in/at Godric's Hollow

[nera at rconnect.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 17452

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
> > > > > >In "The Boy Who Lived", SS, Macgonagall says, "What 
they're 
> > saying,
> > > > > >she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in 
> > Godric's
> > > > > >Hollow
> 
> What comes after this all but clinches the fact that even if you 
can 
> turn up IN someone's house (e.g. by Apparating), Voldemort turned 
up 
> IN their village and THEN went to their house:
> 
> "Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow.  He went to find the 
> Potters."
> 
> That doesn't sound like something you'd say if Godric's Hollow was 
> their house.  Try it:
> 
> "last night Voldemort turned up in Good-Name-for-an-Aristocratic- 
> House.  He went to find the Malfoys."
> 
> Doesn't work.  If "he went to find the Potters" means that's what 
he 
> did after "turning up," then he has to have turned up in the 
village; 
> you don't Apparate into someone's house and then go look for them 
> (unless they're not in the house...)
> 
> If "he went to find the Potters" isn't meant to be something he did 
> =after= arriving in GH, but is stated afterwards as an explanation 
of 
> what he was doing there, it again implies that it's a village, 
because 
> otherwise McGonagall's statement is ludicrously redundant.  "He 
> turned up in the Potters' house.  He went to find the Potters." If 
> it's their house, of course he was there to find them--why else 
would 
> he have gone there?  > Amy Z
******************************
Seeing as how this is in the first chapter of the first book, I feel 
that McGonagall's statement/explanation of *why* Voldie *went to* 
Godric's Hollow is very fitting. 

This is the way I understand it: "They are saying that Voldemort 
turned up in Godric's Hollow." "They are saying that Voldemort went 
there to find the Potters."  Before McGonagall's statement, we 
neither know the existence of Godric's Hollow is or that the Potters 
lived there, be it village *or* a house. *If* it merely 
said, "Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow", what would that tell 
the reader? I believe both sentences are needed and not redundant.

The Potters were protected from Voldemort *only* as long as Voldemort 
did not know where they were. The minute that Voldemort knew where 
they were, that was the extent of the protection. Since Voldemort has 
access to the worst-of-the-worst Dark Arts magic, he could probably 
turn up *under* their bed,  *in* their toilet, or *on* their dining 
room table if he chose to do so. Surprise! Guess who's coming to 
dinner? Heeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Voldie!

Doreen, who once memorized all 32 prepostions and hates when her 
sentences end with one.