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哈利·波特与密室
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

英文中文双语对照双语交替

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CHAPTER THREE THE BURROW

第三章　陋居

"Ron!” breathed Harry, creeping to the window and pushing it up so they could talk through the bars. “Ron, how did you — What the — ?”

“罗恩！”哈利轻声叫道，蹑手蹑脚地走到窗前，把窗户推上去，这样他们好隔着铁栅栏说话。“罗恩，你怎么——这是——？”

Harry’s mouth fell open as the full impact of what he was seeing hit him. Ron was leaning out of the back window of an old turquoise car, which was parked in midair. Grinning at Harry from the front seats were Fred and George, Ron’s elder twin brothers.

看清眼前的景象之后，哈利张大了嘴巴。罗恩正从一辆青绿色轿车的后车窗探身看着他，轿车停在半空中，罗恩的那对双胞胎哥哥弗雷德和乔治坐在前排，朝他咧嘴笑着。

“All right, Harry?” asked George.

“怎么样，哈利？怎么回事？”罗恩说，“你为什么一直不给我回信？我邀请了你十二次，然后爸爸回来说你在麻瓜面前使用魔法，受到了警告……”

“What’s been going on?” said Ron. “Why haven’t you been answering my letters? I’ve asked you to stay about twelve times, and then Dad came home and said you’d got an official warning for using magic in front of Muggles —”

“不是我——他怎么知道的？”

“It wasn’t me — and how did he know?”

“他在部里工作。”罗恩说，“你知道我们不能在校外使用魔法——”

“He works for the Ministry,” said Ron. “You know we’re not supposed to do spells outside school —”

“你说得倒好听。”哈利盯着那辆悬空的汽车说。

“You should talk,” said Harry, staring at the floating car.

“哦，这不算，”罗恩说，“我们只是借用，这是爸爸的车，我们没有对它施魔法。可是你在同你住在一起的麻瓜面前使用魔法……”

“Oh, this doesn’t count,” said Ron. “We’re only borrowing this. It’s Dad’s, we didn’t enchant it. But doing magic in front of those Muggles you live with —”

“我跟你说了，我没有——可是现在没时间解释。你能不能跟学校说一声，德思礼一家把我关起来了，不让我回学校。我显然不能用魔法逃出去，因为部里会认为我三天里两次使用魔法，所以——”

“I told you, I didn’t — but it’ll take too long to explain now — look, can you tell them at Hogwarts that the Dursleys have locked me up and won’t let me come back, and obviously I can’t magic myself out, because the Ministry’ll think that’s the second spell I’ve done in three days, so —”

“别废话了，”罗恩说，“我们是来接你回家的。”

“Stop gibbering,” said Ron. “We’ve come to take you home with us.”

“可你们也不能用魔法——”

“But you can’t magic me out either —”

“我们不需要，”罗恩把头朝前排一摆，笑着说道，“你忘了我和谁在一起了。”

“We don’t need to,” said Ron, jerking his head toward the front seat and grinning. “You forget who I’ve got with me.”

弗雷德扔给哈利一截绳子，“把它系在铁栅栏上。”

“Tie that around the bars,” said Fred, throwing the end of a rope to Harry.

“要是德思礼一家人醒过来，我就没命了。”哈利说着，把绳子牢牢系在一根铁条上，弗雷德发动了汽车。

“If the Dursleys wake up, I’m dead,” said Harry as he tied the rope tightly around a bar and Fred revved up the car.

“别担心，”弗雷德说，“靠后站。”

“Don’t worry,” said Fred, “and stand back.”

哈利退到阴影里，靠近海德薇。它似乎也知道事关重大，在笼子里一动也不动。汽车马达声越来越响，突然嘎啦啦一声，铁栅栏被连根拔起，弗雷德开车笔直朝天上冲去——哈利跑到窗前，看见窗栅在离地面几英尺的地方晃荡着。罗恩喘着粗气把它拽进车里。哈利担心地听了听，德思礼他们的卧室里没什么动静。

Harry moved back into the shadows next to Hedwig, who seemed to have realized how important this was and kept still and silent. The car revved louder and louder and suddenly, with a crunching noise, the bars were pulled clean out of the window as Fred drove straight up in the air. Harry ran back to the window to see the bars dangling a few feet above the ground. Panting, Ron hoisted them up into the car. Harry listened anxiously, but there was no sound from the Dursleys’ bedroom.

窗栅被安全地放到罗恩旁边的座位上，弗雷德把车倒回来，尽可能靠近哈利的窗户。

When the bars were safely in the back seat with Ron, Fred reversed as close as possible to Harry’s window.

“上车。”罗恩说。

“Get in,” Ron said.

“可我上学的东西……魔杖……飞天扫帚……”

“But all my Hogwarts stuff — my wand — my broomstick —”

“在哪儿？”

“Where is it?”

“锁在楼梯下的暗柜里，我出不了门——”

“Locked in the cupboard under the stairs, and I can’t get out of this room —”

“那好办，”坐在驾驶座旁边的乔治说，“闪开点儿，哈利。”

“No problem,” said George from the front passenger seat. “Out of the way, Harry.”

弗雷德和乔治小心地从窗户爬进哈利的房间。乔治从口袋里掏出一只普通的发夹，开始撬锁。就得他们才行，哈利想。

Fred and George climbed catlike through the window into Harry’s room. You had to hand it to them, thought Harry, as George took an ordinary hairpin from his pocket and started to pick the lock.

“许多巫师认为学这种麻瓜的把戏是浪费时间，”弗雷德说，“可我们觉得这也是一门技术，虽然慢了点。”

“A lot of wizards think it’s a waste of time, knowing this sort of Muggle trick,” said Fred, “but we feel they’re skills worth learning, even if they are a bit slow.”

只听咔哒一声轻响，门一下开了。

There was a small click and the door swung open.

“现在——我们去拿你的箱子——你赶快捡点你要用的东西，递给罗恩。”乔治小声说。

“So — we’ll get your trunk — you grab anything you need from your room and hand it out to Ron,” whispered George.

