AboutQueenAries Expertise I can answer any question at all on the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling. I can only answer questions on the books, not the author, movie or any financial proceedings/takeovers instigated by Warner Bros.
Experience I used to work in a library, now work in a book shop, and have read the Harry Potter series cover to cover countless times.
Expert: QueenAries Date: 7/10/2007 Subject: Harry Potter
Question If there is something which can turn the time back, (remember in HP and prisoner of Azkaban), then why is it not used very often by Dumbledore to undo, if not all, then at least few major things that he did not want to happen, like saving Harry's Father for example.
One reason is that its use might be very strictly regulated by ministry, then the question is that Dumbldore, successfully used it against the ministry's wishes, or without their knowledge to let Buckbeak, and Sirius free.
Even if the use is very strictly monitored by Ministry I do not think the Ministry should object the use for undoing things that are detrimental to the interests of the whole wizarding community.
Answer Khatta,
The problem with turning back time is that one can never, ever predict the consequences of doing so. This is going into quantum theory, but every action is thought to have possibilities arising from that action at a wildly exponential rate (i.e. ever increasing and impossible to calculate). It is far safer to stick with the future that has happened naturally than to meddle with the past; for example, if Dumbledore had used the Time-Turner to arrive at Godric's Hollow in time to save Harry's parents, then Lord Voldemort would probably never have had the Avada Kedavra spell, cast after their deaths on Harry, rebound on him and reduce him to spirit form, thus taking him out of the equation for eleven-odd years. What could have happened in those eleven years to change the future contained in the books then? With Lord Voldemort still around, with his followers stronger than they had ever been (Lord Voldemort was 'at the height of his powers' back then), how many other wizards central to the timeline we all know would have been killed, or defected, or gone into hiding never to return? If Dumbledore had done what he thought was a good deed, the repercussions of that 'good deed' could have been terrible. It is impossible to comprehend the future; therefore, it is impossible to predict what effect changing the past would have on that future, for good or bad.
It is my opinion that the Ministry's Time-Turners are specifically authorised to be used only for non-vital purposes, purposes that have been 'risk-assessed', as it were, in order to ensure that the purpose was as unlikely (as is possible to predict) to alter the passage of history as could be.
I always thought that Dumbledore's use of the Time Turner to free Sirius was irresponsible :)
