晨韵推荐：双语美文--哈利波特与凤凰社 Chapter 6（下）

绚斓晨韵

'It means he gave them a load of gold,' said Sirius contemptuously throwing the medal into the rubbish sack.
Several times Kreacher sidled into the room and attempted to smuggle things away under his loincloth, muttering horrible curses every time they caught him at it. When Sirius wrested a large go den ring bearing the Black crest from his grip, Kreacher actually burst into furious tears and left the room sobbing under his breath and calling Sirius names Harry had never heard before.
'It was my father's,' said Sirius, throwing the ring into the sack. 'Kreacher wasn't quite as devoted to him as to my mother, but I still caught him snogging a pair of my father's old trousers last week.'
Mrs Weasley kept them all working very hard over the next few days. The drawing room took three days to decontaminate. Finally, the only undesirable things left in it were the tapestry of the Black family tree, which resisted all their attempts to remove it from the wall, and the rattling writing desk. Moody had not dropped by Headquarters yet, so they could not be sure what was inside it.
They moved from the drawing room to a dining room on the ground floor where they found spiders as large as saucers lurking in the dresser （Ron left the room hurriedly to make a cup of tea and did not return for an hour and a half）. The china, which bore the Black crest and motto, was all thrown unceremoniously into a sack by Sirius, and the same fate met a set of old photographs in tarnished silver frames, all of whose occupants squealed shrilly as the glass covering them smashed.
“就是说他给了他们一大堆金子。”小天狼星轻蔑地说，把勋章扔进了装垃圾的袋子。
克利切好几次偷偷溜进房间，想把一些东西藏在他的腰布下面带走;每次被人抓住时，他都会说出许多非常难听的脏话。当小天狼星把一个刻着布莱克家族饰章的大金戒指从他手里硬夺过来时，克利切居然气得流出了眼泪，小声啜泣着走出房间，一边用哈利从来没听过的字眼诅咒小天狼星。
“这是我父亲的东西，”小天狼星说着，把戒指扔进了袋子，“克利切对他不像对我母亲那样忠心耿耿，但我上个星期还是看见他亲吻了我父亲的一条旧裤子。”
在接下来的几天，韦斯莱夫人让他们干得非常辛苦。给客厅消毒花了三天时间。最后，房间里还剩下两件令人不快的东西，一个就是那块布莱克家谱图的挂毯，他们想尽各种办法都不能把它从墙上弄下来，还有就是那个咔啦啦作响的写字台。穆迪还没有顺路来指挥部，所以他们不敢肯定那里面到底是什么东西。
他们从客厅转移到底层的一个餐厅里，发现那儿的碗橱里面藏着大得像茶托一般的蜘蛛（罗恩急急忙忙地跑出房间去给自己倒杯茶喝，一个半小时都没有回来）。那些印着布莱克家族饰章和铭词的瓷器都被小天狼星马马虎虎地扔进了一只袋子。装在褪色银相框里的一些老照片也遭到了同样的命运，当玻璃稀里哗啦地碎裂时，相框里的人都发出凄厉的尖叫。
Snape might refer to their work as 'cleaning', but in Harry's opinion they were really waging war on the house, which was putting up a very good fight, aided and abetted by Kreacher. The house-elf kept appearing wherever they were congregated, his muttering becoming more and more offensive as he attempted to remove anything he could from the rubbish sacks.
Sirius went as far as to threaten him with clothes, but Kreacher fixed him with a watery stare and said, 'Master must do as Master wishes,' before turning away and muttering very loudly, 'but Master will not turn Kreacher away, no, because Kreacher knows what they are up to, oh yes, he is plotting against the Dark Lord, yes, with these Mudblood and traitors and scum . . .'
At which Sirius, ignoring Hermione's protests, seized Kreacher by the back of his loincloth and threw him bodily from the room.
