It was all he could do

[alondor]

Siple question really what do the words it was all he could do mean when put into a peice of lierature with no reference to the it pronoun

[Falconer]

VOTE DRAGONMASTER FOR "ODDEST QUESTION OF THE YEAR"

[alondor]

i do not care if it is an odd question go read the harry potter books and you will see it at least twice and other books do it to

[Ersska]

Most likely "it" refers to something that happened in the previous sentences. Such as "Bo simply stared in astonishment. It was all he could do."
Unless there's extra words strung behind "do". Such as "It was all he could do to simply stare in astonishment" or "It was all he could do to control himself". In the example, the first one means, of course, that his brain took a vacation, and he couldn't perform any other phsyical task. The second one means that it was very hard for him to do that certain task.
Does that help?

[vampirehunter42]

Sounds like that may be one answer Ersska. But without reading the works in question, we would not know. That does bring me back to english/writing class on one of the rules of writing is never start a sentence with 'It'. One main reason that is the word that the Knights who say Nee can not say.

[Ersska]

I know. That's why I was giving different options and examples. I'm hoping DM will expand on what he has already posted.

[alondor]

So you have wisked it and so shall it be here is one of the quotes that got me wondering, it has extra on both sides

But Harry had a horrible feeling that the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures had had its mind made up for it by Mr. Malfoy. Draco, who had been noticeably subdued since Gryffindor's triumph in the Quidditch final, seemed to regain some of his old swagger over the next few days.
From sneering comments Harry overheard, Malfoy was certain Buckbeak was going to be killed, and seemed thoroughly pleased with himself for bringing it about. It was all Harry could do to stop himself imitating Hermione and hitting Malfoy in the face on these occasions.

[Ersska]

The "it" in your passage refers to Harry stopping himself from taking the actions he wanted to. He wanted to imitate Hermione. He wanted to hit Malfoy. But stopping himself was all that he could do (or took all his might).

[alondor]

i do not get that impression the "it" sounds like it is refering to something that harry is doing from stopping himselfand hence that is why he does not hit malfoy

[Forgotten Dragon's Ire]

Yes "it" is his self control and his self control is being taxed to its limit trying to keep Harry from punching Malfoy

[vampirehunter42]

Sadly the use of 'it' like this is used every where. But this is because we use different grammer rules when speaking. Take this quote "It was the best of times it was the worse of times." Using 'it' like this does not work well with written rules but when we use 'it' spoken like this it is ok. The same think as with 'a lot'. That term has no real meaning.