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“We were just talking about the night when Mr. Crouch turned up on the grounds,” said Fudge. “It was you who found him, was it not?”

“Yes,” said Harry. Then, feeling it was pointless to pretend that he hadn't overheard what they had been saying, he added, “I didn't see Madame Maxime anywhere, though, and she'd have a job hiding, wouldn't she?”

Dumbledore smiled at Harry behind Fudge's back, his eyes twinkling.

“Yes, well,” said Fudge, looking embarrassed, ...

I don't quite understand "she'd have a job hiding". Does it mean hiding is her job or something? What does it mean exactly here?

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A job can be a single piece of work, or a task. In UK conversation, to "have a job" doing something can mean to find doing that thing difficult or impossible. It would be a hard job to do it. Is Madame Maxine very large? That might explain why she would "have a job" hiding somewhere.

Job 2.2 informal
in singular
A difficult task. ‘we thought you'd have a job getting there’

Job (Oxford Dictionaries)

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  • Is this particularly for UK English?
    – dan
    Commented Dec 27, 2018 at 9:28
  • 1
    I am a British English speaker; I do not know if it is used in other English zones; Macmillan and Longman dictionaries both say it is "British". I would guess it is common in Australia & New Zealand. Maybe a US English speaker will comment.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Dec 27, 2018 at 9:47
  • "She'd have a job doing something" (BrE). "It would be a job to do something" (BrE/AmE); "It would be a lot of work to do something" (AmE)
    – Peter
    Commented Dec 27, 2018 at 11:13
  • All equally valid in UK English, too.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Dec 27, 2018 at 12:04

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