晨韵推荐：双语美文--哈利波特与凤凰社 Chapter 1（上）

绚斓晨韵

The hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet Drive. Cars that were usually gleaming stood dusty in their drives and lawns that were once emerald green lay parched and yellowing - 'for the use of hosepipes had been banned due to drought.
Deprived of their usual car-washing and lawn-mowing pursuits, the inhabitants of Privet Drive had retreated into the shade of their cool houses, windows thrown wide in the hope of tempting in a nonexistent breeze. The only person left outdoors was a teenage boy who was lying flat on his back in a flowerbed outside number four.
He was a skinny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who had the pinched, slightly unhealthy look of someone who has grown a lot in a short space of time. His jeans were torn and dirty, his T-shirt baggy and faded, and the soles of his trainers were peeling away from the uppers.
Harry Potter's appearance did not endear him to the neighbours, who were the sort of people who thought scruffiness ought to be punishable by law, but as he had hidden himself behind a large hydrangea bush this evening he was quite invisible to passers-by. In fact, the only way he would be spotted was if his Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia stuck their heads out of the living-room window and looked straight down into the flowerbed below.
On the whole, Harry thought he was to be congratulated on his idea of hiding here. He was not, perhaps, very comfortable lying on the hot, hard earth but, on the other hand, nobody was glaring at him, grinding their teeth so loudly that he could not hear the news, or shooting nasty questions at him, as had happened every time he had tried sitting down in the living room to watch television with his aunt and uncle.
Almost as though this thought had fluttered through the open window, Vernon Dursley, Harry's uncle, suddenly spoke.
夏季以来最炎热的一天终于快要结束了，女贞路上那些方方正正的大房子笼罩在一片令人昏昏欲睡的寂静中。平日里光亮照人的汽车，这会儿全都灰扑扑地停在车道上，曾经葱翠欲滴的草地，已变得枯黄——由于旱情，浇水软管已被禁止使用。
女贞路上的居民，乎常的消遣就是擦车和割草，现在这两件事都做不成了，只好躲进他们阴凉的房子里，把窗户开得大大的，指望能吹进一丝并不存在的凉风。只有一个人还待在户外，这是一个十多岁的男孩，这时他正平躺在女贞路四号外面的花坛里。
他是一个瘦瘦的男孩，黑头发，戴着眼镜，看上去有些赢弱，略带病态，似乎是因为在很短的时间里个头蹿得太快。他身上的牛仔裤又破又脏，T恤衫松松垮垮，已经褪了颜色，运动鞋的鞋底与鞋帮分了家。
哈利波特的这副模样，是无法讨得邻居们喜欢的。他们那些人认为，破旧邋遢应该受到法律制裁。不过他这天傍晚藏在一大丛绣球花后面，过路人都不会看见他。实际上，只要他的姨父弗农或姨妈佩妮从起居室的窗户探出脑袋，径直朝下面的花坛里望，他还是有可能被他们看见的。
总的来说，哈利觉得他能想到藏在这里真是值得庆幸。躺在炎热的硬邦邦的泥土上也许并不舒服，但另一方面，这里不会有人狠狠地瞪着他，把牙齿咬得咯咯直响，害得他听不清新闻里讲的是什么，也不会有人连珠炮似的问他一些烦人的问题。每次他想坐在客厅里跟姨妈姨父一块儿看看电视，他们总是搅得他不得安宁。
就好像他的这些想法插上翅膀，飞进了敞开的窗户，哈利的姨父弗农·德思礼突然说起话来。
'Glad to see the boy's stopped trying to butt in. Where is he, anyway？'
'I don't know,' said Aunt Petunia, unconcerned. 'Not in the house.'
Uncle Vernon grunted.
'Watching the news . . .' he said scathingly. 'I'd like to know what he's really up to. As if a normal boy cares what's on the news - 'Dudley hasn't got a clue what's going on; doubt he knows who the Prime Minister is！ Anyway, it's not as if there'd be anything about his lot on our news - '
'Vernon, shh！' said Aunt Petunia. The window's open！'
'Oh - yes - sorry, dear.'
