哈利·波特与死亡圣器
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CHAPTER SIXTEEN GODRIC’S HOLLOW
| 第十六章 戈德里克山谷
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When Harry woke the following day it was several seconds before he remembered what had happened. Then he hoped, childishly, that it had been a dream, that Ron was still there and had never left. Yet by turning his head on his pillow he could see Ron’s deserted bunk. It was like a dead body in the way it seemed to draw his eyes. Harry jumped down from his own bed, keeping his eyes averted from Ron’s. Hermione, who was already busy in the kitchen, did not wish Harry good morning, but turned her face away quickly as he went by.
| 第二天哈利醒来时,过了几秒钟才想起发生了什么事。他天真地希望那是个梦,希望罗恩还在这儿,没有离开。可是他转过头,看到的是罗恩的空床,像横在路上的尸体那样吸引着他的目光。哈利从自己的床上跳下来,不去看罗恩的床铺。赫敏已经在厨房里忙碌,哈利走过时,她没有跟他说早上好,而是急忙扭过头去。
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He’s gone, Harry told himself. He’s gone. He had to keep thinking it as he washed and dressed, as though repetition would dull the shock of it. He’s gone and he’s not coming back. And that was the simple truth of it, Harry knew, because their protective enchantments meant that it would be impossible, once they vacated this spot, for Ron to find them again.
| 他走了,哈利对自己说。他走了。洗脸穿衣时,他止不住一直这么想,好像重复它会使打击减轻一些似的。他走了,不会回来了。这是简单的事实,哈利知道,因为他们的防护魔法意味着,只要他们一离开这个地方,罗恩就无法找到他们了。
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He and Hermione ate breakfast in silence. Hermione’s eyes were puffy and red; she looked as if she had not slept. They packed up their things, Hermione dawdling. Harry knew why she wanted to spin out their time on the riverbank; several times he saw her look up eagerly, and he was sure she had deluded herself into thinking that she heard footsteps through the heavy rain, but no red-haired figure appeared between the trees. Every time Harry imitated her, looked around (for he could not help hoping a little, himself) and saw nothing but rain-swept woods, another little parcel of fury exploded inside him. He could hear Ron saying, “We thought you knew what you were doing!”, and he resumed packing with a hard knot in the pit of his stomach.
| 他和赫敏在沉默中吃完了早饭。赫敏两眼红肿,看来一夜未睡。两人收拾行装时,赫敏磨磨蹭蹭。哈利知道她为什么希望在河边拖延时间。有几次发现她热切地抬起头,他相信她是自己欺骗自己,以为在大雨中听到了脚步声。然而,没有红头发的身影出现在树林中。每次哈利像她那样四下张望(他自己也忍不住抱着一点希望),却只看到被雨水冲刷的树林时,心中便有一小股怒火在喷发。他能听到罗恩说:“我们以为你知道自己在干什么!”于是他继续收拾行装,心窝里像堵着一个硬疙瘩。
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The muddy river beside them was rising rapidly and would soon spill over onto their bank. They had lingered a good hour after they would usually have departed their campsite. Finally having entirely repacked the beaded bag three times, Hermione seemed unable to find any more reasons to delay: She and Harry grasped hands and Disapparated, reappearing on a windswept heather-covered hillside.
| 混浊的河水迅速上涨,很快就会漫上他们这片堤岸。两人比正常应该离开营地的时间多逗留了一个小时。终于,把串珠小包打开又重装三次之后,赫敏似乎再也找不出拖延的理由了,她和哈利手拉手幻影移形,出现在一片石南丛生、狂风呼啸的山坡上。
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The instant they arrived, Hermione dropped Harry’s hand and walked away from him, finally sitting down on a large rock, her face on her knees, shaking with what he knew were sobs. He watched her, supposing that he ought to go and comfort her, but something kept him rooted to the spot. Everything inside him felt cold and tight: Again he saw the contemptuous expression on Ron’s face. Harry strode off through the heather, walking in a large circle with the distraught Hermione at its center, casting the spells she usually performed to ensure their protection.
| 一到地方,赫敏就松开哈利的手,从他身边走开,最后坐到一块大石头上,脸埋在膝头,身体发抖。哈利知道她在哭。他望着她,觉得应该去安慰她,但不知什么东西使他定在了原地。他从内到外都冷冰冰、紧绷绷的:又看到罗恩脸上轻蔑的表情。哈利在石南丛中大步走动,以情绪紊乱的赫敏为圆心绕着大圈,施着她往常为保护他们安全而施的魔咒。
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They did not discuss Ron at all over the next few days. Harry was determined never to mention his name again, and Hermione seemed to know that it was no use forcing the issue, although sometimes at night when she thought he was sleeping, he would hear her crying. Meanwhile Harry had started bringing out the Marauder’s Map and examining it by wandlight. He was waiting for the moment when Ron’s labeled dot would reappear in the corridors of Hogwarts, proving that he had returned to the comfortable castle, protected by his status of pureblood. However, Ron did not appear on the map, and after a while Harry found himself taking it out simply to stare at Ginny’s name in the girls’ dormitory, wondering whether the intensity with which he gazed at it might break into her sleep, that she would somehow know he was thinking about her, hoping that she was all right.
| 他们接下来几天都没有谈到罗恩。哈利决心不再提起他的名字,赫敏似乎知道硬要提起也没有用。但有时在夜里,当她以为他睡着了的时候,哈利能听到她在偷偷地哭泣。而哈利则开始拿出活点地图,用魔杖照着细看。他在等待标着罗恩的黑点出现在霍格沃茨走廊上,证明他回到了舒适的城堡里,受到他纯血统身份的保护。然而,罗恩没有在地图上出现。过了一段时间,哈利发现自己拿出地图只是为了盯着女生宿舍里金妮的名字,不知道自己热切的目光能不能进入她的梦境,让她感应到他在想念她,愿她一切都好。
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By day, they devoted themselves to trying to determine the possible locations of Gryffindor’s sword, but the more they talked about the places in which Dumbledore might have hidden it, the more desperate and far-fetched their speculation became. Cudgel his brains though he might, Harry could not remember Dumbledore ever mentioning a place in which he might hide something. There were moments when he did not know whether he was angrier with Ron or with Dumbledore. We thought you knew what you were doing. . . . We thought Dumbledore had told you what to do. . . . We thought you had a real plan!
| 白天,他们冥思苦想格兰芬多的宝剑有可能在哪里,讨论邓布利多会选择什么地方来藏它。可是越讨论,他们的猜测就越绝望牵强。哈利无论怎么敲脑袋,也想不起邓布利多提过藏东西的地方。有时候他不知道是罗恩还是邓布利多更让他生气。我们以为你知道自己在干什么……我们以为邓布利多告诉过你要干什么……我们以为你有一个真正的计划!