“当心最底下一层楼梯，会响的。”哈利小声叮嘱，双胞胎消失在黑暗的楼梯口。

“Watch out for the bottom stair — it creaks,” Harry whispered back as the twins disappeared onto the dark landing.

哈利在屋里跑来跑去，收拾了一些东西从窗口递给罗恩，然后去帮弗雷德和乔治抬箱子。哈利听到弗农姨父咳了一声。

Harry dashed around his room, collecting his things and passing them out of the window to Ron. Then he went to help Fred and George heave his trunk up the stairs. Harry heard Uncle Vernon cough.

三个人气喘吁吁，终于把箱子抬到了楼上，又一直抬到哈利房间的窗口。弗雷德爬回车里，和罗恩一起拉，哈利和乔治在屋里推，箱子一点儿一点儿地朝窗外滑动。

At last, panting, they reached the landing, then carried the trunk through Harry’s room to the open window. Fred climbed back into the car to pull with Ron, and Harry and George pushed from the bedroom side. Inch by inch, the trunk slid through the window.

弗农姨父又咳了一声。

Uncle Vernon coughed again.

“再加把劲，”弗雷德一边拉一边喘着气说，“猛推一把……”哈利和乔治用肩膀猛力朝箱子撞去，箱子从窗口滑到汽车后座上。

“A bit more,” panted Fred, who was pulling from inside the car. “One good push —”

“好啦，我们走吧。”乔治小声说。

Harry and George threw their shoulders against the trunk and it slid out of the window into the back seat of the car.

可是当哈利爬上窗台时，身后突然响起一声尖厉的鸣叫，紧接着是弗农姨父的咆哮：“这该死的猫头鹰！”

“Okay, let’s go,” George whispered.

“我忘了海德薇！”楼梯口的灯亮了，哈利迅速折回屋内，抓起海德薇的笼子，冲到窗前，把笼子交给罗恩。他正在重新爬上五斗橱时，弗农姨父捶响了那扇没锁好的门——门开了。一时间，弗农姨父在门口呆住了，然后他像一头发怒的公牛般大吼一声，扑向哈利，抓住了他的脚腕。罗恩、弗雷德和乔治抓住哈利的胳膊使劲往外拉。

But as Harry climbed onto the windowsill there came a sudden loud screech from behind him, followed immediately by the thunder of Uncle Vernon’s voice.

“佩妮！”弗农姨父喊道，“他要跑了！他要跑了！”

“THAT RUDDY OWL!”

韦斯莱兄弟拼命一拽，哈利的腿挣脱了弗农姨父的手掌。哈利钻进车里，撞上车门，罗恩马上喊道：“快踩油门，弗雷德！”汽车猛地向着月亮冲去。

“I’ve forgotten Hedwig!”

哈利不敢相信——他自由了。他摇下车窗，晚风拍打着他的头发，女贞路的屋顶在下面渐渐缩小，弗农姨父、佩妮姨妈和达力还在窗口呆呆地探身望着。

Harry tore back across the room as the landing light clicked on — he snatched up Hedwig’s cage, dashed to the window, and passed it out to Ron. He was scrambling back onto the chest of drawers when Uncle Vernon hammered on the unlocked door — and it crashed open.

“明年夏天见！”哈利喊道。韦斯莱兄弟哈哈大笑，哈利靠在椅背上，乐得合不拢嘴。

For a split second, Uncle Vernon stood framed in the doorway; then he let out a bellow like an angry bull and dived at Harry, grabbing him by the ankle.

“把海德薇放出来吧，”他对罗恩说，“它可以跟在我们后面飞。它好久没舒展翅膀了。”

Ron, Fred, and George seized Harry’s arms and pulled as hard as they could.

乔治把发夹递给罗恩，一会儿，海德薇快乐地飞出了车窗，像幽灵一样在他们旁边滑翔。

“Petunia!” roared Uncle Vernon. “He’s getting away! HE’S GETTING AWAY!”

“可以告诉我们了吧，哈利？”罗恩迫不及待地问道，“到底发生了什么事情？”

But the Weasleys gave a gigantic tug and Harry’s leg slid out of Uncle Vernon’s grasp — Harry was in the car — he’d slammed the door shut —

哈利原原本本地向他们讲了多比、它给哈利的警告、被摔得一塌糊涂的堇菜布丁。他讲完后，车里好长时间一片沉默。

“Put your foot down, Fred!” yelled Ron, and the car shot suddenly toward the moon.

“很可疑。”弗雷德终于说。

Harry couldn’t believe it — he was free. He rolled down the window, the night air whipping his hair, and looked back at the shrinking rooftops of Privet Drive. Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley were all hanging, dumbstruck, out of Harry’s window.

“显然非常蹊跷，”乔治附和道，“他甚至不肯告诉你是谁在策划这些？”

“See you next summer!” Harry yelled.

“我想他是不能说。”哈利说，“我刚才说了，每次他快要吐露出什么时，就拿脑袋撞墙。”他看到弗雷德和乔治对视了一下。“怎么，你们认为他是在骗我？”哈利说。

The Weasleys roared with laughter and Harry settled back in his seat, grinning from ear to ear.

“嗯，”弗雷德说，“这样说吧——家养小精灵的魔法也很了不得，但没有主人允许，他们一般不能使用魔法。我想多比是被人派来阻止你回霍格沃茨的，有人想捉弄你。你在学校有什么仇人吗？”

“Let Hedwig out,” he told Ron. “She can fly behind us. She hasn’t had a chance to stretch her wings for ages.”

“有。”哈利和罗恩马上同声说。

George handed the hairpin to Ron and, a moment later, Hedwig soared joyfully out of the window to glide alongside them like a ghost.

“德拉科马尔福，”哈利解释说，“他恨我。”

“So — what’s the story, Harry?” said Ron impatiently. “What’s been happening?”

“德拉科马尔福？”乔治转过身说，“是不是卢修斯马尔福的儿子？”

Harry told them all about Dobby, the warning he’d given Harry and the fiasco of the violet pudding. There was a long, shocked silence when he had finished.

“大概是，这个姓不常见，对吧？”哈利说，“怎么啦？”

“Very fishy,” said Fred finally.

