24 Rita Skeeter’s Scoop

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR Rita Skeeter's Scoop Everybody got up late on Boxing Day. The Gryffindor common room was much quieter than it had been lately, many yawns punctuating the lazy conversations. Hermione's hair was bushy again; she confessed to Harry that she had used liberal amounts of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion on it for the ball, 'but it's way too much bother to do every day,' she said matter-of-factly, scratching a purring Crookshanks behind the ears. Ron and Hermione seemed to have reached an unspoken agreement not to discuss their argument. They were being quite friendly to each other, though oddly formal. Ron and Harry wasted no time in telling Hermione about the conversation

第二十四章丽塔·斯基特的独家新闻节礼日大家都起得很晚。 格兰芬多的公共休息室比最近安静多了，许多人打着哈欠，不时打断懒散的谈话。 赫敏的头发又变得浓密了。她向哈利承认，为了参加舞会，她在头发上洒了大量的灵动发剂，“但是每天都这样太麻烦了。”她轻描淡写地说，一边搔着克鲁克山的耳后。 罗恩和赫敏似乎达成了默契，不再讨论他们的争论。 他们对彼此都很友好，虽然有些拘谨。 罗恩和哈利立刻把这段对话告诉了赫敏

they had overheard between Madame Maxime and Hagrid, but Hermione didn't seem to find the news that Hagrid was a half-giant nearly as shocking as Ron did. 'Well, I thought he must be,' she said, shrugging. 'I knew he couldn't be pure giant, because they're about twenty feet tall. But honestly, all this hysteria about giants. They can't all be horrible… it's the same sort of prejudice that people have towards werewolves… it's just bigotry, isn't it?' Ron looked as though he would have liked to reply scathingly, but perhaps he didn't want another row, because he contented himself with shaking his head disbelievingly while Hermione wasn't looking. It was time now to think of the homework they had neglected during the first week of the holidays. Everybody seemed to be feeling rather flat, now that Christmas was over– everybody except Harry, that is, who was starting (once again) to feel slightly nervous.

他们无意中听到了马克西姆夫人和海格之间的谈话，但赫敏似乎并不像罗恩那样对海格是半个巨人的消息感到震惊。 “嗯，我想他一定是，”她耸耸肩说。 “我知道他不可能是纯巨人，因为他们大约有二十英尺高。 但说实话，所有这些关于巨人的歇斯底里。 “他们不可能都是可怕的……这和人们对狼人的偏见是一样的……只是一种偏执，不是吗？”罗恩似乎很想尖刻地回答，但也许他不想再吵一架，因为他趁赫敏不注意的时候，不相信地摇了摇头。 现在是时候想想他们在假期的第一个星期忽略的家庭作业了。 圣诞节已经过去了，每个人似乎都觉得很无聊——除了哈利，他又开始感到有点紧张了。

The trouble was that February the twenty-fourth looked a lot closer from this side of Christmas, and he still hadn't done anything about working out the clue inside the golden egg. He therefore started taking the egg out of his trunk every time he went up to the dormitory, opening it and listening intently, hoping that this time it would make some sense. He strained to think what the sound reminded him of, apart from thirty musical saws, but he had never heard anything else like it. He closed the egg, shook it vigorously, and opened it again to see if the sound had changed, but it hadn't. He tried asking the egg questions, shouting over all the wailing, but nothing happened. He even threw the egg across the room– though he hadn't really expected that to help. Harry had not forgotten the hint that Cedric had given him, but his less-than-friendly feelings towards Cedric just now meant that he was keen not to accept his help if he could avoid it. In any case, it seemed to him that if Cedric had really wanted to give Harry a hand, he would have been a lot more explicit. He, Harry, had told Cedric

问题是，从圣诞节的这一方面来看，2月24日似乎更近了，而他仍然没有做任何事情来解开金蛋里的线索。 因此，他开始每次去宿舍时都从箱子里拿出那颗蛋，打开它，专心地听，希望这次能有所收获。 他竭力想，除了三十把音乐锯之外，这声音还使他想起了什么，但他从来没有听到过这样的声音。 他合上蛋，使劲摇晃，然后又打开，想看看声音是否变了，但没有变。 他试着问蛋一些问题，在哀号声中大喊大叫，但什么也没发生。 他甚至把鸡蛋扔到房间的另一头——尽管他并不指望这有什么用。 哈利没有忘记塞德里克给他的暗示，但他刚才对塞德里克不那么友好的感情意味着，如果可以避免，他坚决不接受塞德里克的帮助。 无论如何，在他看来，如果塞德里克真的想帮助哈利的话，他应该更坦率地说出来。 他，哈利，告诉了塞德里克