The doorbell rang several times a day, which was the cue for Sirius's mother to start shrieking again, and for Harry and the others to attempt to eavesdrop on the visitor, though they gleaned very little from the brief glimpses and snatches of conversation they were able to sneak before Mrs Weasley recalled them to their tasks.
Snape flitted in and out of the house several times more, though to Harry's relief they never came face to face; Harry also caught sight of his Transfiguration teacher Professor McGonagall, looking very odd in a Muggle dress and coat, and she also seemed too busy to linger.
Sometimes, however, the visitors stayed to help. Tonks joined them for a memorable afternoon in which they found a murderous old ghoul lurking in an upstairs toilet, and Lupin, who was staying in the house with Sirius but who left it for long periods to do mysterious work for the Order, helped them repair a grandfather clock that had developed the unpleasant habit of shooting heavy bolts at passers-by. Mundungus redeemed himself slightly in Mrs Weasley's eyes by rescuing Ron from an ancient set of purple robes that had tried to strangle him when he removed them from their wardrobe.
斯内普大概喜欢把他们的工作称为“大扫除”，但在哈利看来，他们实际上是在对老房子发动一场战争，老房子在克利切的帮助下，进行着十分顽强的抵抗。这个家养小精灵总是出现在他们集中干活的地方，千方百计想从装垃圾的口袋里拿走一些东西，同时嘴里念叨的话越来越难听。
小天狼星最后甚至威胁说要给他衣服穿，克利切用水汪汪的眼睛盯着他说：“少爷愿意做什么就做什么。”但不等转身，他又大声念叨说：“可是少爷不会把克利切打发走的，不会的，因为克利切知道他们想干什么，噢，是的，他在密谋反抗黑魔头，是的，带着这些泥巴种、败类和渣滓——”
听了这话，小天狼星不理睬赫敏的抗议，一把从后面揪住克利切的腰布，把他扔到了房间外面。
每天门铃都要响几次，一听到铃声，小天狼星的母亲就开始刺耳地尖叫，哈利和其他人则努力想偷听来访者的谈话，但每次只能匆匆瞥上几眼，听到几句零散的对话，就被韦斯莱夫人叫回去干活了，根本没有捞到多少有用的情报。
斯内普又蜻蜓点水般地来了几次，不过让哈利感到欣慰的是，他们一直没有正面碰见过。哈利还看见了他的变形术老师麦格教授，她穿着麻瓜的衣服和外套，显得十分古怪。她似乎也很忙碌，来去匆匆。
不过，有的时候来访者也会留下来帮忙。唐克斯和他们一起度过了一个难忘的下午，他们在楼上的一间厕所里发现了一只凶恶残忍的老食尸鬼。卢平本来是和小天狼星一起住在房子里的，最近离开了很长时间，为凤凰社做一项秘密工作，但他帮助他们修好了一台老爷钟，那钟不知怎地染上了一个令人讨厌的坏毛病：朝过路人发射硬邦邦的螺丝钉。蒙顿格斯稍微挽回了一些自己在韦斯莱夫人心目中的形象，他把罗恩从一套古旧的紫色长袍里救了出来。当罗恩把袍子从衣柜里拿出来时，袍子缠住了他，要把他勒死。
Despite the fact that he was still sleeping badly, still having dreams about corridors and locked doors that made his scar prickle, Harry was managing to have fun for the first time all summer. As long as he was busy he was happy; when the action abated, however, whenever he dropped his guard, or lay exhausted in bed watching blurred shadows move across the ceiling, the thought of the looming Ministry hearing returned to him.
Fear jabbed at his insides like needles as he wondered what was going to happen to him if he was expelled. The idea was so terrible that he did not dare voice it aloud, not even to Ron and Hermione, who, though he often saw them whispering together and casting anxious looks in his direction, followed his lead in not mentioning it.
Sometimes, he could not prevent his imagination showing him a faceless Ministry official who was snapping his wand in two and ordering him back to the Dursleys' . . . but he would not go. He was determined on that. He would come back here to Grimmauld Place and live with Sirius.