“我听爸爸说起过他，”乔治说，“卢修斯马尔福是神秘人的死党。”

“Definitely dodgy,” agreed George. “So he wouldn’t even tell you who’s supposed to be plotting all this stuff?”

“神秘人消失后，”弗雷德扭头看着哈利说，“卢修斯马尔福回来说那事儿与他无关，这是鬼话——爸爸猜他是神秘人的心腹。”

“I don’t think he could,” said Harry. “I told you, every time he got close to letting something slip, he started banging his head against the wall.”

哈利听到过关于马尔福家的这些传言，所以他一点儿也不觉得惊奇。和马尔福比起来，达力简直是个忠厚懂事的男孩。

He saw Fred and George look at each other.

“我不知道马尔福家有没有小精灵……”哈利说。

“What, you think he was lying to me?” said Harry.

“有小精灵的人家肯定是个古老的巫师家族，而且很富有。”弗雷德说。

“Well,” said Fred, “put it this way — house-elves have got powerful magic of their own, but they can’t usually use it without their master’s permission. I reckon old Dobby was sent to stop you coming back to Hogwarts. Someone’s idea of a joke. Can you think of anyone at school with a grudge against you?”

“对，妈妈一直希望能有一个小精灵帮我们熨衣服，”乔治说，“可是我们只有阁楼上那个讨厌的食尸鬼和满花园的地精。小精灵是那种古老的大庄园和城堡里才有的，在我们家可找不到……”

“Yes,” said Harry and Ron together, instantly.

哈利沉默了。德拉科马尔福用的东西总是最高级的，他家有的是魔币。他能想象出马尔福在一所大庄园住宅里趾高气扬地走来走去，派佣人去阻止哈利回霍格沃茨也很像是马尔福干的事情。哈利把多比的话当真，是不是太傻了？

“Draco Malfoy,” Harry explained. “He hates me.”

“不管怎么说，我很高兴我们来接你。”罗恩说，“你一封信都不回，我真着急了。一开始我以为是埃罗尔出了问题——”

“Draco Malfoy?” said George, turning around. “Not Lucius Malfoy’s son?”

“埃罗尔是谁？”

“Must be, it’s not a very common name, is it?” said Harry. “Why?”

“我们的猫头鹰。它上了年纪了，以前送信时就累垮过。所以我想借赫梅斯——”

“I’ve heard Dad talking about him,” said George. “He was a big supporter of You-Know-Who.”

“谁？”

“And when You-Know-Who disappeared,” said Fred, craning around to look at Harry, “Lucius Malfoy came back saying he’d never meant any of it. Load of dung — Dad reckons he was right in You-Know-Who’s inner circle.”

“珀西当上了级长后，爸爸妈妈给他买的那只猫头鹰。”坐在前面的弗雷德说。

Harry had heard these rumors about Malfoy’s family before, and they didn’t surprise him at all. Malfoy made Dudley Dursley look like a kind, thoughtful, and sensitive boy.

“可珀西不肯借给我，”罗恩说，“说他自己要用。”

“I don’t know whether the Malfoys own a house-elf. . . .” said Harry.

“珀西今年暑假非常古怪，”乔治皱着眉头说，“他发了好多信，还老一个人关在屋里……我不明白，级长的徽章要擦那么多遍吗……你向西开得太远了，弗雷德。”他指着仪表盘上的一个指南针说。弗雷德把方向盘转了转。

“Well, whoever owns him will be an old wizarding family, and they’ll be rich,” said Fred.

“那你们把车开出来，你爸爸知道吗？”其实哈利已经猜到了实情。

“Yeah, Mum’s always wishing we had a house-elf to do the ironing,” said George. “But all we’ve got is a lousy old ghoul in the attic and gnomes all over the garden. House-elves come with big old manors and castles and places like that; you wouldn’t catch one in our house. . . .”

“哦，不知道，”罗恩说，“他今晚加班。但愿我们能悄悄把车开进车库，不让我妈妈发现。”

Harry was silent. Judging by the fact that Draco Malfoy usually had the best of everything, his family was rolling in wizard gold; he could just see Malfoy strutting around a large manor house. Sending the family servant to stop Harry from going back to Hogwarts also sounded exactly like the sort of thing Malfoy would do. Had Harry been stupid to take Dobby seriously?

“你爸爸在魔法部做什么工作？”

“I’m glad we came to get you, anyway,” said Ron. “I was getting really worried when you didn’t answer any of my letters. I thought it was Errol’s fault at first —”

“他在一个最无聊的部门，”罗恩说，“禁止滥用麻瓜物品司。”

“Who’s Errol?”

“什么？”

“Our owl. He’s ancient. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d collapsed on a delivery. So then I tried to borrow Hermes —”

“就是禁止对麻瓜制造的东西施用魔法，怕它们万一又回到麻瓜的商店或家里。就像去年，有一个老巫婆死了，她的茶具被卖到一个古董店，一位女麻瓜买下了这套茶具，回家请朋友喝茶，真是一场噩梦——爸爸连着加了好几个星期的班。”

“Who?”

“怎么回事？”

“The owl Mum and Dad bought Percy when he was made prefect,” said Fred from the front.

“茶壶突然发起疯来，滚烫的茶水四处乱喷，一个男的住进了医院，夹方糖的钳子钳住了他的鼻子。爸爸忙得不可开交，司里只有他和一个叫珀金斯的老巫师。他们不得不用遗忘魔咒和各种办法来把它掩盖过去……”

“But Percy wouldn’t lend him to me,” said Ron. “Said he needed him.”

“可你爸爸……这车子……”

“Percy’s been acting very oddly this summer,” said George, frowning. “And he has been sending a lot of letters and spending a load of time shut up in his room. . . . I mean, there’s only so many times you can polish a prefect badge. . . . You’re driving too far west, Fred,” he added, pointing at a compass on the dashboard. Fred twiddled the steering wheel.

弗雷德笑了。“是啊，爸爸迷上了和麻瓜有关的一切，我们的棚里堆满了麻瓜的东西。他把它们拆开，施上魔法，再重新组装起来。如果他到我家抄查，他只好逮捕自己。妈妈为这都快急疯了。”

“So, does your dad know you’ve got the car?” said Harry, guessing the answer.

