8 The Potions Master

CHAPTER EIGHT THE POTIONS MASTER There, look." "Where?" "Next to the tall kid with the red hair." "Wearing the glasses?" "Did you see his face?" "Did you see his scar?" Whispers followed Harry from the moment he left his dormitory the next day. People lining up

第八章魔药课老师看那儿。” “在哪里?”“挨着那个红头发的高个孩子。” “戴着眼镜？”“你看到他的脸了吗？”“你看到他的伤疤了吗？”第二天，从哈利离开宿舍的那一刻起，窃窃私语就跟着他。 人们在排队

outside classrooms stood on tiptoe to get a look at him, or doubled back to pass him in the corridors again, staring. Harry wished they wouldn't, because he was trying to concentrate on finding his way to classes. There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and Harry was sure the coats of armor could walk. The ghosts didn't help, either. It was always a nasty shock when one of them glided suddenly

在教室外面，踮起脚尖看他一眼，或者在走廊里再次从他身边走过，回头盯着他看。 哈利希望他们不要这样做，因为他正在集中精力寻找去上课的路。 霍格沃茨一共有一百四十二级楼梯：又宽又干净；又窄又摇摇晃晃的；有些在星期五通往不同的地方；有些中途有一个消失的台阶，你必须记住要跳下去。 还有一些门，除非你礼貌地请求，或者在合适的地方挠痒痒，否则它们是不会打开的，还有一些门根本就不是门，而是假装成结实的墙。 也很难记住任何东西在哪里，因为它似乎到处移动。 肖像里的人不断地互相拜访，哈利相信这些盔甲是会走路的。 鬼魂也没帮上忙。 当他们中的一个突然滑行时，总是令人震惊不已

through a door you were trying to open. Nearly Headless Nick was always happy to point new Gryffindors in the right direction, but Peeves the Poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class. He would drop wastepaper baskets on your head, pull rugs from under your feet, pelt you with bits of chalk, or sneak up behind you, invisible, grab your nose, and screech, "GOT YOUR CONK!" Even worse than Peeves, if that was possible, was the caretaker, Argus Filch. Harry and Ron managed to get on the wrong side of him on their very first morning. Filch found them trying to force their way through a door that unluckily turned out to be the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor. He wouldn't believe they were lost, was sure they were trying to break into it on purpose, and was threatening to lock

从你试图打开的那扇门进来。 差点没头的尼克总是乐于给新来的格兰芬多学生指出正确的方向，但如果你在上课迟到的时候遇到皮皮鬼，他就值两扇上锁的门和一个恶作剧楼梯。 他会把废纸篓扔到你头上，从你脚下扯下地毯，向你扔粉笔，或者偷偷摸摸地从你身后走过去，抓住你的鼻子，尖叫着：“抓住你的鼻子了！”如果可能的话，比皮皮鬼更糟糕的是看守人阿格斯·费尔奇。 第一天早上，哈利和罗恩就设法惹恼了他。 费尔奇发现他们正试图挤进一扇门，但不幸的是，这扇门是通往三楼禁区走廊的入口。 他不相信他们迷路了，肯定他们是故意闯进来的，并威胁要锁门

them in the dungeons when they were rescued by Professor Quirrell, who was passing. Filch owned a cat called Mrs. Norris, a scrawny, dust-colored creature with bulging, lamplike eyes just like Filch's. She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she'd whisk off for Filch, who'd appear, wheezing, two seconds later. Filch knew the secret passageways of the school better than anyone (except perhaps the Weasley twins) and could pop up as suddenly as any of the ghosts. The students all hated him, and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs. Norris a good kick. And then, once you had managed to find them, there were the classes themselves. There was a lot more to magic, as Harry quickly found out, than waving your wand and saying a few funny words. They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of

在地牢里，他们被路过的奇洛教授救了出来。 费尔奇养了一只猫，名叫洛丽丝夫人，骨瘦如柴，灰蒙蒙的，眼睛鼓鼓的，像费尔奇的一样。 她独自在走廊里巡逻。 在她面前打破规矩，只要有一个脚趾不守规矩，她就会飞快地跑去找费尔奇，两秒钟后费尔奇就会气喘吁吁地出现。 费尔奇比任何人都熟悉学校的秘密通道（也许韦斯莱家的双胞胎除外），他可以像鬼魂一样突然出现。 学生们都讨厌他，许多人最大的愿望就是狠狠地踢洛丽丝夫人一脚。 然后，一旦你找到了它们，就是课程本身了。 哈利很快就发现，魔法远不止挥动魔杖说几句有趣的话那么简单。 每周三午夜，他们必须通过望远镜研究夜空，学习不同恒星的名字和它们的运动

the planets. Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for. Easily the most boring class was History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staffroom fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates, and got Emeric the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up. Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of their first class he took the roll call, and when he reached Harry's name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight.

的行星。他们每星期有三次到城堡后面的温室去学习草药学，师从一个矮胖的小女巫，名叫斯普劳特教授。在那里，他们学会了如何照料各种奇怪的植物和真菌，并弄清楚它们的用途。 最无聊的课当然是魔法史，这是唯一一门由鬼魂教授的课。 宾斯教授在教工休息室的火炉前睡着了，第二天早上起来上课时，把自己的身体抛在了身后，他确实已经很老了。 宾斯絮叨个不停，他们草草记下了名字和日期，把邪恶的埃默里克和古怪的尤里克搞混了。 魔咒课的老师弗立维教授是个身材矮小的男巫，他必须站在一堆书上才能从桌子上往下看。 第一节课开始时，他点了名，念到哈利的名字时，他兴奋地叫了一声，摔倒在地不见了。

Professor McGonagall was again different. Harry had been quite right to think she wasn't a teacher to cross. Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first class. "Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned." Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time. After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Hermione Granger had made any difference to her match; Professor McGonagall

麦格教授又变了。 哈利认为她不是个好欺负的老师，这是完全正确的。 在她的第一节课上，学生们一坐下，她就严厉而聪明地训斥了他们一番。 “变形术是你在霍格沃茨学到的最复杂、最危险的魔法之一。” “任何在我的课上捣乱的人都会离开，再也不会回来。 我已经警告过你了。”然后她把她的桌子变成了一头猪，然后又变了回来。 他们都印象深刻，迫不及待地想动手，但很快就意识到，他们在很长一段时间内不会把家具变成动物。 在做了许多复杂的笔记后，他们每人得到一根火柴，开始尝试把它变成一根针。 到这节课结束时，只有赫敏·格兰杰对她的比赛起了作用。麦格教授