Time-Turner

Warning! At least some content in this article is derived from information featured in:Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery &Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells &Harry Potter: Magic Awakened. As such, spoilers will be present within the article.

Time-Turner

ATime-Turner was amagical device used fortime travel. It was a special timepiece which resembled an hourglass on a necklace.^[1][3]

TheBritish Ministry of Magic encased anHour-Reversal Charm in the time turners they created, for additional stability. The number of times one turned the hourglass corresponded to the number of hours one travelled back in time. However, they could only stay in the past for five hours at a time, without the possibility of serious harm to the traveller or to time itself.^[1]

However, by2020, two other "true" kind of time-turners were created. The prototype only let the time traveller stay in the past for five minutes, while the improved model let them to stay in the past for as long as they wanted, and return to the future when they wanted.^[5]

History[]

1993-1994[]

Hermione Granger received one fromProfessor McGonagall in 1993, so that she could attend more classes in herthird year than time would allow. Since McGonagall made her swear to not tell anyone about it, she did not mention it toHarry Potter orRon Weasley until the end of the school year, when she and Harry used it to travel back in time and saveSirius Black andBuckbeak from certaindeath. Special permission from theMinistry of Magic had to be sought to allow Hermione to use one, but her academic record ensured that permission was given.^[3]

Hermione found her third year stressful with the extra class load, and therefore decided to dropDivination, which she despised, andMuggle Studies, which she did not find very useful, given that she was aMuggle-born. This allowed her to have a normal schedule once again, and she returned her Time-Turner. Ron was disappointed that Hermione did not tell her friends about it, despite her promise to McGonagall.^[7]

1996[]

The entire stock of Time-Turners, located in theTime Room, in the Ministry of Magic were rendered useless during theBattle of the Department of Mysteries in 1996. While not "destroyed" per se, due to the way one of them fell when their counter was knocked over, the entire stock was trapped in an endless loop of falling over, un-falling, and then re-falling, in an endless cycle for all eternity, and was thus unable to be used.^[2][8]

1998[]

WhenDolores Umbridge escaped from custody during hertrial, she allied herself with a small group of remnant Death Eaters in an attempt to use a Time-Turner to saveLord Voldemort from hisdefeat and restore hisdespotic rule, leading up to theBattle at the Ministry, where they were stopped by thetrio.^[9] This may mean that the Ministry has successfully stopped the endless cycle of the Time-Turners' destruction and repair, or new ones were created as replacement. Regardless, her plan failed, as during the battle, theTime Room was blown apart, and all the Time-Turners were destroyed.^[9]

2020[]

ByAugust2020,Theodore Nott, while working forLucius Malfoy, created a prototype of a time-turner, presumably in the hope of saving Voldemort from his fate. The prototype only let the time-traveller stay in the past for five minutes, although they could travel as far back as they wanted.^[5]

Nott eventually created a better and improved model, which let the time-traveller stay in the past for as long as they wanted. They could also use the device to return to the future when needed. While Malfoy kept the improved model, which was eventually passed down to his son, Nott kept the prototype. Even though they both owned something which could be used to save Voldemort, neither of them tried.^[5]

In August 2020, Harry Potter, in his capacity as the head of theDepartment of Magical Law Enforcement, retrieved the previously unknown Time-Turner at the home of Nott. Being a "true" Time-Turner, it had the potential to cause catastrophic effects on time, and Nott was arrested for creating such a dangerous device.^[5]

Although it was hidden in the office ofMinister for MagicHermione Granger, it was later stolen byAlbus Potter andScorpius Malfoy, who intended to use it in order to saveCedric Diggory and return him tohis father. They created a disastrous sequence of events andalternate realities, finding that they could only stay in the past for five minutes. They managed to correct events and set time right with the help of the alternate Hermione,Ron Weasley, andSeverus Snape.^[5]

When they were were abducted byDelphini, she used the time-turner to travel back toOctober1981 to saveher father. She then destroyed it to ensure she would not be forced to return to the present via the five minute restriction.^[5]

However, in the present,Draco Malfoy revealed he had the improved Time-Turner fromhis father that would allow him to stay in the past for as long as he wanted; he had always had to resist the urge to use it to see hisdeceased wife one more time. Along with Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione, they travelled back in time with help from a message sent by Albus in the past. They stopped Delphini by the combined might of both generations, and then returned to the future.^[10]

Types[]

Typical Time-Turners[]

