4. Harry Used The Time Turner To Go Watch His Parents' Death
One of the most discussed (and, consequently, theorised upon) parts of Harry Potter's tragic origin story was the revelation by Rowling in an interview - always with the revelatory interviews - that someone besides Voldemort was at Godrics Hollow the night of Harry's parents' murder. Eventually it transpired that this someone was Snape, and he was trying to help out, but it didn't end up going down like that. And so Harry became the Boy Who Lived, fitting neatly into the tragic orphan stereotype that typifies so many hero's journeys, from Hercules up through Luke Skywalker. Still, before Rowling stated categorically that the rubbernecker in question was old Severus, there was some serious speculation as to who that fourth figure was. And one theory had it down that Harry himself had gone back to see his parents die. Which is...kinda morbid. Which book did he go through his goth phase? To be fair, insane those this theory is, it is based in some pretty sound logic. We'd already been introduced to the concept of the Time Turner in the Prisoner Of Azkaban, a Ministry-sanctioned time travel device that Hermione had gotten her hands on and was using to swat up by going to extra classes at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, travelling back in time with the Turner doesn't allow you to actually change events in history, since they already happened. Unless it's Buckbeak and Sirius Black, for some reason. So Harry went back, hoping to save his parents and change history, but realised he wasn't able to. Which is actually even more sad than his parents being killed whilst he was a baby: seeing it happen again, and not being able to stop it. Yeesh.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