The Dursleys fell silent. Harry listened to a jingle about Fruit 'n' Bran breakfast cereal while he watched Mrs Figg, a batty cat-loving old lady from nearby Wisteria Walk, amble slowly past. She was frowning and muttering to herself.
Harry was very pleased he was concealed behind the bush, as Mrs Figg had recently taken to asking him round for tea whenever she met him in the street. She had rounded the corner and vanished from view before Uncle Vernon's voice floated out of the window again.
'Dudders out for tea？'
'At the Polkisses',' said Aunt Petunia fondly. 'He's got so many little friends, he's so popular . . .'
“谢天谢地，那小子总算不来探头探脑了。呃，他到底上哪儿去了？”
“不知道，”佩妮姨妈漠不关心地说，“反正不在家。”
弗农姨父不满地嘟哝着。
“看新闻——”他刻薄地说，“我倒想知道他到底有什么打算。一个正常的男孩，谁会去关心新闻啊——达力对时事一无所知，我怀疑他连首相是谁都不知道！见鬼，我们的新闻里怎么会有跟他们那类人有关的——”
“弗农，嘘！”佩妮姨妈说，“窗户开着呢！”
“哦——是的——对不起，亲爱的。”
德思礼夫妇不说话了。哈利听着一段关于水果麦麸营养早餐的广告短歌，一边望着费格太太——住在离这儿不远的紫藤路上的一个脾气古怪、养着很多猫的老太太慢吞吞地走过去。她皱着眉头，嘴里念念有词。
哈利心想幸亏自己藏在灌木丛后面，因为最近费格太太在街上一碰到哈利，就要邀请他过去喝茶。她拐过街角不见了，这时候弗农姨父的声音又从窗口飘了出来“达达出去喝茶了？”
“到波奇斯家去了。”佩妮姨妈慈爱地说，“他交了这么多小朋友，大家都这么喜欢他——”
Harry suppressed a snort with difficulty. The Dursleys really were astonishingly stupid about their son, Dudley. They had swallowed all his dim-witted lies about having tea with a different member of his gang every night of the summer holidays. Harry knew perfectly well that Dudley had not been to tea anywhere; he and his gang spent every evening vandalising the play park, smoking on street corners and throwing stones at passing cars and children.
Harry had seen them at it during his evening walks around Little Whinging; he had spent most of the holidays wandering the streets, scavenging newspapers from bins along the way.
The opening notes of the music that heralded the seven o'clock news reached Harry's ears and his stomach turned over. Perhaps tonight - after a month of waiting - would be the night.
'Record numbers of stranded holidaymakers fill airports as the Spanish baggage-handlers' strike reaches its second week - '
'Give 'em a lifelong siesta, I would,' snarled Uncle Vernon over the end of the newsreaders sentence, but no matter: outside in the flowerbed, Harry's stomach seemed to unclench. If anything had happened, it would surely have been the first item on the news; death and destruction were more important than stranded holidaymakers.
He let out a long, slow breath and stared up at the brilliant blue sky. Every day this summer had been the same: the tension, the expectation, the temporary relief, and then mounting tension again . . . and always, growing more insistent all the time, the question of why nothing had happened yet.
He kept listening, just in case there was some small clue, not recognised for what it really was by the Muggles - an unexplained disappearance, perhaps, or some strange accident . . . but the baggage-handlers' strike was followed by news about the drought in the Southeast ('I hope he's listening next door！' bellowed Uncle Vernon. 'Him with his sprinklers on at three in the morning！'), then a helicopter that had almost crashed in a field in Surrey, then a famous actress's divorce from her famous husband ('As if we're interested in their sordid affairs,' sniffed Aunt Petunia, who had followed the case obsessively in every magazine she could lay her bony hands on).