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He could not hide it from himself: Ron had been right. Dumbledore had left him with virtually nothing. They had discovered one Horcrux, but they had no means of destroying it: The others were as unattainable as they had ever been. Hopelessness threatened to engulf him. He was staggered now to think of his own presumption in accepting his friends’ offers to accompany him on this meandering, pointless journey. He knew nothing, he had no ideas, and he was constantly, painfully on the alert for any indication that Hermione too was about to tell him that she had had enough, that she was leaving.
| 他无法对自己隐瞒:罗恩是对的,邓布利多留给他的几乎是零。他们发现了一个魂器,但没有办法摧毁它,另外几个和以前一样无从寻觅。绝望似乎要将他吞没。哈利现在想想都吃惊,他竟然那么自以为是,让两个朋友来陪自己开始这场漫无目标的旅行。他什么都不知道,也没有主意,他一直痛苦地提防着任何一丝迹象,怕赫敏也会来跟他说她受够了,要走了。
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They were spending many evenings in near silence, and Hermione took to bringing out Phineas Nigellus’s portrait and propping it up in a chair, as though he might fill part of the gaping hole left by Ron’s departure. Despite his previous assertion that he would never visit them again, Phineas Nigellus did not seem able to resist the chance to find out more about what Harry was up to, and consented to reappear, blindfolded, every few days or so. Harry was even glad to see him, because he was company, albeit of a snide and taunting kind. They relished any news about what was happening at Hogwarts, though Phineas Nigellus was not an ideal informer. He venerated Snape, the first Slytherin headmaster since he himself had controlled the school, and they had to be careful not to criticize or ask impertinent questions about Snape, or Phineas Nigellus would instantly leave his painting.
| 许多个夜晚,他们几乎都是在沉默中度过的,赫敏常常把菲尼亚斯·奈杰勒斯的画像拿出来,支在椅子上,仿佛他能填补罗恩出走留下的巨大空洞似的。菲尼亚斯·奈杰勒斯尽管上次扬言绝不再来,却似乎无法抗拒这打探哈利情况的机会,所以同意每隔几天就蒙着眼睛出现一次。哈利甚至挺高兴见到他,毕竟是个伴,虽然是讥诮讽刺的那种。他们喜欢听任何发生在霍格沃茨的新闻,但菲尼亚斯·奈杰勒斯不是个好的报告员。他崇敬斯内普——那是自从他本人掌管学校之后第一位斯莱特林出身的校长。哈利他们要小心,不能批评斯内普或提出对他不敬的问题,否则菲尼亚斯·奈杰勒斯就会马上离开画面。
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However, he did let drop certain snippets. Snape seemed to be facing a constant, low level of mutiny from a hard core of students. Ginny had been banned from going into Hogsmeade. Snape had reinstated Umbridge’s old decree forbidding gatherings of three or more students or any unofficial student societies.
| 不过,他还是透露了一些片断。斯内普要对付一帮死硬派学生持续不断的低调反抗。金妮被禁止进入霍格莫德。斯内普恢复了乌姆里奇的旧规定,禁止三人以上的学生集会以及任何非正式的学生社团。
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From all of these things, Harry deduced that Ginny, and probably Neville and Luna along with her, had been doing their best to continue Dumbledore’s Army. This scant news made Harry want to see Ginny so badly it felt like a stomachache; but it also made him think of Ron again, and of Dumbledore, and of Hogwarts itself, which he missed nearly as much as his ex-girlfriend. Indeed, as Phineas Nigellus talked about Snape’s crackdown, Harry experienced a split second of madness when he imagined simply going back to school to join the destabilization of Snape’s regime: Being fed, and having a soft bed, and other people being in charge, seemed the most wonderful prospect in the world at that moment. But then he remembered that he was Undesirable Number One, that there was a ten-thousand-Galleon price on his head, and that to walk into Hogwarts these days was just as dangerous as walking into the Ministry of Magic. Indeed, Phineas Nigellus inadvertently emphasized this fact by slipping in leading questions about Harry and Hermione’s whereabouts. Hermione shoved him back inside the beaded bag every time he did this, and Phineas Nigellus invariably refused to reappear for several days after these unceremonious good-byes.
| 从这一切中,哈利推测金妮,可能还有纳威和卢娜跟她一起,在尽力维持邓布利多军。零星的消息使哈利如此渴望见到金妮,几乎想到了胃痛的程度,同时也让他想到了罗恩,想到了邓布利多,想到了霍格沃茨,他对学校的思念几乎和对女友的一样强烈。真的,当菲尼亚斯·奈杰勒斯讲述斯内普的镇压措施时,哈利有过一刹那的疯狂,他想象着干脆回学校去参加给斯内普捣乱的行动:有饱饭吃,有软和的床铺睡,有别人的负责,似乎是世界上最美妙的生活。但他随即想起自己是头号不良分子,被悬赏一万金加隆通缉,如今走进霍格沃茨就像走进魔法部一样危险。菲尼亚斯·奈杰勒斯无意间强调了这一事实,他常用诱导性的问题探听哈利和赫敏在什么地方。每当这种时候,赫敏便把他塞回串珠小包。在这样粗暴的送行之后,菲尼亚斯·奈杰勒斯总是几天都不肯露面。
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The weather grew colder and colder. They did not dare remain in any one area too long, so rather than staying in the south of England, where a hard ground frost was the worst of their worries, they continued to meander up and down the country, braving a mountainside, where sleet pounded the tent; a wide, flat marsh, where the tent was flooded with chill water; and a tiny island in the middle of a Scottish loch, where snow half buried the tent in the night.
| 天气越来越冷。因为不敢在一个地区待得太久,他们没有留在英国南部(那儿最坏也就是地面结霜而已),而是继续在国内四处迁徙。半山腰,冻雨敲打着帐篷;沼泽地,冷水灌进帐篷;苏格兰的湖心小岛,夜间积雪埋住了半个帐篷。
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They had already spotted Christmas trees twinkling from several sitting room windows before there came an evening when Harry resolved to suggest, again, what seemed to him the only unexplored avenue left to them. They had just eaten an unusually good meal: Hermione had been to a supermarket under the Invisibility Cloak (scrupulously dropping the money into an open till as she left), and Harry thought that she might be more persuadable than usual on a stomach full of spaghetti Bolognese and tinned pears. He had also had the foresight to suggest that they take a few hours’ break from wearing the Horcrux, which was hanging over the end of the bunk beside him.
| 他们已经从几家客厅窗口看到圣诞树在闪耀,一天晚上,哈利终于决心再次提起在他看来是剩下的惟一一条路。刚吃完一顿难得的美餐(赫敏穿着隐形衣去了超市,还细心地往收银台抽屉里丢了些钱),肚子里填满了意大利细面条和梨罐头,哈利想她这时也许会比平时更容易说动一些。而且他已周密地预先提议歇几个小时不戴魂器,它现在正挂在他身边的床头。
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“Hermione?”
| “赫敏?”
