21 The Unknowable Room

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE The Unknowable Room Harry racked his brains over the next week as to how he was to persuade Slughorn to hand over the true memory, but nothing in the nature of a brainwave occurred and he was reduced to doing what he did increasingly these days when at a loss: poring over his Potions book, hoping that the Prince would have scribbled something useful in a margin, as he had done so many times before. 'You won't find anything in there,' said Hermione firmly, late on Sunday evening. 'Don't start, Hermione,' said Harry. 'If it hadn't been for the Prince, Ron wouldn't be sitting here

二十一章不知道的房间在接下来的一个星期里，哈利绞尽脑汁，想怎样才能说服斯拉格霍恩交出真实的记忆，但脑子里没有灵光一闪，他只好像这些天来他越来越茫然的时候那样，埋头看他的魔药书，希望王子能在空白处草草写下一些有用的东西，就像他以前多次做过的那样。 “你在那儿什么也找不到。”星期天深夜，赫敏坚定地说。 “别说了，赫敏。”哈利说。 “要不是王子，罗恩就不会坐在这里了

now.' 'He would if you'd just listened to Snape in our first year,' said Hermione dismissively. Harry ignored her. He had just found an incantation (Sectumsempra!) scrawled in a margin above the intriguing words 'For Enemies', and was itching to try it out, but thought it best not to in front of Hermione. Instead, he surreptitiously folded down the corner of the page. They were sitting beside the fire in the common room; the only other people still up were fellow sixth-years. There had been a certain amount of excitement earlier when they had come back from dinner to find a new sign on the noticeboard that announced the date for their Apparition test. Those who would be seventeen on or before the first test date, the twenty-first of April, had the option of signing up for additional practice sessions, which would take place (heavily supervised) in Hogsmeade. Ron had panicked on reading this notice; he had still not managed to Apparate and feared he would not be ready for the test. Hermione, who had now

现在。“如果你在一年级的时候听斯内普的话，他就会的。”赫敏轻蔑地说。 哈利没有理她。他刚刚在书的空白处发现了一个潦草的咒语（无神无影！），上面写着引人入胜的“致敌人”几个字，他很想试试，但觉得最好不要在赫敏面前说。 相反，他偷偷地把书页的一角折了下来。 他们坐在公共休息室的火炉旁。剩下的人只有六年级的同学了。 早些时候，他们吃过晚饭回来，发现布告栏上有一块新牌子，宣布了幻影显形考试的日期，当时还有些兴奋。 那些在4月21日第一次考试当天或之前年满17岁的学生，可以选择报名参加额外的练习课程，这些课程将在霍格莫德村进行（在严格监督下）。 罗恩一看到这个通知就慌了。他还没有幻影显形，担心自己还没有准备好参加考试。 赫敏，她现在已经知道了

achieved Apparition twice, was a little more confident, but Harry, who would not be seventeen for another four months, could not take the test whether ready or not. 'At least you can Apparate, though!' said Ron tensely. 'You'll have no trouble come July!' 'I've only done it once,' Harry reminded him; he had finally managed to disappear and rematerialise inside his hoop during their previous lesson. Having wasted a lot of time worrying aloud about Apparition, Ron was now struggling to finish a viciously difficult essay for Snape that Harry and Hermione had already completed. Harry fully expected to receive low marks on his, because he had disagreed with Snape on the best way to tackle Dementors, but he did not care: Slughorn's memory was the most important thing to him now. 'I'm telling you, the stupid Prince isn't going to be able to help you with this, Harry!' said Hermione, more loudly. 'There's only one way to

两次幻影显形，他的信心有所提高，但哈利还有四个月才满十七岁，不管准备好了没有，他都不能参加考试。 “不过，你至少可以幻影显形！”罗恩紧张地问。 “到了七月，你就不会有麻烦了！”“我只做过一次。”哈利提醒他。在上一节课上，他终于成功地消失了，然后又出现在他的铁环里。 罗恩浪费了很多时间大声担心幻影显形，现在正在努力完成哈利和赫敏已经完成的一篇给斯内普写的极难的论文。 哈利完全料到自己的考试会得低分，因为他和斯内普在对付摄魂怪的最佳方法上意见不一致，但他不在乎，现在对他来说，斯拉格霍恩的记忆是最重要的。 “我告诉你，愚蠢的王子帮不了你，哈利！”赫敏更大声地说。 “只有一个办法。

force someone to do what you want, and that's the Imperius Curse, which is illegal–' 'Yeah, I know that, thanks,' said Harry, not looking up from the book. 'That's why I'm looking for something different. Dumbledore says Veritaserum won't do it, but there might be something else, a potion or a spell…' 'You're going about it the wrong way,' said Hermione. 'Only you can get the memory, Dumbledore says. That must mean you can persuade Slughorn where other people can't. It's not a question of slipping him a potion, anyone could do that–' 'How d'you spell "belligerent"?' said Ron, shaking his quill very hard while staring at his parchment. 'It can't be B–U–M–' 'No, it isn't,' said Hermione, pulling Ron's essay towards her. 'And "augury" doesn't begin O–R–G either. What kind of quill are you using?' 'It's one of Fred and George's Spell-Checking ones… but I think the charm must be wearing off…'