Time-Turners that were issued by the Ministry of Magic have anHour-Reversal Charm placed onto them. The Charm placed on them was unstable on its own and benefited from a container.^[1]

The Ministry had a limited quantity which were not easily replaceable.^[1] During theBattle of the Department of Mysteries, the Ministry's entire stockpile were destroyed and they were not repaired nor replaced.^[2]Hogwarts students can apply for such a Time-Turner in order to take more classes, but they must undergo a large amount of screening process and must follow the most stringent set of rules, such as not abusing its powers nor let any outsiders know about it.^[3]

Theodore Nott's Time-Turners[]

A pair of Time-Turners were created byTheodore Nott while he was working forLucius Malfoy. There were two in total, and they were not restricted by an Hour-Reversal Charm, allowing one to travel back years or even decades. The prototype was kept by Nott until the Ministry found it following his arrest by Harry Potter. It was made of inexpensive metal and was not the finalised version; although still far more powerful than any Time Turner that had preceded it, the user could only stay in the past for five minutes before being sent back to the present.^[5]

However, Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy retrieved it and proved (albeit unintentionally) that a person could create enough damage with catastrophic results in such a small window. When Delphi took it, she destroyed it while still in the past and proved that the device would then allow the users to stay in the past indefinitely.^[5]

Nott was arrested when he was found to have created and being in possession of such a dangerous device. When Albus and Scorpius were found using this device, they were very close to being expelled byHeadmistressMinerva McGonagall had she not been understanding enough from her experience with their parents. Nevertheless, she barred them from all future visits toHogsmeade, cancelled all theirChristmas andEaster holidays, and gave them a multitude of detentions while their parents gave them a severe scolding. Delphi was later arrested for using the device in an attempt to alter the timeline illegally, along with the cold-blooded murder ofCraig Bowker Jnr with theKilling Curse.^[5]

Lucius kept the second "true" Time-Turner, as he enjoyed collecting powerful artefacts. The finalised device gleamed like gold and was not restrained by a five-minute duration. By his sonDraco Malfoy's belief, Lucius originally commissioned the creation of the Time-Turner to saveLord Voldemort fromhis fate but ultimately decided not to. He passed the Time-Turner down to Draco, who used it to save Albus and Scorpius by travelling to the past. The device allowed them to return to the future by their own choice instead of waiting for five minutes.Harry Potter told him that had the Ministry found Draco with the dangerous device, he would be sent to Azkaban for it.^[5]

Nature[]

Time-related magic was unstable, and serious breaches in the laws of time resulted in catastrophic events.^[1] According to ProfessorSaul Croaker: 'Just as the human mind cannot comprehend time, so it cannot comprehend the damage that will ensue if we presume to tamper with its laws'. Possible scenarios include a wizard or witch killing their past or future selves by mistake,^[3] or altering one'slife path in such a drastic fashion that it could result in temporal anomalies such asun-births,^[5] making it imperative for users to practise discretion and operate in secret lest they encounter their past selves and do irreparable harm.^[3] While not as potentially dangerous as skipping five centuries, even the re-use of a single hour could still have dramatic consequences and theMinistry of Magic enforced the strictest guarantees if it permitted the use of these rare and powerful objects. Time-Turner possession was hedged around with literally hundreds of laws, and the most stringent laws and penalties were in place to prevent their misuse. It would have surprised most of the magical community to know that Time-Turners were generally only used to solve the most trivial problems of time management and never for greater or more important purposes.^[1][5]

The consequences of meddling with time could be as severe as creating an alternate timeline, such as one in whichLord Voldemort was never defeated and still ruled. In this case, however, the person who had used the Time-Turner, if they still existed and weren'tun-born, would still have memory of the events of the original, un-corrupted timeline, but would have to learn second-hand the nature of the changes which had been made.^[5] The alternate timeline apparently disappeared when the changes were "fixed". Another consequence of travelling long distances through time was that time itself could have been disturbed by such a serious breach of its laws. Such was the case afterEloise Mintumble returned from her five-century trip. The Tuesday following her reappearance lasted two and a half full days, whereas the Thursday shot by in the space of four hours. The Ministry of Magic had a great deal of trouble in covering this up.^[1]

According toProfessor Croaker's law, the longest period that could be travelled back in time without serious chance of harm to the traveller or time itself was around five hours.^[1][11]

Behind the scenes[]

