14 Percy and Padfoot

CHAPTER FOURTEEN Percy and Padfoot Harry was first to wake up in his dormitory next morning. He lay for a moment watching dust swirl in the ray of sunlight coming through the gap in his four-poster's hangings, and savoured the thought that it was Saturday. The first week of term seemed to have dragged on for ever, like one gigantic History of Magic lesson. Judging by the sleepy silence and the freshly minted look of that beam of sunlight, it was just after daybreak. He pulled open the curtains around his bed, got up and started to dress. The only sound apart from the distant twittering of birds was the slow, deep breathing of his fellow Gryffindors. He opened his schoolbag carefully,

第十四章珀西和大脚板第二天早上哈利第一个在宿舍醒来。 他躺了一会儿，看着从他的四柱窗帘缝隙里射进来的阳光里的灰尘打着旋儿，想到今天是星期六，心里很高兴。 新学期的第一个星期似乎永远拖得很长，就像一节巨大的魔法史课。 从睡意沉沉的寂静和那束刚形成的阳光来看，天刚亮。 他拉开床边的窗帘，起身开始穿衣服。 除了远处鸟儿的啾啾声，惟一的声音就是格兰芬多同学们缓慢而深沉的呼吸声。 他小心地打开书包，

pulled out parchment and quill and headed out of the dormitory for the common room. Making straight for his favourite squashy old armchair beside the now extinct fire, Harry settled himself down comfortably and unrolled his parchment while looking around the room. The detritus of crumpled-up bits of parchment, old Gobstones, empty ingredient jars and sweet wrappers that usually covered the common room at the end of each day was gone, as were all Hermione's elf hats. Wondering vaguely how many elves had now been set free whether they wanted to be or not, Harry uncorked his ink bottle, dipped his quill into it, then held it suspended an inch above the smooth yellowish surface of his parchment, thinking hard… but after a minute or so he found himself staring into the empty grate, at a complete loss for what to say. He could now appreciate how hard it had been for Ron and Hermione to write him letters over the summer. How was he supposed to tell Sirius everything that had happened over the past week and pose all the questions he was burning to ask

抽出羊皮纸和羽毛笔，走出宿舍，到公共休息室去了。 哈利径直走向炉火旁他最喜欢的又软又旧的扶手椅，舒舒服服地坐了下来，展开羊皮纸，环视了一下房间。 每天结束时公共休息室里到处都是揉皱的羊皮纸、旧的戈布石、空的食材罐和糖纸，赫敏的所有小精灵帽子也不见了。 哈利模糊地想知道现在有多少小精灵被释放了，不管他们是否愿意，他打开墨水瓶，用羽毛笔蘸了蘸，然后把它悬在光滑的黄色羊皮纸表面上方一英寸的地方，苦思冥想……但过了一分钟左右，他发现自己盯着空荡荡的壁炉，完全不知道该说什么。 他现在可以体会到，罗恩和赫敏在整个夏天给他写信是多么不容易。 他怎么能把上个星期发生的一切都告诉小天狼星，把他急着想问的问题都提出来呢

without giving potential letter-thieves a lot of information he did not want them to have? He sat quite motionless for a while, gazing into the fireplace, then, finally coming to a decision, he dipped his quill into the ink bottle once more and set it resolutely on the parchment. Dear Snuffles, Hope you're OK, the first week back here's been terrible, I'm really glad it's the weekend. We've got a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Umbridge. She's nearly as nice as your mum. I'm writing because that thing I wrote to you about last summer happened again last night when I was doing a detention with Umbridge. We're all missing our biggest friend, we hope he'll be back soon. Please write back quickly. Best, Harry

不给潜在的偷信贼提供很多他不想让他们知道的信息？ 他一动不动地坐了一会儿，凝视着壁炉，然后终于做出了决定，他把羽毛笔再次浸入墨水瓶，坚决地把它放在羊皮纸上。 亲爱的Snuffles，希望你还好，回到这里的第一周太糟糕了，我真的很高兴周末到了。 我们有了一位新的黑魔法防御术老师，乌姆里奇教授。 她几乎和你妈妈一样好。 我写信是因为我去年夏天写给你的那件事昨晚又发生了，当时我正在乌姆里奇那里关禁闭。 我们都很想念我们最好的朋友，希望他能快点回来。 请尽快回信。 最好的,哈利

Harry reread the letter several times, trying to see it from the point of view of an outsider. He could not see how they would know what he was talking about– or who he was talking to– just from reading this letter. He did hope Sirius would pick up the hint about Hagrid and tell them when he might be back. Harry did not want to ask directly in case it drew too much attention to what Hagrid might be up to while he was not at Hogwarts. Considering it was a very short letter, it had taken a long time to write; sunlight had crept halfway across the room while he had been working on it and he could now hear distant sounds of movement from the dormitories above. Sealing the parchment carefully, he climbed through the portrait hole and headed off for the Owlery. 'I would not go that way if I were you,' said Nearly Headless Nick, drifting disconcertingly through a wall just ahead of Harry as he walked down the passage. ikcjeo. 'Peeves is planning an amusing

