Silver lining and where to find it.

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Miles" <d2dmiles at ...> wrote:

Martin:
> I looked this up when I first read the book (I usually don't look anything 
> up while reading a book) because I was really not sure if the meaning I 
> remembered would fit. And I found different possible  meanings of "silver 
> lining" apart from the figure of speech I knew.
> 
> Ginny knows quite well that Harry won't forget her. But she fears he could 
> forget what she IS for him or better, what she could be for him. So, what 
> she was looking for was something special to not let him forget, by showing 
> or giving him something she obviously didn't give him before. She "enhances" 
> his memory by embroiding it with a special and precious lining fabric - of 
> silver.
> 
> Another idea could be to understand "line" as a cord (like in fishing line 
> or phone line) to establish or hold a connection - "silver" playing with the 
> Veela hair.
> 
> The native speakers can tell us whether JKR could have thought about these 
> or other meanings - my impression is, that there is not one answer to 
> zanooda's question, but many.


Geoff:
As a native UK English speaker, I would never use the expression 
other than as the figure of speech which in fact is derived from a 
proverb "Every cloud has a silver lining" which suggests that every 
difficult situation has a hopeful, if not always obvious, possibility.

Repeating myself, to me, Ginny sees the cloud as Harry being away. 
He has already distanced himself from her in HBP to protect her and 
her fear, expressed semi-jokingly, is that he will fall for another girl.

His observation that his task doesn't leave much room for dating is, 
for her, the silver lining... the hopeful possibility.