"Once upon a time," "in the beginning," "I was born," "and all that other David Copperfield crap" -- each one a well-known way of starting a story. But really, where does a story start? At the beginning, of course. Well, what is the beginning? Nothing happens in isolation, so the beginning is always influenced by the past. I, for instance, would have never known about the existence of Privet Drive, probably, if my parents hadn't been killed by an evil wizard when I was fifteen months old. That evil wizard wouldn't have killed my parents if someone had already killed him, or if he had decided to devote his powers to good, or something like that. Or if he had never been born at all.
All I would have to do is find that Time Turner that Hermione had used back in third year, stop by 1925, tell Tom Riddle, Sr. that his girlfriend is a witch, and bam, no more Voldemort. What could be easier?
Mucking with the past mucks with the future? Yeah, I know, that's the damn point. Unforeseen consequences? Like what? Hagrid not getting expelled; Myrtle not dying; the Chamber of Secrets not being opened, and Ginny, fifty years later, not being possessed by the sixteen year old version of someone who has tried to kill me so often that I'm starting to lose count? My parents, Sirius Black, and countless others still alive because Old Man Riddle won't get to play the title role in I Married a Witch?
No, it's not suicide. It's not like I'm killing my grandfather, or even Voldemort. I'm just arranging things so he doesn't become an issue. So what if by my preventing the birth of Voldemort, my grandfather or whoever marries someone else and I end up not being born? It won't matter, because I won't ever be a bloody hero or a lunatic or whatever they are calling me this week, because Voldemort won't be there to make me one.
I will find it, and I will go back. I won't stop, and I won't return, until one of us no longer exists. And if someone finds this, then it means that I failed. I couldn't alter the past, and the present will just have to go on without me.
