21 The Eye of the Snake

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE The Eye of the Snake Hermione ploughed her way back to Hagrid's cabin through two feet of snow on Sunday morning. Harry and Ron wanted to go with her, but their mountain of homework had reached an alarming height again, so they remained grudgingly in the common room, trying to ignore the gleeful shouts drifting up from the grounds outside, where students were enjoying themselves skating on the frozen lake, tobogganing and, worst of all, bewitching snowballs to zoom up to Gryffindor Tower and rap hard on the windows. 'Oi!' bellowed Ron, finally losing patience and sticking his head out of the window, 'I am a

第二十一章蛇眼星期天早晨，赫敏踏着两英尺厚的雪，艰难地回到海格的小屋。 哈利和罗恩想和她一起去，但堆积如山的家庭作业又达到了惊人的程度，所以他们勉强留在公共休息室里，尽量不去理会从外面操场上飘来的欢快的喊叫声。学生们在结冰的湖面上滑冰，在雪橇上滑行，最糟糕的是，他们在用魔法使雪球飞到格兰芬多塔楼上，猛烈地敲打着窗户。 “Oi !罗恩吼道，终于失去了耐心，把头伸出窗外，“我是一个

prefect and if one more snowball hits this window– OUCH!' He withdrew his head sharply, his face covered in snow. 'It's Fred and George,' he said bitterly, slamming the window behind him. 'Gits…' Hermione returned from Hagrid's just before lunch, shivering slightly, her robes damp to the knees. 'So?' said Ron, looking up when she entered. 'Got all his lessons planned for him?' 'Well, I tried,' she said dully, sinking into a chair beside Harry. She pulled out her wand and gave it a complicated little wave so that hot air streamed out of the tip; she then pointed this at her robes, which began to steam as they dried out. 'He wasn't even there when I arrived, I was knocking for at least half an hour. And then he came stumping out of the Forest–' Harry groaned. The Forbidden Forest was teeming with the kind of creatures most likely to get Hagrid the sack. 'What's he keeping in there? Did he say?' he asked.

级长，如果再有一个雪球砸到这扇窗户——哎哟！”他猛地缩回头来，脸上全是雪。 “是弗雷德和乔治。”他痛苦地说，砰地关上了身后的窗户。 赫敏午饭前刚从海格那儿回来，微微发抖，袍子一直湿到膝盖。 “所以?她进来时，罗恩抬起头问。 “把他所有的课程都计划好了吗？”“嗯，我试过了。”她沉闷地说，一屁股坐在哈利旁边的椅子上。 她抽出魔杖，复杂地轻轻一挥，热空气就从尖端流出来了。然后她用手指着自己的袍子，袍子变干后开始冒蒸汽。 “我到的时候他都不在，我敲了至少半个小时。 然后他笨重地走出禁林——”哈利呻吟道。 禁林里到处都是最有可能让海格被解雇的动物。 “他在里面放了什么？” 他说了吗？他问。

'No,' said Hermione miserably. 'He says he wants them to be a surprise. I tried to explain about Umbridge, but he just doesn't get it. He kept saying nobody in their right mind would rather study Knarls than Chimaeras– oh, I don't think he's got a Chimaera,' she added at the appalled look on Harry and Ron's faces, 'but that's not for lack of trying, from what he said about how hard it is to get eggs. I don't know how many times I told him he'd be better off following Grubbly-Plank's plan, I honestly don't think he listened to half of what I said. He's in a bit of a funny mood, you know. He still won't say how he got all those injuries.' Hagrid's reappearance at the staff table at breakfast next day was not greeted by enthusiasm from all students. Some, like Fred, George and Lee, roared with delight and sprinted up the aisle between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables to wring Hagrid's enormous hand; others, like Parvati and Lavender, exchanged gloomy looks and shook their heads. Harry knew that many of them preferred Professor Grubbly-Plank's lessons,

“没有。”赫敏痛苦地说。 他说他希望这些礼物能给他一个惊喜。 我试着解释乌姆里奇的事，但他就是不明白。 他一直说，脑子正常的人都不愿意研究猫，而宁愿研究金美拉——哦，我觉得他没有金美拉，”看到哈利和罗恩脸上惊恐的表情，她又说，“但这并不是因为他没有努力，他说过要得到鸡蛋有多困难。 我不知道跟他说过多少次，他还是按照格拉普兰的计划去做比较好，说实话，我觉得他根本没听进去我说的话。 你知道，他心情有点怪。 他仍然不肯说他是怎么受伤的。”第二天早餐时，海格再次出现在教工餐桌上，但并不是所有的学生都热情地欢迎他。 有些人，比如弗雷德、乔治和李，高兴地大吼起来，冲到格兰芬多和赫奇帕奇桌子之间的过道上，紧紧地握着海格的大手；其他人，比如帕瓦蒂和拉文德，交换了阴沉的目光，摇了摇头。 哈利知道他们许多人更喜欢格拉普兰教授的课，

and the worst of it was that a very small, unbiased part of him knew that they had good reason: Grubbly-Plank's idea of an interesting class was not one where there was a risk that somebody might have their head ripped off. It was with a certain amount of apprehension that Harry, Ron and Hermione headed down to Hagrid's on Tuesday, heavily muffled against the cold. Harry was worried, not only about what Hagrid might have decided to teach them, but also about how the rest of the class, particularly Malfoy and his cronies, would behave if Umbridge was watching them. However, the High Inquisitor was nowhere to be seen as they struggled through the snow towards Hagrid, who stood waiting for them on the edge of the Forest. He did not present a reassuring sight; the bruises that had been purple on Saturday night were now tinged with green and yellow and some of his cuts still seemed to be bleeding. Harry could not understand this: had Hagrid perhaps been attacked by some creature whose venom prevented the wounds it inflicted

