19 Elf Tails

CHAPTER NINETEEN Elf Tails 'So, all in all, not one of Ron's better birthdays?' said Fred. It was evening; the hospital wing was quiet, the windows curtained, the lamps lit. Ron's was the only occupied bed. Harry, Hermione and Ginny were sitting around him; they had spent all day waiting outside the double doors, trying to see inside whenever somebody went in or out. Madam Pomfrey had only let them enter at eight o'clock. Fred and George had arrived at ten past. 'This isn't how we imagined handing over our present,' said George grimly, putting down a large wrapped gift on Ron's bedside cabinet and sitting beside Ginny.

第十九章小精灵尾巴总的来说，罗恩的生日过得不太好？弗雷德说。 那是晚上；病房里静悄悄的，窗户拉着窗帘，灯点着。 只有罗恩的床有人。 哈利、赫敏和金妮坐在他身边。他们一整天都在双扇门外等着，无论何时有人进出，他们都想看看里面的情况。 庞弗雷夫人直到八点钟才让他们进去。 弗雷德和乔治10点到了。 “我们没想到是这样递礼物的。”乔治严肃地说，把一个包装好的大礼物放在罗恩的床头柜上，坐在金妮旁边。

'Yeah, when we pictured the scene, he was conscious,' said Fred. 'There we were in Hogsmeade, waiting to surprise him–' said George. 'You were in Hogsmeade?' asked Ginny, looking up. 'We were thinking of buying Zonko's,' said Fred gloomily. 'A Hogsmeade branch, you know, but a fat lot of good it'll do us if you lot aren't allowed out at weekends to buy our stuff any more… but never mind that now.' He drew up a chair beside Harry and looked at Ron's pale face. 'How exactly did it happen, Harry?' Harry retold the story he had already recounted what felt like a hundred times to Dumbledore, to McGonagall, to Madam Pomfrey, to Hermione and to Ginny. '…and then I got the bezoar down his throat and his breathing eased up a bit, Slughorn ran for help, McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey turned up, and they brought Ron up here. They reckon he'll

“是啊，我们想象那一幕的时候，他是清醒的。”弗雷德说。 “我们就在霍格莫德，等着给他一个惊喜——”乔治说。 “你在霍格莫德村？”金妮抬起头问。 “我们想买下佐科的。”弗雷德沮丧地说。 “霍格莫德村的分店，你知道，但如果你们这些人周末不能再出来买我们的东西，那对我们就没有什么好处了……不过现在先别管这些了。”他把椅子拉到哈利旁边，看着罗恩苍白的脸。 “这到底是怎么回事，哈利？”哈利把他已经对邓布利多、麦格、庞弗雷夫人、赫敏和金妮讲了一百遍的故事重新讲了一遍。 “……然后我把牛黄塞进他的喉咙，他的呼吸缓和了一些，斯拉格霍恩跑去求救，麦格和庞弗雷夫人出现了，他们把罗恩带到这儿来。 他们认为他会

be all right. Madam Pomfrey says he'll have to stay here a week or so… keep taking Essence of Rue…' 'Blimey, it was lucky you thought of a bezoar,' said George in a low voice. 'Lucky there was one in the room,' said Harry, who kept turning cold at the thought of what would have happened if he had not been able to lay hands on the little stone. Hermione gave an almost inaudible sniff. She had been exceptionally quiet all day. Having hurtled, white-faced, up to Harry outside the hospital wing and demanded to know what had happened, she had taken almost no part in Harry and Ginny's obsessive discussion about how Ron had been poisoned, but merely stood beside them, clench-jawed and frightened-looking, until at last they had been allowed in to see him. 'Do Mum and Dad know?' Fred asked Ginny. 'They've already seen him, they arrived an hour ago– they're in Dumbledore's office now, but they'll be back soon…'

没事的。庞弗雷夫人说他得在这儿住上一个星期左右……继续服‘Rue精华’……”“天哪，幸亏你想到了牛黄。”乔治低声说。 “幸好房间里有一块。”哈利说，一想到如果他没能抓住那块小石头会发生什么，他就浑身发凉。 赫敏哼了一声，几乎听不见。 她一整天都异常安静。 她脸色煞白地冲到病房外的哈利面前，要求知道发生了什么事。哈利和金妮纠缠不休地讨论罗恩是怎么被毒死的，她几乎没有参与，只是站在他们旁边，咬紧牙关，一副惊恐的样子，直到最后他们获准进去看罗恩。 “爸爸妈妈知道吗？”弗雷德问金妮。 “他们已经见过他了，一个小时前就到了——他们现在在邓布利多的办公室，不过很快就会回来……”

There was a pause while they all watched Ron mumble a little in his sleep. 'So the poison was in the drink?' said Fred quietly. 'Yes,' said Harry at once; he could think of nothing else and was glad for the opportunity to start discussing it again. 'Slughorn poured it out–' 'Would he have been able to slip something into Ron's glass without you seeing?' 'Probably,' said Harry, 'but why would Slughorn want to poison Ron?' 'No idea,' said Fred, frowning. 'You don't think he could have mixed up the glasses by mistake? Meaning to get you?' 'Why would Slughorn want to poison Harry?' asked Ginny. 'I dunno,' said Fred, 'but there must be loads of people who'd like to poison Harry, mustn't there? The "Chosen One" and all that?' 'So you think Slughorn's a Death Eater?' said Ginny. 'Anything's possible,' said Fred darkly.