“那是大路，”乔治透过挡风玻璃望着下面，说道，“我们十分钟就能到那儿……还好，天快亮了……”

“Er, no,” said Ron, “he had to work tonight. Hopefully we’ll be able to get it back in the garage without Mum noticing we flew it.”

东方地平线上出现了一抹淡淡的红霞。

“What does your dad do at the Ministry of Magic, anyway?”

弗雷德把车降低了一些，哈利看到了一片片田地和一簇簇树木组成的深色图案。

“He works in the most boring department,” said Ron. “The Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office.”

“我们在村子外面一点儿，”乔治说，“奥特里－圣卡奇波尔……”

“The what?”

车子越飞越低，树丛间一轮红日已经露头了。

“It’s all to do with bewitching things that are Muggle-made, you know, in case they end up back in a Muggle shop or house. Like, last year, some old witch died and her tea set was sold to an antiques shop. This Muggle woman bought it, took it home, and tried to serve her friends tea in it. It was a nightmare — Dad was working overtime for weeks.”

“着陆！”弗雷德喊道，车子轻轻一震，触到了地面。他们降落在一个破破烂烂的车库旁边，周围是个小院子。哈利第一次打量着罗恩家的房子。

“What happened?”

它以前似乎是个石头垒的大猪圈，后来在这里那里添建一些房间，垒到了几层楼那么高，歪歪扭扭，仿佛是靠魔法搭起来的（哈利提醒自己这很有可能）。红房顶上有四五根烟囱，屋前斜插着一个牌子，写着“陋居”。大门旁扔着一些高帮皮靴，还有一口锈迹斑斑的坩埚。几只褐色的肥鸡在院子里啄食。

“The teapot went berserk and squirted boiling tea all over the place and one man ended up in the hospital with the sugar tongs clamped to his nose. Dad was going frantic — it’s only him and an old warlock called Perkins in the office — and they had to do Memory Charms and all sorts of stuff to cover it up —”

“不怎么样吧。”罗恩说。

“But your dad — this car —”

“太棒了。”哈利快乐地说，他想起了女贞路。

Fred laughed. “Yeah, Dad’s crazy about everything to do with Muggles; our shed’s full of Muggle stuff. He takes it apart, puts spells on it, and puts it back together again. If he raided our house he’d have to put himself under arrest. It drives Mum mad.”

大家下了车。

“That’s the main road,” said George, peering down through the windshield. “We’ll be there in ten minutes. . . . Just as well, it’s getting light. . . .”

“现在，我们悄悄地上搂，”弗雷德说，“等妈妈来叫我们吃早饭。那时罗恩连蹦带跳地跑下楼，说：‘妈妈，你看谁来了！’她看到哈利一定很高兴，谁也不会知道我们用了车。”

A faint pinkish glow was visible along the horizon to the east.

“好的。”罗恩说，“来吧，哈利，我睡在——”

Fred brought the car lower, and Harry saw a dark patchwork of fields and clumps of trees.

罗恩的脸一下绿了，眼睛直勾勾地盯着房子的方向。其他三个人转过身去。

“We’re a little way outside the village,” said George. “Ottery St. Catchpole.”

韦斯莱夫人从院子那头快步走来，鸡儿四散奔逃。令人惊奇的是，她这么个胖墩墩、慈眉善目的女人，居然会那么像一头露着利齿的老虎。

Lower and lower went the flying car. The edge of a brilliant red sun was now gleaming through the trees.

“啊。”弗雷德说。

“Touchdown!” said Fred as, with a slight bump, they hit the ground. They had landed next to a tumbledown garage in a small yard, and Harry looked out for the first time at Ron’s house.

“天哪。”乔治说。

It looked as though it had once been a large stone pigpen, but extra rooms had been added here and there until it was several stories high and so crooked it looked as though it were held up by magic (which, Harry reminded himself, it probably was). Four or five chimneys were perched on top of the red roof. A lopsided sign stuck in the ground near the entrance read, the burrow. Around the front door lay a jumble of rubber boots and a very rusty cauldron. Several fat brown chickens were pecking their way around the yard.

韦斯莱夫人停在他们面前，叉着腰，挨个审视着一张张愧疚的面孔。她穿着一条印花的围裙，兜里插着一根魔杖。“行啊。”她说。

“It’s not much,” said Ron.

“早上好，妈妈。”乔治用他显然以为是轻松可爱的语调说。

“It’s wonderful,” said Harry happily, thinking of Privet Drive.

“你们知道我有多着急吗？”韦斯莱夫人用令人心惊肉跳的低沉声音说。

They got out of the car.

“对不起，妈妈，可是我们必须——”

“Now, we’ll go upstairs really quietly,” said Fred, “and wait for Mum to call us for breakfast. Then, Ron, you come bounding downstairs going, ‘Mum, look who turned up in the night!’ and she’ll be all pleased to see Harry and no one need ever know we flew the car.”

韦斯莱夫人的三个儿子都比她高，可她的怒火爆发时，他们都战战兢兢的。

“Right,” said Ron. “Come on, Harry, I sleep at the — at the top —”

“床空着！没留条子！车也没了……可能出了车祸……我都急疯了……你们想到过吗？……我这辈子从来没有……看你爸爸回来怎么收拾你们吧，比尔、查理和珀西从没出过这种事儿……”

Ron had gone a nasty greenish color, his eyes fixed on the house. The other three wheeled around.

“模范珀西。”弗雷德嘟哝道。

Mrs. Weasley was marching across the yard, scattering chickens, and for a short, plump, kind-faced woman, it was remarkable how much she looked like a saber-toothed tiger.

“你该学学他的样儿！”韦斯莱夫人戳着弗雷德的胸口嚷道，“你们可能摔死，可能被人看见，可能把你爸爸的饭碗给砸了——”

“Ah,” said Fred.

好像过了几个小时，韦斯莱夫人把嗓子都喊哑了，这才转向哈利，哈利后退了两步。

“Oh, dear,” said George.

