Title:
The Time-Turner and XChronos: Rereading Harry Potter Through the Logic of Chronons
Author:
Jaconaazar Souza Silva
Laboratory Technician in Audiovisual Arts – Federal Institute of Brasília (IFB), Recanto das Emas Campus
Project: XChronos
Abstract:
This article proposes a symbolic interpretation of the magical artifact known as the Time-Turner, from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, through the temporal philosophy of the XChronos project. By reinterpreting the Time-Turner as a symbolic device for manipulating Chronons, structuring Hexachronons, and activating Metachronos, the article reveals that true magic lies in the consciousness that observes, lives, and reflects on time. It is an encounter between fiction and idealist ontology, where time ceases to be a linear object and becomes a field of experience and creation.
Full Text:
In the mythology of Harry Potter, the Time-Turner is an enchanted hourglass that allows its bearer to go back several hours into the past. Used by Hermione Granger to attend multiple classes simultaneously — and later by her and Harry to rescue Sirius Black and Buckbeak — the object is portrayed as a time-travel mechanism. However, through the philosophical lens of the XChronos project, this literal interpretation becomes a profound metaphor for temporal consciousness.
Chronon: the moment lived with intensity
In XChronos, time is not a linear flow measurable by seconds, but a conscious and lived path. The term Chronon refers to conceptual particles of subjective time, not marked by traditional clocks but by direct experience and perception of existential movement.
Each use of the Time-Turner by Hermione represents, in truth, a conscious reentry into a Chronon — a moment so meaningful that it deserves to be relived with new awareness. She does not merely “go back in time”; she passes again through a state of being, guided by memory and intention.
Hexachronons: interwoven narratives of meaning
In their final Time-Turner mission, Harry and Hermione orchestrate a sequence of simultaneous events: spying on themselves, misleading guards, freeing prisoners, and ultimately altering destiny. These layers of experience form what XChronos calls Hexachronons — structures composed of multiple interconnected Chronons.
Each Hexachronon encompasses:
- spatial movement (flight, time reversal, coordinated navigation),
- emotional states (urgency, fear, hope),
- mental presence (decision-making, memory, heightened awareness),
- environmental context (light, architecture, magical creatures),
- symbolic meaning (justice, redemption, courage),
- and cosmic synchronicity (critical intersections of action and observation).
The Time-Turner thus becomes a device of narrative layering, organizing symbolic time sequences.
Metachronos: the moment when consciousness sees itself
The symbolic climax of the Time-Turner is when Harry realizes he himself cast the Patronus he had previously witnessed. This moment of self-recognition is what XChronos defines as Metachronos — the reflective layer of temporal experience.
Metachronos is when the being recognizes itself as a subject of time, not just a passenger. It is the philosopher observing the warrior, the narrator awakening within the story, the inner mirror of lived time.
Conclusion: The Time-Turner as a symbolic device of XChronos
The Time-Turner is not merely a narrative artifact created by J.K. Rowling. In the language of XChronos, it is a symbolic instrument of awareness. It reveals the ontological structure of time as internal movement, meaningful experience, and philosophical reflection.
Just as XChronos proposes that time is not something that passes but something we pass through, the Time-Turner illustrates that we are agents of temporal narrative, capable of revisiting, restructuring, and resignifying our own Chronons.
In the end, the message is clear:
It is not the hourglass that turns. It is we who turn with it.
Keywords (SEO-optimized):
XChronos, Time-Turner, Chronons, Hexachronons, Metachronos, Harry Potter, philosophy of time, idealist ontology, temporal consciousness, symbolic narrative, Copernican time.
https://zenodo.org/records/15380227
10.5281/zenodo.15380227