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“Hmm?” She was curled up in one of the sagging armchairs with The Tales of Beedle the Bard. He could not imagine how much more she could get out of the book, which was not, after all, very long; but evidently she was still deciphering something in it, because Spellman’s Syllabary lay open on the arm of the chair.
| “嗯?”她正蜷在一把凹陷的扶手椅里,读着《诗翁彼豆故事集》。哈利想象不出她还能从那本书里读出什么新鲜东西,它毕竟不是很厚。但她显然还在破译着什么,因为《魔法字音表》摊在椅子扶手上。
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Harry cleared his throat. He felt exactly as he had done on the occasion, several years previously, when he had asked Professor McGonagall whether he could go into Hogsmeade, despite the fact that he had not persuaded the Dursleys to sign his permission slip.
| 哈利清了清嗓子,感觉就好像几年前,他没能得到德思礼夫妇签字允许,却要问麦格教授他能不能去霍格莫德一样。
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“Hermione, I’ve been thinking, and —”
| “赫敏,我一直在想——”
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“Harry, could you help me with something?”
| “哈利,你能帮我个忙吗?”
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Apparently she had not been listening to him. She leaned forward and held out The Tales of Beedle the Bard.
| 显然她没听他说话。她身体前倾,举着那本《诗翁彼豆故事集》。
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“Look at that symbol,” she said, pointing to the top of a page. Above what Harry assumed was the title of the story (being unable to read runes, he could not be sure), there was a picture of what looked like a triangular eye, its pupil crossed with a vertical line.
| “看那个符号。”她指着一页的顶端。在估计是故事标题的文字上面(哈利看不懂如尼文,所以不能确定),有一个图形,看上去像只三角眼,瞳孔中间有一道竖线。
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“I never took Ancient Runes, Hermione.”
| “我没上过古代如尼文课,赫敏。”
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“I know that, but it isn’t a rune and it’s not in the syllabary, either. All along I thought it was a picture of an eye, but I don’t think it is! It’s been inked in, look, somebody’s drawn it there, it isn’t really part of the book. Think, have you ever seen it before?”
| “我知道,可那不是如尼文,字音表里也没有。我一直以为是一只眼睛的图案,但现在觉得不是!它是墨水做的记号,看,是有人画上去的,不是书里的内容,想想,你有没有见过它?”
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“No . . . No, wait a moment.” Harry looked closer. “Isn’t it the same symbol Luna’s dad was wearing round his neck?”
| “没有……不,等等。”哈利又仔细看了看,“这不是和卢娜爸爸脖子上戴的一样吗?”
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“Well, that’s what I thought too!”
| “嗯,我也是这么想的!”
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“Then it’s Grindelwald’s mark.”
| “那就是格林德沃的标志。”
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She stared at him, openmouthed.
| 她瞪着他,张大了嘴巴。
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“What?”
| “什么?”
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“Krum told me . . .”
| “克鲁姆告诉我……”
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He recounted the story that Viktor Krum had told him at the wedding. Hermione looked astonished.
| 他复述了威克多尔·克鲁姆在婚礼上跟他讲的故事。赫敏显得很吃惊。
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“Grindelwald’s mark?”
| “格林德沃的标志?”她来回地看着哈利和那个奇怪的符号。“我从没听说过格林德沃有个标志。我读过有关资料中都没有提到它。”
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She looked from Harry to the weird symbol and back again. “I’ve never heard that Grindelwald had a mark. There’s no mention of it in anything I’ve ever read about him.”
| “我说了,克鲁姆认为那个符号刻在德姆斯特朗的墙上,是格林德沃刻上去的。”
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“Well, like I say, Krum reckoned that symbol was carved on a wall at Durmstrang, and Grindelwald put it there.”
| 她靠到旧扶手椅上,皱起眉头。
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She fell back into the old armchair, frowning.
| “那非常蹊跷。如果它是黑魔法符号,又怎么会在一本儿童故事书里呢?”
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“That’s very odd. If it’s a symbol of Dark Magic, what’s it doing in a book of children’s stories?”
| “是啊,挺怪的。”哈利说道,“而且按理斯克林杰会认出它啊。他身为部长,应该是识别黑魔法的专家。”
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“Yeah, it is weird,” said Harry. “And you’d think Scrimgeour would have recognized it. He was Minister, he ought to have been expert on Dark stuff.”
| “我知道……也许他以为那是一只眼睛,就像我刚才那样。其他故事的标题上面都有小图案。”
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“I know. . . . Perhaps he thought it was an eye, just like I did. All the other stories have little pictures over the titles.”
| 她不再说话,继续研究那个奇怪的标志,哈利又试了一次。
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She did not speak, but continued to pore over the strange mark. Harry tried again.
| “赫敏?”
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“Hermione?”
| “唔?”
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“Hmm?”
| “我一直在想。我——我想去戈德里克山谷。”
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“I’ve been thinking. I — I want to go to Godric’s Hollow.”
| 她抬头望着他,但眼睛没有聚集,哈利断定她还在想书上那个神秘标志。
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She looked up at him, but her eyes were unfocused, and he was sure she was still thinking about the mysterious mark on the book.
| “是啊,”她说,“是啊,我也在考虑这个事。我真的认为我们应该去。”
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“Yes,” she said. “Yes, I’ve been wondering that too. I really think we’ll have to.”
| “你听清我的话了吗?”他问。
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“Did you hear me right?” he asked.
| “当然。你想去戈德里克山谷。我同意。我认为我们应该去。我是说——我想不出还有什么地方能找到它。去的话会很危险,但我越想越觉得它很可能在那儿。”
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“Of course I did. You want to go to Godric’s Hollow. I agree, I think we should. I mean, I can’t think of anywhere else it could be either. It’ll be dangerous, but the more I think about it, the more likely it seems it’s there.”
| “呃——什么可能在那儿?”哈利问。
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“Er — what’s there?” asked Harry.
| 这一下,她看上去像他刚才一样困惑。
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At that, she looked just as bewildered as he felt.
| “那把剑啊,哈利!邓布利多一定知道你会想回那儿看看,何况,戈德里克山谷是戈德里克·格兰芬多的出生地——”
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“Well, the sword, Harry! Dumbledore must have known you’d want to go back there, and I mean, Godric’s Hollow is Godric Gryffindor’s birthplace —”
| “是吗?格兰芬多出生在戈德里克山谷?”
