- "Just as the human mind cannot comprehend time, so it cannot comprehend the damage that will ensue if we presume to tamper with its laws."
- — Professor Saul Croaker[src]
"Un-born" was the term used to refer to an individual that had ceased to exist as a result of a disturbance in time itself, in which someone travelled back in time and, due to their interference, history was changed to some degree, culminating in the disappearance of people in the present, as the events leading to their births were prevented or altered in some way.[1]
History[]
When Eloise Mintumble travelled back in time to the year 1402, in 1899, there was a major breach of the laws of time, with catastrophic results. For one, Madam Mintumble was stuck in the 15th century for five days, and when she was finally retrieved to the present, her body had aged five centuries and she later succumbed in St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Also, there were at least twenty-five people (all of them descendants of people Mintumble had met in the past) who vanished into thin air, effectively becoming un-born. Finally, the Tuesday that followed the ordeal lasted two and a half full days, while the following Thursday lasted only four hours.[1]
In 2020, after Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy repeatedly travelled back in time to meddle with the events of the Triwizard Tournament twenty-five years earlier, several people were temporarily un-born, namely Rose and Hugo Granger-Weasley, James Potter, Lily Potter and, at one point, Albus Potter himself. All these un-births were subsequently corrected with further time-travelling, to annul the disturbances created.[2] Panju Weasley, the son of Ron Weasley and Padma Patil in an alternate reality, became un-born when the timeline was corrected.[2]
Behind the scenes[]
- Xavier Rastrick's infamous disappearance while tap-dancing before a crowd of three-hundred people might have been due to a disturbance in time, as it took place in 1836, sixty-three years before the Ministry of Magic stopped conducting time-travel experiments.
- Being un-born is seemingly distinct from Vanishment, in that Vanished objects are known to be reduced to nothing by way of entering "everything",[3] whereas un-born people, due disturbances in time, suddenly never existed to begin with.
Appearances[]
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (First appearance)
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (play)
- Pottermore (First mentioned)
- Wizarding World (Mentioned only)
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Writing by J. K. Rowling: "Time-Turner" at Wizarding World
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 30 (The Sacking of Severus Snape)