晨韵推荐：双语美文--哈利波特与凤凰社 Chapter 4（下）

绚斓晨韵

'Yeah, I know,' said Harry shortly.

He cast around for a topic that didn't involve his headmaster, because the very thought of Dumbledore made Harry's insides burn with anger again.

Who's Kreacher？' he asked.

The house-elf who lives here,' said Ron. 'Nutter. Never met one like him.'

Hermione frowned at Ron.

'He's not a nutter, Ron.'

'His life's ambition is to have his head cut off and stuck up on plaque just like his mother,' said Ron irritably. 'Is that normal, Hermione？'

'Well - well, if he is a bit strange, it's not his fault.'

Ron rolled his eyes at Harry.

'Hermione still hasn't given up on SPEW.'

'It's not SPEW！' said Hermione heatedly. 'It's the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. And it's not just me, Dumbledore says we should be kind to Kreacher too.'

'Yeah, yeah,' said Ron. 'C'mon, I'm starving.'

He led the way out of the door and on to the landing, but be ore they could descend the stairs - '

'Hold it！' Ron breathed, flinging out an arm to stop Harry and Hermione walking any further. They're still in the hall, we might be able to hear something.'

The three of them looked cautiously over the banisters. The gloomy hallway below was packed with witches and wizards, including all of Harry's guard. They were whispering excitedly together. In the very centre of the group Harry saw the dark, greasy-haired head and prominent nose of his least favourite teacher at Hogwarts, Professor Snape. Harry leant further over the banisters. He was very interested in what Snape was doing for the Order of the Phoenix . . .

A thin piece of flesh-coloured string descended in front of Harry's eyes. Looking up, he saw Fred and George on the landing above, cautiously lowering the Extendable Ear towards the dark knot of people below. A moment later, however, they all began to move towards the front door and out of sight.

“好啦，我知道了。”哈利烦躁地说。他想赶紧换一个与校长无关的话题，每次一想到邓布利多，哈利的内心就又呼呼地冒怒火。“克利切是谁？”他问。

“一个住在这里的家养小精灵，”罗恩说，“一个疯子。从没见过像他这样的。”

赫敏冲罗恩皱起眉头，“他不是疯子，罗恩。”

“他人生的最大理想就是像他妈妈那样把脑袋割下来，粘在一块饰板上。”罗恩不耐烦地说，“那正常吗，赫敏？”

“这个——可是，就算他有点儿古怪，那也不是他的过错。”

罗恩朝哈利翻翻眼睛，“赫敏仍然没有放弃她的‘呕吐’①呢。”

“不是‘呕吐’！”赫敏恼火地说，“是家养小精灵权益促进会。而且不光是我，邓布利多也说我们应该仁慈的对待克利切。”

“是啊，是啊，”罗恩说，“快走吧，我都饿坏了。”

他领头出了房门来到楼梯平台上，但没等他们开始下楼——

“慢着！”罗恩轻声说，伸出一只胳膊不让哈利和赫敏再往前走，“他们还在门厅里，说不定我们能听见什么呢。”

他们三个小心翼翼地从栏杆上往下看。下面昏暗的门厅里挤满了巫师，包括先前给哈利当警卫的那几个人。他们都在激动地小声议论着什么。在人群的最中间，哈利看到了那个头发乌黑油亮的脑袋和那个突出的大鼻子，那是他在霍格沃茨最不喜欢的老师——斯内普教授。哈利从栏杆上探出脑袋，他很想知道斯内普究竟在为凤凰社做些什么……

一根细细的肉色绳子在哈利眼前垂了下去。他一抬头，看见弗雷德和乔治正在上一层楼梯平台上小心地把伸缩耳降落到下面黑压压的人群中间。然而，没过一会儿，那伙人就开始朝前门走去，很快就不见了。

'Dammit,' Harry heard Fred whisper, as he hoisted the Extendable Ear back up again.

They heard the front door open, then close.

'Snape never eats here,' Ron told Harry quietly. Thank Clod. C'mon.'

'And don't forget to keep your voice down in the hall, Harry,' Hermione whispered.

As they passed the row of house-elf heads on the wall, they saw Lupin, Mrs Weasley and Tonks at the front door, magically sealing its many locks and bolts behind those who had just left.

'We're eating down in the kitchen,' Mrs Weasley whispered, meeting them at the bottom of the stairs. 'Harry, dear, if you'll just tiptoe across the hall it's through this door here - '

CRASH.

'Tonks！' cried Mrs Weasley in exasperation, turning to look behind her.

'I'm sorry！' wailed Tonks, who was lying flat on the floor. 'It's that stupid umbrella stand, that's the second time I've tripped over - '

But the rest of her words were drowned by a horrible, ear-splitting, blood-curdling screech.

