"Only just".

[Steve]

---  "Mike" <mcrudele78 at ...> wrote:
>
> > > zanooda2 wrote:
> > > ...
> > > 
> > > 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". 
> 
>  
> > 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
> 
> Mike:
/> ..., when I read that scene, I read it as Hermione *just barely*
> got away. Because, I thought Hermione didn't really want to see 
> Flitwick, ..., and would have appeared a blithering idiot if 
> Snape actually found Flitwick and sent him out to meet her. 
>
> So I thought she "only just" got away before Flitwick came out
> of the teachers' lounge.
> 
> Now that I read your thoughts, ..., I think my reading of it 
> was wrong. I do think that Diary!Riddle meant "only just" as
> "barely", though.
> 
> ...
> 
> Mike, only just catching up on OTC reading
>

bboyminn:

While I'm filling in a lot of off-page backstory, I took it to
mean 'I only just /now/ got away', which implies some delay, 
which in turn implies that she was delayed by having to deal
with Flitwick. So, Snape got Flitwick, Hermione stumbled and
bumbled trying to thing of an excuse to talk to Flitwick, that
caused a delay, and she only just /now/ got away. 

I'm not saying I'm right, but that's how I read it; she just 
/now/ escape the thing that was delaying her. 

Steve/bboyminn