25 The Seer Overheard

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE The Seer Overheard The fact that Harry Potter was going out with Ginny Weasley seemed to interest a great number of people, most of them girls, yet Harry found himself newly and happily impervious to gossip over the next few weeks. After all, it made a very nice change to be talked about because of something that was making him happier than he could remember being for a very long time, rather than because he had been involved in horrific scenes of Dark magic. 'You'd think people had better things to gossip about,' said Ginny, as she sat on the common- room floor, leaning against Harry's legs and reading the Daily Prophet. 'Three Dementor

第二十五章先知听到哈利·波特和金妮·韦斯莱约会的事，似乎引起了许多人的兴趣，其中大多数是女孩子，然而哈利发现自己在接下来的几个星期里，已经完全不受流言蜚语的影响了。 毕竟，这是一个很好的改变，因为有一件事让他很长一段时间以来都不曾有过的快乐，而不是因为他被卷入了可怕的黑魔法场面。 “你以为人们有更好的事情可聊呢。”金妮说，她坐在公共休息室的地板上，倚着哈利的腿在读《预言家日报》。 “三个摄魂怪

attacks in a week, and all Romilda Vane does is ask me if it's true you've got a Hippogriff tattooed across your chest.' Ron and Hermione both roared with laughter. Harry ignored them. 'What did you tell her?' 'I told her it's a Hungarian Horntail,' said Ginny, turning a page of the newspaper idly. 'Much more macho.' 'Thanks,' said Harry, grinning. 'And what did you tell her Ron's got?' 'A Pygmy Puff, but I didn't say where.' Ron scowled as Hermione rolled around laughing. 'Watch it,' he said, pointing warningly at Harry and Ginny. 'Just because I've given my permission doesn't mean I can't withdraw it–' '"Your permission",' scoffed Ginny. 'Since when did you give me permission to do anything? Anyway, you said yourself you'd rather it was Harry than Michael or Dean.'

而罗米达·万尼所做的只是问我，你是不是真的在胸前纹了一只鹰头马身有翼兽。”罗恩和赫敏都哈哈大笑起来。 哈利没有理睬他们。“你对她说了什么？”“我告诉她这是匈牙利树蜂。”金妮说着，懒洋洋地翻了一页报纸。 “更有男子气概。“谢谢。”哈利笑着说。 “你跟她说罗恩得了什么病？”“一只侏儒泡芙，但我没说在哪儿。”罗恩皱起了眉头，赫敏笑着滚来滚去。 “小心。”他警告地指着哈利和金妮说。 “我同意了，并不意味着我不能收回——”“你的同意。”金妮嘲笑道。 “你什么时候允许我做任何事了？” 不管怎么说，你自己说过，你宁愿是哈利，也不愿是迈克尔或迪安。”

'Yeah, I would,' said Ron grudgingly. 'And just as long as you don't start snogging each other in public–' 'You filthy hypocrite! What about you and Lavender, thrashing around like a pair of eels all over the place?' demanded Ginny. But Ron's tolerance was not to be tested much as they moved into June, for Harry and Ginny's time together was becoming increasingly restricted. Ginny's O.W.L.s were approaching and she was therefore forced to revise for hours into the night. On one such evening, when Ginny had retired to the library and Harry was sitting beside the window in the common room, supposedly finishing his Herbology homework but in reality reliving a particularly happy hour he had spent down by the lake with Ginny at lunch-time, Hermione dropped into the seat between him and Ron with an unpleasantly purposeful look on her face. 'I want to talk to you, Harry.' 'What about?' said Harry suspiciously. Only the previous day, Hermione had told him off for

“是啊，我会的。”罗恩不情愿地说。 “只要你们不在公共场合接吻——”“你这个肮脏的伪君子！那你和拉文德呢，像一对鳗鱼一样到处乱撞？金妮问。 但是随着六月的到来，罗恩的忍耐力并没有受到多少考验，因为哈利和金妮在一起的时间越来越少了。 金妮的o.w.l s考试临近了，因此她不得不复习几个小时直到深夜。 就在这样一个晚上，金妮回图书馆去了，哈利坐在公共休息室的窗边，据说是在完成他的草药课作业，但实际上是在重温午饭时他和金妮在湖边度过的一段特别快乐的时光。赫敏坐在他和罗恩之间的座位上，脸上带着一种令人不快的坚决的表情。 “我想和你谈谈，哈利。“谈什么？”哈利怀疑地问。 就在前一天，赫敏还责备过他

distracting Ginny when she ought to be working hard for her examinations. 'The so-called Half-Blood Prince.' 'Oh, not again,' he groaned. 'Will you please drop it?' He had not dared to return to the Room of Requirement to retrieve his book, and his performance in Potions was suffering accordingly (though Slughorn, who approved of Ginny, had jocularly attributed this to Harry being lovesick). But Harry was sure that Snape had not yet given up hope of laying hands on the Prince's book, and was determined to leave it where it was while Snape remained on the lookout. 'I'm not dropping it,' said Hermione firmly, 'until you've heard me out. Now, I've been trying to find out a bit about who might make a hobby of inventing Dark spells–' 'He didn't make a hobby of it–' 'He, he– who says it's a he?' 'We've been through this,' said Harry crossly. 'Prince, Hermione, Prince!'

