Need Quote: Help with Sirius's Motorcyle - More

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 92786

Neri:
According to Berit (#92582) her Bloomsbury also has "get this bike 
away". I suspect that Shaun Hately was right: this version appears 
only in the first (1997) Bloomsbury edition, and was later 
corrected to include Sirius' name. Anyone with a 1997 UK edition?

Carol again:
If it's a correction, it's the preferred version, right? Maybe the
U.K. editor changed it in 1997 but JKR changed it back in later
printings? It seems odd for the correct version to appear *first* in
the American edition, and as I said, I don't think an American 
editor would have changed "get this bike away" to "giv[e] Sirius his
bike back." "Sirius his" for "Sirius's" is what we poor deluded
Americans call a Briticism.
 
Geoff:
My hardback UK edition, which is dated 1999 on the info page and 
which I bought last autumn has "get this bike away".
 
"Give Sirius his bike back" and "Give Sirius' bike back" would both 
be acceptable Britishisms.

Carol:
Right. Britishisms or Briticisms, but not Americanisms. My point is
that the American editor is unlikely to be responsible for the change
to "Give Sirius his bike back" because it's not American English, and
if it were the British editor's change, it wouldn't be in the American
edition, too, so it must be JKR's own change. I could be wrong,
though, because my American (Scholastic paperback) edition is dated
1998, so it predates your hardback. 

So, Shaun, what is the date of your Bloomsbury (British) edition
again? I'm thinking that the 1999 British hardback may just be a
reprint of the 1997 paperback and that yours is a corrected edition
with a later date. 

If anyone wonders why I'm being so finicky about a change in wording,
I'm just trying to establish that "give Sirius his bike back" is the
preferred or authentic version and that its purpose is to reinforce
the first mention of Sirius Black earlier in PS, chapter one. (There's
also the question of how this version of events meshes with Hagrid's
version in PoA, which can't be properly determined unless we have the
right text to work with.

Carol, adjusting her Harry Potter fanatic badge