Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Warning: There's some mention of atheism. I'm not insulting anyone who believes in God, but religious beliefs aren't really mentioned in the books, and I'd think that the Wizarding World would probably be more open to the nonexistence of a deity. I apologize in advance if this is insulting to you.
A/N: This is one of my friends and my random conversations, put into the mouths of Harry, Hermione, and Ron. Sorry if it's confusing - we are very strange people and have very strange conversations. (One of our favorites went from, "Where is she, anyway?" to "Let's go push cars of cliffs in California!" One conversation. No breaks or sudden changes of subject. It. Was. Awesome.)
That is not this conversation though, this one's about time and time's confusing, contradictory properties. It took up about two lunch periods before we eventually dropped the topic - by that time, we had argued ourselves hoarse and repeated everything about a hundred times. As though we were in a time loop ourselves!
Enjoy!
"Hermione?"
"What?" Harry's long-time friend didn't look up from her Arithmancy book.
"How does time work?"
"What!" This time her eyes met his. "How am I supposed to know that?
"Don't you know everything?" Ron sounded genuinely surprised.
"Not everything, Ron. Just a lot more than you do." Was her answer.
"Well, I assumed…since you had that Time-Turner thingy…" Ron replied uncomfortably.
"Using a Time-Turner is not the same thing as understanding time." Hermione sighed and closed her book. "Why do you want to know, Harry?"
"I dunno. I was just thinking…about that night that we used the Time-Turner to save Sirius." Harry said slowly. "Do you at least know how time is changed by the Time-Turner?"
Hermione didn't answer immediately. She stared into the Gryffindor fire for a few seconds, pondering her answer. "Well, there are several theories. One is that when you go back in time, you actually change what happened – like, if you're weaving a design, but then unravel it and redo some, and by doing so change the pattern."
The boys stared at her attentively, so she went on. "The next theory says that the time line is predetermined. Whatever happens, it always happens the same way. If someone goes to the past, then they already have gone into the past and whatever they are planning on changing has already been changed."
"Sounds like a waste of time to me." Said Ron. "Why go back if it's already changed? And how can it be changed if you haven't gone back yet?"
"That's the paradox of that particular theory – and all the theories have paradoxes. That's just the way time works." Hermione had never seen her friends so interested in anything other than Quidditch. She decided to take advantage, and tell them as much as she could before they lost this newfound interest. "There are two main types of paradoxes. Minor paradoxes occur whenever someone uses a Time-Turner. They create a loop in the past, forever repeating itself but not affecting the future. Throughout the past year, there are hundreds of my past selves going back in time over and over – but it's all in the past, so to us, that doesn't matter.
"But then there are major paradoxes. They make up the horror stories that McGonagall told me at the beginning of the year. People go back in time and change something drastically – they kill their past selves or vice versa. Or they change an event that was supposed to set important things in motion. I watched a Muggle movie once that had a teenager go back and accidentally stop his parents from meeting – he almost destroyed himself. Another Muggle story has the main character somehow become his own father.
"Of course, that's fiction, but it has happened with Time-Turners too. Thankfully, nothing too drastic has happened – that could destroy the universe. I'm actually surprised they let me, a 13-year-old witch, use one, even with Dumbledore and McGonagall's insistence that I was trustworthy. I definitely won't be using it next year – too hectic."
"So, are there any other paradoxes we should know about?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, and is this gonna be on the final?" Ron added.
Hermione laughed. "Yes, I will be testing you thoroughly on this information next week. Other paradoxes…well, there's the information paradox. If someone invent something in the future, and then takes go to the past and tells their past self how to make it. The past self then has the information – but where did the information come from? Information can't come from nothing – and to the past self, the future self does not count as a source."
Harry looked thoughtful. "It has to be the predetermined theory, doesn't it?"
"What does?"
"The real one." He answered. "The actual explanation – my past self saw my future self cast the Patronus, and if I hadn't, we all would've been Kissed. But that was before I even knew about your Time-Turner – the past had been changed before we ever went back."
"Yeah…" Hermione said doubtfully.
"What?" Ron asked. "You told us the theories yourself. It's logical isn't it? If it were the other one – the one that actually changed things, then neither you nor Harry nor Sirius would be here. Not as more than an empty shell, at least. You'd all have been Kissed, like Harry said, since he wouldn't have the ability to go back and fix it."
Hermione smiled slightly at the amount of information he had retained, and even analyzed. "Yes, but…I don't like that theory."
"Why not?" The boys asked in unison.
"Predetermination? You really want predetermination?" she asked. "You know what that means – our whole future is planned out for us, and by who? God?" Most of the magical community was atheist, this she knew. "This takes away free will and choice. Plus, what if it's 'predetermined' that Voldemort wins? Don't you want a chance to change that? Don't you want a chance to make your own choices, your own future?" Hermione was on her feet and her voice had risen through the speech with emotion. People all around the common room were staring at her.
"Whoa, calm down!" Harry said. Reluctantly, Hermione took her seat again, but she was still breathing heavily. "Ok, so predetermination is a bad thing. But what's the alternative? We had gone back before we left, you can't deny that."
No," she forced her voice back to a normal speaking tone. "I can't."
There were a few minutes of silence as the trio thought about the conversation. "Hey," Harry said slowly. "I just thought of something." He hesitated.
"Well?" Hermione asked impatiently.
"Yeah, go on mate." Ron added.