He felt as though a brick had dropped into his stomach when Mrs Weasley turned to him during dinner on Wednesday evening and said quietly, 'I've ironed your best clothes for tomorrow morning, Harry, and I want you to wash your hair tonight, too. A good first impression can work wonders.'
Ron, Hermione, Fred, George and Ginny all stopped talking and looked over at him. Harry nodded and tried to keep eating his chop, but his mouth had become so dry he could not chew.
哈利尽管夜里还是睡得不踏实，梦境里仍然会出现那些长长的走廊和紧锁的房门，引起伤疤阵阵刺痛，但在整个暑假里他总算第一次感到开心了。只要手里有活儿干，他就高兴。而当活儿告一段落、他松懈下来或精疲力竭地躺在床上望着模糊的阴影在天花板上移动时，他就又会想起即将到魔法部受审的可怕事情。
他一想到如果他被开除他会怎么办，恐惧就像无数根尖针一样刺着他的心。这个想法实在太可怕了，他不敢大声把它说出来，就连对罗恩和赫敏也不敢说，而他们俩呢，尽管哈利经常看见他们凑在一起嘀嘀咕咕，并不时朝他这边投来担忧的目光，却也跟他一样，对这件事只字不提。
有时，他忍不住会展开想象：面前出现了一个面目不清的魔法部官员，咔嚓一声把他的魔杖撅成了两截，命令他回到德思礼家去——他是绝对不会去的。在这一点上他已拿定主意。他要到格里莫广场这儿来跟小天狼星住在一起。
星期三晚上吃饭的时候，韦斯莱夫人转过脸来轻声对他说：“我已经把你最好的衣服熨好了，你明天早晨穿上，哈利，我希望你今晚再把头发洗洗。好的第一印象是会创造奇迹的。”哈利听了这话，觉得就像一块砖头砸进了他心里。
罗恩、赫敏、弗雷德、乔治和金妮都停止了谈话，朝他这边望着。哈利点点头，还想继续吃他的排骨，但嘴里突然变得很干，简直嚼不动了。
'How am I getting there？' he asked Mrs Weasley, trying to sound unconcerned.
'Arthur's taking you to work with him,' said Mrs Weasley gently.
Mr Weasley smiled encouragingly at Harry across the table.
'You can wait in my office until it's time for the hearing,' he said.
Harry looked over at Sirius, but before he could ask the question, Mrs Weasley had answered it.
'Professor Dumbledore doesn't think it's a good idea for Sirius to go with you, and I must say I - '
' - think he's quite right,' said Sirius through clenched teeth.
Mrs Weasley pursed her lips.
'When did Dumbledore tell you that？' Harry said, staring at Sirius.
'He came last night, when you were in bed,' said Mr Weasley
Sirius stabbed moodily at a potato with his fork. Harry lowered his own eyes to his plate. The thought that Dumbledore had been in the house on the eve of his hearing and not asked to see him made him feel, if it were possible, even worse.
“我怎么去呢？”他问韦斯莱夫人，努力使声音听上去显得不太在乎。
“亚瑟上班时带你一起去。”韦斯莱夫人温和地说。
韦斯莱先生隔着桌子朝哈利鼓励地微笑着。“你可以先待在我的办公室，等受审的时间到了再去。”他说。
哈利朝小天狼星望去，但没等他发问，韦斯莱夫人就回答了。
“邓布利多教授认为小天狼星陪你一起去不太合适，我必须说我——”
“——认为他非常正确。”小天狼星从紧咬的牙缝中说。
韦斯莱夫人噘起了嘴巴。
“邓布利多是什么时候对你说这个话的？”哈利问，眼睛望着小天狼星。
“他昨夜来了一趟，那时你已经睡着了。”韦斯莱先生说。
小天狼星闷闷不乐地把叉子扎进了一个土豆。哈利垂眼望着自己的盘子。邓布利多在他受审的前夜来过这所房子，却没有提出来要见他，想到这一点，他原本就糟糕透顶的心情更加恶劣了。