“我很高兴看到你，亲爱的哈利，”她说，“进屋吃点儿早饭吧。”

Mrs. Weasley came to a halt in front of them, her hands on her hips, staring from one guilty face to the next. She was wearing a flowered apron with a wand sticking out of the pocket.

她转身回屋，哈利紧张地瞄了一眼罗恩，见罗恩点头，他才跟了上去。

“So,” she said.

厨房很小，相当拥挤，中间是一张擦得干干净净的木头桌子和几把椅子。哈利坐在椅子上，屁股只沾了一点边儿。他打量四周，以前他从没进过巫师的家。

“ ’Morning, Mum,” said George, in what he clearly thought was a jaunty, winning voice.

对面墙上的挂钟只有一根针，没标数字，钟面上写着“煮茶、喂鸡、你要迟到了”之类的话。壁炉架上码着三层书：《给你的奶酪施上魔法》、《烤面包的魔法》、《变出一桌盛宴》等——都是魔法书。哈利简直怀疑自己的耳朵欺骗了他，他听见水池旁的旧收音机里说：“接下来是‘魔法时间’，由著名的女巫歌唱家塞蒂娜沃贝克表演。”

“Have you any idea how worried I’ve been?” said Mrs. Weasley in a deadly whisper.

韦斯莱夫人在丁零当啷地做早饭。她漫不经心地把香肠扔进煎锅，不时气呼呼地瞪儿子们一眼，嘴里还嘟哝着一些话：“不知道你们是怎么想的。”“真是不敢相信。”

“Sorry, Mum, but see, we had to —”

“我不怪你，亲爱的。”她把八九根香肠倒进哈利的盘里，安慰他说，“亚瑟和我也为你担心。昨天晚上我们还说要是你再不给罗恩回信，我们就亲自去接你。可是，”（她又往他盘子里加了三只荷包蛋）“开着一辆非法的汽车飞过半个国家——谁都可能看见你们——”

All three of Mrs. Weasley’s sons were taller than she was, but they cowered as her rage broke over them.

她用魔杖朝水池里的碗碟随意一点，那些碗碟就自己清洗起来，叮叮当当的声音像是一种背景音乐。

“Beds empty! No note! Car gone — could have crashed — out of my mind with worry — did you care? — never, as long as I’ve lived — you wait until your father gets home, we never had trouble like this from Bill or Charlie or Percy —”

“情况很不好，妈妈！”弗雷德说。

“Perfect Percy,” muttered Fred.

“吃饭的时候不要说话！”韦斯莱夫人厉声说。

“YOU COULD DO WITH TAKING A LEAF OUT OF PERCY’S BOOK!” yelled Mrs. Weasley, prodding a finger in Fred’s chest. “You could have died, you could have been seen, you could have lost your father his job —”

“他们不给他饭吃，妈妈！”乔治说。

It seemed to go on for hours. Mrs. Weasley had shouted herself hoarse before she turned on Harry, who backed away.

“你也闭嘴！”韦斯莱夫人说，可是她动手给哈利切面包涂黄油时，脸上的表情已稍稍温和了一些。

“I’m very pleased to see you, Harry, dear,” she said. “Come in and have some breakfast.”

这时，一个穿着长睡衣的红头发小人跑进厨房，尖叫了一声，又跑了出去。

She turned and walked back into the house and Harry, after a nervous glance at Ron, who nodded encouragingly, followed her.

“金妮，”罗恩低声对哈利说，“我妹妹。她一暑假都在念叨你。”

The kitchen was small and rather cramped. There was a scrubbed wooden table and chairs in the middle, and Harry sat down on the edge of his seat, looking around. He had never been in a wizard house before.

“可不，她想要你的签名呢，哈利。”弗雷德笑道，但一看到母亲的眼神，马上埋头吃饭，不再说话。几人闷声不响，不一会儿四只盘子便一扫而空。

The clock on the wall opposite him had only one hand and no numbers at all. Written around the edge were things like Time to make tea, Time to feed the chickens, and You’re late. Books were stacked three deep on the mantelpiece, books with titles like Charm Your Own Cheese, Enchantment in Baking, and One Minute Feasts — It’s Magic! And unless Harry’s ears were deceiving him, the old radio next to the sink had just announced that coming up was “Witching Hour, with the popular singing sorceress, Celestina Warbeck.”

“啊，好累呀，”弗雷德放下刀叉说，“我想我要去睡觉了——”

Mrs. Weasley was clattering around, cooking breakfast a little haphazardly, throwing dirty looks at her sons as she threw sausages into the frying pan. Every now and then she muttered things like “don’t know what you were thinking of,” and “never would have believed it.”

“不行，”韦斯莱夫人无情地说，“一晚上没睡是你自找的。现在你要给我去清除花园里的地精。它们又闹得不可收拾了。”

“I don’t blame you, dear,” she assured Harry, tipping eight or nine sausages onto his plate. “Arthur and I have been worried about you, too. Just last night we were saying we’d come and get you ourselves if you hadn’t written back to Ron by Friday. But really” (she was now adding three fried eggs to his plate), “flying an illegal car halfway across the country — anyone could have seen you —”

“哦，妈妈——”

She flicked her wand casually at the dishes in the sink, which began to clean themselves, clinking gently in the background.

“还有你们两个。”她瞪着罗恩和弗雷德说。她又对哈利说：“你可以去睡觉，亲爱的，你并没有叫他们开那辆破车。”

“It was cloudy, Mum!” said Fred.

可哈利觉得一点儿也不困，忙说：“我帮罗恩一块儿干吧，我还没见过怎么清除地精呢——”

“You keep your mouth closed while you’re eating!” Mrs. Weasley snapped.

“真是个好孩子，可这是个枯燥的活儿。”韦斯莱夫人说，“现在，我们来看看洛哈特是怎么说的。”

“They were starving him, Mum!” said George.

她从壁炉架上抽出一本大厚书，乔治呻吟了一声。

“And you!” said Mrs. Weasley, but it was with a slightly softened expression that she started cutting Harry bread and buttering it for him.