最糟糕的是，他心里有一小部分不带偏见的人知道，他们有充分的理由：格拉普兰认为的有趣的课，并不是那种有可能把某人的脑袋扯下来的课。 星期二，哈利、罗恩和赫敏裹着厚厚的围巾，带着一定程度的忧虑去了海格家。 哈利很担心，不仅担心海格可能决定教他们什么，而且担心如果乌姆里奇在监视他们，班上的其他人，尤其是马尔福和他的亲信们会怎么做。 然而，当他们在雪地里挣扎着走向站在禁林边缘等着他们的海格时，高级调查官却不见了踪影。 他的样子并不令人放心；周六晚上紫色的瘀伤现在变成了绿色和黄色，有些伤口似乎还在流血。 哈利不明白这是怎么回事：是不是海格遭到了某种生物的攻击，这种生物的毒液阻止了它造成的伤口

from healing? As though to complete the ominous picture, Hagrid was carrying what looked like half a dead cow over his shoulder. 'We're workin' in here today!' Hagrid called happily to the approaching students, jerking his head back at the dark trees behind him. 'Bit more sheltered! Anyway, they prefer the dark.' 'What prefers the dark?' Harry heard Malfoy say sharply to Crabbe and Goyle, a trace of panic in his voice. 'What did he say prefers the dark– did you hear?' Harry remembered the only other occasion on which Malfoy had entered the Forest before now; he had not been very brave then, either. He smiled to himself; after the Quidditch match anything that caused Malfoy discomfort was all right with him. 'Ready?' said Hagrid cheerfully, looking around at the class. 'Right, well, I've bin savin' a trip inter the Forest fer yer fifth year. Thought we'd go an' see these creatures in their natural habitat. Now, what we're studyin' today is pretty rare, I reckon I'm probably the on'y person in Britain who's managed ter train 'em.'

从治疗?似乎是为了使这幅不祥的画面更加完整，海格肩上还扛着半头死牛。 “我们今天在这里工作！”海格高兴地对走过来的学生们喊道，一边回头望着身后黑黢黢的树林。 “更隐蔽一点！”不管怎样，它们更喜欢黑暗。“什么东西喜欢黑暗？”哈利听见马尔福厉声对克拉布和高尔说，声音里透着一丝惊慌。 “他说什么更喜欢黑暗——你听到了吗？”哈利想起了马尔福在这之前唯一一次进入禁林的情景。那时他也不是很勇敢。 他暗自发笑；魁地奇比赛之后，任何让马尔福感到不舒服的事情他都无所谓。 “准备好了吗?海格环顾着全班同学，高兴地说。 “好吧，好吧，我省下了五年级以后到禁林旅行的时间。 我想我们应该去看看这些生物在它们的自然栖息地。 现在，我们今天学习的是非常罕见的，我想我可能是英国唯一一个训练它们的人。”

'And you're sure they're trained, are you?' said Malfoy, the panic in his voice even more pronounced. 'Only it wouldn't be the first time you'd brought wild stuff to class, would it?' The Slytherins murmured agreement and a few Gryffindors looked as though they thought Malfoy had a fair point, too. 'Course they're trained,' said Hagrid, scowling and hoisting the dead cow a little higher on his shoulder. 'So what happened to your face, then?' demanded Malfoy. 'Mind yer own business!' said Hagrid, angrily. 'Now, if yeh've finished askin' stupid questions, follow me!' He turned and strode straight into the Forest. Nobody seemed much disposed to follow. Harry glanced at Ron and Hermione, who sighed but nodded, and the three of them set off after Hagrid, leading the rest of the class. They walked for about ten minutes until they reached a place where the trees stood so closely together that it was as dark as twilight and there

“你肯定他们受过训练，是吗？”马尔福说，声音里的恐慌更加明显了。 “不过这不是你第一次把野东西带到课堂上，对吧？”斯莱特林的学生低声表示同意，有几个格兰芬多的学生似乎也认为马尔福说得有理。 “它们当然受过训练。”海格说着，皱着眉头，把死牛在肩上抬得更高一些。 “那你的脸怎么了？”马尔福问。 “管好你自己的事！”海格生气地说。 “好了，如果你们问完了愚蠢的问题，跟我来！”他转过身，大步走进禁林。 似乎没有人愿意跟随。 哈利瞥了罗恩和赫敏一眼，他们叹了口气，点点头。三个人领着全班同学跟着海格走了。 他们走了大约十分钟，来到了一个地方，那里的树木密密地簇拥在一起，像暮色一样黑暗