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Since Hermione used the Time-Turner repeatedly during her third year, did she ever see her past self or other self accidentally when going to her classes?

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    What's the etiquette if one sees one's future self wandering around, but already knows why and there isn't any sort of "I'M HERE TO WARN YOU" or anything? Do you say hi? Just give them a bro nod and continue about your day?
    – Tin Wizard
    Mar 21, 2017 at 19:12
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    Imagine waking up for a late night walk and finding the Common room is full of duplicates of Hermione.
    – Sidney
    Mar 21, 2017 at 20:49
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    Does her question, "Is that really what my hair really looks like from the back?" only in the film?
    – gef05
    Mar 21, 2017 at 21:32
  • Hermione is organised and careful, and has been warned about the negative results of time paradoxes, so any such incidents will have been rare, at most. If it did happen then I expect that both of them will have carefully avoided looking at the other or passing any other information. Mar 21, 2017 at 22:51
  • @Walt For etiquette about meeting your future and past selves, have you read The man in the empty suit by Sean Ferrel? Mar 22, 2017 at 9:46

4 Answers 4

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Possibly

Depending on her routes she took she may have seen her past self from behind on occasion right before her past self used the time tuner.

Harry, Ron and Hermione climbed the steps to the Entrance Hall... Why didn’t you lie, Hermione?... Hermione didn’t answer. Ron looked around.

‘Where is she?’

Harry turned, too. They were at the top of the steps now, watching the rest of the class pass them, heading for the Great Hall and lunch.

‘She was right behind us,’ said Ron, frowning.

‘There she is,’ said Harry.

Hermione was panting slightly, hurrying up the stairs; one hand was clutching her bag, the other seemed to be tucking some- thing down the front of her robes.

‘How did you do that?’ said Ron...

‘One minute you were right behind us, and next moment, you were back at the bottom of the stairs again.’

‘What?’ Hermione looked slightly confused. ‘Oh – I had to go back for something. Oh, no ...’ - Prison of Azkaban

Here we can see she was running to catch up to were she was before using the time tuner, so unless she purposely waited around the corner and timed it exactly right she could have seen herself from behind easily while catching up.

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    The Hermione at the bottom of the stairs wouldn't have a reason to avoid seeing her past self while catching up. There's no problem with seeing your past self (like watching a home video). She would be very careful not to be seen by her past self, though (maybe that's why she didn't get closer and she had to run to close the gap when the past Hermione desappeared) :)
    – xDaizu
    Mar 22, 2017 at 8:27
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    @xDaizu There’s no real reason for her to be careful about not being seen by her past self either, since her past self already knows that she will be using the Time Turner in an hour and that there is therefore also a future self of hers running around. You don’t start panicking at seeing yourself if you already know that there’s a good chance of just that happening. Mar 22, 2017 at 9:11
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    @JanusBahsJacquet No panic, just paradoxes and free will implications. And over-thinking stress. I mean, what if she sees her future self with bird poo on her hair? Now she would be all day worried about when a bird is gonna poo on her hair knowing she can't avoid it and she won't be able to clean it at least until after her past self sees it. What if she sees her future self with a singed sleeve? Should she warn the teachers that there's gonna be a fire? Or maybe it was singed for any other number of reasons? Who knows. Does she warn or not? Better... better just not to know.
    – xDaizu
    Mar 22, 2017 at 9:22
  • @xDaizu That’s all true, but I’m sure Hermione is savvy enough to be prepared for seeing her future self and just ignoring it. Mar 22, 2017 at 9:33
  • @JanusBahsJacquet Some things cannot be unseen. While I agree that most probably she would be ok if it happened (and it probably did happen at some point during the year), I think she'd try to avoid it. Then again, I could be wrong :)
    – xDaizu
    Mar 22, 2017 at 9:38
10

At the moment, when Harry and Hermione rescue Buckbeak and standing in the forest behind Ron, Harry and Hermione, the 'traveled-Hermione' says something like "Gosh, how does my hair look from behind", the 'past-Hermione' seems to recognize her own voice and turn around to take a look into the forest. Then Ron/Harry asks her "Whats wrong?", she answers

"I just thought, I saw..., nothing.".

In this situation she maybe saw herself in the forest, but could not tell anybody about it, because she knows that she can use her time-turner or doesn't want to sound crazy.

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    I don’t think that’s in the book. Possibly a movie invention.
    – chirlu
    Mar 22, 2017 at 8:05
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    Also... ever noticed how your recorded voice sounds different than when you hear yourself speaking? Unless you somewhat regularly hear recordings of your own voice, you probably won't recognize it that easily (I think it's more likely she just heard any voice/sound, but didn't recognize it as hers)
    – hoffmale
    Mar 22, 2017 at 10:18
  • @hoffmale But does your non-recorded voice coming from someone (somewhen?) else sound that different? Anyway, I do recognize my recorded voice: Oh no, it's me on tape, how can I escape? Mar 22, 2017 at 13:16
  • @hoffmale you are right, when it is recorded the voice sounds different than your speaking voice. But in this case it was not recorded. Herself talked in the forest, not a recorder :-)
    – DomeTune
    Mar 22, 2017 at 13:41
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    @DomeTune You're missing the point. The reason your recorded voice sounds different to you than when you're just speaking normally is that normally you hear your own voice through your own skull which dampens some frequencies more than others. Your recorded voice will sound no different to you than your near future self talking to you. Mar 22, 2017 at 14:48
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Since Hermione does not reveal the use of Time Turner before Sirius Black / Buckbeak rescue mission in PoA (neither to Harry and Ron, nor to the readers), details of her use of this device are unknown. I can only guess she did see her past self, trying to avoid the possibility of her past self seeing her future self, as Dumbledore has cautioned.

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Considering all the scenes depicting use of the time turner, she always sees her past self but her past self never sees the one from the future.

She only goes to her past and is not shown going to future

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