26 The Second Task

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX The Second Task 'You said you'd already worked out that egg clue!' said Hermione indignantly. 'Keep your voice down!' said Harry crossly. 'I just need to– sort of fine-tune it, all right?' He, Ron and Hermione were sitting at the very back of the Charms class with a table to themselves. They were supposed to be practising the opposite of the Summoning Charm today– the Banishing Charm. Owing to the potential for nasty accidents when objects kept flying across the room, Professor Flitwick had given each student a stack of cushions on which to practise, the theory being that these wouldn't hurt anyone if they went off target. It was a good theory, but it wasn't

第二十六章第二个项目“你说你已经找到了那个蛋的线索！赫敏气愤地说。 “小声点！”哈利生气地说。 “我只需要——稍微调整一下，好吗？”他、罗恩和赫敏坐在魔咒课的最后面，各自有一张桌子。 他们今天应该练习与飞来咒相反的咒——驱逐咒。 由于物体不停地在房间里飞来飞去，有可能发生严重的事故，弗立维教授给了每个学生一堆靠垫，让他们在上面练习。他的理论是，即使这些靠垫偏离了目标，也不会伤害到任何人。 这是一个很好的理论，但事实并非如此

working very well. Neville's aim was so poor that he kept accidentally sending much heavier things flying across the room– Professor Flitwick, for instance. 'Just forget the egg for a minute, all right?' Harry hissed, as Professor Flitwick went whizzing resignedly past them, landing on top of a large cabinet. 'I'm trying to tell you about Snape and Moody…' This class was ideal cover for a private conversation, as everyone was having far too much fun to pay them any attention. Harry had been recounting his adventures of the previous night in whispered instalments for the last half an hour. 'Snape said Moody's searched his office as well?' Ron whispered, his eyes alight with interest as he Banished a cushion with a sweep of his wand (it soared into the air and knocked Parvati's hat off). 'What… d'you reckon Moody's here to keep an eye on Snape as well as Karkaroff?' 'Well, I dunno if that's what Dumbledore asked him to do, but he's definitely doing it,' said Harry,

工作得很好。纳威的准星太差了，总是不小心把重得多的东西飞到屋子的另一边——比如弗立维教授。 “先把蛋忘了，好吗？”哈利小声说，弗立维教授听天由命地从他们身边呼啸而过，落在一个大柜子顶上。 “我想告诉你斯内普和穆迪的事……”这堂课是进行私人谈话的理想掩护，因为每个人都玩得很开心，根本没有注意到他们。 在过去的半个小时里，哈利一直在低声讲述他前一天晚上的冒险经历。 “斯内普说穆迪也搜查了他的办公室？”罗恩小声说，眼睛里闪烁着兴趣的光芒，他一挥魔杖把一个垫子驱逐了出去（它飞到空中，把帕瓦蒂的帽子撞掉了）。 “什么……你认为穆迪在这里既监视卡卡洛夫，也监视斯内普吗？”“嗯，我不知道这是不是邓布利多让他做的，但他肯定在做。”哈利说，

waving his wand without paying much attention, so that his cushion did an odd sort of belly flop off the desk. 'Moody said Dumbledore only lets Snape stay here because he's giving him a second chance or something…' 'What?' said Ron, his eyes widening, his next cushion spinning high into the air, ricocheting off the chandelier and dropping heavily onto Flitwick's desk. 'Harry… maybe Moody thinks Snape put your name in the Goblet of Fire!' 'Oh, Ron,' said Hermione, shaking her head sceptically, 'we thought Snape was trying to kill Harry before, and it turned out he was saving Harry's life, remember?' She Banished a cushion and it flew across the room and landed in the box they were all supposed to be aiming at. Harry looked at Hermione, thinking… it was true that Snape had saved his life once, but the odd thing was, Snape definitely loathed him, just as he'd loathed Harry's father when they had been at school together. Snape loved taking points from Harry, and had certainly never missed an opportunity to give him

他漫不经心地挥舞着魔杖，弄得他的坐垫奇怪地从桌子上掉了下来。 “穆迪说邓布利多让斯内普留在这里，只是因为他想给他第二次机会什么的……”罗恩说，眼睛睁得大大的，他的下一个坐垫旋转着飞到空中，从枝形吊灯上弹回来，重重地落在弗立维的桌子上。 “哈利……也许穆迪认为斯内普把你的名字放进了火焰杯！”“哦，罗恩，”赫敏说，怀疑地摇着头，“我们以前以为斯内普想杀哈利，结果他救了哈利的命，记得吗？”她赶走了一个垫子，它飞过房间，落在了他们应该瞄准的盒子里。 哈利看着赫敏，心想……斯内普确实救过他一次命，但奇怪的是，斯内普绝对讨厌他，就像他们一起上学时他讨厌哈利的父亲一样。 斯内普喜欢给哈利扣分，而且从不放过任何一个给他扣分的机会

punishments, or even to suggest that he should be suspended from the school. 'I don't care what Moody says,' Hermione went on, 'Dumbledore's not stupid. He was right to trust Hagrid and Professor Lupin, even though loads of people wouldn't have given them jobs, so why shouldn't he be right about Snape, even if Snape is a bit–' '–evil,' said Ron promptly. 'Come on, Hermione, why are all these Dark-wizard-catchers searching his office, then?' 'Why has Mr Crouch been pretending to be ill?' said Hermione, ignoring Ron. 'It's a bit funny, isn't it, that he can't manage to come to the Yule Ball, but he can get up here in the middle of the night when he wants to?' 'You just don't like Crouch because of that elf, Winky,' said Ron, sending a cushion soaring into the window. 'You just want to think Snape's up to something,' said Hermione, sending her cushion zooming neatly into the box.

