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CHAPTER ONE OWL POST

第一章 猫头鹰邮递

Harry Potter was a highly unusual boy in many ways. For one thing, he hated the summer holidays more than any other time of year.

就许多方面来说，哈利·特是个不同寻常的男孩。比如说，他在一年之中最恨的就是暑假。

For another, he really wanted to do his homework but was forced to do it in secret, in the dead of night. And he also happened to be a wizard.

再比如说，他倒是真心想做他的家庭作业，但他却被迫偷偷地、总是在深夜才做。而且，他碰是个男巫。

It was nearly midnight, and he was lying on his stomach in bed, the blankets drawn right over his head like a tent, a flashlight in one hand and a large leather-bound book (A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot) propped open against the pillow.

现在差不多已经是半夜了，他正趴在床上，被单像帐篷一样罩在脑袋上。他一手拿着电筒，靠在枕头上，打开了一本皮面书—— 巴希达巴沙特所著的《魔法史》。

Harry moved the tip of his eagle-feather quill down the page, frowning as he looked for something that would help him write his essay, " Witch Burning in the Fourteenth Century Was Completely Pointless discuss." The quill paused at the top of a likely-looking paragraph.

哈利皱着眉头，在书页上从上而下地移动着那支羽毛笔的笔尖，他正在寻找能帮助他写文的材料，文题目是《十四世纪焚烧女巫的做法是完全没有意义的—— 讨稿》。羽毛笔停留在一段似乎会有用的文字开头。

Harry Pushed his round glasses up the bridge of his nose, moved his flashlight closer to the book, and read:Non-magic people (more commonly known as Muggles) were particularly afraid of magic in medieval times, but not very good at recognizing it.

哈利把鼻梁上的圆形眼镜向上推了推，又让电筒发出的光更靠近那本书。他读道：中世纪的时候，非魔法界人士(更普遍的叫法是“瓜”)是特别害怕魔法的，但是他们并不善于识别魔法。

On the rare occasion that they did catch a real witch or wizard, burning had no effect whatsoever. The witch or wizard would perform a basic Flame Freezing Charm and then pretend to shriek with pain while enjoying a gentle, tickling sensation.

他们偶尔真地抓到男巫或女巫，但在这种时候，焚烧并没有收到什么效果。男巫或女巫在被焚烧的时候-1-会施展一种冻结火焰的基本魔法，一面享受着火焰所产生的温和的刺痒快感，一面假装痛苦而发出尖叫。

Indeed, Wendelin the Weird enjoyed being burned so much that she allowed herself to be caught no less than fortyseven times in various disguises. Harry put his quill between his teeth and reached underneath his pillow for his ink bottle and a roll of parchment.

占卜者温德林十分喜欢被焚烧，曾让自己在各种各样化装形态下被人们抓住，其次数达四十七次之多。哈利把笔放在两排牙齿之间咬者，伸手到枕头下面拿墨水瓶和一卷羊皮纸。

Slowly and very carefully he unscrewed the ink bottle, dipped his quill into it, and began to write, pausing every now and then to listen, because if any of the Dursleys heard the scratching of his quill on their way to the bathroom, he'd probably find himself locked in the cupboard under the stairs for the rest of the summer.

他慢慢地、很小心地打开墨水瓶，把那支羽毛笔伸进去蘸了蘸，然后开始书写，时不时地停下来谛听。因为如果德思礼家的人去洗手间的路上昕到了他的羽毛笔写字的音，这整个夏天他就很可能要被他们锁在楼梯下面的碗柜里。

The Dursley family of number four, Privet Drive, was the reason that Harry never enjoyed his summer holidays. Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and their son, Dudley, were Harry's only living relatives.

住在女贞路4号的德思礼一家正是哈利从来不能好好过暑假的原因。弗农姨父、佩妮姨妈以及他们的儿子达力是哈利在世界上仅有的亲戚。

They were Muggles, and they had a very medieval attitude toward magic. Harry's dead parents, who had been a witch and wizard themselves, were never mentioned under the Dursleys' roof.

他们都是麻瓜，就是说，是不懂魔法的世俗之，他们对魔法采取的态度仍旧停留在中世纪。哈利双亲已故，他们生前分别是男巫和女巫，他们的名字德思礼一家从来是绝口不提的。

For years, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had hoped that if they kept Harry as downtrodden as possible, they would be able to squash the magic out of him. To their fury, they had been unsuccessful.

多年来，佩妮姨妈和弗农姨父一直认为，如果他们能够尽量地作践哈利，他们兴许就能够把魔法从哈剩身上榨出来。令他们极其愤怒的是他们一直没有成功。

These days they lived in terror of anyone finding out that Harry had spent most of the last two years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The most they could do, however, was to lock away Harry's spellbooks, wand, cauldron, and broomstick at the start of the summer break, and forbid him to talk to the neighbors.

现在他们天天担惊受怕，怕的是有谁发现哈利过去两年来的大部分时间一直在培养魔法师的霍格沃茨学校就读。最近德思礼一家做得最多的事就是在暑假开始时把哈利的咒语书、魔杖、坩埚和飞天扫帚锁起来，并且不准他和邻居说话。

This separation from his spellbooks had been a real problem for Harry, because his teachers at Hogwarts had given him a lot of holiday work. One of the essays, a particularly nasty one about shrinking potions, was for Harry's least favorite teacher, Professor Snape, who would be delighted to have an excuse to give Harry detention for a month.

对于哈利来说。接触不到咒语书可真是不方便，因霍格沃茨学校的老师给他布置了一大堆家庭作业。论文之一，就是关于缩身药剂的那篇，特别烦人，那是要交给哈利最不喜欢的老师斯内普教授的，斯内普正巴不得有个借口罚他留校一个月呢。

Harry had therefore seized his chance in the first week of the holidays. While Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley had gone out into the front garden to admire Uncle Vernon's new company car (in very loud voices, so that the rest of the street would notice it too),

因此，哈利在暑假的第一个星期就抓住了一个机会。正当弗农姨父、佩妮姨妈和达力到前花园去欣赏弗农姨父的公司为雇员买的辆新车(他们说话声音很响，为的是让邻居们也都注意到这辆新车)时，

Harry had crept downstairs, picked the lock on the cupboard under the stairs, grabbed some of his books, and hidden them in his bedroom. As long as he didn't leave spots of ink on the sheets, the Dursleys need never know that he was studying magic by night.

哈利就悄悄下了楼，打开了楼梯下面碗柜上的锁，一把抓出他的几本书，并且把书藏在他自己的卧室里。只要他不在被单上留下墨水渍，德思礼一家就不会知道他在夜里研究魔法。

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