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I'm speaking of the second Time-Turner she has had, in the Cursed Child.

She, of all people, knew the dangers a Time-Turner could raise.

"No!" said Hermione in a terrified whisper. "Don't you understand? We're breaking one of the most important wizarding laws! Nobody's supposed to change time, nobody!
[...]
Professor McGonagall told me what awful things have happened when wizards have meddled with time.... Loads of them ended up killing their past or future selves by mistake!
(Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 21, Hermione's secret)

I understand why she didn't destroy it, but why hide it in such an obvious place, her office, and protect it only with a "simple" riddle?

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  • 16
    because the play is nonsense
    – Skooba
    Aug 16, 2016 at 18:07
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    I can just imagine the inquest. "So, Minister, what protection did you give to what is quite literally the most dangerous artifact in the whole world?". "An easily solved riddle".
    – Valorum
    Aug 16, 2016 at 18:14
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    Because the play was written by someone with, in my view, actually quite a poor understanding of Hermione, trying very hard to contrive something that Hermione would do. The effort did not succeed :P
    – Au101
    Aug 16, 2016 at 18:19
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    Perhaps it's meant to show that 40 year old Hermione is trying to be Dumbledore but would you believe it, she isn't quite there yet. She is meant to be brilliant, but surely he was more so, and 70 years older when he did his version.
    – ThruGog
    Aug 16, 2016 at 19:09
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    I also suspect the simplicity of the riddle relates to the intended audience. These are theatre goers. They have a chance to solve a simple riddle themselves along with the characters. In a book you can stop and stare at if for as long as you like and read no further so the riddle can be as suitably easy or complex as the writer likes, but the intended audience doesn't have that luxury. Just perhaps, they thought 'keep it simple' so the live audience has a chance to solve it then and there.
    – ThruGog
    Aug 16, 2016 at 19:21

1 Answer 1

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In-Universe: It was fairly well protected

  1. It was kept a relative secret. Only Influential, nosey people had even heard the rumors that the Ministry had one.

  2. It was kept away inside the Ministry. The events of the Harry Potter books in which people break-in are the exceptions; generally the Ministry is a safe place that's relatively hard to break into.

  3. The riddle seems like it wasn't meant to be unsolvable, rather is seems it was meant to delay a would-be thief. The thief would presumably get sucked into the bookcase or caught by Ministry officials.

Out-of-universe: Time travel shenanigans needed to take place

The plot of Cursed Child relies on time travel, so adventure needed to center on actually using the time turner, and not spend too much time getting it.

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    Side comment: not sure about point 2); a bunch of teenagers were able to break in
    – neverendingqs
    Aug 18, 2016 at 17:05
  • @neverendingqs teenagers who were above average in magical talent, skill, expeience, and they were also esspecially lucky. :)
    – RedCaio
    Aug 19, 2016 at 0:34
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    It's twice now that polyjuiced (teenaged) wizards enter the MoM, they might concider putting a spell on the building for such occasions. Didn't Gringotts have something for that?
    – Don_Biglia
    Aug 19, 2016 at 6:55
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    @Don_Biglia a shower as you're entering work? =P. Although static secrecy probes as part of the fireplace entrance (sort of like metal detectors) seem pretty feasible?
    – neverendingqs
    Aug 19, 2016 at 12:41

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