quote below) got me thinking again.
(Often a dangerous idea, but whatever.)


The death of Lily and James was out of his hands. It was not a question of would not or should not, but could not.

But what about Cedric and Sirius? Was that a necessary evil? As I've said, I don't want Dumbledore to be so callous. I don't want to see him forced to choose to allow someone to be murdered.

Cedric and Sirius are just a test case. They represent a huge class action suit. Starting with Hagrid's list -- The Prewetts, the Bones... the casualties go on and on.

I've heard that JKR said something about painting herself into a corner. Is this the corner?
If she uses some lame device to get herself out, would we forgive her?

Off the top of my head, I can think of one lame device. I'm not saying that this would happen, but what if we are served something equally lame.

Gingerbread Children: In the graveyard, with that reverse spell thingie, shadows of certain people came out of Voldemort's wand. This forshadows the end, when he is finally destroyed. All of his victims will somehow, magically, come back from some kind of limbo something or other.

If she doesn't have a good way out; if the choice is between a lame, gingerbread children story or a story of a callous Dumbledore who allows preventable deaths, which is better?

I doubt Rowling would do a reawakening of the people who are definitely dead - James, Lily, Cedric, Bertha Jorkins etc; I think that would be a bit trite and not really realistic to what happens in our world. I know the magical world is very different to our world, but I don't think she would mess with death that much. That could be a suggestion to an orphan kid reading it that there's a way of their parents coming back to life. She's not even messed with Harry living in the dysfunctional family of the Dursleys like that. However, I don't think Dumbledore is callous in that he's allowing the deaths to happen - he is human, as he reminds us repeatedly. He's not going to know everything that Voldemort or the death eaters have planned, even though he knows quite a lot.

But those cases that he does know...
He was in the room when Sirius died
Did he chose to do nothing?

Could he have held Cedric back from touching that cup with Harry?
Did he chose not to?

Don't know about the Sirius one. As far as the Cedric one goes, did DD know that the cup was a portkey before the boys touched it? I thought it was the fake Moody who carried it into the maze and turned it into a portkey. DD would have been none the wiser and wouldn't have suspected Moody at that point 'cause he didn't know that it was really Barty Crouch Junior until later.

Well, I don't think that he knew when they touched the Cup, but Dumbledore could have used his Time-Turner (this would go along with Psyducks theory) to go back and stop the cup from turning into a portkey.

But, then everything would be different.

Maybe Dumbledore thought about going back, but then thought of everything that would and wouldn't happen because of what he did, ya kno.
Maybe the conciquences would have been too great to save Cedric's life, ya kno.

What consequences? What would change? Cedric died for nothing. He was just in the way.

(Again, this is a test case, but you have to pound it out as though it matteres in its own right.)

Sure and why couldn't the Traveler have helped Dumbledore see that Moody was not Moody at all, but Barty Crouch? Theres many other situations where I bet the Traveler would have been very useful too, so why didn't he help out. Then again, you can't mess with the past too much.

So in relation to your new Time Turner theory, what do you think happened the night Dumbledore died?

And in the fifth book Dumbledore is lamenting that he didn't tell Harry earlier about the prophecy. I'm sure that the Traveler would have made sure Dumbledore told him about it.

Isn't part of the deal with the time turner that the person using it must not let themselves be seen? Admittedly we can only stretch that a certain amount, because obviously Hermione was seen in both times by her classmates. How far can they go before it would be declared meddling with time?

I don't believe it. Any of it.

I don't believe that Dumbledore wrote a whole bunch of letters and asked permission or jumped through hoops to get a time-turner for Hermione. I think he let her borrow his own private gadget.

I don't believe that McGonagall and Dumbledore told Hermione the whole story, although I believe they impressed upon her the importance of keeping it a secret and not being seen. Her argument was too irrational for someone as smart as Hermione. I'm still wondering how she bought it.

I think JKR used the whole third book as a device to introduce the time-turner concept, in preparation for... whatever is coming next.

Similarly, I think Dumbledore used Hermione's over-full schedule as an excuse to introduce the concept. It was a lame excuse, but it was the best he had. This way, she had time to get over all of the brain-twisting aspects, digest and get used to the concept before being asked to do anything important with it.
The Traveler told Dumbledore to make the introduction, but did not yet tell him why, what was coming, or that Sirius was even innocent.
When the time was right, Dumbledore would have no time to explain the time-turner to Harry. Until that moment, he would not be able to explain because he wouldn't know what was coming.

Um...... If that didn't work, never mind.

[quote] I think JKR used the whole third book as a device to introduce the time-turner concept, in preparation for... whatever is coming next. [quote]

I agree. Did I just say that?! Wow.

Anyway. JKR first used polyjuice potion in bk 2, and the next thing you know, it plays a massive part in bk 4. McGonagal turns into a cat in bk 1 and anamagi are featured in bks 3 and 4. Time turners have to have something to do with the plot. Even if it's not something as big and dramatic as your theories suggest.