• In thefilm adaptation ofHarry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, while the importance of not being seen while travelling back in time is stressed, Harry and Hermione pass by theClock Tower Courtyard while following their past selves. However, theexecutioner was sitting there, sharpening hisaxe. As such, he could have seen two pairs of Harrys and Hermiones. It may have been that he was too focused on sharpening his axe that he did not notice the second Harry and Hermione coming through. In addition, there is a scene played wherein Ron sees future Harry and Hermione enter the room at the same moment that their past selves disappear to travel back in time.
• In thebook, when the Time-Turner is used it takes the person back to the location where they were present at the time they'd gone back to. However, in thefilm adaptation, when the Time-Turner is used it leaves the person in the same place they were when they turned time back. TheGBA video game version has the user appearing at an entirely random place (i.e. Harry and Hermione use it in theHospital Wing and appear at theForbidden Forest).
• The possibility of time travel within theHarry Potter universe could have caused significant problems, but characters appear to use them for trivial tasks that have no effect on existence as a whole. The one notable use of a Time-Turner within the bookcanon, theRescue of Sirius Black and Buckbeak, obeys theNovikov self-consistency principle. This theory of time-travel, stating that "Nothing can be changed because anything a traveller does merely produces the circumstances they had noted before travelling," is incidentally reminiscent ofJ. K. Rowling's employment of self-fulfilling prophecy. However, references to catastrophes that can take place when time travelling (a reference to a wizard travelling to the past and being killed by his past self inPrisoner of Azkaban, orEloise Mintumble's time-travelling mishap inPottermore in which several people end upun-born in the present) seem to go against Novikov Principle, indeed creating paradoxes.Harry Potter and the Cursed Child also shows that reckless use of a Time-Turner can result in the creation of analternate timeline.
• Knowing that time-related magic is unstable, there might be different ways to experience time through magic. This would explain catastrophic events as withEloise Mintumble, paradoxes as result of poorly performed time-related spells, and/or apparent differences between the experience of time travel through authorised Time-Turners inPrisoner of Azkaban and that through unauthorised Time-Turners inCursed Child.
• WhenEloise Mintumble time-travelled and changed things, it was noticed by otherwitches andwizards from the original timeline who went to retrieve her. WhenAlbus Potter andScorpius Malfoy time-travelled and changed things, the people from the original timeline did not believe they could retrieve the students. Harry Potter remarks that the Time-Turner cannot help them because they do not know to what time the students went.

• It is possible that Minerva McGonagall was wearing a Time-Turner in a deleted scene fromFantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.
• It is unknown what the effect of excessive Time-Turner use might produce. The user might still age while within an hour produced by the Time-Turner, and if so, then for wizards or witches such as Hermione, constant use might age them faster, adding days, weeks, or even months onto their internal chronological clock. It is also unknown how this applies to later on in life. If Hermione was perhaps a month older by using the Time-Turner during her third year^[12], then biologically her seventeenth birthday might arrive a month earlier than her calendar birthdate might indicate, which might cause theTrace to have been lifted earlier as well.
• InLEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, there are grandfather clocks throughout Hogwarts which allow Hermione to use her Time-Turner to transport herself and her teammates back in time to complete certain objectives. One of these includes a mission where Harry and Hagrid hatchNorberta's egg.
• The Time-Turner is one of the many collectables offered by theNoble Collection.
• Hermione Granger's Time-Turner isDavid Heyman's favourite prop from the films.^[13]
• You can hear quiet ticking as a background sound during part of the Time-Turner episode of thefilm adaptation ofHarry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
• InHarry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, after botching his first dateBarnaby Lee, repeatedly commented he wished he had a Time-Turner to redo the evening.
• Injuries acquired during time travel age up in a different manner than the time-traveller. WhenAlbus Potter was injured after travelling twenty years in the past, his injury aged twenty years (according to Madam Pomfrey) even though Albus himself remained the same age. Similarly,Eloise Mintumble may have been injured when she was retrieved by her colleagues, ageing her up hundreds of years.

Appearances[]

The Harry Potter Wiki has 49 images related toTime-Turner.

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince(Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (play)
• Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald(Possible appearance)(Appears in deleted scene(s))
• J. K. Rowling's official site
• Pottermore
• HarryPotter.com
• The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
• Harry Potter: The Character Vault
• LEGO Harry Potter: Characters of the Magical World
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• Harry Potter for Kinect(Mentioned only)(Appears in photographs)
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery(Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter: Wizards Unite
• Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells
• Harry Potter: Magic Awakened

Notes and references[]