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“Really? Gryffindor came from Godric’s Hollow?”
| “哈利,你到底有没有翻开过《魔法史》啊?”
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“Harry, did you ever even open A History of Magic?”
| “嗯,”哈利笑了,好像是几个月来第一次微笑,面部肌肉发僵,感觉怪怪的,“我也许翻开过,刚买的时候……就那一次……”
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“Erm,” he said, smiling for what felt like the first time in months: The muscles in his face felt oddly stiff. “I might’ve opened it, you know, when I bought it . . . just the once. . . .”
| “可那个村子是以他的名字命名的,我以为你也许能联系起来。”赫敏说,听上去大大接近于她往日的风格,哈利几乎等着她宣布要去图书馆了,“《魔法史》中提到过一点那个村子,等等……”
|
“Well, as the village is named after him I’d have thought you might have made the connection,” said Hermione. She sounded much more like her old self than she had done of late; Harry half expected her to announce that she was off to the library. “There’s a bit about the village in A History of Magic, wait . . .”
| 她打开串珠小包,摸了一会儿,终于抽出好的旧课本——巴希达·巴沙特的《魔法史》,翻到了她想找的那一页。
|
She opened the beaded bag and rummaged for a while, finally extracting her copy of their old school textbook, A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot, which she thumbed through until finding the page she wanted.
| 《国际保密法》一六八九年签署生效之后,巫师们彻底转入隐蔽。也许是自然而然地,他们在社区内部形成了自己的小社区。许多小村庄都吸引了几户巫师家庭,这几家便团结起来,互相帮助,互相保护。康沃尔郡的丁沃斯、约克郡的上弗莱格利、英格兰南海岸的奥特里-圣卡奇波尔,都有巫师家庭聚居,在宽容的、有时是被施了混淆咒的麻瓜中间生活。在此类半巫师聚居地中,最著名的也许是戈德里克山谷。这个西南部的村庄是伟大的巫师戈德里克·格兰芬多的出生地,也是巫师金匠鲍曼·赖特打造第一个金飞贼的地方。墓地上刻满古老巫师家族的姓氏,这无疑也是小教堂许多世纪以来鬼故事不断的原因。
|
“ ‘Upon the signature of the International Statute of Secrecy in 1689, wizards went into hiding for good. It was natural, perhaps, that they formed their own small communities within a community. Many small villages and hamlets attracted several magical families, who banded together for mutual support and protection. The villages of Tinworth in Cornwall, Upper Flagley in Yorkshire, and Ottery St. Catchpole on the south coast of England were notable homes to knots of Wizarding families who lived alongside tolerant and sometimes Confunded Muggles. Most celebrated of these half-magical dwelling places is, perhaps, Godric’s Hollow, the West Country village where the great wizard Godric Gryffindor was born, and where Bowman Wright, Wizarding smith, forged the first Golden Snitch. The graveyard is full of the names of ancient magical families, and this accounts, no doubt, for the stories of hauntings that have dogged the little church beside it for many centuries.’
| “没有提到你和你父母,”赫敏合上书说道,“因为巴沙特教授只写到十九世纪末。可是你看到没有?戈德里克山谷、戈德里克·格兰芬多、格兰芬多的宝剑,你不认为邓布利多会希望你这样联想吗?”
|
“You and your parents aren’t mentioned,” Hermione said, closing the book, “because Professor Bagshot doesn’t cover anything later than the end of the nineteenth century. But you see? Godric’s Hollow, Godric Gryffindor, Gryffindor’s sword; don’t you think Dumbledore would have expected you to make the connection?”
| “哦,是啊……”
|
“Oh yeah . . .”
| 哈利不想承认他在提议去戈德里克山谷时其实并没想到宝剑,对他来说,那个村子的吸引力在于他父母的坟墓、他大难不死的房子,还有巴希达·巴沙特这个人。
|
Harry did not want to admit that he had not been thinking about the sword at all when he suggested they go to Godric’s Hollow. For him, the lure of the village lay in his parents’ graves, the house where he had narrowly escaped death, and in the person of Bathilda Bagshot.
| “记得穆丽尔的话吗?”他最后问道。
|
“Remember what Muriel said?” he asked eventually.
| “谁?”
|
“Who?”
| “你知道……”他犹豫了一下,不想说罗恩的名字,“金妮的姨婆,在婚礼上,就是说你踝骨太突出的那个。”
|
“You know,” he hesitated: He did not want to say Ron’s name. “Ginny’s great-aunt. At the wedding. The one who said you had skinny ankles.”
| “哦。”赫敏说。
|
“Oh,” said Hermione. It was a sticky moment: Harry knew that she had sensed Ron’s name in the offing. He rushed on:
| 这是一个尴尬的时刻,哈利知道她感觉到了罗恩的名字差点出现。他急忙说下去:“她说巴希达·巴沙特还住在戈德里克山谷。”
|
“She said Bathilda Bagshot still lives in Godric’s Hollow.”
| “巴希达·巴沙特,”赫敏喃喃地说道,食指轻轻抚摸着《魔法史》封面上凸印的作者名字,“嗯,我想——”
|
“Bathilda Bagshot,” murmured Hermione, running her index finger over Bathilda’s embossed name on the front cover of A History of Magic. “Well, I suppose —”
| 她猛地倒吸一口冷气,哈利心里翻腾起来。他拔出魔杖,回过头朝帐篷口看去,以为会看到一只手正从门帘上伸进来,然而什么也没有。
|
She gasped so dramatically that Harry’s insides turned over; he drew his wand, looking around at the entrance, half expecting to see a hand forcing its way through the entrance flap, but there was nothing there.
| “什么呀?”他说,既恼火,又松了口气,“你干吗那样?我还以为你看到食死徒在拉帐篷门呢,至少——”
|
“What?” he said, half angry, half relieved. “What did you do that for? I thought you’d seen a Death Eater unzipping the tent, at least —”
| “哈利,要是巴希达有那把剑呢?要是邓布利多把它托付给她了呢?”
