12 Silver and Opals

CHAPTER TWELVE Silver and Opals Where was Dumbledore, and what was he doing? Harry caught sight of the Headmaster only twice over the next few weeks. He rarely appeared at meals any more, and Harry was sure Hermione was right in thinking that he was leaving the school for days at a time. Had Dumbledore forgotten the lessons he was supposed to be giving Harry? Dumbledore had said that the lessons were leading to something to do with the prophecy; Harry had felt bolstered, comforted, and now he felt slightly abandoned. Halfway through October came their first trip of the term to Hogsmeade. Harry had wondered whether these trips would still be allowed, given

第十二章银器和蛋白石邓布利多在哪里，他在做什么？ 在接下来的几个星期里，哈利只见过校长两次。 他已经很少在吃饭的时候出现了，哈利确信赫敏认为他一次要离开学校好几天是对的。 邓布利多是不是忘记了他应该给哈利上的课？ 邓布利多说过，这些课跟预言有关。哈利觉得自己受到了鼓舞和安慰，现在却有点被抛弃了。 十月中旬，他们本学期第一次去霍格莫德村。 哈利还在想，考虑到

the increasingly tight security measures around the school, but was pleased to know that they were going ahead; it was always good to get out of the castle grounds for a few hours. Harry woke early on the morning of the trip, which was proving stormy, and whiled away the time until breakfast by reading his copy of Advanced Potion-Making. He did not usually lie in bed reading his textbooks; that sort of behaviour, as Ron rightly said, was indecent in anybody except Hermione, who was simply weird that way. Harry felt, however, that the Half-Blood Prince's copy of Advanced Potion-Making hardly qualified as a textbook. The more Harry pored over the book, the more he realised how much was in there, not only the handy hints and short cuts on potions that were earning him such a glowing reputation with Slughorn, but also the imaginative little jinxes and hexes scribbled in the margins which Harry was sure, judging by the crossings- out and revisions, that the Prince had invented himself.

学校周围的安全措施越来越严密，但很高兴知道他们正在进行；离开城堡几个小时总是很不错的。 旅行的那天早上，暴风雨来袭，哈利起得很早，他看了看那本《高级魔药制作》，打发吃早饭前的时间。 他通常不躺在床上读课本；罗恩说得很对，这种行为在任何人身上都是不得体的，除了赫敏，她就是这么古怪。 不过哈利觉得，混血王子那本《高级魔药制作》很难称得上教科书。 哈利越仔细地读这本书，就越意识到里面有多少东西，不仅有方便的魔药提示和捷径，这些都使他在斯拉格霍恩那里获得了很高的声誉，而且还有在空白处潦草地写着一些充满想象力的小魔咒和魔咒，哈利从删改的地方可以肯定，这些都是王子自己发明的。

Harry had already attempted a few of the Prince's self-invented spells. There had been a hex that caused toenails to grow alarmingly fast (he had tried this on Crabbe in the corridor, with very entertaining results); a jinx that glued the tongue to the roof of the mouth (which he had twice used, to general applause, on an unsuspecting Argus Filch); and, perhaps most useful of all, Muffliato, a spell that filled the ears of anyone nearby with an unidentifiable buzzing, so that lengthy conversations could be held in class without being overheard. The only person who did not find these charms amusing was Hermione, who maintained a rigidly disapproving expression throughout and refused to talk at all if Harry had used the Muffliato spell on anyone in the vicinity. Sitting up in bed, Harry turned the book sideways so as to examine more closely the scribbled instructions for a spell that seemed to have caused the Prince some trouble. There were many crossings-out and alterations, but finally, crammed into a corner of the page, the scribble: Levicorpus (n-vbl)

哈利已经试过了几个王子自己发明的咒语。 有一种魔咒能使脚趾甲长得出奇地快（他在走廊里对克拉布用过这种魔咒，效果非常有趣）；一个把舌头粘在上颚上的魔咒（他曾两次对毫无戒心的阿格斯·费尔奇使用这个魔咒，赢得了大家的掌声）；也许最有用的是消音咒，这个咒语能让附近的人耳朵里充满一种无法辨认的嗡嗡声，这样一来，在课堂上进行冗长的谈话就不会被人听到了。 唯一不觉得这些魔咒有趣的是赫敏，她始终保持着一种生硬的不赞成的表情，如果哈利对附近的任何人使用了封耳塞咒，她根本不说话。 哈利从床上坐起来，把书翻到一边，以便更仔细地检查潦草的咒语说明，这个咒语似乎给王子带来了一些麻烦。 经过多次涂改和修改，最后，在纸的一角挤了几个潦草的字：莱维柯普斯。