“妈，我们知道怎么清除花园里的地精。”

At that moment there was a diversion in the form of a small, redheaded figure in a long nightdress, who appeared in the kitchen, gave a small squeal, and ran out again.

哈利看到那本书的封面上用烫金的花体字写着：吉德罗洛哈特教你清除家庭害虫。书名下面有一幅大照片，是个长得很帅的巫师，弯曲的金发、明亮的蓝眼睛。魔法世界的照片都是会动的，照片上的这个巫师（哈利猜想他就是吉德罗洛哈特）放肆地朝他们直眨着眼睛。韦斯莱夫人笑吟吟地低头看着他。

“Ginny,” said Ron in an undertone to Harry. “My sister. She’s been talking about you all summer.”

“哦，他很了不起。”她说，“他了解他家里的害虫，这是一本好书……”

“Yeah, she’ll be wanting your autograph, Harry,” Fred said with a grin, but he caught his mother’s eye and bent his face over his plate without another word. Nothing more was said until all four plates were clean, which took a surprisingly short time.

“妈妈崇拜他。”弗雷德低声说，但听得很清楚。

“Blimey, I’m tired,” yawned Fred, setting down his knife and fork at last. “I think I’ll go to bed and —”

“别瞎说，弗雷德。”韦斯莱夫人的脸红了，“好啦，你们要是觉得自己比洛哈特懂得还多，那就去干吧。不过，如果我检查时发现花园里还有一个地精，你们就等着瞧吧。”

“You will not,” snapped Mrs. Weasley. “It’s your own fault you’ve been up all night. You’re going to de-gnome the garden for me; they’re getting completely out of hand again —”

韦斯莱兄弟打着哈欠，发着牢骚，懒洋洋地走了出去，哈利跟在后面。花园很大，而且正是哈利心目中的花园的样子。德思礼一家肯定不会喜欢——这里杂草丛生，草也需要割了——但是墙根有许多盘根错节的树木围绕着，各种哈利从来没有见过的植物从每个花圃里蔓生出来，还有一个绿色的大池塘，里面有好多青蛙。

“Oh, Mum —”

“你知道，麻瓜花园里也有地精。”穿过草坪时，哈利对罗恩说。

“And you two,” she said, glaring at Ron and Fred. “You can go up to bed, dear,” she added to Harry. “You didn’t ask them to fly that wretched car —”

“啊，我见过麻瓜以为是地精的那种玩艺儿，”罗恩说，一面弯下腰把头埋进牡丹丛里，“像胖乎乎的小圣诞老人，扛着鱼竿……”一阵猛烈的挣扎声，牡丹枝子乱颤，罗恩直起腰来。“这就是地精。”他板着脸说。

But Harry, who felt wide awake, said quickly, “I’ll help Ron. I’ve never seen a de-gnoming —”

“放开我！放开我！”地精尖叫道。

“That’s very sweet of you, dear, but it’s dull work,” said Mrs. Weasley. “Now, let’s see what Lockhart’s got to say on the subject —”

它一点儿也不像圣诞老人。小小的身体，皮肤粗糙坚韧，光秃秃的大圆脑袋活像一颗土豆。罗恩伸长手臂举着它，因为它用长着硬茧的小脚朝他又踢又蹬。他抓住它的脚腕，把它倒提起来。

And she pulled a heavy book from the stack on the mantelpiece. George groaned.

“你得这样做。”他说，把地精举过头顶（“放开我！”），开始像甩套索那样划着大圈挥动手臂。看到哈利吃惊的表情，罗恩说：“不会伤害它们的——你得把它们转晕，这样它们就找不到地精洞了。”他手一松，地精飞出去二十英尺，扑通落在树篱后面的地里。

“Mum, we know how to de-gnome a garden —”

“差劲，”弗雷德说，“我保证能扔过那个树桩。”

Harry looked at the cover of Mrs. Weasley’s book. Written across it in fancy gold letters were the words Gilderoy Lockhart’s Guide to Household Pests. There was a big photograph on the front of a very good-looking wizard with wavy blond hair and bright blue eyes. As always in the wizarding world, the photograph was moving; the wizard, who Harry supposed was Gilderoy Lockhart, kept winking cheekily up at them all. Mrs. Weasley beamed down at him.

哈利很快就不再同情那些地精了。他本来决定把他捉到的第一个地精轻轻丢在树篱外面，可是那地精感觉到对方的软弱，便用它那锋利的牙齿狠狠咬住了哈利的手指，他抖也抖不掉，最后——

“Oh, he is marvelous,” she said. “He knows his household pests, all right, it’s a wonderful book. . . .”

“哇，哈利——你那一下准有五十英尺……”

“Mum fancies him,” said Fred, in a very audible whisper.

花园中很快就地精满天飞了。

“Don’t be so ridiculous, Fred,” said Mrs. Weasley, her cheeks rather pink. “All right, if you think you know better than Lockhart, you can go and get on with it, and woe betide you if there’s a single gnome in that garden when I come out to inspect it.”

“你瞧，它们不大机灵，”乔治说，他一把抓住了五六个地精，“它们一听说在清除地精，就都跑过来看，到现在还没学聪明一点儿。”

Yawning and grumbling, the Weasleys slouched outside with Harry behind them. The garden was large, and in Harry’s eyes, exactly what a garden should be. The Dursleys wouldn’t have liked it — there were plenty of weeds, and the grass needed cutting — but there were gnarled trees all around the walls, plants Harry had never seen spilling from every flower bed, and a big green pond full of frogs.

不久，地里那一群地精排着稀稀拉拉的队伍走开了，耸着小肩膀。

“Muggles have garden gnomes, too, you know,” Harry told Ron as they crossed the lawn.

“它们会回来的，”他们看着那些地精消失在田地那头的树篱后，罗恩说，“它们喜欢这儿……爸爸对它们太宽容了，他觉得它们很有趣……”

“Yeah, I’ve seen those things they think are gnomes,” said Ron, bent double with his head in a peony bush, “like fat little Santa Clauses with fishing rods. . . .”

正在这时，大门砰的一响。

There was a violent scuffling noise, the peony bush shuddered, and Ron straightened up. “This is a gnome,” he said grimly.