|
“Harry, what if Bathilda’s got the sword? What if Dumbledore entrusted it to her?”
| 哈利考虑了一下这种可能性。巴希达现在应该是年岁很老的老太太了,而且据穆丽尔说,她还老“糊涂了”。邓布利多会不会把格兰芬多的宝剑藏在她那儿呢?如果真是那样,哈利觉得未免太冒险了。邓布利多从未透露过他把宝剑掉了包,甚至都没有提过跟巴希达的交情。但现在不是怀疑赫敏推理的时候,她正出乎意料地赞同哈利最热切的愿望。
|
Harry considered this possibility. Bathilda would be an extremely old woman by now, and according to Muriel, she was “gaga.” Was it likely that Dumbledore would have hidden the sword of Gryffindor with her? If so, Harry felt that Dumbledore had left a great deal to chance: Dumbledore had never revealed that he had replaced the sword with a fake, nor had he so much as mentioned a friendship with Bathilda. Now, however, was not the moment to cast doubt on Hermione’s theory, not when she was so surprisingly willing to fall in with Harry’s dearest wish.
| “是啊,有可能!那,我们去戈德里克山谷吗?”
|
“Yeah, he might have done! So, are we going to go to Godric’s Hollow?”
| “去,但必须考虑周密,哈利。”她现在坐正了,哈利看得出,又能够有一个计划,使她的心情像他的一样振奋了许多。“首先,我们得披着隐形衣一起幻影移形,幻身咒可能也用得上,要么你主张一路都用复方汤剂?那样就得搞到别人的头发。哎,我觉得我们最好去搞点,哈利,伪装越多越好……”
|
“Yes, but we’ll have to think it through carefully, Harry.” She was sitting up now, and Harry could tell that the prospect of having a plan again had lifted her mood as much as his. “We’ll need to practice Disapparating together under the Invisibility Cloak for a start, and perhaps Disillusionment Charms would be sensible too, unless you think we should go the whole hog and use Polyjuice Potion? In that case we’ll need to collect hair from somebody. I actually think we’d better do that, Harry, the thicker our disguises the better. . . .”
| 哈利任她说下去,每当她停顿时便点头附和,但他的心思已经离开谈话,因为从发现古灵阁那把剑是赝品之后,他第一次兴奋起来。
|
Harry let her talk, nodding and agreeing whenever there was a pause, but his mind had left the conversation. For the first time since he had discovered that the sword in Gringotts was a fake, he felt excited.
| 他要回家了,要回到他有过一个家的地方。如果没有伏地魔的话,他会在戈德里克山谷长大,度过每个假期。他会邀请朋友到家里来玩……甚至可能有弟弟妹妹……给他做十七岁生日蛋糕的就会是他的妈妈。因为想到即将去访问这一切都被夺走的地方,他所失去的生活从未像此刻这样真切。那天夜里赫敏上床睡觉之后,哈利悄悄从串珠小包里取出他的背包,翻出海格很久以前送给他的那本相册。几个月来,他第一次端详着父母的旧照片,他们在向他微笑招手,他就只剩下这么一点纪念了。
|
He was about to go home, about to return to the place where he had had a family. It was in Godric’s Hollow that, but for Voldemort, he would have grown up and spent every school holiday. He could have invited friends to his house. . . . He might even have had brothers and sisters. . . . It would have been his mother who had made his seventeenth birthday cake. The life he had lost had hardly ever seemed so real to him as at this moment, when he knew he was about to see the place where it had been taken from him. After Hermione had gone to bed that night, Harry quietly extracted his rucksack from Hermione’s beaded bag, and from inside it, the photograph album Hagrid had given him so long ago. For the first time in months, he perused the old pictures of his parents, smiling and waving up at him from the images, which were all he had left of them now.
| 哈利很想第二天就去戈德里克山谷,但是赫敏另有主张。她相信伏地魔料到哈利会去父母逝世的地方凭吊,因此她坚持要确保伪装最充分之后才能出发。所以,整整过了一个星期——他们从圣诞节前购物的麻瓜身上偷到了头发,又一起在隐形衣下反复练习了幻影显形和移形——赫敏才同意启程。
|
Harry would gladly have set out for Godric’s Hollow the following day, but Hermione had other ideas. Convinced as she was that Voldemort would expect Harry to return to the scene of his parents’ deaths, she was determined that they would set off only after they had ensured that they had the best disguises possible. It was therefore a full week later — once they had surreptitiously obtained hairs from innocent Muggles who were Christmas shopping, and had practiced Apparating and Disapparating while underneath the Invisibility Cloak together — that Hermione agreed to make the journey.
| 他们要在黑暗的掩护下幻影显形到那个村子,所以黄昏时两人才喝下复方汤剂,哈利变成一位秃顶的中年麻瓜,赫敏变成了他那瘦瘦小小,有点像老鼠的妻子。她穿了件扣得严严实实的外衣,装着他们全部家当(除了哈利戴在脖子上的魂器)的串珠小包塞在外衣里面的口袋里。哈利把隐形衣披到两人身上,然后便一起旋转着进入了令人窒息的黑暗。
|
They were to Apparate to the village under cover of darkness, so it was late afternoon when they finally swallowed Polyjuice Potion, Harry transforming into a balding, middle-aged Muggle man, Hermione into his small and rather mousy wife. The beaded bag containing all of their possessions (apart from the Horcrux, which Harry was wearing around his neck) was tucked into an inside pocket of Hermione’s buttoned-up coat. Harry lowered the Invisibility Cloak over them, then they turned into the suffocating darkness once again.
| 心跳到了喉咙口,哈利睁开双眼。他俩手拉手站在一条积雪的小巷中,头上是深蓝色的苍穹,第一批星星已经在闪着微光。一些房子立在窄巷两旁,窗户里的圣诞装饰闪闪发亮。前方不远处,金色的街灯显示出那里是村子的中心。
|
Heart beating in his throat, Harry opened his eyes. They were standing hand in hand in a snowy lane under a dark blue sky, in which the night’s first stars were already glimmering feebly. Cottages stood on either side of the narrow road, Christmas decorations twinkling in their windows. A short way ahead of them, a glow of golden streetlights indicated the center of the village.