惩罚，甚至建议他应该从学校停学。 “我不在乎穆迪说什么，”赫敏接着说，“邓布利多不傻。 他相信海格和卢平教授是对的，尽管很多人都不会给他们工作，那么他对斯内普的看法为什么就不能正确呢，尽管斯内普有点——” “得了吧，赫敏，那这些黑巫师捕手为什么要搜查他的办公室呢？”“克劳奇先生为什么要装病？”赫敏说，没理罗恩。 “真有点奇怪，是不是？他不能来参加圣诞舞会，但他却可以在半夜里想来就来？”“你就是因为那个小精灵才不喜欢克劳奇的，闪闪。”罗恩说着，一个垫子飞进了窗户。 “你只是想认为斯内普在搞什么鬼。”赫敏说，把她的坐垫嗖地一声放进了盒子里。

'I just want to know what Snape did with his first chance, if he's on his second one,' said Harry grimly, and his cushion, to his very great surprise, flew straight across the room, and landed neatly on top of Hermione's. Obedient to Sirius' wish of hearing about anything odd at Hogwarts, Harry sent him a letter by brown owl that night, explaining all about Mr Crouch breaking into Snape's office, and Moody and Snape's conversation. Then Harry turned his attention in earnest to the most urgent problem facing him: how to survive underwater for an hour on the twenty-fourth of February. Ron quite liked the idea of using the Summoning Charm again– Harry had explained about aqualungs, and Ron couldn't see why Harry shouldn't Summon one from the nearest Muggle town. Hermione squashed this plan by pointing out that, in the unlikely event that Harry managed to learn how to operate an aqualung within the set limit of an hour, he was sure to be disqualified for breaking the International Code of Wizarding

“我只想知道斯内普第一次有机会时做了什么，如果他有第二次机会的话。”哈利严肃地说，他的坐垫径直飞过房间，落在赫敏的坐垫上，这使他大吃一惊。 小天狼星希望听到霍格沃茨有什么怪事发生，哈利遵照他的意愿，那天晚上让一只棕色猫头鹰给他写了一封信，解释了克劳奇先生闯入斯内普办公室的事情，以及穆迪和斯内普的谈话。 然后，哈利把注意力集中到他面临的最紧迫的问题上：如何在2月24日在水下生存一个小时。 罗恩很喜欢再次使用飞来咒——哈利已经解释过关于水龙的事，罗恩不明白哈利为什么不能从最近的麻瓜城镇召唤一只水龙。 赫敏粉碎了这个计划，她指出，即使哈利在规定的一小时内学会了如何操作潜水器，他也肯定会因为违反《国际巫师法典》而被取消资格

Secrecy– it was too much to hope that no Muggles would spot an aqualung zooming across the countryside to Hogwarts. 'Of course, the ideal solution would be for you to Transfigure yourself into a submarine or something,' she said. 'If only we'd done human Transfiguration already! But I don't think we start that until sixth year, and it can go badly wrong if you don't know what you're doing…' 'Yeah, I don't fancy walking around with a periscope sticking out of my head,' said Harry. 'I s'pose I could always attack someone in front of Moody, he might do it for me…' 'I don't think he'd let you choose what you wanted to be turned into, though,' said Hermione seriously. 'No, I think your best chance is some sort of charm.' So Harry, thinking that he would soon have had enough of the library to last him a lifetime, buried himself once more among the dusty volumes, looking for any spell that might enable a human to survive without oxygen. However, though he, Ron and Hermione searched through their lunchtimes,

保密——希望没有麻瓜发现一条水龙呼啸着穿过乡间向霍格沃茨飞来，这太不现实了。 “当然，最理想的解决办法是把自己变形成潜水艇之类的东西，”她说。 “要是我们已经上过人体变形课就好了！”“是啊，我可不想脑袋里露出一个潜望镜到处走。”哈利说，“如果你不知道自己在做什么，就会出大问题。” “我想我总是可以当着穆迪的面攻击别人，他也许会替我这么做的……”“不过，我想他不会让你选择自己想变成什么。”赫敏严肃地说。 “不，我认为你最好的机会是某种魅力。”哈利以为很快就会对图书馆有足够的了解，够用一辈子了，于是他又一次把自己埋在满是灰尘的书堆里，寻找能让人在没有氧气的情况下存活下来的咒语。 然而，尽管他、罗恩和赫敏在午餐时间到处搜寻，