GoF: US v UK Double Negatives

[Heather Moore]

No: HPFGUIDX 29701

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., butagirl at a... wrote:
> sonjahric at y... wrote:
> 
> <<In chapter 36 of GoF (in my book it is page 712) there is a sentence I am 
> confused about:
> 
> Dumbledore says, "Time is short, and unless the few of us who know the truth 
> do not stand united, there is no hope for any us."
> 
> Shouldn't it say, "Time is short, and IF the few of us who know the truth do 
> not stand united, there is no hope for any us"  OR, "Time is short, and 
> unless the few of us who know the truth STAND united, there is no hope for 
> any us?">>
> 
> This must be a printing error in the edition you have. Mine clearly states:
> 
> "Time is short, and unless the few of us who know the truth stand united, 
> there is no hope for any us."
> 
> Sharon Brindle 


 It may not technically be an error. I think this is an example of one style difference between British writing and American writing. ASE frowns on double negatives as bad form, interpreting the clauses as cancelling each other out. I believe that in Britain, this sort of double negative is a regarded as a legitimate way to emphasize a point.

Very possibly the earliest printing of GOF in America kept the original phrasing, and an editor subsequently "fixed" that phrasing for later printings?  How does the sentence run in the British editions?