强迫别人做你想让他做的事，那是夺魂咒，是非法的——”“是啊，我知道，谢谢。”哈利说，头也没抬。 “这就是为什么我在寻找不同的东西。 邓布利多说吐真剂起不了作用，但可能还有别的办法，比如魔药或咒语……” “只有你能得到记忆，”邓布利多说。 这一定意味着你能说服斯拉格霍恩，而别人却不能。 这不是给他下一剂药的问题，谁都会这么做的——”“‘好战’这个词怎么拼？罗恩说，一边使劲地摇着羽毛笔，一边盯着他的羊皮纸。 “不，不是。”赫敏说着，把罗恩的论文拉到自己面前。 “augury”也不是以O-R-G开头的。 你用的是哪种羽毛笔？“是弗雷德和乔治的拼写检查用的那种……不过我想符咒一定已经失效了……”

'Yes, it must,' said Hermione, pointing at the title of his essay, 'because we were asked how we'd deal with Dementors, not "Dugbogs", and I don't remember you changing your name to "Roonil Wazlib", either.' 'Ah, no!' said Ron, staring horror-struck at the parchment. 'Don't say I'll have to write the whole thing out again!' 'It's OK, we can fix it,' said Hermione, pulling the essay towards her and taking out her wand. 'I love you, Hermione,' said Ron, sinking back in his chair, rubbing his eyes wearily. Hermione turned faintly pink, but merely said, 'Don't let Lavender hear you saying that.' 'I won't,' said Ron into his hands. 'Or maybe I will… then she'll ditch me…' 'Why don't you ditch her if you want to finish it?' asked Harry. 'You haven't ever chucked anyone, have you?' said Ron. 'You and Cho just–' 'Sort of fell apart, yeah,' said Harry.

“是的，必须是这样，”赫敏指着他论文的题目说，“因为题目问的是我们如何对付摄魂怪，而不是‘挖泥怪’，而且我也不记得你把名字改成了‘鲁尼尔·瓦兹利布’。“啊，不！”罗恩说，惊恐地盯着那张羊皮纸。 “别说我得把整件事再写一遍！”“没关系，我们可以改。”赫敏说着把论文拉到自己面前，拿出魔杖。 “我爱你，赫敏。”罗恩说着，向后一靠，疲倦地揉着眼睛。 赫敏微微涨红了脸，但只是说：“别让拉文德听到你这么说。“我不会的。”罗恩捂着手说。 “也许我会……然后她会抛弃我……”“如果你想完成这件事，为什么不抛弃她呢？”哈利问。 “你从来没有抛弃过谁，是吗？”罗恩说。 “你和秋就——”“有点分手了，是啊。”哈利说。

'Wish that would happen with me and Lavender,' said Ron gloomily, watching Hermione silently tapping each of his misspelled words with the end of her wand, so that they corrected themselves on the page. 'But the more I hint I want to finish it, the tighter she holds on. It's like going out with the Giant Squid.' 'There,' said Hermione, some twenty minutes later, handing back Ron's essay. 'Thanks a million,' said Ron. 'Can I borrow your quill for the conclusion?' Harry, who had found nothing useful in the Half-Blood Prince's notes so far, looked around; the three of them were now the only ones left in the common room, Seamus having just gone up to bed cursing Snape and his essay. The only sounds were the crackling of the fire and Ron scratching out one last paragraph on Dementors using Hermione's quill. Harry had just closed the Half- Blood Prince's book, yawning, when- Crack Hermione let out a little shriek; Ron spilled ink all over his essay and Harry said, 'Kreacher!'

“真希望我和拉文德也能这样。”罗恩沮丧地说，看着赫敏默默地用魔杖尖敲着他拼错的单词，让它们在纸上改正过来。 “但我越是暗示我想完成它，她就越坚持。” 就像和巨型乌贼约会一样。“好了。”大约二十分钟后，赫敏说，把罗恩的论文交了回来。 “万分感谢。”罗恩说。 “我能借你的羽毛笔写结论吗？”到目前为止，哈利在混血王子的笔记中没有发现任何有用的东西，他环顾四周。现在公共休息室里只剩下他们三个人了，西莫刚刚上了床，咒骂着斯内普和他的论文。 唯一的声音是炉火的噼啪声，还有罗恩用赫敏的羽毛笔潦草地写下最后一段关于摄魂怪的文字。 哈利打着哈欠，刚合上混血王子的书，突然——啪——赫敏发出一声小小的尖叫。罗恩把墨水溅得到处都是，哈利叫道：“克利切！”