Silver lining and where to find it.

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "zanooda2" <zanooda2 at ...> wrote:

zanooda
> Here is another translation-related question on DH. Remember how Ginny invites Harry to her room on his birthday? She says that she wants to give him something (like what?! :-)) to remember her by, because he can meet some Veela during his travels, and he answers that there won't be many opportunities for dating. Then she says: "There's the silver lining I've been looking for"(pp.116 and 99 US and UK respectively). 
> 
> Ok, I know what "silver lining" means (something good in something bad, right?), but still, it's not very clear to me what she wants to say. Where exactly was she looking for that silver lining :-)? Does she mean it in general, like, you know, everything is so bad - LV is on the loose, people are dying, Harry is going away to fight LV and he may never come back etc., but at least he won't date Veelas :-)? Or is it something else? 
> 
> I really want to understand what she wants to say, because when people try to translate this sentence close the the original, something incomprehensible comes out, so I want them to change it completely, and for this, they need to know exactly what it means. Perhaps someone could rephrase this sentence, say it using different words? Any help would be appreciated :-).


Geoff:
I'm not sure whether Yahoo just demolished my reply so I'll post 
again and if I'm wrong, I'll delete one of the posts.

I read into this scene that Ginny is concerned that Harry might 
meet another girl while he is away who might capture his affection 
which Ginny wants him to retain for her.

So, when Harry suggests that he is not going to have a lot of time 
for dating, this is a silver lining because although their separation 
is being effectively caused by a war,  it will have the effect of stopping 
Harry from forming an attachment to another girl which reduces any 
threat in that direction towards Ginny - which I think is what you 
implied as part of your second paragraph.