哈利把信重读了好几遍，试图从一个局外人的角度来看待它。 他不明白他们怎么可能仅仅从这封信上就知道他在说什么——或者他在和谁说话。 他真希望小天狼星能领会海格的暗示，告诉他们他什么时候会回来。 哈利不想直接问，以免引起别人对海格不在霍格沃茨时在干什么的过多注意。 考虑到这是一封很短的信，写起来花了很长时间；他正在整理的时候，阳光已经从屋子中间照了进来，他现在可以听到楼上宿舍远处传来的动静了。 他小心地封好羊皮纸，爬进肖像洞口，朝猫头鹰棚屋走去。 “如果我是你，我就不会走那条路。”差点没头的尼克说，他不安地从哈利前面的一堵墙里钻了出来。 “皮皮鬼正在策划一场有趣的

joke on the next person to pass the bust of Paracelsus halfway down the corridor.' 'Does it involve Paracelsus falling on top of the person's head?' asked Harry. 'Funnily enough, it does,' said Nearly Headless Nick in a bored voice. 'Subtlety has never been Peeves's strong point. I'm off to try and find the Bloody Baron… he might be able to put a stop to it… see you, Harry…' 'Yeah, bye,' said Harry and instead of turning right, he turned left, taking a longer but safer route up to the Owlery. His spirits rose as he walked past window after window showing brilliantly blue sky; he had training later, he would be back on the Quidditch pitch at last. Something brushed his ankles. He looked down and saw the caretaker's skeletal grey cat, Mrs Norris, slinking past him. She turned lamplike yellow eyes on him for a moment before disappearing behind a statue of Wilfred the Wistful. 'I'm not doing anything wrong,' Harry called after her. She had the unmistakeable air of a cat

开下一个从走廊中间经过巴拉塞尔士半身像的人的玩笑。“是巴拉塞尔士掉到那个人的头上吗？”哈利问。 “说来也怪。”差点没头的尼克不耐烦地说。 “狡猾从来都不是皮皮鬼的强项。 “是啊，再见，”哈利说，他没有向右拐，而是向左转，走了一条更长但更安全的路，朝猫头鹰棚屋走去。 当他走过一扇又一扇窗户，看到湛蓝的天空时，他的情绪高涨起来；如果他晚些时候训练，他就会回到魁地奇球场上。 有什么东西拂过他的脚踝。 他低下头，看见管理员那只骨瘦如柴的灰猫洛丽丝夫人从他身边溜过。 她那双像灯一样的黄眼睛盯着他看了一会儿，然后消失在一个爱思的威尔弗雷德的雕像后面。 “我没有做错什么。”哈利在她身后喊道。 毫无疑问，她有一只猫的神气

that was off to report to her boss, yet Harry could not see why; he was perfectly entitled to walk up to the Owlery on a Saturday morning. The sun was high in the sky now and when Harry entered the Owlery the glassless windows dazzled his eyes; thick silvery beams of sunlight criss-crossed the circular room in which hundreds of owls nestled on rafters, a little restless in the early-morning light, some clearly just returned from hunting. The straw-covered floor crunched a little as he stepped across tiny animal bones, craning his neck for a sight of Hedwig. 'There you are,' he said, spotting her somewhere near the very top of the vaulted ceiling. 'Get down here, I've got a letter for you.' With a low hoot she stretched her great white wings and soared down on to his shoulder. 'Right, I know this says Snuffles on the outside,' he told her, giving her the letter to clasp in her beak and, without knowing exactly why, whispering, 'but it's for Sirius, OK?' She blinked her amber eyes once and he took that to mean that she understood.

她要去向她的老板报告，但哈利不明白为什么；他完全有资格在星期六早晨走到猫头鹰棚屋去。 现在太阳已经高挂在天空中，哈利走进猫头鹰棚屋，那些没有玻璃的窗户使他眼花缭乱。浓密的银色阳光在圆形的房间里纵横交错，成百上千只猫头鹰栖息在椽子上，在清晨的光线中显得有些焦躁不安，其中一些显然刚刚打猎归来。 铺着稻草的地板嘎吱嘎吱地响着，他踩着小动物的骨头，伸长脖子想看一眼海德薇。 “你在这儿呢。”他说，在靠近拱形天花板最顶端的地方发现了她。 “快下来，我有一封信给你。”她低低地叫了一声，展开她那巨大的白色翅膀，飞到他的肩膀上。 “好吧，我知道外面写着‘鼻塞’，”他对她说，把信递给她，让她衔在嘴里，不知道为什么，又低声说，“但这是给小天狼星的，好吗？”她琥珀色的眼睛眨了一下，他以为她明白了。