While the wind and sleet pounded relentlessly on the windows and Neville snored loudly, Harry stared at the letters in brackets. N-vbl… that had to mean non-verbal. Harry rather doubted he would be able to bring off this particular spell; he was still having difficulty with non-verbal spells, something Snape had been quick to comment on in every DADA class. On the other hand, the Prince had proved a much more effective teacher than Snape so far. Pointing his wand at nothing in particular, he gave it an upward flick and said Levicorpus! inside his head. 'Aaaaaaaargh!' There was a flash of light and the room was full of voices: everyone had woken up as Ron had let out a yell. Harry sent Advanced Potion-Making flying in panic; Ron was dangling upside-down in midair as though an invisible hook had hoisted him up by the ankle. 'Sorry!' yelled Harry, as Dean and Seamus roared with laughter and Neville picked himself

狂风和雨夹雪无情地敲打着窗户，纳威大声打鼾，哈利盯着括号里的字母。 N-vbl，意思是非语言的。 哈利很怀疑他能否解除这个特殊的魔咒。他在非言语咒语方面仍然有困难，斯内普在每次达达课上都会很快评论这一点。 另一方面，到目前为止，王子的教学效果比斯内普好得多。 他用魔杖指着什么也没指，朝上一挥，说道：倒立！在他的脑子里。 “Aaaaaaaargh !”一道亮光闪过，房间里人声嘈杂：罗恩大叫一声，大家都被吵醒了。 哈利惊慌失措地把高级魔药制作炸飞了。罗恩在半空中倒挂着，好像有个看不见的钩子钩住了他的脚踝。 “对不起!哈利喊道，迪安和西莫哈哈大笑，纳威挑了挑自己

up from the floor, having fallen out of bed. 'Hang on– I'll let you down–' He groped for the potion book and riffled through it in a panic, trying to find the right page; at last he located it and deciphered one cramped word underneath the spell: praying that this was the counter-jinx, Harry thought Liberacorpus! with all his might. There was another flash of light and Ron fell in a heap on to his mattress. 'Sorry,' repeated Harry weakly, while Dean and Seamus continued to roar with laughter. 'Tomorrow,' said Ron in a muffled voice, 'I'd rather you set the alarm clock.' By the time they had got dressed, padding themselves out with several of Mrs Weasley's hand-knitted sweaters and carrying cloaks, scarves and gloves, Ron's shock had subsided and he had decided that Harry's new spell was highly amusing; so amusing, in fact, that he lost no time in regaling Hermione with the story as they sat down for breakfast.

从床上摔下来，从地板上爬起来。 “等一下——我会让你失望的——”他摸索着魔药书，慌慌张张地翻了一遍，想找到正确的那一页。最后，他找到了它，破译了咒语下面一个狭窄的字：哈利祈祷这是解咒，心想这是自由身！用他所有的力量。 又是一道闪光，罗恩瘫倒在床垫上。 “对不起。”哈利虚弱地重复了一遍，迪安和西莫继续狂笑。 “明天，”罗恩压低声音说，“我希望你定闹钟。”等他们穿好衣服，穿上韦斯莱夫人的几件手织毛衣，带上斗篷、围巾和手套，罗恩的震惊已经平息下来，他觉得哈利的新咒语非常有趣。实在是太有趣了，他们坐下来吃早饭时，他迫不及待地把这个故事讲给赫敏听。

'…and then there was another flash of light and I landed on the bed again!' grinned Ron, helping himself to sausages. Hermione had not cracked a smile during this anecdote, and now turned an expression of wintry disapproval upon Harry. 'Was this spell, by any chance, another one from that potion book of yours?' she asked. Harry frowned at her. 'Always jump to the worst conclusion, don't you?' 'Was it?' 'Well… yeah, it was, but so what?' 'So you just decided to try out an unknown, handwritten incantation and see what would happen?' 'Why does it matter if it's handwritten?' said Harry, preferring not to answer the rest of the question. 'Because it's probably not Ministry of Magicapproved,' said Hermione. 'And also,' she added, as Harry and Ron rolled their eyes, 'because I'm

“……然后又有一道闪光，我又落在了床上！”罗恩咧嘴笑着，给自己拿了些香肠。 听着这段奇闻轶事，赫敏没有露出一丝笑容，现在她转向哈利，露出一副冷冰冰的不以为然的表情。 “这个咒语，有没有可能是你那本魔药书里的另一个？”她问。 哈利朝她皱了皱眉。“你总是直接得出最坏的结论，是不是？”“是吗？”“嗯……是的，是这样，但那又怎样？”“所以你决定试一试一个未知的手写咒语，看看会发生什么？”“如果是手写的有什么关系？”哈利说，宁愿不回答剩下的问题。 “因为它可能没有得到魔法部的批准。” “而且，”看到哈利和罗恩翻了个白眼，她又说，“因为我