“回来了！”乔治说，“爸爸回来了！”

“Gerroff me! Gerroff me!” squealed the gnome.

他们急忙穿过花园回屋。

It was certainly nothing like Santa Claus. It was small and leathery looking, with a large, knobby, bald head exactly like a potato. Ron held it at arm’s length as it kicked out at him with its horny little feet; he grasped it around the ankles and turned it upside down.

韦斯莱先生瘫在厨房的椅子上，摘掉了眼镜，两眼紧闭着。他是个瘦瘦的男人，有点谢顶，可他剩下的那点头发和他孩子们的一样红。他穿着一件绿色的长袍，显得风尘仆仆。

“This is what you have to do,” he said. He raised the gnome above his head (“Gerroff me!”) and started to swing it in great circles like a lasso. Seeing the shocked look on Harry’s face, Ron added, “It doesn’t hurt them — you’ve just got to make them really dizzy so they can’t find their way back to the gnomeholes.”

“这一晚上真够呛！”他咕哝着，伸手去摸茶壶，孩子们都在他身边坐下。“抄查了九家。蒙顿格斯弗莱奇这老家伙想趁我转身时对我用魔法……”

He let go of the gnome’s ankles: It flew twenty feet into the air and landed with a thud in the field over the hedge.

韦斯莱先生喝了一大口茶，舒了口气。

“Pitiful,” said Fred. “I bet I can get mine beyond that stump.”

“搜到了什么东西吗，爸爸？”弗雷德急切地问。

Harry learned quickly not to feel too sorry for the gnomes. He decided just to drop the first one he caught over the hedge, but the gnome, sensing weakness, sank its razor-sharp teeth into Harry’s finger and he had a hard job shaking it off — until —

“只有几把会缩小的房门钥匙和一只会咬人的水壶。”韦斯莱先生打着哈欠说，“有一些很麻烦的东西，但不归我的部门管。在莫特莱克家发现了一些非常古怪的雪貂，他被带去问话了，可那是魔咒实验委员会的事儿，谢天谢地……”

“Wow, Harry — that must’ve been fifty feet. . . .”

“为什么有人要做会缩小的钥匙呢？”乔治说。

The air was soon thick with flying gnomes.

“捉弄那些麻瓜，”韦斯莱先生叹息道，“卖给麻瓜一把钥匙，最后钥匙缩到没有，要用时就找不到了……当然，这很难说服任何人，因为没有一个麻瓜会承认自己的钥匙越缩越小——他们会坚持说钥匙丢了。这些麻瓜，他们永远能对魔法视而不见，哪怕它明明摆在他们面前……可是被我们的人施了魔法的那些东西，你简直不能相信——”

“See, they’re not too bright,” said George, seizing five or six gnomes at once. “The moment they know the de-gnoming’s going on they storm up to have a look. You’d think they’d have learned by now just to stay put.”

“比如汽车，对吗？”

Soon, the crowd of gnomes in the field started walking away in a straggling line, their little shoulders hunched.

韦斯莱夫人走了进来，手里举着一根拨火棍，像举着一把剑。韦斯莱先生张大了嘴巴，心虚地看着他的妻子。

“They’ll be back,” said Ron as they watched the gnomes disappear into the hedge on the other side of the field. “They love it here. . . . Dad’s too soft with them; he thinks they’re funny. . . .”

“汽——汽车，莫丽，亲爱的？”

Just then, the front door slammed.

“对，亚瑟，汽车。”韦斯莱夫人眼里冒着火，“想想看，一个巫师买了辆生锈的旧汽车，对他妻子说他只想把它拆开，看看内部的构造，可实际上他用魔法把它变成了一辆会飞的汽车。”

“He’s back!” said George. “Dad’s home!”

韦斯莱先生眨了眨眼。

They hurried through the garden and back into the house.

“哦，亲爱的，我想你会发现他这样做并没有违法，尽管他也许应该事先把真相告诉妻子……法律中有个漏洞，你会发现……只要他不打算用它飞行，汽车会飞这一事实并不……”

Mr. Weasley was slumped in a kitchen chair with his glasses off and his eyes closed. He was a thin man, going bald, but the little hair he had was as red as any of his children’s. He was wearing long green robes, which were dusty and travel-worn.

“亚瑟韦斯莱，你在写法律的时候故意留了一个漏洞！”韦斯莱夫人嚷道，“就为了能在你的棚子里捣鼓那些麻瓜的东西！告诉你，今天早上哈利就是坐那辆你不打算用它飞行的汽车来的！”

“What a night,” he mumbled, groping for the teapot as they all sat down around him. “Nine raids. Nine! And old Mundungus Fletcher tried to put a hex on me when I had my back turned. . . .”

“哈利？”韦斯莱先生茫然地问道，“哪个哈利？”他环顾四周，看到了哈利，马上跳起来。“老天爷，是哈利波特吗？见到你非常高兴，罗恩对我们讲了你的那么多——”

Mr. Weasley took a long gulp of tea and sighed.

“你儿子昨晚开着那辆车，飞到哈列家把他接了过来！”韦斯莱夫人嚷道，“你有什么话说，嗯？”

“Find anything, Dad?” said Fred eagerly.

“真的吗？”韦斯莱先生忙问，“它飞得好吗？我——我是说，”看到韦斯莱夫人眼里射出的怒火，他连忙改口，“这是很不对的，孩子们，非常非常不对……”

“All I got were a few shrinking door keys and a biting kettle,” yawned Mr. Weasley. “There was some pretty nasty stuff that wasn’t my department, though. Mortlake was taken away for questioning about some extremely odd ferrets, but that’s the Committee on Experimental Charms, thank goodness. . . .”

韦斯莱夫人像牛蛙似的鼓起胸脯。

“Why would anyone bother making door keys shrink?” said George.

