It's Christmas Time Again: A Time-Traveling TMS Holiday Extravaganza

Christmas Holiday, 2012 (Part One)

Dear Gran,

I was wondering if my friend Dierks Bell could come visit us during Christmas Holiday this year?

Dierks is one year older than me and in fifth year. However, he's in my Magical Engineering class as it seems not many people are keen on taking the course, so all the years and houses are pooled together. It's taught by this brilliant guy, Professor Brown. Dierks can make the most amazing things out of bits and scraps of metal, you wouldn't believe the stuff he's created.

Anyway, Dierks hasn't got any family to go home to visit on holiday. I'm not sure exactly what happened or when exactly, but there was an attack that killed his whole entire family. He says he's spent load of holidays all alone, but what's the fun of all that? Holidays are meant to be 'round family and eating too much good food and watching films and laughing at Harry's singing. I really hate to think of Dierks all alone here at Hogwarts while I'm at home having all that fun.

Please, please, please, Gran!!!

Love, T. L.

"So in theory if we slow down that mechanism, the wheels would slow in turn and at the zero point reverse direction," Dierks was saying. "Proving the existence of the past state."

I nodded, only half understanding, since he was studying far more advanced stuff than I was in the engineering class. "But won't they just be changing directions? Just like if I was to turn around and go the other way? How does it prove the past state?"

"No, it's more like rewinding a muggle cassette tape," he said, "Think of it like those eight tracks we listen to in your room when you play them in reverse. The music is going at the usual pace until you hit the rewind button, yeah? Then you press the button and the tape stops and backs up but the singer isn't saying new words, he's still singing the same words but they are playing backwards, his mouth is redoing the motion it has previously done. So when you hit play again the mechanism is speeding up and replaying the same music again."

"But it's still in its present state."

"In one way. That would be your time traveler's present time. But for the musician on the cassette it's the past. For the person listening to the tape when it's replayed, it may as well be playing again for the first time, they don't realize they're reliving the same event as they've previously done. Only the traveler, who meets them when they've caught up at the end of the replayed content, is aware of the reversal."

I shook my head, "How do you come up with this stuff?"

Dierks shrugged.

We were walking along the path from the horseless carriages to the platform at Hogsmeade Station, our feet crunching through the snow, and Dierks was talking excitedly, his breath in puffs. He ran a hand over his knit cap, pulling the fabric over his ears and then shoved his fists into his jacket.

"I mean it's all just theory anyway," he said, shrugging, "The Ministry has time turners, of course, and they guard the secret for how they work extraordinarily well. It's damned near to impossible to learn anything about how they work because they're mysteries. Everything we know about how time works is considered a mystery. Mainly because of how hard it is to comprehend how the whole reversal and the simultaneous existence of the past and present states thing functions when we ourselves exist on one plane only. We can't fathom a fourth dimension. The only proof is in the traveling itself and that's still comprehended present tense for the traveler themselves. On an individual level we can't experience the past state."

We climbed up the stairs to the platform and Hagrid smiled and waved as we passed by, headed for the train. "Happy Christmas!" Hagrid called out, waving.