17 Bathilda’s Secret

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN BATHILDA'S SECRET Harry, stop." "What's wrong?" They had only just reached the grave of the unknown Abbott. "There's someone there. Someone watching us. I can tell. There, over by the bushes."

第十七章巴希达的秘密哈利，别说了。” “怎么了?”他们刚刚走到那位不知名的艾博特的坟墓前。 “那儿有人。有人在看着我们。 我能看出来。那边，灌木丛那边。”

They stood quite still, holding on to each other, gazing at the dense black boundary of the graveyard. Harry could not see anything. "Are you sure?" "I saw something move, I could have sworn I did...." She broke from him to free her wand arm. "We look like Muggles," Harry pointed out. "Muggles who've just been laying flowers on your parents' grave! Harry, I'm sure there's someone over there!" Harry thought of A History of Magic; the graveyard was supposed to be haunted: what if—? But then he heard a rustle and saw a little eddy of dislodged snow in the bush to which Hermione had pointed. Ghosts could not move snow. "It's a cat," said Harry, after a second or two, "or a bird. If it was a Death Eater we'd be dead by now. But let's get out of here, and we can put the Cloak back on."

他们一动不动地站着，互相抓着对方，凝视着墓地那密密的黑色边界。 哈利什么也看不见。 “你确定吗？”“我看到有东西在动，我发誓我看到了....” 她挣脱他，松开了拿魔杖的手臂。 “我们看起来像麻瓜。”哈利指出。 “刚才在你父母坟上献花的麻瓜！”哈利，我敢肯定那边有人！”哈利想到了《魔法史》。墓地应该是闹鬼的：如果——？ 这时，他听到一阵沙沙声，看见赫敏指的灌木丛里有一小团雪被吹散了。 鬼不能移动雪。 “是一只猫，”一两秒钟后哈利说，“或者是一只鸟。 如果是食死徒，我们早就死了。 不过我们还是离开这里吧，然后再把隐形衣穿上。”

They glanced back repeatedly as they made their way out of the graveyard. Harry, who did not feel as sanguine as he had pretended when reassuring Hermione, was glad to reach the gate and the slippery pavement. They pulled the Invisibility Cloak back over themselves. The pub was fuller than before: Many voices inside it were now singing the carol that they had heard as they approached the church. For a moment Harry considered suggesting they take refuge inside it, but before he could say anything Hermione murmured, "Let's go this way," and pulled him down the dark street leading out of the village in the opposite direction from which they had entered. Harry could make out the point where the cottages ended and the lane turned into open country again. They walked as quickly as they dared, past more windows sparkling with multicolored lights, the outlines of Christmas trees dark through the curtains.

走出墓地时，他们不断地回头看。 哈利已经不像安慰赫敏时假装的那么乐观了，他很高兴走到大门口，走到滑溜溜的人行道上。 他们把隐形衣披在身上。 酒吧里的人比以前更满了，里面很多人都在唱着他们走近教堂时听到的颂歌。 有那么一会儿，哈利想建议他们躲到里面去，但他还没来得及说话，赫敏就低声说：“我们走这边吧。”然后把他拉进了一条黑暗的街道，这条街道通向村子外，和他们进来的方向相反。 哈利能辨认出小屋的尽头，那条小路又变成了开阔的田野。 他们尽可能快地走着，经过了更多的窗户，上面闪烁着五颜六色的灯光，圣诞树的轮廓从窗帘里透出来。

"How are we going to find Bathilda's house?" asked Hermione, who was shivering a little and kept glancing back over her shoulder. "Harry? What do you think? Harry?" She tugged at his arm, but Harry was not paying attention. He was looking toward the dark mass that stood at the very end of this row of houses. Next moment he had sped up, dragging Hermione along with him; she slipped a little on the ice. "Harry—" "Look.... Look at it, Hermione...." "I don't... oh!" He could see it; the Fidelius Charm must have died with James and Lily. The hedge had grown wild in the sixteen years since Hagrid had taken Harry from the rubble that lay scattered amongst the waist-high grass. mclhfa. Most of the cottage was still standing, though entirely covered in dark ivy and snow, but the right side of the top floor had been blown apart; that, Harry was sure, was where the