| “这么多雪!”赫敏在隐形衣下悄声说道,“我们怎么没想到雪呢?千算万算,还是会留下脚印!必须把它们销掉——你走前面,我来——”
|
“All this snow!” Hermione whispered beneath the cloak. “Why didn’t we think of snow? After all our precautions, we’ll leave prints! We’ll just have to get rid of them — you go in front, I’ll do it —”
| 哈利不愿意像哑剧中双人扮的假马那样进村,身上蒙着东西,边走边用魔法掩去足迹。
|
Harry did not want to enter the village like a pantomime horse, trying to keep themselves concealed while magically covering their traces.
| “脱掉隐形衣吧,”哈利说,看到赫敏显出害怕的样子,“哦,没事的,我们变了形,周围又没人。”
|
“Let’s take off the Cloak,” said Harry, and when she looked frightened, “Oh, come on, we don’t look like us and there’s no one around.”
| 他把隐形衣塞进外衣里面,两人没有羁绊地朝前走去。冰冷的空气像针扎在面颊上,沿途经过更多的房子:任何一座都可能是詹姆和莉莉曾经住过的,或是巴希达现在住着的。哈利望着那些积雪的前门、屋顶和门廊,自问是否还能记起一二,虽然内心深处知道这是不可能的,自己才一岁多一点。他甚至不知道还能不能看到那所房子,不知道被施了赤胆忠心咒的人死掉后会发生什么情况。小巷向左一拐,村子的中心——一个小广场呈现在他们眼前。
|
He stowed the Cloak under his jacket and they made their way forward unhampered, the icy air stinging their faces as they passed more cottages: Any one of them might have been the one in which James and Lily had once lived or where Bathilda lived now. Harry gazed at the front doors, their snow-burdened roofs, and their front porches, wondering whether he remembered any of them, knowing deep inside that it was impossible, that he had been little more than a year old when he had left this place forever. He was not even sure whether he would be able to see the cottage at all; he did not know what happened when the subjects of a Fidelius Charm died. Then the little lane along which they were walking curved to the left and the heart of the village, a small square, was revealed to them.
| 广场中央有一个战争纪念碑状的建筑,半掩在风中的圣诞树后面,周围张挂着彩灯。这里有几家店铺、一个邮局、一家酒吧,还有一个小教堂,彩绘玻璃的广场对面放射着珠宝般的光辉。
|
Strung all around with colored lights, there was what looked like a war memorial in the middle, partly obscured by a windblown Christmas tree. There were several shops, a post office, a pub, and a little church whose stained-glass windows were glowing jewel-bright across the square.
| 这里的雪都压实了:被人们踩了一天的地方硬邦邦、滑溜溜的。村民们在他们面前交叉往来,被街灯短暂地照亮。酒吧门开关时传出片断的笑声和流行音乐声,又听见小教堂里唱起了颂歌。
|
The snow here had become impacted: It was hard and slippery where people had trodden on it all day. Villagers were crisscrossing in front of them, their figures briefly illuminated by streetlamps. They heard a snatch of laughter and pop music as the pub door opened and closed; then they heard a carol start up inside the little church.
| “哈利,我想今天是圣诞前夜!”赫敏说。
|
“Harry, I think it’s Christmas Eve!” said Hermione.
| “是吗?”
|
“Is it?”
| 他已经忘记了日期,两人都好几个星期没看报纸了。
|
He had lost track of the date; they had not seen a newspaper for weeks.
| “我可以肯定。”赫敏说,眼睛望着教堂,“他们……他们会在那儿,是不是?你爸爸妈妈?我能看到那后面的墓地。”
|
“I’m sure it is,” said Hermione, her eyes upon the church. “They . . . they’ll be in there, won’t they? Your mum and dad? I can see the graveyard behind it.”
| 哈利感到一阵颤栗,那不止是激动,而更像是恐惧。现在距离这么近,他倒不知道自己究竟想不想看了。也许赫敏了解他的感受,她拉起他的手,第一次领起路来,拉着他往前走。但走到广场中间时,她突然停住了。
|
Harry felt a thrill of something that was beyond excitement, more like fear. Now that he was so near, he wondered whether he wanted to see after all. Perhaps Hermione knew how he was feeling, because she reached for his hand and took the lead for the first time, pulling him forward. Halfway across the square, however, she stopped dead.
| “哈利,看!”
|
“Harry, look!”
| 她指着那块纪念碑。在他们走过时,它起了变化,不再是一块刻满名字的方尖石碑,而是变成了三个人的雕像:一个头发蓬乱、戴着眼镜的男人,一个长头发、容貌美丽善良的女人,还有一个坐在妈妈怀中的男婴。雪花落在他们三个的头顶,像松软的白绒帽。
|
She was pointing at the war memorial. As they had passed it, it had transformed. Instead of an obelisk covered in names, there was a statue of three people: a man with untidy hair and glasses, a woman with long hair and a kind, pretty face, and a baby boy sitting in his mother’s arms. Snow lay upon all their heads, like fluffy white caps.
| 哈利走到近前,凝望着他父母的面庞。他从没想过会有一座雕塑……多么奇怪,看到石刻的自己,一个快乐的婴儿,头上没有伤疤……
|
Harry drew closer, gazing up into his parents’ faces. He had never imagined that there would be a statue. . . . How strange it was to see himself represented in stone, a happy baby without a scar on his forehead. . . .
| “走吧。”瞻仰够了之后,哈利说道。两人继续朝教堂走去,过街时他回头看了看,雕像又变成了战争纪念碑。
|
“C’mon,” said Harry, when he had looked his fill, and they turned again toward the church. As they crossed the road, he glanced over his shoulder; the statue had turned back into the war memorial.
| 走近教堂,歌声越来越响,哈利嗓子发紧,他如此强烈地想起了霍格沃茨,想到了皮皮鬼从盔甲里胡乱吼唱圣诞颂歌,想到了大礼堂里的十二棵圣诞树,想到了邓布利多戴着拉彩包爆竹赢到的女帽,想到了罗恩穿着手编毛衣……
|
The singing grew louder as they approached the church. It made Harry’s throat constrict, it reminded him so forcefully of Hogwarts, of Peeves bellowing rude versions of carols from inside suits of armor, of the Great Hall’s twelve Christmas trees, of Dumbledore wearing a bonnet he had won in a cracker, of Ron in a hand-knitted sweater. . . .
| 墓地入口有一扇窄门。赫敏尽可能轻地推开它,两人钻了进去。通向教堂门口的小径滑溜溜的,两边积雪很深,未经踩踏。他们从雪地上穿过去,小心地贴着明亮窗户下的阴影绕向屋后,身后留下深深的沟印。
|
There was a kissing gate at the entrance to the graveyard. Hermione pushed it open as quietly as possible and they edged through it. On either side of the slippery path to the church doors, the snow lay deep and untouched. They moved off through the snow, carving deep trenches behind them as they walked around the building, keeping to the shadows beneath the brilliant windows.
