晨韵推荐：双语美文--哈利波特与凤凰社 Chapter 11（上）

绚斓晨韵

The Hat became motionless once more; applause broke out, though it was punctured, for the first time in Harry's memory, with muttering and whispers. All across the Great Hall students were exchanging remarks with their neighbours, and Harry, clapping along with everyone else, knew exactly what they were talking about.
'Branched out a bit this year, hasn't it？' said Ron, his eyebrows raised.
Too right it has,' said Harry.
The Sorting Hat usually confined itself to describing the different qualities looked for by each of the four Hogwarts houses and its own role in Sorting them. Harry could not remember it ever trying to give the school advice before.
'I wonder if it's ever given warnings before？' said Hermione, sounding slightly anxious.
'Yes, indeed,' said Nearly Headless Nick knowledgeably, leaning across Neville towards her （Neville winced; it was very uncomfortable to have a ghost lean through you）. The Hat feels itself honour-bound to give the school due warning whenever it feels - '
But Professor McGonagall, who was waiting to read out the list of first-years' names, was giving the whispering students the sort of look that scorches. Nearly Headless Nick placed a see-through finger to his lips and sat primly upright again as the muttering came to an abrupt end. With a last frowning look that swept the lour house tables, Professor McGonagall lowered her eyes to her long piece of parchment and called out the first name.
帽子说完又一动不动了。四下里响起了掌声，但其间夹杂着窃窃私语，这在哈利的记忆里可是头一次。在整个礼堂里，同学们都在和坐在身边的人们交头接耳，哈利和其他人一起拍着巴掌，心里很清楚他们在议论什么。
“今年有点跑题了，是不是？”罗恩扬起眉毛说。
“确实是这样。”哈利说。
通常，分院帽只描述霍格沃茨四个学院所看重的不同品质以及它自己给学生分类的任务。哈利不记得它什么时候试图给学校提出忠告。
“不知道它以前有没有发出过警告？”赫敏说，声音微微显得有些不安。
“有过的，有过的，”差点没头的尼克很知情地说，隔着纳威朝赫敏探过头来（纳威恐惧地退缩着，一个鬼魂从你身体里穿过去，这是很不舒服的），“分院帽觉得自己在道义上有责任向学校提出适当的警告，如果它觉得——”
可是麦格教授正等着报出一年级新生的名单，这会儿用十分严厉的目光瞪着那些交头接耳的同学。差点没头的尼克用一根透明的手指压在嘴唇上，一本正经地坐得笔直，礼堂里的嗡嗡议论声戛然而止。麦格教授又皱着眉头扫了一眼四张桌子，然后垂眼望着手里那张长长的羊皮纸，大声报出第一个名字。
'Abercrombie, Euan.'
The terrified-looking boy Harry had noticed earlier stumbled forwards and put the Hat on his head; it was only prevented from falling right down to his shoulders by his very prominent ears. The Hat considered for a moment, then the rip near the brim opened again and shouted:
'Gryffindor！'
Harry clapped loudly with the rest of Gryffindor house as Euan Abercrombie staggered to their table and sat down, looking as though he would like very much to sink through the floor and never be looked at again.
Slowly, the long line of first-years thinned. In the pauses between the names and the Sorting Hat's decisions, Harry could hear Ron's stomach rumbling loudly. Finally, 'Zeller, Rose' was Sorted into Hufflepuff, and Professor McGonagall picked up the Hat and stool and marched them away as Professor Dumbledore rose to his feet.
Whatever his recent bitter feelings had been towards his Headmaster, Harry was somehow soothed to see Dumbledore standing before them all. Between the absence of Hagrid and the presence of those dragonish horses, he had felt that his return to Hogwarts, so long anticipated, was full of unexpected surprises, like jarring notes in a familiar song. But this, at least, was how it was supposed to be: their Headmaster rising to greet them all before the start-of-term feast.
'To our newcomers,' said Dumbledore in a ringing voice, his arms stretched wide and a beaming smile on his lips, 'welcome！ To our old hands - welcome back！ There is a time for speech-making, but this is not it. Tuck in！'
“尤安·阿伯克龙比。”
哈利刚才注意到的那个神色惊慌的小男孩跌跌撞撞地走上前，把帽子戴在了头上。幸亏有他那两只大得出奇的耳朵卡住，帽子才没有滑落到肩膀上。分院帽考虑了片刻，随即帽檐旁的裂口又张开了，大声宣布道：“格兰芬多！”
哈利和格兰芬多的同学们一齐热烈鼓掌，尤安踉踉跄跄地走到他们的桌旁坐了下来，看他那副神情，他似乎巴不得地上有个洞让他钻进去，再也没有人盯着他看了。
慢慢地，那支长长的一年级新生队伍一点点缩短了。在麦格教授报出名字和分院帽宣布分院结果之间的空隙，哈利可以听见罗恩的肚子在咕咕直叫。最后，罗斯·泽勒被分进了赫奇帕奇，麦格教授拿起帽子和凳子大步走开了，这时邓布利多教授站了起来。
尽管哈利最近对他的校长有过种种不满的情绪，但此刻看到邓布利多站在他们大家面前，他还是松了口气。海格不见了踪影，马车前面突然出现了那些像龙一样的怪马，使他觉得他这次返回霍格沃茨，尽管是他梦寐以求的，却充满令他吃惊的意外，就像一首熟悉的歌曲里出现了不和谐的音符。但眼下的情形至少是正常的：在开学宴会开始前，他们的校长站起来问候他们大家。
“欢迎我们的新生，”邓布利多声音洪亮地说，他双臂张开，嘴上绽开灿烂的笑容，“欢迎！欢迎我们的老生——欢迎你们回来！演讲的时间多得是，但不是现在。痛痛快快地吃吧！”
There was an appreciative laugh and an outbreak of applause as Dumbledore sat down neatly and threw his long beard over his shoulder so as to keep it out of the way of his plate - for food had appeared out of nowhere, so that the five long tables were groaning under joints and pies and dishes of vegetables, bread and sauces and flagons of pumpkin juice.
