The Wizarding World, designed by J.K. Rowling, operates on a soft magic system, in that there are no hardcore rules set in place for how spells, hexes, and charms operate in the universe. There are other forms of magic, such as magical creatures and devices that also populate the world, but the soft nature of it can sometimes make the story difficult to plot.
The time turners were a particularly big plot hole, as the story hinged on the time-traveling device in the third Harry Potter book, The question of why the device was not used to avert major tragedies in the book and before the story kicked off, such as the demise of Harry’s parents, loomed large after it was introduced. However, given that the worldbuilding of the Wizarding World was shared between the books and posts made by the author online, the problem was quickly resolved.
J.K. Rowling invented a character and did not consider the implication of introducing time travel
Introduce time travel into any universe comes with a lot of consequences to its continuity. J.K Rowling handled the way it deals with in-universe concepts well enough to facilitate the plot but did not account for the wider ramifications such a plot device would have for the Wizarding World. However, Rowling was able to fix this mistake by introducing some lore on the Wizarding World Website, which neatly filled up the plotholes that the introduction of the time-turner had created.
The entry introduced us to Professor Saul Crocker of the Department of Mysteries, who had extensively researched time turners and was able to sus out what would the ramifications of the device be if they were used to a greater extent. Turns out, traveling more than five hours into the past could create a lot of problems for the user, such that one wizard aged 500 years in just a few moments, because they were stuck in the 1400s for a few days.
Rowling also realized the ramifications of the time turners, and destroyed them all in the Order of the Phoenix, to allow for future plots to work out without readers wondering why any consequences could not be undone by using the time travel device.
Time-turners do make a comeback in the story
Harry Potter and the Curse Child, a canon continuation of the story, dealt with what happens years after the epilogue at the end of Deathly Hallows. The plot very heavily depends on time turners, essentially playing out the plot of DC’s Flashpoint Paradox in the Wizarding World. However, some of the plot points in the play make it difficult for fans to keep the lore straight, given that the play involves time travel beyond just the five-hour mark, without any consequences on the user
Of course, the timeline is altered significantly, but that is a consequence that was already set in the previous books via the plot. This makes the presence of time turners in the world of Harry Potter very tumultuous, and given the skill level that it takes to operate such a device, it stands as a liability for any kind of entry in the franchise, especially anyone who tries to explore the history of the world of Harry Potter.