| 教堂后面,一排排积雪的墓碑伫立在淡蓝色的银毯上,耀眼的红色、金色和绿色光斑点缀其间,是彩绘玻璃在雪地上的投影。哈利手在衣袋里握紧魔杖,朝最近的墓碑走去。
|
Behind the church, row upon row of snowy tombstones protruded from a blanket of pale blue that was flecked with dazzling red, gold, and green wherever the reflections from the stained glass hit the snow. Keeping his hand closed tightly on the wand in his jacket pocket, Harry moved toward the nearest grave.
| “看这个,姓艾博,说不定是汉娜失散的亲戚!”
|
“Look at this, it’s an Abbott, could be some long-lost relation of Hannah’s!”
| “小点声。”赫敏恳求道。
|
“Keep your voice down,” Hermione begged him.
| 两人踏着雪往墓地深处走去,雪地上留下深深的黑色踪迹。他们弯腰细看古老墓碑上的铭文,时而向周围黑暗中张望,确定没有旁人。
|
They waded deeper and deeper into the graveyard, gouging dark tracks into the snow behind them, stooping to peer at the words on old headstones, every now and then squinting into the surrounding darkness to make absolutely sure that they were unaccompanied.
| “哈利,这儿!”
|
“Harry, here!”
| 赫敏在两排墓碑以外,他只好费力地返回去,心脏怦怦地撞击着胸口。
|
Hermione was two rows of tombstones away; he had to wade back to her, his heart positively banging in his chest.
| “是不是——”
|
“Is it — ?”
| “不是,但你看!”
|
“No, but look!”
| 她指着黑乎乎的碑石,哈利弯下腰,看到在结冰的、青苔斑驳的花岗石上,刻着坎德拉·邓布利多,生卒日期底下是及女儿阿利安娜。还有一句格言:
|
She pointed to the dark stone. Harry stooped down and saw, upon the frozen, lichen-spotted granite, the words Kendra Dumbledore and, a short way below her dates of birth and death, and Her Daughter Ariana. There was also a quotation:
| 珍宝在何处,心也在何处
|
Where your treasure is, there willyour heart be al
| 那么,丽塔·斯基特和穆丽尔说对了几分事实。邓布利多一家确实在这儿住过,还有人在这儿去世。
|
so.
| 看到这座坟墓比听说时还要难过,哈利不禁心潮起伏,他和邓布利多都有深深的根埋在这片墓地中。邓布利多本该告诉他这一点,但他从来没想点破这层关系。他们本可以一起访问这个地方,一瞬间哈利想象着跟邓布利多同来这里,那将是怎样的一种交情,那将对他有多么大的意义。然而对于邓布利多而言,他们的亲人躺在同一块墓地上,似乎只是个不重要的巧合,或许与他要哈利做的事情毫不相干。
|
So Rita Skeeter and Muriel had got some of their facts right. The Dumbledore family had indeed lived here, and part of it had died here.
| 赫敏在望着他,哈利庆幸自己的脸在暗处。他又读了读墓碑上的字。珍宝在何处,心也在何处。但他不明白这话的意思。这一定是邓布利多选的碑文,母亲去世后他就成了一家之主。
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Seeing the grave was worse than hearing about it. Harry could not help thinking that he and Dumbledore both had deep roots in this graveyard, and that Dumbledore ought to have told him so, yet he had never thought to share the connection. They could have visited the place together; for a moment Harry imagined coming here with Dumbledore, of what a bond that would have been, of how much it would have meant to him. But it seemed that to Dumbledore, the fact that their families lay side by side in the same graveyard had been an unimportant coincidence, irrelevant, perhaps, to the job he wanted Harry to do.
| “你确定他从没提过——?”赫敏问。
|
Hermione was looking at Harry, and he was glad that his face was hidden in shadow. He read the words on the tombstone again. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. He did not understand what these words meant. Surely Dumbledore had chosen them, as the eldest member of the family once his mother had died.
| “没有,”哈利简短地说,“接着找吧。”他转身走开,希望自己没有看到那块石碑。他不想让自己激动的颤栗被怨恨沾染。
|
“Are you sure he never mentioned — ?” Hermione began.
| “这儿!”过了一会儿赫敏又在黑暗中叫起来,“哦,不是,对不起!我还以为是波特呢。”
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“No,” said Harry curtly, then, “let’s keep looking,” and he turned away, wishing he had not seen the stone: He did not want his excited trepidation tainted with resentment.
| 她擦着一块残破的、长满青苔的石碑,低头辨认,微皱着眉头。
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“Here!” cried Hermione again a few moments later from out of the darkness. “Oh no, sorry! I thought it said Potter.”
| “哈利,回来一下。”
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She was rubbing at a crumbling, mossy stone, gazing down at it, a little frown on her face.
| 他不想再被打岔,老大不情愿地踏着雪向她走去。
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“Harry, come back a moment.”
| “什么呀?”
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He did not want to be sidetracked again, and only grudgingly made his way back through the snow toward her.
| “看这个!”
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“What?”
| 这块墓碑极其古老,已经风化,哈利几乎看不清上面的名字。赫敏指着名字下面的符号。
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“Look at this!”
| “哈利,这是书里的那个标志!”
|
The grave was extremely old, weathered so that Harry could hardly make out the name. Hermione showed him the symbol beneath it.
| 他仔细看去,石碑风化得太厉害,看不清刻着什么,但那几乎无法辨认的名字下面,好像是有一个三角形的记号。
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“Harry, that’s the mark in the book!”
| “嗯……有可能……”
|
He peered at the place she indicated: The stone was so worn that it was hard to make out what was engraved there, though there did seem to be a triangular mark beneath the nearly illegible name.
| 赫敏点亮魔杖,指着墓碑上的名字。
|
“Yeah . . . it could be. . . .”
| “伊格——伊格诺图斯,我猜……”
|
Hermione lit her wand and pointed it at the name on the headstone.
| “我接着去找我父母,好吗?”哈利对她说,声音有一点尖锐,然后便走开了,留下她蹲在古老的墓碑旁。
|
“It says Ig — Ignotus, I think. . . .”