'Excellent,' said Ron, with a kind of groan of longing, and he seized the nearest plate of chops and began piling them on to his plate, watched wistfully by Nearly Headless Nick.
'What were you saying before the Sorting？' Hermione asked the ghost. 'About the Hat giving warnings？'
'Oh, yes,' said Nick, who seemed glad of a reason to turn away from Ron, who was now eating roast potatoes with almost indecent enthusiasm. 'Yes, I have heard the Hat give several warnings before, always at times when it detects periods of great danger for the school. And always, of course, its advice is the same: stand together, be strong from within.'
'Ow kunnit nofe skusin danger ifzat？' said Ron.
His mouth was so full Harry thought it was quite an achievement for him to make any noise at all.
礼堂里发出一片赞赏的笑声和热烈的鼓掌声，邓布利多端端正正地坐下来，把长长的胡子甩到肩膀上，不让它们挡着他的盘子——美味佳肴突然从天而降，五张长桌上一下子堆满了大块牛肉、馅饼、一盘盘的蔬菜、面包、果酱和一壶壶的南瓜汁，因不堪重负而发出阵阵呻吟。
“太好了。”罗恩馋涎欲滴地叹了口气，抓起离他最近的一盘排骨，开始一块块地往他的盘子里堆，差点没头的尼克在一旁郁闷地看着他。
“分院之前你想说什么？”赫敏问鬼魂，“就是关于帽子提出警告的事？”
“噢，对了，”尼克说，他似乎很高兴有理由把目光从罗恩身上挪开，罗恩这会儿几乎是在狼吞虎咽地吃着烤土豆，“是啊，我以前好几次听过分院帽提出警告，总是在它感觉到学校面临着巨大危险的时候。当然啦，它的忠告每次都是一样的：团结一致，保持内部的稳定。”
“托系目怎子度月小于危险？”罗恩说。
他嘴巴里塞得满满的，哈利觉得他能够发出声音来就已经很了不起了。
'I beg your pardon？' said Nearly Headless Nick politely, while Hermione looked revolted. Ron gave an enormous swallow and said, 'How can it know if the school's in danger if it's a Hat？'
'I have no idea,' said Nearly Headless Nick. 'Of course, it lives in Dumbledore's office, so I daresay it picks things up there.'
'And it wants all the houses to be friends？' said Harry, looking over at the Slytherin table, where Draco Malfoy was holding court. 'Fat chance.'
'Well, now, you shouldn't take that attitude,' said Nick reprovingly. 'Peaceful co-operation, that's the key. We ghosts, though we belong to separate houses, maintain links of friendship. In spite of the competitiveness between Gryffindor and Slytherin, I would never dream of seeking an argument with the Bloody Baron.'
'Only because you're terrified of him,' said Ron.
Nearly Headless Nick looked highly affronted.
Terrified？ I hope I, Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, have never been guilty of cowardice in my life！ The noble blood that runs in my veins -'
'What blood？' asked Ron. 'Surely you haven't still got - ？'
“对不起，你说什么？”差点没头的尼克很有礼貌地说，赫敏则露出一副厌恶的神情。罗恩使劲吞下嘴里的东西，说：“它只是一顶帽子，怎么会知道学校有危险呢？”
“我不知道。”差点没头的尼克说道，“当然啦，它放在邓布利多的办公室里，所以我敢说它在那里听到了一些什么。”
“它希望四个学院的人都成为朋友？”哈利说，他朝斯莱特林的桌子望去，德拉科·马尔福正在那里侃侃而谈，“这种可能性很小埃”
“哎，你不应该是这种态度。”尼克责备地说，“和平共处，共同合作，这才是关键。我们这些鬼魂虽然属于不同的学院，但始终保持着亲密的友谊。尽管格兰芬多和斯莱特林之间竞争激烈，我却做梦也没有想过找血人巴罗吵架。”
“那只是因为你害怕他。”罗恩说。
差点没头的尼克显出一副受了很大侮辱的样子。
“害怕？我相信我——尼古拉斯·德·敏西——波平顿爵士，在我的一生中从没有犯过胆怯的错误！我血管里流淌着高贵的血液——”
“什么血液？”罗恩问，“你肯定不会还有——？”