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“Why, yes…there was Rosier,” said Karkaroff hurriedly. “Evan Rosier.”

“Rosier is dead,” said Crouch. “He was caught shortly after you were too. He preferred to fight rather than come quietly and was killed in the struggle.”

“Took a bit of me with him, though,” whispered Moody to Harry's right. Harry looked around at him once more, and saw him indicating the large chunk out of his nose to Dumbledore.

I figure "Took a bit of me with him" probably mean Moody sacrificed something while dealing with Rosier. According to the later context, it probably refers to the large chunk on his nose(I don't understand "out of nose" here either). How should we understand it in this context?

-- From Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

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"Took a bit of me with him" drops the subject, "he", as is typical in conversation.

He took a small piece of me with him.

"with him" means "in his possession (as he sought to flee)". Better take your umbrella with you when you leave for work this morning. That is probably figurative; it doesn't necessarily mean that Rosier had the chunk of Moody's flesh on his person. So you are correct, Moody lost or sacrificed a piece of himself.

With though Moody concedes that Rosier was killed, yes, but not before he was able to remove a chunk of flesh from Moody's nose.

P.S. In the phrase the large chunk out of his nose, the words out of can be understood to mean "missing from".

There was his birthday cake on the table, but with a large slice already out of it.

That means there was a slice missing from the cake.

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  • Your interpretation of "Took a bit of me with him" is completely different from what I originally thought. What I thought was that it cost a bit of me while I fought with him. I understood 'take' as the sense of 'cost'. And your explanation about "out of" here helps a lot!
    – dan
    Commented Dec 27, 2018 at 12:02
  • @dan Gruesome to think you were imagining a "large chunk" of Moody exiting a nostril :)
    – TimR
    Commented Dec 27, 2018 at 12:11
  • Yeah, that's kind of embarrassing. Stupid mistakes are often made by second language learners though. Can you also do me a favor and take a look at my another question: ell.stackexchange.com/questions/190723/…
    – dan
    Commented Dec 27, 2018 at 12:20
  • @dan plenty of stupid mistakes are made in one's first language too ;)
    – TimR
    Commented Dec 27, 2018 at 12:28
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Yes, Rosier in the struggle removed a part of Moody's nose.

The chunk came out of Moody's nose.

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  • Thanks! What might "the chunk out of his nose" refer to? Will it be some substitute for the part that has been removed by Rosier?
    – dan
    Commented Dec 27, 2018 at 11:31
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    It means a piece of nose was cut off from Moody's nose by Rosier.
    – Peter
    Commented Dec 27, 2018 at 11:37

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