哈利拼命控制自己，才没有从鼻子里哼出声来。德恩礼两口子在对待他们的宝贝儿子达力的问题上，真是愚蠢得出奇。达力在暑假的每个晚上都编造愚蠢的谎话，说是到他那帮狐朋狗友的某个人家去喝茶，而他们居然就听信了。哈利知道得很清楚，达力压根儿就没去什么地方喝茶，他和他那些哥们儿每天晚上都在游乐场毁坏公物，在街角抽烟，朝过路的汽车和孩子扔石子儿。
哈利晚上在小惠金区散步时，看见过他们的这些行径。这个暑假的大部分时间他都在街头游荡，沿路从垃圾箱里捡出报纸翻看。
七点钟新闻的开始曲传到了哈利耳朵里，他紧张得连五脏六腑都翻腾起来。也许今晚——在等待了一个月之后——就在今晚。
西班牙行李搬运工的罢工进入第二周，大批度假者滞留机场——“要是我，就让他们终身享受午睡。”新闻广播员的话音刚落，弗农姨父就恶狠狠地吼道，但是没关系，外面花坛里的哈利心里一块石头已经落了地。如果真的发生了什么事，肯定是头条新闻，死亡和灾难远比滞留机场的度假者重要得多。
他慢慢地长舒了一口气，仰望着清澈湛蓝的天空。这个夏天的每个日子都是这样：紧张，期待，暂时松一口气，然后弦又一点点地绷紧——而一个问题越来越迫切：为什么还没有事情发生？
他继续听下去，怕万一有一些不起眼的线索，麻瓜们还没有弄清究竟是怎么回事——比如有人不明原因地失踪，或出了奇怪的意外事故——可是行李搬运工罢工的新闻之后，是东南部地区的旱情(“我希望隔壁的那个人好好听听！”弗农姨父气冲冲地嚷道，“他凌晨三点钟就把洒水器开着了！”)，然后是一架直升飞机差点在萨里郡的田野坠毁，接着是某位大名鼎鼎的女演员跟她那位大名鼎鼎的丈夫离婚(“就好像我们谁关心他们那些破事儿似的。”佩妮姨妈轻蔑地说道，实际上她近乎痴迷地关注着这件事，翻遍了她那双骨瘦如柴的手能够拿到的每一本杂志)。
Harry closed his eyes against the now blazing evening sky as the newsreader said, '- and finally, Bungy the budgie has found a novel way of keeping cool this summer. Bungy, who lives at the Five Feathers in Barnsley, has learned to water ski！ Mary Dorkins went to find out more.'
Harry opened his eyes. If they had reached water-skiing budgerigars, there would be nothing else worth hearing. He rolled cautiously on to his front and raised himself on to his knees and elbows, preparing to crawl out from under the window.
He had moved about two inches when several things happened in very quick succession.
A loud, echoing crack broke the sleepy silence like a gunshot; a cat streaked out from under a parked car and flew out of sight; a shriek, a bellowed oath and the sound of breaking china came from the Dursleys' living room, and as though this was the signal.
Harry had been waiting for he jumped to his feet, at the same time pulling from the waistband of his jeans a thin wooden wand as if he were unsheathing a sword - but before he could draw himself up to full height, the top of his head collided with the Dursleys' open window. The resultant crash made Aunt Petunia scream even louder.
Harry felt as though his head had been split in two. Eyes streaming, he swayed, trying to focus on the street to spot the source of the noise, but he had barely staggered upright when two large purple hands reached through the open window and closed tightly around his throat.
