Ever since Harry had come home for the summer holidays,
自从哈利放暑假回家,
Uncle Vernon had been treating him like a bomb that might go off at any moment,
弗农姨父一直把他当一颗定时炸弹看待,
because Harry Potter wasn’t a normal boy.
因为哈利不是一个正常的孩子。
As a matter of fact, he was as not normal as it is possible to be.
实际上,他相当不正常。
Harry Potter was a wizard — a wizard fresh from his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
哈利波特是一个巫师——刚在霍格沃茨魔法学校上完一年级。
And if the Dursleys were unhappy to have him back for the holidays,
如果德思礼对他回家过暑假感到不快,
it was nothing to how Harry felt.
那么他们的不快和哈利的感觉相比根本不值一提。
He missed Hogwarts so much it was like having a constant stomachache.
他真想念霍格沃茨,想得五脏六腑都发痛。
He missed the castle, with its secret passageways and ghosts,
他想念那个城堡,那些秘密通道和幽灵鬼怪,
his classes though perhaps not Snape, the Potions master,
想念他的课程(也许除了魔药老师斯内普的课),
the mail arriving by owl, eating banquets in the Great Hall,
还有猫头鹰捎来的信件、大礼堂里的宴会,
sleeping in his four-poster bed in the tower dormitory, visiting the gamekeeper, Hagrid, in his cabin next to theForbidden Forest in the grounds,
想念他宿舍楼里的四柱床,想念禁林边上那间小木屋和狩猎场看守海格,
and, especially, Quidditch, the most popular sport in the wizarding world (six tall goal posts, four flying balls,and fourteen players on broomsticks).
更想念魁地奇球——魔法世界里最流行的体育运动(六根高高的门柱、四只会飞的球、十四名骑着扫帚的球员)。
All Harry’s spellbooks, his wand, robes, cauldron, and top-of-the-line Nimbus Two Thousand broomstick hadbeen locked in a cupboard under the stairs by Uncle Vernon the instant Harry had come home.
哈利刚一到家,弗农姨父就把他的咒语书、魔杖、长袍、坩埚和最高级的光轮2000锁进了楼梯下那又小又暗的柜子里。
What did the Dursleys care if Harry lost his place on the House Quidditch team because he hadn’t practiced allsummer?
哈利会不会因为一个暑假没练习而被学院魁地奇球队开除,德思礼一家才不管呢。
What was it to the Dursleys if Harry went back to school without any of his homework done?
哈利的家庭作业一点都没做,回学校时无法交差,这跟他们有什么关系?
The Dursleys were what wizards called Muggles (not a drop of magical blood in their veins), and as far as theywere concerned,
德思礼一家是巫师们所说的“麻瓜”(血管里没有一滴巫师的血液)。在他们看来,
having a wizard in the family was a matter of deepest shame.
家里有一个巫师是莫大的耻辱。
Uncle Vernon had even padlocked Harry’s owl, Hedwig, inside her cage,
弗农姨父甚至把哈利的猫头鹰海德薇也锁在了它的笼子里,
to stop her from carrying messages to anyone in the wizarding world.
不让它给魔法世界的任何人送信。
Harry looked nothing like the rest of the family.
哈利跟这家人长得一点儿也不像。
Uncle Vernon was large and neckless, with an enormous black mustache;
弗农姨父膀大粳圆,没有脖子,蓄着异常浓密的大胡子;
Aunt Petunia was horse-faced and bony;
佩妮姨妈长了一张马脸,骨节粗大;
Dudley was blond, pink, and porky.
达力头发金黄,皮肤白里透红,体形肥胖。
Harry, on the other hand, was small and skinny, with brilliant green eyes and jet-black hair that was alwaysuntidy.
而哈利却身材瘦小,长着一双明亮的绿眼睛,漆黑的头发总是乱蓬蓬的,
He wore round glasses, and on his forehead was a thin, lightning-shaped scar.
他戴着圆圆的眼镜,额头上还有一道细长的闪电形伤疤。
It was this scar that made Harry so particularly unusual, even for a wizard.
就是这道伤疤使哈利即使在巫师中也是如此与众不同。
This scar was the only hint of Harry’s very mysterious past, of the reason he had been left on the Dursleys’doorstep eleven years before.
这道伤疤是哈利神秘过去留下的惟一痕迹,是推测他十一年前为什么会被放在德思礼家门槛上的惟一线索。