大家沉默了一会儿，看着罗恩在睡梦中喃喃自语。 “那么毒药是在饮料里？”弗雷德轻声问。 “是的。”哈利马上说。他想不出别的事来，很高兴有机会重新开始讨论这个问题。 “他能把什么东西塞进罗恩的杯子里而不让你看见吗？”“也许吧，”哈利说，“但斯拉格霍恩为什么要毒死罗恩呢？”“不知道。”弗雷德皱着眉头说。 “你认为他不会是不小心把杯子弄混了吧？” 想抓你吗？“斯拉格霍恩为什么要毒死哈利？”金妮问。 “我不知道，”弗雷德说，“但肯定有很多人想毒死哈利，是不是？ 救世之星什么的？“所以你认为斯拉格霍恩是个食死徒？”金妮说。 “什么都有可能。”弗雷德阴郁地说。

'He could be under the Imperius Curse,' said George. 'Or he could be innocent,' said Ginny. 'The poison could have been in the bottle, in which case it was probably meant for Slughorn himself.' 'Who'd want to kill Slughorn?' 'Dumbledore reckons Voldemort wanted Slughorn on his side,' said Harry. 'Slughorn was in hiding for a year before he came to Hogwarts. And…' he thought of the memory Dumbledore had not yet been able to extract from Slughorn, 'and maybe Voldemort wants him out of the way, maybe he thinks he could be valuable to Dumbledore.' 'But you said Slughorn had been planning to give that bottle to Dumbledore for Christmas,' Ginny reminded him. 'So the poisoner could just as easily have been after Dumbledore.' 'Then the poisoner didn't know Slughorn very well,' said Hermione, speaking for the first time in hours and sounding as though she had a bad head- cold. 'Anyone who knew Slughorn would have

“他可能中了夺魂咒。”乔治说。 “也可能他是无辜的。”金妮说。 “毒药可能在瓶子里，如果是这样的话，它很可能是给斯拉格霍恩本人的。“谁会想杀斯拉格霍恩？”“邓布利多认为伏地魔希望斯拉格霍恩站在他那边。”哈利说。 “斯拉格霍恩来霍格沃茨之前躲了一年。 而且……”他想起了邓布利多还没能从斯拉格霍恩那里得到的那段记忆，“也许伏地魔想除掉他，也许他认为他对邓布利多很有价值。“可是你说过斯拉格霍恩打算把那瓶酒送给邓布利多当圣诞礼物。”金妮提醒他。 “所以投毒者很可能是冲着邓布利多来的。“那么说投毒者不太了解斯拉格霍恩。”赫敏说，这是几个小时以来她第一次说话，听起来好像得了重感冒。 “认识斯拉格霍恩的人都知道

known there was a good chance he'd keep something that tasty for himself.' 'Er-my-nee,' croaked Ron unexpectedly from between them. They all fell silent, watching him anxiously, but after muttering incomprehensibly for a moment he merely started snoring. The dormitory doors flew open, making them all jump: Hagrid came striding towards them, his hair rain-flecked, his bearskin coat flapping behind him, a crossbow in his hand, leaving a trail of muddy dolphin-sized footprints all over the floor. 'Bin in the Forest all day!' he panted. 'Aragog's worse, I bin readin' to him– didn' get up ter dinner till jus' now an' then Professor Sprout told me abou' Ron! How is he?' 'Not bad,' said Harry. 'They say he'll be OK.' 'No more than six visitors at a time!' said Madam Pomfrey, hurrying out of her office. 'Hagrid makes six,' George pointed out.

我知道他很有可能把美味的东西留给自己。“嗯——我——我。”罗恩出乎意料地从他们中间嘶哑地说。 大家都沉默了，焦急地看着他，但他咕哝了一会儿，听不懂他在说什么，然后就开始打鼾了。 宿舍的门突然开了，把他们都吓了一跳。海格大步朝他们走来，他的头发被雨淋得斑斑的，熊皮大衣在身后飘动，手里拿着弩弓，在地板上留下了一串海豚大小的泥脚印。 “在禁林里呆了一整天！”他喘着气说。 “阿拉戈克更糟了，我给他念书——直到现在才起来吃晚饭，斯普劳特教授才告诉我罗恩的事！”他怎么样了？“不错。”哈利说。 “他们说他会没事的。”“一次不能超过六个客人！庞弗雷夫人说着匆匆走出了办公室。 “海格是第六个了。”乔治指出。