晨韵推荐：双语美文--哈利波特与凤凰社 Chapter 4（下）

绚斓晨韵

'It would have taken you about thirty seconds longer to walk down the stairs,' said Ron.
'Time is Galleons, little brother,' said Fred. 'Anyway, Harry, you're interfering with reception. Extendable Ears,' he added in response to Harry's raised eyebrows, and held up the string which Harry now saw was trailing out on to the landing. 'We're trying to hear what's going on downstairs.'
'You want to be careful,' said Ron, staring at the Ear, 'if Mum sees one of them again . . .'
'It's worth the risk, that's a major meeting they're having,' said red.
The door opened and a long mane of red hair appeared.
'Oh, hello, Harry！' said Ron's younger sister, Ginny, brightly. 'I thought I heard your voice.'
Turning to Fred and George, she said, 'Its no-go with the Extendable Ears, she's gone and put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door.'
'How d'you know？' said George, looking crestfallen.
'Tonks told me how to find out,' said Ginny. 'You just chuck stuff at the door and if it can't make contact the door's been Imperturbed. I've been flicking Dungbombs at it from the top of the stairs and they just soar away from it, so there's no way the Extendable Ears will be able to get under the gap.'
Fred heaved a deep sigh.
'Shame. I really fancied finding out what old Snape's been up to.'
'Snape！' said Harry quickly. 'Is he here？'
'Yeah,' said George, carefully closing the door and sitting down on one of the beds; Fred and Ginny followed. 'Giving a report. Top secret.'
'Git,' said Fred idly
'He's on our side now,' said Hermione reprovingly.
Ron snorted. 'Doesn't stop him being a git. The way he looks at us when he sees us.'
'Bill doesn't like him, either,' said Ginny, as though that settled the matter.
Harry was not sure his anger had abated yet; but his thirst for information was now overcoming his urge to keep shouting. He sank on to the bed opposite the others.
'Is Bill here？' he asked. 'I thought he was working in Egypt？'
'He applied for a desk job so he could come home and work for the Order,' said Fred. 'He says he misses the tombs, but,' he smirked, 'there are compensations.'
'What d'you mean？'
“从楼梯上下来也不过就多花三十秒钟。”罗恩说。
“时间就是金加拢”弗雷德说，“不管怎么说，哈利，你干扰接收了。伸缩耳，”他看到哈利扬起眉毛，又接着解释道，并举起了那根细绳，哈利这才看到它一直通到外面的楼梯平台上，“我们想听听楼下的动静。”
“你们可得小心点儿，”罗恩盯着伸缩耳说，“如果又给妈妈看见了——”
“值得冒险，他们在开一个重要会议。”弗雷德说。
门开了，露出一头火红的长发。
“噢，你好，哈利！”罗恩的妹妹金妮高兴地说道，“我好像听见你的声音了。”她又转向弗雷德和乔治，对他们说：“伸缩耳不管用了，妈妈竟然给厨房门念了个抗扰咒。”
“你怎么知道的？”乔治问，一副垂头丧气的样子。
“是唐克斯告诉我怎么验证的，”金妮说，“你只要往门上扔东西，如果东西碰不到门，就说明念了抗扰咒。我一直在楼梯顶上往门上扔大粪蛋，可它们全都避开门飞到了别处，所以伸缩耳根本不可能从门缝底下钻进去。”
弗雷德长长地叹了口气。“可惜。我真想知道斯内普那老家伙想干什么。”
“斯内普！”哈利立刻问道，“他也在这儿？”
“是啊，”乔治说着小心地关上房门，坐在一张床上。弗雷德和乔治也跟了过来。“念一份报告。绝密的。”
“蠢蛋。”弗雷德懒洋洋地说。
“他现在是我们这边的人了。”赫敏责备地说。
罗恩哼了一声，说：“那也不能说他就不是蠢蛋了。瞧他看着我们时的那副眼光。”
“比尔也不喜欢他。”金妮说，似乎这就一锤定音了。
哈利不知道自己的火气是不是熄灭了，但此刻他迫不及待地想知道更多的情况，这份渴望压过了他大叫大嚷的冲动。他一屁股坐在其他人对面的那张床上。
“比尔也在这儿？”他问，“他不是在埃及工作吗？”
“他申请了一个坐办公室的工作，这样就能回家，为凤凰社做事了。”弗雷德说。“他说他很想念那些古墓。不过，”他调皮地笑了，“也有所补偿埃”
“什么意思？”
'Remember old Fleur Delacour？' said George. 'She's got a job at Gringotts to eemprove 'er Eeenglish -
'And Bill's been giving her a lot of private lessons,' sniggered Fred.