哈利闭上眼睛，天空的晚霞变得刺眼了，这时新闻广播员说道：——最后，虎皮鹦鹉邦吉今年夏天找到了一个保持凉爽的新办法。生活在巴恩斯利五根羽毛街的邦吉，学会了用水橇滑水！玛丽多尔金详细报道。
哈利睁开眼睛。既然已经说到虎皮鹦鹉滑水橇，看来不会再有什么值得一听的新闻了。他小心翼翼地翻过身，用膝盖和胳膊肘撑着爬起来，准备手脚并用爬离窗户。
刚爬了两英寸，就接二连三地发生了好几件事，真是说时迟那时快。
一记响亮的、带有回音的爆裂声，像一声枪响，划破了昏昏欲睡的寂静;一只猫从一辆停着的汽车底下蹿出来，不见了踪影;德思礼家的客厅里传来一声尖叫、一句叫骂，还有瓷器摔碎的声音。哈利似乎一直就在等待这个信号，他猛地站起身，同时像拔剑一样从牛仔裤兜里掏出一根细细的木质魔杖——可是还没等他完全站直身体，脑袋就撞在了德思礼家敞开的窗户上。砰的一声，吓得佩妮姨妈叫得更响了。
哈利觉得脑袋似乎被劈成了两半，眼睛里泪水涟涟。他摇晃着身体，看着街上，努力让模糊的视线变得清晰，好弄明白刚才的声音是从哪儿发出来的。可是他刚勉强站直身子，就有两只紫红色的大手从敞开的窗口伸出来，紧紧掐住了他的喉咙。
'Put - it - away！' Uncle Vernon snarled into Harry's ear. 'Now！ Before - anyone - sees！'
'Get - off - me！' Harry gasped. For a few seconds they struggled, Harry pulling at his uncle's sausage-like fingers with his left hand, his right maintaining a firm grip on his raised wand; then, as the pain in the top of Harry's head gave a particularly nasty throb, Uncle Vernon yelped and released Harry as though he had received an electric shock. Some invisible force seemed to have surged through his nephew, making him impossible to hold.
Panting, Harry fell forwards over the hydrangea bush, straightened up and stared around. There was no sign of what had caused the loud cracking noise, but there were several faces peering through various nearby windows. Harry stuffed his wand hastily back into his jeans and tried to look innocent.
'Lovely evening！' shouted Uncle Vernon, waving at Mrs Number Seven opposite, who was glaring from behind her net curtains. 'Did you hear that car backfire just now？ Gave Petunia and me quite a turn！'
He continued to grin in a horrible, manic way until all the curious neighbours had disappeared from their various windows, then the grin became a grimace of rage as he beckoned Harry back towards him.
Harry moved a few steps closer, taking care to stop just short of the point at which Uncle Vernon's outstretched hands could resume their strangling.
'What the devil do you mean by it, boy？' asked Uncle Vernon in a croaky voice that trembled with fury.
'What do I mean by what？' said Harry coldly. He kept looking left and right up the street, still hoping to see the person who had made the cracking noise.
'Making a racket like a starting pistol right outside our - '
“把它——收起来！”弗农姨父拧着哈利的耳朵吼道，“快点！别让——人家——看见！”
“放——开——我！”哈利喘着气说。他们扭打了几秒钟，哈利用左手去掰姨父香肠般粗大的手指，右手还牢牢地握着举起的魔杖。接着，哈利本来就疼痛难忍的头顶猛的一阵钻心的剧痛，弗农姨父大叫一声，就像遭到电击一般，松开了哈利。似乎他外甥体内涌起一股看不见的力量，使他没法抓住他。
哈利气喘吁吁地扑倒在绣球花中，然后直起身体，朝四周张望着。他看不出刚才那声爆响是从哪儿发出来的，但周围各式各样的窗户里探出了几张人脸。哈利赶紧把魔杖塞进牛仔裤里，装出什么事儿也没有的样子。
“多么迷人的夜晚！”弗农姨父朝住在对面、正从网眼窗帘后面朝外瞪视的七号太太挥挥手，大声说道，“听见刚才汽车回火的声音了吗？把我和佩妮吓了一大跳呢！”
他脸上一直堆着那种难看的、疯子般的怪笑，直到那些好奇的邻居从他们各式各样的窗口消失。这时他的笑容突然变成了狰狞的怒容，他示意哈利回到他面前。
哈利朝前挪动了几步，很小心地及时停住脚步，以免弗农姨父伸出的双手再掐住自己的喉咙。
“你这到底搞的什么鬼，小子？”弗农姨父用气得微微发抖的低沉声音问。
“我搞什么啦？”哈利冷冷地问。他不停地朝街上东张西望，仍然希望看见是谁弄出了刚才那声爆响。
“弄出那噪音，像手枪开火，就在我们家窗户外——”
'I didn't make that noise,' said Harry firmly.
