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Believe it of any of you

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Xinfu
July 03, 2015, 11:10 PM
p.243
-I would never have believe it of any of you. Mr. Filch says you were up the astronomy tower. It's one o'clock in the morning. Explain yourselves.

What's the meaning of 'of'? 'believe...of'?

Rusty
July 04, 2015, 07:03 AM
I would never have believed it of any of you.

You've most likely surmised that the sentence is stating someone's disbelief that others acted in an unexpected way.

The phrasing is quite common and used correctly (with the correction). The first 'of' could be replaced with 'about' and mean exactly the same thing (believe something about someone).

Another way to say the phrase is 'I would never have believed your behavior possible'.

Xinfu
July 06, 2015, 03:55 AM
Thank you.