--- title: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Time Travel, Time Turners description: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child presents several inconsistencies as to the nature of time travel in the HP universe. Read more. canonical: https://time.com/4417901/harry-potter-cursed-child-time-turners-time-travel/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-01T18:33:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:27:22.805Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: The Trouble With Time Travel in the Harry Potter Universe og:description: Spoilers for 'Cursed Child' ahead! og:url: https://time.com/4417901/harry-potter-cursed-child-time-turners-time-travel/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Trouble With Time Travel in the Harry Potter Universe twitter:description: Spoilers for 'Cursed Child' ahead! twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Trouble With Time Travel in the _Harry Potter_ Universe > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Aug 1, 2016 6:33 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Aug 1, 2016 6:33 PM UTC **Warning:** This post contains spoilers for [_Harry Potter and the Cursed Child_](http://time.com/4432243/harry-potter-cursed-child-callbacks-easter-eggs/)_._ [_Harry Potter and the Cursed Child_](http://time.com/4422192/harry-potter-cursed-child-play-review/) is finally here. The [script of the West End play](http://time.com/4417481/harry-potter-and-the-cursed-child-book-download-pre-order/) was released July 31 at midnight — [Harry’s birthday](http://time.com/4413044/harry-potter-birthday-cursed-child/), for those who somehow do not know — giving Potterheads a new tale about the Boy Who Lived. Written by Jack Thorne and based on a story by [J.K. Rowling](http://time.com/4317614/j-k-rowling-harry-potter-dumbledore-fan-theory/), Thorne and John Tiffany, the play begins [19 years after](http://time.com/4429897/harry-potter-cursed-child-deathly-hallows/) the events of _The Deathly_ _Hallows_, as Albus Potter (the youngest son of Harry and Ginny) and Rose Granger-Weasely (the daughter of Ron and Hermione) head off to Hogwarts for the first time. While on the Hogwarts Express, Albus befriends Scorpius Malfoy (the son of Draco and Astoria) who informs Albus that many people believe his real father is Voldemort rather than Draco, a rumor based on the belief that someone used a Time-Turner to allow the Dark Lord to impregnate Astoria. For those who need a quick recap, Time-Turners were first introduced in the third book of Rowling’s series, _The Prisoner of Azkaban_, when Hermione was given one by Professor McGonagall in order to fit extra classes into her school schedule. Hermione keeps the device a secret for most of the book before using it to send herself and Harry back in time to prevent the death of Sirius Black — a mission that proved successful. However, the Ministry of Magic’s entire store of Time-Turners — including the one Hermione once possessed — is eventually destroyed during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries in _The Order of the Phoenix_. At this point, you’re probably wondering why anyone would believe the rumor about Scorpius if the Time-Turners were truly destroyed. Well, when Theodore Nott — one of Draco’s old Slytherin cronies — is arrested during Albus and Scorpius’s third year at Hogwarts, it comes to light that he just so happens to have a functioning one in his possession. The rest of the story develops as Albus and Scorpius steal the device from the Ministry and use it to try and prevent Cedric Diggory from being killed during the Triwizard Tournament, setting off a butterfly effect that threatens to change the course of wizarding world history. Now, here’s where things get complicated. The characters in _Harry Potter_ have dabbled in time travel before, but never to such a large degree. In _Prisoner of Azkaban_, the _HP_ universe seems to adhere to the [Novikov self-consistency principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novikov%5Fself-consistency%5Fprinciple), which states — in very broad terms — that time is a closed loop. Basically, you cannot change the past through time travel, you can only fulfill it. This is best summed up by Harry in the _Prisoner of Azkaban_ movie when he says, “I knew I could do it this time because, well, I’d already done it,” after conjuring the Patronus that saves his past self and Sirius Black from the Dementors. Stories that involve time travel often struggle with this point, from _Back to the Future_ to Stephen King’s _11-22-63_: You can change the past, but then everything that follows creates a universe in which the new reality seems like it was always the reality. This concept is problematic because it produces a universe in which the past is dependent on a future that is dependent on the past — i.e., Harry cannot survive unless his past self survives, but he won’t be able to travel back in time to save himself unless he originally survives. Confused? There’s more. Rowling also has both Hermione and Dumbledore emphasize the dire repercussions of allowing your past self to see you — you’ll go mad — meaning you can, in fact, disturb the closed loop and produce a scenario that doesn’t result in the creation of the present from which you originally came. This detail muddies the waters of the series’ time travel system, as it introduces questions such as, why couldn’t a Time-Turner have been used to stop Voldemort? Essentially, without rules governing what can or cannot happen, any number of paradoxes can arise from characters’ forays into the past — people can even be “un-born.” Rowling has since tried to explain this inconsistency by stating that the farthest a person can travel back in time without “catastrophic” consequences is five hours. In a [post on Pottermore](http://i.imgur.com/4JhVbiV.png), the author wrote from the perspective of the Department of Mysteries’ Professor Saul Croaker to stress this particular point. “As our investigations currently stand, the longest period that may be relived without the possibility of serious harm to the traveller or to time itself is around five hours,” Croaker says. “We have been able to encase single Hour-Reversal Charms, which are unstable and benefit from containment, in small, enchanted hour-glasses \[Time-Turners\] that may be worn around a witch or wizard’s neck and revolved according to the number of hours the user wishes to relive. All attempts to travel back further than a few hours have resulted in catastrophic harm to the witch or wizard involved.” While the limit to the amount of time one can go back is changed to five minutes in _Cursed Child_, it is enforced by having characters who overstay their welcome be forced back to the present. However, the rules seem to have changed. While Rowling previously seemed to indicate that one could only reverse time five hours from the present moment without risking permanent damage, characters are now able to travel back for five minutes to any point in time. And although Albus and Scorpius’s trips back to the Triwizard Tournament all have serious consequences, when Draco shows up with the “perfected” Time-Turner — one without the five-minute limit — near the end of the story, the whole group returns to the night Voldemort killed Harry’s parents without upsetting the course of the future in the slightest. Now, all of this is not to say that _Cursed Child_ isn’t a perfectly enjoyable read. In fact, the play has received [rave reviews](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/07/26/harry-potter-cursed-child-review-roundup). However, [some fans](http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/harry-potter-and-the-cursed-child-book-why-some-fans-really-dislike-jk-rowlings-new-script-a7165991.html) have expressed disappointment about the inconsistencies it introduces, saying it seems [more like a fan fiction](https://m.reddit.com/r/harrypotter/comments/4n0pkc/spoilers%5Fcursed%5Fchild%5Fmegathread%5Fthe%5Fmagic/) than a continuation of Rowling’s beloved series. Basically, the moral of the story is: read at your own risk. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4417901/harry-potter-cursed-child-time-turners-time-travel/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4417901/harry-potter-cursed-child-time-turners-time-travel/"},"headline":"The Trouble With Time Travel in the Harry Potter Universe","datePublished":"2016-08-01T18:33:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:27:22.805Z","description":"Spoilers for Cursed Child ahead!","url":"https://time.com/4417901/harry-potter-cursed-child-time-turners-time-travel/","keywords":["Books","Harry Potter","Harry Potter and the Cursed Child"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4417901/harry-potter-cursed-child-time-turners-time-travel/","name":"The Trouble With Time Travel in the Harry Potter Universe"}}]}] ```