"It's…kind of complicated. It makes sense in my head, but I might not be able to explain it properly. When I was – here, d'you have some parchment I could use? This would be easier to illustrate." Hermione quickly handed him a piece and Harry began to draw. "Ok, this is Hermione, me and Sirius –"
"Sirius and me." Hermione corrected.
Harry gave her a withering look. "Does it really matter?"
"Yes."
Harry sighed. "This is Hermione, Sirius and me being attacked by Dementors."
"No, that's three stick figures with a bunch of shapeless lumps around them." Ron corrected.
"Just pretend, you've got an imagination, haven't you? This is the lake –"
"That's a rather badly drawn circle, actually." Hermione pointed out.
"Look, can we shut up about my lack of artistic ability? This represents the lake. And here's the future me, on the other side of the lake, about to cast a Patronus and save us." He glared, daring them to comment on this final drawing. Neither did, though they seemed to be suppressing laughter. "Ok, so here's time." He added a line beneath the drawing. "Right about here-" He marked the timeline near the left side of the page, "-a Dementor is trying to Kiss me. Here –" he made another mark, a little further on "-my future self realizes that my past self actually saw me, not my father, so I jump out and cast a Patronus."
"Now, the past self has recognized this-" he reinforced the second mark "-as the point in time the Patronus is supposed to appear. The future Harry goes with the future Hermione to rescue Sirius, the past Harry goes to the hospital wing, where he and the past Hermione go back in time several hours later."
"A minor paradox." Ron said knowledgeably.
"Very good Ron." Hermione told him at little sarcastically.
"Exactly," Agreed Harry. "A minor paradox. What had been the past me becomes the future me in order to save his past self from the Dementors. But the second past me has this mark-" he circled the important mark on the timeline "in his head as the time his father will appear. When it comes to be his turn to cast the spell, he will be waiting for this point!" He circled it several more times.
Ron stared at him. "So?"
"Hermione, how fast are reactions?"
"Reactions?" she seemed taken aback by the sudden question. "Er…I don't think anyone can react in faster than a tenth of a second. It's scientifically proven."
"Ok, let's assume I have the fastest reactions possible – a tenth of a second. Now, this future self – the second one in the loop – knows that the Patronus is going to appear at this mark. When it doesn't, it's going to take at least a tenth of a second for me to realize that I saw myself – meaning that the point at which I cast the Patronus is at least a tenth of a second after the first one." He made another mark on the timeline, just after the second.
"And this past Harry recognizes this mark as when the Patronus is cast. When it comes his turn to cast it, he won't for another tenth of a second, and the next one will wait another tenth of a second, and the next another and another until –"
"Until it's too late." Hermione finished. "He waits too long, and you're already Kissed."
"Come off it!" Ron laughed. "Harry wouldn't be that stupid! He wouldn't just let himself die! And how could he remember the exact time the Patronus appeared?"
"Don't be silly, Ron – Dementors don't kill you, they –"
"They suck out your soul, I know. That's what I meant. He wouldn't let it happen."
Hermione thought about it. "I think he's right though. If he was waiting for that moment, and the moment kept moving back…"
"But how could he know when that moment was exactly?"
"The human brain can do amazing things. It wouldn't surprise me if it could remember the exact circumstances when something's supposed to happen, and react accordingly – if too late." Hermione answered. "It'd still be a loop, but an imperfect loop. Something changes every time until eventually, the whole thing collapses.
Harry was suddenly worried – he'd thought Hermione would immediately disprove his idea, and that would be that. He had not expected her support. "Does this mean anything bad? For the present us, I mean."
Hermione opened her mouth. Then she closed it again. She hadn't thought it through that far, but… "You have a point. If there's a loop in the past that will collapse and kill – I mean Kiss – you, does that mean that when it does, the future will be changed too?"
"That was my question. It would be nice if you would answer it – preferably in my favor."
Hermione smiled. "I don't think you're in danger, no. See, this situation is a mixture of the two theories I talked about earlier. The past was changed before you went back, but at the same time it's actually changing too – if we assume that you're right and your reaction would be different each time.
"This has be discussed by time theorists as well. According to some – and I agree with them – such a situation can only be explained in one way. This theory pretty much fixes everything, and gets rid of the need for an omnipotent being. It says that there's more than one timeline – there are millions or billions. Maybe an infinite number. And each time you do something, a new timeline is created.
"I like this theory, because it doesn't inhibit free choice – you can travel on any timeline you wish, just by making decisions. But going back to our imperfect loop, each time you waited a little longer to react, a different timeline would be created, and that version of ourselves would continue along it, not knowing the difference. This includes the version in which Harry and I are Kissed by the Dementors because he waited too long."
"Bummer for that version…" Ron said. "I'm really glad it's not us."
"Oh, that'd be terrible. Especially for you," Hermione said coolly. "Since you'd be kindly left out of the Kissing."
"Yeah, but I'd have to live without you!" he cried. Then his ears turned red and added. "And Harry. I'd have to go on without you and Harry."
"Pity," Harry said, unsympathetically. "Then again, I suppose that is worse than never feeling anything ever again."
"Fascinating as this conversation has been, how about we talk about something else?" Hermione asked. "I don't find the idea of myself as an empty shell appealing at all. And if you have nothing else to say, I have to go back to studying – as should you."
A/N: The major and minor paradoxes part was explained to me during our time conversation, and I'm not sure I understood it completely. If I got it wrong please tell me.
So, do you agree with Hermione's conclusion? Disagree? Find the whole thing much to confusing? Please tell me in a review!