There's a big trend in time-travel fics making a fuss of this recently. Usually, they have him spaz out for a day and then go back to normal. Barring it being realistic or not, I'm pretty sick of seeing it by now.

 

Bonus pointz if there's a "lol now i understand how Tonks feelz" moment.

 

New fan conspiracy theory: Tonks is secretly a time-traveler with a very poor grasp on muscle memory.

 

To be fair, no one wants to read a Peggy Sue where the first thing he does is spend a few months in physical therapy relearning how to move around. Hell, even talking could be a challenge with that line of thinking.

 

Hmm, considering that the reason for her clumsiness could be a constant change in physical attributes. Damn I never thought of that. I haven't read any fics featuring Tonks in too much detail I guess.

I didnt know that it was used so much. The only time I saw it used was in a Naruto fic. Which makes sense, because the author can have a day or two of uncoordinated hijinks, and then make him spam a million clones to relearn it all before the sun sets.

 

Also, I tend to think that people understand how much we really change over time. It's like gaining weight...if you gain 50 pounds in twenty years you won't really notice the change until something draws attention to it.

Traveling back in time would draw immediate attention to just how much a personality can change. I would think that it would be hard to hide the change from friends and enemies alike.

People would notice, although they might not understand just why the change has happened. It would be very difficult to try to pretend to be that person you once were when you can barely even remember that person.

I'm in my mid-forties and I barely remembered anything that happened to me when I was eleven, much less exactly what my personality was like.

How about you?

 

I agree completely. If my mind was transferred to my eleven-year-old body, I would have no idea how to conduct myself with my parents and friends. I think the friends would be more challenging though, as my parents always had a high opinion of my intelligence that I never deserved, so acting 'too smart' would be fairly impossible.

I don't know how I would deal with my former friends. I don't even remember the names of some of them, which would no doubt be a problem. It would be extremely awkward if some tyke that thought I was their best friend came up to ask me to play and all I could say would be. "Who the hell are you?"

Also I would be bored out of my mind, as I didn't have TV or internet at that age. That would be the most tragic thing in this situation, I think.

 

If that was the case, she would just change less often. She admitted to Harry that she almost failed her Auror test because of her clumsiness, and you can rest assured (unless she is very stupid) that if it was something she had control over, she would have prevented it if possible. It's not worth constantly walking into stuff all the time just to change your nose into a pig-like nose, which probably would affect her motor skills anyway. I don't recall if we ever DID see her make any major bodily changes (ones that would significantly affect her mass or motor skills) but if she were capable of it (through magic) why the hell wouldn't she magically also gain the ability to retain her motor skills? Crabbe and Goyle are much larger than Harry and Ron, and they never mentioned long term (if any) disorientation in their motor skills in the books.

 

So what you're saying is either:

1. Tonks is naturally a clumsy person or;

2. Tonks the secret time traveler losing her motor skillz has some solid support.

I know which way fandom's gonna go...

 

Here's something else I thought of:

Depending on the method of going back, or if its willingly, the person sent back might at first not believe they are in the past. This could have pretty bad consequences as they could act crazy to others.

 

Yes, but that's just annoying to read. It doesn't take you THAT long to figure out you're in a different time. For instance, Harry realized pretty quickly that he was in a memory the first time he accidentally got into the Pensieve.

 

Sure. But even when you've figured it out five minutes later you've already rooked yourself: telling Snape in front of the entire school to grow up and quit wanking off to your dead mother is likely to cause a few butterflies that you can't just walk back.

 

Not to mention, Harry might simply think that this is some clever illusion made by Voldemort or whoever (depending how he was sent back).

Harry also might believe that it's a dream, or that he's crazy.

 

For accidental time travel, see Night Watch by Terry Pratchett. Excellent book, shows how time travel can make for a fascinating story. Of course Discworld does have narrative causality, so that makes things slightly simpler. Same could be said for HP as well, though, to be fair.

 

I would read it. I want to see some serious physical consequences from time travel, like an uncurable neurological condition from inserting years of memories into the brain. You can try to fix the timeline but you will never fix yourself

 

In general, I think the magic in Harry Potter is a little too "easy." I'd love to see more costs for the amazing things they're able to do. I think I just have this inherent belief that anything worth having will cost you. That cost may come in different ways, but you can't just get something for nothing.

I'd be interested to see a fic that explores the origin of magic in regards to this.

As far as the time-travel fics, I'm a fan, but it's hard to find them done well. I can only imagine that unless you were already a little crazy, you'd be devastated to be sent back in time.

For instance, my brother died a couple years ago. While I would love to go back in time and somehow prevent that from happening, it would almost certainly prevent me from coincidentally meeting the love of my life afterward. No matter what you do, you're going to lose something.

 

Hmmm. That is an interesting proposition.

 

vlad

Well, crazy in love counts too haha