‘We were playing in completely different conditions!’ Wood shouted, his eyes bulging slightly. ‘Diggory’s put a very strong side together! He’s an excellent Seeker! I was afraid you’d take it like this! We mustn’t relax! We must keep our focus! Slytherin are trying to wrong-foot us! We must win!’

This is a paragraph from Harry Potter. My question is:

Why did Wood say "I was afraid you'd take it like this" instead of "I'm afraid you'd take it like this"?

Thanks for your reply.

Question

‘We were playing in completely different conditions!’ Wood shouted, his eyes bulging slightly. ‘Diggory’s put a very strong side together! He’s an excellent Seeker! I was afraid you’d take it like this! We mustn’t relax! We must keep our focus! Slytherin are trying to wrong-foot us! We must win!’

This is a paragraph from Harry Potter. My question is:

Why did Wood say "I was afraid you'd take it like this" instead of "I'm afraid you'd take it like this"?

Thanks for your reply.

Answer

Because the 'fear' is in the past. What they are saying is I 'thought' or 'expected' you'd take it like this.

So they're describing a past prediction. The thing has happened now, so the prediction has to be in the past.

It is the same for also such verbs:

I feared/knew/expected/thought/predicted you'd take it like this.

We would use 'am afraid' for predictions about the future.

I'm afraid he's going to take it badly.