The moth-eaten velvet curtains Harry had passed earlier had flown apart, but there was no door behind them. For a split second, Harry thought he was looking through a window, a window behind which an old woman in a black cap was screaming and screaming as though she were being tortured - then he realised it was simply a life-size portrait, but the most realistic, and the most unpleasant, he had ever seen in his life.

The old woman was drooling, her eyes were rolling, the yellowing skin of her face stretched taut as she screamed; and all along the hall behind them, the other portraits awoke and began to yell, too, so that Harry actually screwed up his eyes at the noise and clapped his hands over his ears.

Lupin and Mrs Weasley darted forward and tried to tug the curtains shut over the old woman, but they would not close and she screeched louder than ever, brandishing clawed hands as though trying to tear at their faces.

“见鬼！”哈利听见弗雷德小声骂了一句，把伸缩耳又拽了上去。

他们听见前门打开了，然后又关上了。

“斯内普从来不在这里吃饭，”罗恩小声地告诉哈利，“谢天谢地。我们走吧。”

“在门厅里别忘了压低声音说话，哈利。”赫敏悄声说。

他们经过墙上那一排家养小精灵的脑袋时，看见那些人离开后，卢平、韦斯莱夫人和唐克斯站在门前用魔法给门上加了许多道门锁和门闩。

“我们在下面的厨房里吃饭。”韦斯莱夫人在楼梯底下迎接他们时压低声音说，“哈利，亲爱的，你只要轻手轻脚穿过门厅，再穿过这里这道门——”

砰。

“唐克斯！”韦斯莱夫人恼火地喊道，转身去看身后。

“对不起！”唐克斯惨叫道——她仰面朝天躺在地上，“都怪那个倒霉的伞架，我已经是第二次被它绊倒——”

她的话没说完，就被一阵可怕的、震耳欲聋的、令人毛骨悚然的尖叫声淹没了。

哈利先前经过的那两道布满虫眼的天鹅绒帷幔，现在突然被掀开了，但后面并没有门。哈利一刹那间以为那是一扇窗户，窗户后面一个带黑帽子的老太太正在拼命地尖叫，一声紧似一声，好像正在经受严刑毒打——接着他才意识到，这只是一幅真人大小的肖像，但他有生以来从没见过这么逼真、这么令人不快的肖像。

那老太太流着口水，眼珠滴溜溜的转着，脸上的黄皮肤因为尖叫而绷得紧紧的。在他们身后的门厅里，其他肖像都被吵醒了，也开始尖叫起来，那声音简直把人的耳朵都吵聋了。哈利只好紧紧闭上眼睛，用手捂住耳朵。

卢平和韦斯莱夫人三步并作两步冲过去，想拉上帷幔，把老太太遮在里面，但怎么也拉不上。老太太的叫声越发刺耳了，她还挥动着利爪般的双手，好像要来抓他们的脸。

'Filth！ Scum！ By-products of dirt and vileness！ Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begone from this place！ How dare you befoul the house of my fathers - '

Tonks apologised over and over again, dragging the huge, heavy troll's leg back off the floor; Mrs Weasley abandoned the attempt to close the curtains and hurried up and down the hall, Stunning all the other portraits with her wand; and a man with long black hair came charging out of a door facing Harry.

'Shut up, you horrible old hag, shut UP！' he roared, seizing the curtain Mrs Weasley had abandoned.

The old woman's face blanched.

'Yoooou！' she howled, her eyes popping at the sight of the man. 'Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh！'

'I said - shut - UP！' roared the man, and with a stupendous effort he and Lupin managed to force the curtains closed again.

The old woman's screeches died and an echoing silence tell. Panting slightly and sweeping his long dark hair out of his eyes, Harry's godfather Sirius turned to face him.

'Hello, Harry,' he said grimly, 'I see you've met my mother.'

“畜生！贱货！肮脏和罪恶的孽子！杂种，怪胎，丑八怪，赶快从这里滚出去！你们怎么敢玷污我祖上的家宅——”

唐克斯一个劲儿地道歉，一边把那条庞大而笨重的巨怪腿重新拖到原来的位置。韦斯莱夫人不再试着拉上帷幔了，而是转身匆匆朝门厅那里走去，一边用魔法给其他肖像都念了昏迷咒。接着，一个留着一头黑色长发的男人从哈利对面的一扇门里冲了出来。

“闭嘴，你这个可怕的老巫婆，闭嘴！”他吼道，一把抓住韦斯莱夫人刚才丢下的帷幔。

老太太顿时脸色煞白。

“你——你！”她一看见那个男人就瞪大了双眼，厉声叫道。“败家子，家族的耻辱，我生下的孽种！”

“我说过了——闭——嘴！”那男人大吼道，他和卢平一起费了九牛二虎之力，总算把帷幔又拉上了。

老太太的尖叫声消失了，接着是一片余音回荡的寂静。

微微喘着粗气，撩开挡着眼睛的长长黑发，哈利的教父小天狼星转过身来看着哈利。

“你好，哈利，”他板着脸说，“看来你已经见过我的母亲了。”