'Charlie's in the Order, too,' said George, 'but he's still in Romania. Dumbledore wants as many foreign wizards brought in as possible, so Charlie's trying to make contacts on his days off.'
'Couldn't Percy do that？' Harry asked. The last he had heard, the third Weasley brother was working in the Department of International Magical Co-operation at the Ministry of Magic.
At Harry's words, all the Weasleys and Hermione exchanged darkly significant looks.
'Whatever you do, don't mention Percy in front of Mum and Dad,' Ron told Harry in a tense voice.
'Why not？'
'Because every time Percy's name's mentioned, Dad breaks whatever he's holding and Mum starts crying,' Fred said.
'It's been awful,' said Ginny sadly.
'I think we're well shot of him,' said George, with an uncharacteristically ugly look on his face.
'What's happened？' Harry said.
'Percy and Dad had a row,' said Fred. 'I've never seen Dad row with anyone like that. It's normally Mum who shouts.'
'It was the first week back after term ended,' said Ron. 'We were about to come and join the Order. Percy came home and told us he'd been promoted.'
'You're kidding？' said Harry.
Though he knew perfectly well that Percy was highly ambitious, Harry's impression was that Percy had not made a great success of his first job at the Ministry of Magic. Percy had committed the fairly large oversight of failing to notice that his boss was being controlled by Lord Voldemort （not that the Ministry had believed it - they all thought Mr Crouch had gone mad）.
'Yeah, we were all surprised,' said George, 'because Percy got into a load of trouble about Crouch, there was an inquiry and everything. They said Percy ought to have realised Crouch was off his rocker and informed a superior. But you know Percy, Crouch left him in charge, he wasn't going to complain.'
'So how come they promoted him？'
“还记得那个芙蓉德拉库尔吗？”乔治说，“她在古灵阁找了一份工作，为了提高英语——”
“比尔一直在给她许多个别辅导。”弗雷德咯咯笑着说。
“查理也加入了凤凰社，”乔治说，“但他人还在罗马尼亚。邓布利多希望尽量多地吸收国外的巫师，所以查理在不上班的时候就与人广泛接触。”
“珀西不能那么做吗？”哈利问。据他上次所知道的情况，韦斯莱家的第三个儿子在魔法部的国际魔法合作司工作。
听了哈利的话，韦斯莱家的几个兄妹和赫敏交换了一个忧郁的意味深长的眼神。
“你可千万别在妈妈和爸爸面前提到珀西。”罗恩用紧张的口气对哈利说。
“为什么呢？”
“因为每次提到珀西的名字，爸爸就把手里拿的东西砸得粉碎，妈妈就放声大哭。”弗雷德说。
“真是太可怕了。”金妮悲哀地说。
“我想我们总算摆脱他了。”乔治说，脸上露出一副很难看到的怪相。
“出什么事了？”哈利问。
“珀西和爸爸大吵了一架。”弗雷德说，“我从没见过爸爸跟谁吵成那样。平常总是妈妈大吵大嚷。”
“那是学期结束后的第一个星期，”罗恩说，“我们正准备来加入凤凰社。珀西回家了，告诉我们他被提升了。”
“你开玩笑吧？”哈利说。
哈利虽然很清楚珀西一直野心勃勃，但他有个印象，似乎珀西在魔法部的第一份工作干得不是很成功。珀西犯了比较严重的失察罪，他没有发现他的上司是受伏地魔控制的（就连魔法部也不相信——他们都以为克劳奇先生疯了）。
“是啊，我们也都感到很意外，”乔治说，“因为珀西在克劳奇的事情上惹了一大堆麻烦，后来又是调查又是什么的。他们说珀西应该意识到克劳奇精神失常，并及时向上级报告。但你是了解珀西的，克劳奇让他独当一面，他正巴不得呢。”
“那他们怎么还会提拔他呢？”