| 他时不时地认出一个像艾博那样,在霍格沃茨见到过的姓氏。有时同一巫师家族的几代人都列在这块墓碑上。哈利从年代上看出,这些家庭有的死绝了,有的后代离开了戈德里克山谷。他在墓地中越走越远,每次走近一块墓碑,他便感到一阵既害怕又期待的激动。
|
“I’m going to keep looking for my parents, all right?” Harry told her, a slight edge to his voice, and he set off again, leaving her crouched beside the old grave.
| 黑暗和寂静似乎突然加深了许多。哈利担心地环顾四周,想到了摄魂怪,然后意识到颂歌结束了,杂乱的人声在渐渐远去,做礼拜的人们散入广场中。教堂里有人刚把灯熄灭。
|
Every now and then he recognized a surname that, like Abbott, he had met at Hogwarts. Sometimes there were several generations of the same Wizarding family represented in the graveyard: Harry could tell from the dates that it had either died out, or the current members had moved away from Godric’s Hollow. Deeper and deeper amongst the graves he went, and every time he reached a new headstone he felt a little lurch of apprehension and anticipation.
| 赫敏的声音第三次从黑暗中传来,尖锐清晰,在几米之外。
|
The darkness and the silence seemed to become, all of a sudden, much deeper. Harry looked around, worried, thinking of dementors, then realized that the carols had finished, that the chatter and flurry of churchgoers were fading away as they made their way back into the square. Somebody inside the church had just turned off the lights.
| “哈利,在这儿……这边。”
|
Then Hermione’s voice came out of the blackness for the third time, sharp and clear from a few yards away.
| 哈利从她的语调中听出,这次是他父母的了。他朝她走去,感觉有个东西沉甸甸地压在胸口,就像邓布利多死后他感到的那样,一种真正压迫心肺的悲痛。
|
“Harry, they’re here . . . right here.”
| 墓碑与坎德拉和阿利安娜的只隔了两排,像邓布利多的坟墓一样,是白色大理石的,文字比较容易辩读,因为它似乎在黑暗中闪闪发亮。哈利不用跪下,甚至不用走得很近,就能看清上面的铭文。
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And he knew by her tone that it was his mother and father this time: He moved toward her, feeling as if something heavy were pressing on his chest, the same sensation he had had right after Dumbledore had died, a grief that had actually weighed on his heart and lungs.
| 詹姆·波特 莉莉·波特生于1960年3月27日 生于1960年1月30日卒于1981年10月31日 卒于1981年10月31日最后一个要消灭的敌人是死亡
|
The headstone was only two rows behind Kendra and Ariana’s. It was made of white marble, just like Dumbledore’s tomb, and this made it easy to read, as it seemed to shine in the dark. Harry did not need to kneel or even approach very close to it to make out the words engraved upon it.
| 哈利慢慢地读着这些文字,仿佛只有一次机会读懂它们的含义。他把最后一行念了出来。
|
g^jbp=mlqqbo= ifiv=mlqqbo=
| “‘最后一个要消灭的敌人是死亡’……”一个可怕的念头突然涌入了他脑海,伴随着一阵恐慌,“这不是食死徒的想法吗?它怎么会在这儿?”
|
_lok=OT=j^o`e=NVSM= _lok=PM=g^kr^ov=NVSM=
| “它指的不是食死徒那种打败死亡的方式,哈利,”赫敏声音温柔地说道,“它指的是……你知道……生命超越死亡,虽死犹生。”
|
afba=PN=l`ql_bo=NVUN= afba=PN=l`ql_bo=NVUN=
| 可他们没有生命,哈利想:他们不在了。空洞的文字掩饰不了这个现实,他父母腐烂的尸骸躺在冰雪和石头下面,冷冰冰的,没有知觉。泪水一下子涌了出来,滚烫滚烫,顷刻间冻在脸上,擦拭和掩饰又有什么意义?他任凭泪水纵横,紧闭双唇,低头看着厚厚的积雪,那下面掩盖着莉莉和詹姆的遗体,现在想必只剩下骨头与泥土,不知道、也不关心他们留在世上的儿子站在这么近的地方。他的心脏仍在有力地跳动,是他们的牺牲换来的,但他此刻几乎希望自己和他们一起长眠在白雪下面。
|
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
| 赫敏又拉住了他的手,紧紧地握着。他不能看她,但用力回握着,深深地大口吸进夜晚的凉气,努力使自己平静下来。他应该带点什么给他们的,来时没有想到,墓地上的植物都光秃秃的,结了冰。赫敏举起魔杖,在空中画了一个圈,一个圣诞玫瑰花环盛开在他们面前。哈利接住它,摆在父母的坟上。
|
Harry read the words slowly, as though he would have only one chance to take in their meaning, and he read the last of them aloud.
| 一站起来,他就想走,觉得再多待一会儿都受不了。他把胳膊搭在赫敏的肩上,她搂着他的腰,两人默默地转身穿过雪地,经过邓布利多的母亲和妹妹的墓地,朝黑暗的教堂和视线之外的窄门走去。
|
“ ‘The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death’. . .” A horrible thought came to him, and with it a kind of panic. “Isn’t that a Death Eater idea? Why is that there?”
|
|
“It doesn’t mean defeating death in the way the Death Eaters mean it, Harry,” said Hermione, her voice gentle. “It means . . . you know . . . living beyond death. Living after death.”
| |
But they were not living, thought Harry: They were gone. The empty words could not disguise the fact that his parents’ moldering remains lay beneath snow and stone, indifferent, unknowing. And tears came before he could stop them, boiling hot then instantly freezing on his face, and what was the point in wiping them off or pretending? He let them fall, his lips pressed hard together, looking down at the thick snow hiding from his eyes the place where the last of Lily and James lay, bones now, surely, or dust, not knowing or caring that their living son stood so near, his heart still beating, alive because of their sacrifice and close to wishing, at this moment, that he was sleeping under the snow with them.
| |
Hermione had taken his hand again and was gripping it tightly. He could not look at her, but returned the pressure, now taking deep, sharp gulps of the night air, trying to steady himself, trying to regain control. He should have brought something to give them, and he had not thought of it, and every plant in the graveyard was leafless and frozen. But Hermione raised her wand, moved it in a circle through the air, and a wreath of Christmas roses blossomed before them. Harry caught it and laid it on his parents’ grave.
| |
As soon as he stood up he wanted to leave: He did not think he could stand another moment there. He put his arm around Hermione’s shoulders, and she put hers around his waist, and they turned in silence and walked away through the snow, past Dumbledore’s mother and sister, back toward the dark church and the out-of-sight kissing gate.
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