“我们怎么才能找到巴希达的家呢？”赫敏问，她有点发抖，不停地回头看。 “哈利?你觉得呢？ 哈利?”她拽着他的胳膊，但哈利没有注意。 他望着这排房子尽头的一团黑乎乎的东西。 接着他加快了速度，拖着赫敏一起走。她在冰上滑了一下。 “哈利——”“看…看看吧，赫敏....” “我不……噢!”他看得出来；赤胆忠心咒一定是随着詹姆和莉莉一起消失了。 自从海格把哈利从散落在齐腰高的草丛中的碎石中救出来后，这16年里，树篱变得疯长了。 小屋的大部分还在，虽然完全被黑色的常春藤和雪覆盖着，但顶楼的右侧已经被吹散了。哈利敢肯定，那就是

curse had backfired. He and Hermione stood at the gate, gazing up at the wreck of what must once have been a cottage just like those that flanked it. "I wonder why nobody's ever rebuilt it?" whispered Hermione. "Maybe you can't rebuild it?" Harry replied. "Maybe it's like the injuries from Dark Magic and you can't repair the damage?" He slipped a hand from beneath the Cloak and grasped the snowy and thickly rusted gate, not wishing to open it, but simply to hold some part of the house. "You're not going to go inside? It looks unsafe, it might— oh, Harry, look!" His touch on the gate seemed to have done it. A sign had risen out of the ground in front of them, up through the tangles of nettles and weeds, like some bizarre, fast-growing flower, and in golden letters upon the wood it said:

诅咒起了反作用。他和赫敏站在门口，抬头望着这片废墟，这里想必曾经是一座小屋，就像它旁边的那些小屋一样。 “我不明白为什么没有人重建它？”赫敏小声说。 “也许你不能重建它？”哈利回答道。 “也许这就像黑魔法造成的伤害一样，你无法修复？”他从隐形衣下抽出一只手，抓住那扇被雪覆盖、锈迹斑斑的大门，不想打开它，只想抓住房子的某个部分。 “你不打算进去吗？” 看起来不安全，可能——哦，哈利，你看！”他在门上的碰触似乎起了作用。 一块牌子从他们面前的地面上冒了出来，穿过荨麻和杂草的纠缠，像某种奇异的、生长迅速的花朵，在木头上用金字写着：

On this spot, on the night of 31 October 1981, Lily and James Potter lost their lives. Their son, Harry, remains the only wizard ever to have survived the Killing Curse. This house, invisible to Muggles, has been left in its ruined state as a monument to the Potters and as a reminder of the violence that tore apart their family. And all around these neatly lettered words, scribbles had been added by other witches and wizards who had come to see the place where the Boy Who Lived had escaped. Some had merely signed their names in Everlasting Ink; others had carved their initials into the wood, still others had left messages. The most recent of these, shining brightly over sixteen years' worth of magical graffiti, all said similar things. Good luck, Harry, wherever you are. If you read this, Harry, we're all behind you!

1981年10月31日晚，莉莉和詹姆斯·波特就在这里失去了生命。 他们的儿子哈利是唯一一个从杀戮咒中幸存下来的巫师。 这所麻瓜看不见的房子被保留了下来，作为波特一家的纪念碑，也提醒着他们想起了那场使他们家庭四分五裂的暴力。 在这些整齐的字母周围，还有别的巫师潦草的字迹，他们是来看看大生男孩逃跑的地方的。 有些人只是用永恒的墨水签了自己的名字；有人在木头上刻上了自己名字的首字母，还有人留下了留言。 其中最近的一幅，在16年来的魔法涂鸦中闪闪发光，都说着类似的话。 祝你好运，哈利，不管你在哪里。 如果你读到这封信，哈利，我们都支持你！