“让他们去吵吧，”罗恩悄悄对哈利说，“来，我带你去看我的卧室。”

“Just Muggle-baiting,” sighed Mr. Weasley. “Sell them a key that keeps shrinking to nothing so they can never find it when they need it. . . . Of course, it’s very hard to convict anyone because no Muggle would admit their key keeps shrinking — they’ll insist they just keep losing it. Bless them, they’ll go to any lengths to ignore magic, even if it’s staring them in the face. . . . But the things our lot have taken to enchanting, you wouldn’t believe —”

他们溜出厨房，穿过窄窄的过道，来到一段高低不平的楼梯前。楼梯曲折盘旋，三层的楼梯口有一扇门半开着。哈利刚瞥见一双明亮的棕色眼睛在盯着他，门就咔哒一声关上了。

“LIKE CARS, FOR INSTANCE?”

“是金妮，”罗恩说，“你不知道，她这样害羞真是不可思议，她平常从来不关门的——”

Mrs. Weasley had appeared, holding a long poker like a sword. Mr. Weasley’s eyes jerked open. He stared guiltily at his wife.

他们又爬了两层，来到一扇油漆剥落的房门前，门上有块小牌子写着“罗恩的房间”。

“C-cars, Molly, dear?”

哈利走了进去，倾斜的天花板几乎碰到了他的头。他觉得有点晃眼，好像走进了一个大火炉，罗恩房里所有的东西看上去都是一种耀眼的橙黄色，床罩、墙壁，甚至天花板。然后哈利发现，原来罗恩把破旧墙纸上的几乎每寸地方都用海报贴住了，所有的海报上都是同样的七位女巫和男巫，穿着一色鲜艳的橙黄色长袍，扛着飞天扫帚，兴高采烈地挥手。

“Yes, Arthur, cars,” said Mrs. Weasley, her eyes flashing. “Imagine a wizard buying a rusty old car and telling his wife all he wanted to do with it was take it apart to see how it worked, while really he was enchanting it to make it fly.”

“你的魁地奇球队？”哈利说。

Mr. Weasley blinked.

“查德里火炮队，”罗恩一指橙黄色的床罩，那上面鲜艳地印着两个巨大的字母Ｃ①，还有一枚疾飞的炮弹，“俱乐部中排名第九。”

“Well, dear, I think you’ll find that he would be quite within the law to do that, even if — er — he maybe would have done better to, um, tell his wife the truth. . . . There’s a loophole in the law, you’ll find. . . . As long as he wasn’t intending to fly the car, the fact that the car could fly wouldn’t —”

罗恩的魔法课本零乱地堆在屋角，旁边是一些连环画册，好像都是《疯麻瓜马丁·米格斯历险记》。罗恩的魔杖搁在窗台上的一口大鱼缸上，缸里养了很多蛙卵。他的灰毛胖老鼠斑斑躺在鱼缸旁的一片阳光里打着呼噜。

“Arthur Weasley, you made sure there was a loophole when you wrote that law!” shouted Mrs. Weasley. “Just so you could carry on tinkering with all that Muggle rubbish in your shed! And for your information, Harry arrived this morning in the car you weren’t intending to fly!”

哈利跨过地板上一副自动洗牌的纸牌，朝小窗外面望去。他看见在下面的地里，一群地精正在一个接一个地偷偷钻进韦斯莱家的树篱。然后他转过身来，发现罗恩正有点紧张地看着他，好像等着他的评价。

“Harry?” said Mr. Weasley blankly. “Harry who?”

“小了点儿，”罗恩急急地说，“比不上你在麻瓜家的那间。我上面就是阁楼，里面住着那个食尸鬼，他老是敲管子，哼哼叽叽……”

He looked around, saw Harry, and jumped.

可哈利愉快地笑了，说：“这是我见过的最好的房间。”罗恩的耳朵红了。

“Good lord, is it Harry Potter? Very pleased to meet you, Ron’s told us so much about —”

①“查德里火炮队”的英文是两个以Ｃ开头的单词。

“Your sons flew that car to Harry’s house and back last night!” shouted Mrs. Weasley. “What have you got to say about that, eh?”

“Did you really?” said Mr. Weasley eagerly. “Did it go all right? I — I mean,” he faltered as sparks flew from Mrs. Weasley’s eyes, “that — that was very wrong, boys — very wrong indeed. . . .”

“Let’s leave them to it,” Ron muttered to Harry as Mrs. Weasley swelled like a bullfrog. “Come on, I’ll show you my bedroom.”

They slipped out of the kitchen and down a narrow passageway to an uneven staircase, which wound its way, zigzagging up through the house. On the third landing, a door stood ajar. Harry just caught sight of a pair of bright brown eyes staring at him before it closed with a snap.

“Ginny,” said Ron. “You don’t know how weird it is for her to be this shy. She never shuts up normally —”

They climbed two more flights until they reached a door with peeling paint and a small plaque on it, saying ronald’s room.

Harry stepped in, his head almost touching the sloping ceiling, and blinked. It was like walking into a furnace: Nearly everything in Ron’s room seemed to be a violent shade of orange: the bedspread, the walls, even the ceiling. Then Harry realized that Ron had covered nearly every inch of the shabby wallpaper with posters of the same seven witches and wizards, all wearing bright orange robes, carrying broomsticks, and waving energetically.

“Your Quidditch team?” said Harry.

“The Chudley Cannons,” said Ron, pointing at the orange bedspread, which was emblazoned with two giant black C’s and a speeding cannonball. “Ninth in the league.”

Ron’s school spellbooks were stacked untidily in a corner, next to a pile of comics that all seemed to feature The Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle. Ron’s magic wand was lying on top of a fish tank full of frog spawn on the windowsill, next to his fat gray rat, Scabbers, who was snoozing in a patch of sun.

Harry stepped over a pack of Self-Shuffling playing cards on the floor and looked out of the tiny window. In the field far below he could see a gang of gnomes sneaking one by one back through the Weasleys’ hedge. Then he turned to look at Ron, who was watching him almost nervously, as though waiting for his opinion.

“It’s a bit small,” said Ron quickly. “Not like that room you had with the Muggles. And I’m right underneath the ghoul in the attic; he’s always banging on the pipes and groaning. . . .”

But Harry, grinning widely, said, “This is the best house I’ve ever been in.”

Ron’s ears went pink.