金妮本应该努力准备考试，却被打搅了。 “那个所谓的混血王子。“噢，别再这样了，”他呻吟着说。 “你能把它放下吗？”他不敢回有求必应屋去取书，魔药课的成绩也因此受到影响（不过斯拉格霍恩很欣赏金妮，他开玩笑地把这归咎于哈利患了相思病）。 但是哈利确信斯内普还没有放弃拿到王子的书的希望，他决定让它留在原地，让斯内普继续监视。 “我是不会放弃的，”赫敏坚决地说，“除非你听我把话说完。 好了，我一直在想办法找出谁会把发明黑魔咒当作嗜好——”“他没有把它当作嗜好——”“他，他——谁说那是个男人？“我们已经谈过了。”哈利生气地说。 “王子，赫敏，王子！”

'Right!' said Hermione, red patches blazing in her cheeks as she pulled a very old piece of newsprint out of her pocket and slammed it down on the table in front of Harry. 'Look at that! Look at the picture!' Harry picked up the crumbling piece of paper and stared at the moving photograph, yellowed with age; Ron leaned over for a look, too. The picture showed a skinny girl of around fifteen. She was not pretty; she looked simultaneously cross and sullen, with heavy brows and a long, pallid face. Underneath the photograph was the caption: Eileen Prince, Captain of the Hogwarts Gobstones Team. 'So?' said Harry, scanning the short news item to which the picture belonged; it was a rather dull story about inter-school competitions. 'Her name was Eileen Prince. Prince, Harry.' They looked at each other and Harry realised what Hermione was trying to say. He burst out laughing. 'No way.' 'What?'

“正确!赫敏说，她从口袋里掏出一张很旧的新闻纸，砰地一声扔在哈利面前的桌子上，面颊上泛起了红晕。 “看那个！”看这幅画！”哈利捡起那张摇摇晃晃的纸，盯着那张因岁月而发黄的移动照片。罗恩也俯身看了看。 照片上是一个15岁左右的瘦骨嶙峋的女孩。 她并不漂亮；她眉头沉重，脸色苍白，看上去既生气又阴沉。 照片下面写着：艾琳·普林斯，霍格沃茨戈布石队队长。 “所以?哈利扫了一眼这张照片所属的短新闻，问道。这是一则关于校际竞赛的无聊报道。 她的名字叫艾琳·普林斯。 王子,哈里。”他们面面相觑，哈利明白了赫敏想说的话。 他突然大笑起来。“不可能。“什么?”

'You think she was the Half-Blood…? Oh, come on.' 'Well, why not? Harry, there aren't any real princes in the wizarding world! It's either a nickname, a made-up title somebody's given themselves, or it could be their actual name, couldn't it? No, listen! If, say, her father was a wizard whose surname was "Prince", and her mother was a Muggle, then that would make her a "half-blood Prince"!' 'Yeah, very ingenious, Hermione…' 'But it would! Maybe she was proud of being half a Prince!' 'Listen, Hermione, I can tell it's not a girl. I can just tell.' 'The truth is that you don't think a girl would have been clever enough,' said Hermione angrily. 'How can I have hung round with you for five years and not think girls are clever?' said Harry, stung by this. 'It's the way he writes. I just know the Prince was a bloke, I can tell. This girl hasn't got anything to do with it. Where did you get this, anyway?'

“你认为她是混血……？” 哦，别这样。“嗯，为什么不呢？” 哈利，魔法世界里没有真正的王子！要么是昵称，要么是别人给自己编的头衔，也可能是他们的真名，不是吗？ 不,听!比如说，如果她的父亲是巫师，姓“王子”，而她的母亲是麻瓜，那么她就是“混血王子”！“是啊，很巧妙，赫敏……”也许她为自己是半个王子而自豪！“听着，赫敏，我看得出来不是女孩。” 我能看出来。“事实是，你认为女孩子不够聪明。”赫敏生气地说。 “我跟你在一起五年了，怎么还不觉得女孩子聪明呢？”哈利说，被这话刺痛了。 “这是他写作的方式。我只知道王子是个男的，我看得出来。 这女孩跟这事一点关系都没有。 你从哪儿弄到这个的？”