exactly what was coming in the first task– and Cedric's idea of a fair exchange had been to tell Harry to take a bath. Well, he didn't need that sort of rubbishy help– not from someone who kept walking down corridors hand in hand with Cho, anyway. And so the first day of the new term arrived, and Harry set off to lessons, weighed down with books, parchment and quills as usual, but also with the lurking worry of the egg heavy in his stomach, as though he was carrying that around with him too. Snow was still thick upon the grounds, and the greenhouse windows were covered in condensation so thick that they couldn't see out of them in Herbology. Nobody was looking forward to Care of Magical Creatures much in this weather, though, as Ron said, the Skrewts would probably warm them up nicely, either by chasing them or by blasting off so forcefully that Hagrid's cabin caught fire. When they arrived at Hagrid's cabin, however, they found an elderly witch with closely cropped

就是第一个项目的内容——塞德里克认为公平的交换是让哈利洗个澡。 好吧，他不需要这种无用的帮助——反正他不需要一个一直和秋·张手拉手走过走廊的人的帮助。 就这样，新学期的第一天到了，哈利去上课了，他像往常一样带着沉重的书本、羊皮纸和羽毛笔，但同时也担心着那颗蛋沉在他的肚子里，好像他也随身带着它。 地面上的雪还很厚，温室的窗户上结满了厚厚的水珠，他们上草药课时根本看不见窗外。 在这样的天气里，谁也不怎么期待保护神奇生物课，不过，正如罗恩所说，炸尾螺可能会把他们热得暖暖的，要么追着他们，要么猛烈地炸开，把海格的小屋点着了。 然而，当他们来到海格的小屋时，他们发现了一个头发剪得很短的老女巫

grey hair and a very prominent chin standing before his front door. 'Hurry up, now, the bell rang five minutes ago,' she barked at them, as they struggled towards her through the snow. 'Who're you?' said Ron, staring at her. 'Where's Hagrid?' 'My name is Professor Grubbly-Plank,' she said briskly, 'I am your temporary Care of Magical Creatures teacher.' 'Where's Hagrid?' Harry repeated loudly. 'He is indisposed,' said Professor Grubbly- Plank shortly. Soft and unpleasant laughter reached Harry's ears. He turned; Draco Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherins were joining the class. All of them looked gleeful, and none of them looked surprised to see Professor Grubbly-Plank. 'This way, please,' said Professor Grubbly- Plank, and she strode off around the paddock where the huge Beauxbatons horses were shivering. Harry, Ron and Hermione followed her,

白发苍苍，下巴突出，站在门前。 “快点，铃五分钟前就响了。”她对他们吼道，他们在雪地里挣扎着朝她走来。 “你是谁?罗恩瞪着她说。 “海格在哪里?“我是格拉普兰教授，”她轻快地说，“我是你们保护神奇生物课的临时老师。“海格在哪儿？”哈利大声重复道。 “他不舒服。”格拉普兰教授简短地说。 哈利的耳朵里传来了柔和而不愉快的笑声。 他转过身去;德拉科·马尔福和斯莱特林的其他学生也加入了这个班级。 大家都显得很高兴，看到格拉普兰教授，谁也没有感到惊讶。 “请这边走。”格拉普兰教授说，然后大步绕过围场，布斯巴顿的大马在那里瑟瑟发抖。 哈利、罗恩和赫敏跟着她，

looking back over their shoulders at Hagrid's cabin. All the curtains were closed. Was Hagrid in there, alone and ill? 'What's wrong with Hagrid?' Harry said, hurrying to catch up with Professor Grubbly- Plank. 'Never you mind,' she said, as though she thought he was being nosy. 'I do mind, though,' said Harry hotly. 'What's up with him?' Professor Grubbly-Plank acted as though she couldn't hear him. She led them past the paddock where the Beauxbatons horses were standing, huddled against the cold, and towards a tree on the edge of the Forest, where a large and beautiful unicorn was tethered. Many of the girls 'ooooohed!' at the sight of the unicorn. 'Oh, it's so beautiful!' whispered Lavender Brown. 'How did she get it? They're supposed to be really hard to catch!'

他们回头望着海格的小屋。 所有的窗帘都拉上了。 海格在里面吗，一个人生病了？ “海格怎么了？”哈利说，急忙追赶格拉普兰教授。 “你别管，”她说，好像她觉得他在多管闲事似的。 “不过我确实介意。”哈利愤怒地说。 “他怎么啦？”格拉普兰教授表现得好像没听见他说话似的。 她领着他们走过围场，布斯巴顿的马站在那里，蜷缩在一起御寒，他们朝禁林边上的一棵树走去，树上拴着一只又大又漂亮的独角兽。 许多女孩都发出“呜呜”的声音！一看到独角兽。 “哦，太漂亮了！”拉文德·布朗小声说。 “她是怎么得到的？”它们应该是很难抓到的！”