The Plot Thickens Discussion ~ View topic - Will JKR use Time-Travel again?

So do you think time-travel will up again in HBP or Book 7? Will it be a case of JKR introducing an idea in one book and then revisiting it in a later book? Or was it a one shot deal? What do you think?

Time already has been revisited in OotP, and Hermione was fascinated by it - "It's Time" - as Ginny was fascinated by the humming bird in its bell jar. Having introduced time again in book 5, I can't see that JKR will simply drop it out of subsequent books. There are all the clues to time repeating itself - Tom Riddle seeming like an old friend, Dumbledore's antics, etc. I think that the Harry Potter stories are following the death-rebirth cycles of the great myths, and this of course links to time. I have voted for the Dumbledore one, because I believe that Dumbledore will sacrifice himself in order for Harry to gain the knowledge to die and be reborn. I think Dumbledore is able to mess with time, and I think it will be this death/rebirth aspect that will be important in respect to time, as was hinted by the baby-headed Death Eater in OotP.

I agree that the Time Room in the Department of Mysteries is a big hint that time-travel will come up again -- I'm just not sure how (I raise the issue of time-travel as a plot device in another thread).

Joined: 18 Feb 2005 Posts: 103 Location: Denver, CO USA

Whenever the topic of JKR reusing this or that theme (whether it's time travel or the second basilisk theory over at the NC forum) there's always a part of me that practically screams NO, she's too original and creative to keep rehashing stuff over and over! And yet, the canon for time travel being used again, particularly in the DoM scenes in Book 5, is far too obvious to be dismissed. I'm also a little resistant to the idea that DD is controlling time in part because it makes him awfully close to being omnipotent (when clearly he's supposed to be seen as human with failings) and also, the contradictions-can history be changed/what can you change or not change, paradoxes-the patronus example Richard uses, etc. I'm not really sure how time travel will be used again either, but it seems it will make a reappearance. Great essay, Richard, loved the comparison to Back to the Future and the Simpsons! Laughing

So with 10 votes in, I guess we are all in agreement that Time-Travel will appear again but we have no consensus as to how.

I doubt that TT will be used in the HBP and I hope it wouldn't be a major part of the conclusion to the series (because of the problem of TT as a plot device discussed in another thread).

The only mention of time-turning in the HBP was that all the time-turners were smashed in the MoM in the battle at the end of OOTP.

Of course, the Ministry can make more and all the odd stuff in the Department of Mysteries from OOTP did not appear in HBP so maybe they will appear in Book 7? I tend now to doubt it. There is no DD to guide them on a time-quest. And JKR seems to be streamlining the story line. I doubt now that anything as elaborate as time-travel will be used as part of the solution.