[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: "Only just".

[Sue Wartell]

Zanooda2:

OK, it's two against one for now :-). But I must tell you, guys, 
English is a very ambiguous language :-)! Whenever I have a question, 
you always have two different answers for me, which is confusing :-).

Anyway, thank you very much, all of you. And, Mike, it's great to 
hear from you :-). You are hardly ever here these days. I mean, you 
are here, but only just :-).

Now Sue:
I agree entirely that English is ambiguous.  It's quite wonderful that way.  ;-)

While I know both meanings of the phrase "only just", the one that means "barely" never occurred to me as a possible meaning for Hermione's statement.  It seemed quite clear that Hermione had not successfully escaped before Flitwick showed up, because she had engaged in a conversation with him.  Otherwise the statement that "he told me I got 112% on his exam" a bit later would make no sense;  Ron had suggested that she say she was waiting for Flitwick to ask about a question on her exam.  That suggests to me that she hadn't yet heard about her results before she went off to watch for Snape.  Hermione is a detail-oriented person, and a stickler for precision and correct answers, and I think she would have objected to that particular excuse if she already had been told her results.  (Oh, I also assumed that Flitwick was in fact in the staff room, and Snape merely had to step back inside the door and call for him to come out - making it highly unlikely that
 Hermione could have gotten away.)


So now it's 3 to 1.  Your mileage may vary, and I might even be able to construct an arguement for the other interpretation.  But as a native English (American version) speaker, I immediately assumed the "just now" meaning.


      

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]