Life path

One's life path is the intended flow of one's life, from their birth to their natural death. Wizardkind meddling with the magic of time can potentially alter the life paths of those they interact with, causing drastic changes in the original flow of history. Wizards using Time-Turners without caution have accidentally killed their past or future selves by mistake.

Known alterations of people's life paths

 * When Eloise Mintumble travelled back from 1899 to 1402 for five days, she caused "great disturbance" in the life paths of all those she met. Among the consequences of these changes was the un-birthing of twenty-five people descended from those she met.
 * In 1994, Hermione Granger, accompanied by Harry Potter, used her Time-Turner to travel back three hours. In this time, she changed the life paths of Harry himself, Sirius Black, and Buckbeak. Sirius and Harry were saved from receiving the Dementor's Kiss by a swarm of rouge Dementors on the shores of the Black Lake, Sirius was further saved from his imprisonment in Filius Flitwick's office and allowed to escape, and Buckbeak was saved from his execution by Walden Macnair.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
 * Pottermore