"Only just".

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "zanooda2" <zanooda2 at ...> wrote:
>
> Can you guys help me with this expression? It's in SS/PS, when 
> Hermione was supposed to keep an eye on Snape (pretending to be 
> waiting for Flitwick outside the staff room), but then she came back 
> to the common room and said: "Snape came out and asked me what I was 
> doing, so I said I was waiting for Flitwick, and Snape went to get 
> him, and I've only just got away, I don't know where Snape went".
> 
> I know "only just" means something like "just now", "very recently" 
> ("we've only just begun"), but dictionaries also give another 
> meaning - something like "barely", kind of like when Diary!Riddle 
> says that Ginny is alive, but "only just". I've always assumed that 
> it was the first meaning in Hermione's case, but at the moment I find 
> myself in an argument about this expression and I need to be sure.

Geoff:
In this particular instance, I would agree with your first case - "I have 
only very recently got away". Not getting away in the sense of escaping 
but of starting off - "We hope to get away on our holidays tomorrow".