Aunt Petunia's thin, horsy face now appeared beside Uncle Vernon's wide, purple one. She looked livid.
'Why were you lurking under our window？'
'Yes - yes, good point, Petunia！ What were you doing under our window, boy？'
'Listening to the news,' said Harry in a resigned voice.
His aunt and uncle exchanged looks of outrage.
'Listening to the news！ Again？'
'Well, it changes every day, you see,' said Harry.
'Don't you be clever with me, boy！ I want to know what you're really up to - and don't give me any more of this listening to the news tosh！ You know perfectly well that your lot - '
'Careful, Vernon！' breathed Aunt Petunia, and Uncle Vernon lowered his voice so that Harry could barely hear him,' - that your lot don't get on our news！'
'That's all you know,' said Harry.
“那声音不是我弄出来的。”哈利坚决地说。
这时，弗农姨父的紫红色宽脸膛旁边，出现了佩妮姨妈那张瘦长的马脸，脸色铁青。
“你为什么鬼鬼祟祟地躲在我们家窗户底下？”
“好——好，问得好，佩妮！你在我们家窗户底下搞什么鬼，小子？”
“听新闻。”哈利用顺从的声音说。
姨妈和姨父气呼呼地交换了一下目光。
“听新闻！还听？”
“是啊，新闻每天都在变的，你知道。”哈利说。
“别跟我耍小聪明，小子！我想知道你到底打的什么主意——别再跟我说什么听新闻之类的鬼话！你心里明明知道，你们那类人——”
“留神，弗农！”佩妮姨妈紧张地说。
于是弗农姨父一下子把声音压得很低，哈利简直听不清他在说什么，“——你们那类人不会出现在我们的新闻里！”
“那是你的想法。”哈利说。
The Dursleys goggled at him for a few seconds, then Aunt Petunia said, 'You're a nasty little liar. What are all those - ' she, too, lowered her voice so that Harry had to lip-read the next word, ' - owls doing if they're not bringing you news？'
'Aha！' said Uncle Vernon in a triumphant whisper. 'Get out of that one, boy！ As if we didn't know you get all your news from those pestilential birds！'
Harry hesitated for a moment. It cost him something to tell the truth this time, even though his aunt and uncle could not possibly know how bad he felt at admitting it.
'The owls . . . aren't bringing me news,' he said tonelessly.
'I don't believe it,' said Aunt Petunia at once.
'No more do I,' said Uncle Vernon forcefully.
'We know you're up to something funny' said Aunt Petunia.
'We're not stupid, you know,' said Uncle Vernon.
'Well, that's news to me,' said Harry, his temper rising, and before the Dursleys could call him back, he had wheeled about, crossed the front lawn, stepped over the low garden wall and was striding off up the street.
德思礼夫妇狠狠地瞪了他几秒钟，然后佩妮姨妈说：“你真是个坏透了的小骗子。那些——”她也突然放低了声音，哈利只能凭着她嘴唇的动作才听懂了她下面的话，“——猫头鹰不是给你传递消息又是在做什么呢？”
“啊哈！”弗农姨父得意地小声说，“快说实话吧，小子！好像我们不知道你能从那些讨厌的大鸟那儿得到所有的消息似的！”
哈利迟疑了片刻。这次说实话是要付出代价的，尽管姨妈和姨父不可能知道他承认这件事心里有多难过。
“猫头鹰——不给我传递消息了。”他干巴巴地说。
“我不相信。”佩妮姨妈立刻说。
“我也不相信。”弗农姨父强硬地跟了一句。
“我们知道你要做出点出格的事儿了。”佩妮姨妈说。
“我们不是傻瓜，你知道。”弗农姨父说。
“哦，那对我来说倒是新闻。”哈利说，他的火气上来了，不等德思礼夫妇把他叫回去，他就一转身跑过门前的草地，跨过花园的矮墙，大步流星地走到了街上。