Sentence Meaning – ‘It Wasn’t as Though They Were Ever Any Help to Him Awake’

sentence-meaning

Asleep was the way Harry liked the Dursleys best; it wasn't as though they were ever any help to him awake.

I have a bit hard time to understand the second part of the sentence, especially "it wasn't as though". Can it be paraphrased as: "it was as though they were not ever any help to him awake" ? What does it mean exactly?

Best Answer

You will find "It wasn't as though ..." is a relatively common idiomatic expression to mean

It wasn't true that ...

or

It never happened that ...

often contrary to expectation. Examples:

It was not as though he was the fastest runner, but over longer distances the horse could maintain his pace remarkably well, and often finished well ahead of the other horses in the race.

i.e. you would think the horse should be fast to win races, but this was not true.

"It was not as though I could move all these desks on my own," she thought to herself. "You'd think the headmaster would send some students to help out."

i.e. despite the headmaster's expectation that she could move the desks, this was not true.

Rowling's sentence basically means, "contrary to what you would expect from legal guardians, the Dursleys were not of any help to Harry when they were awake" -- a colorful way to say that they were of no help to Harry at any time, but they were least unhelpful when they were sleeping.

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