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Mr. Weasley was slumped in a kitchen chair with his glasses off and his eyes closed.
韦斯莱先生瘫在厨房的椅子上，摘掉了眼镜，两眼紧闭着。
He was a thin man, going bald, but the little hair he had was as red as any of his children’s.
他是个瘦瘦的男人，有点谢顶，可他剩下的那点头发和他孩子们的一样红。
He was wearing long green robes, which were dusty and travel-worn.
他穿着一件绿色的长袍，显得风尘仆仆。
“What a night,” he mumbled, groping for the teapot as they all sat down around him.
“这一晚上真够呛！”他咕哝着，伸手去摸茶壶，孩子们都在他身边坐下。
“Nine raids. Nine! And old Mundungus Fletcher tried to put a hex on me when I had my back turned. . . .”
“抄查了九家。蒙顿格斯弗莱奇这老家伙想趁我转身时对我用魔法……”
Mr. Weasley took a long gulp of tea and sighed.
韦斯莱先生喝了一大口茶，舒了口气。
“Find anything, Dad?” said Fred eagerly.
“搜到了什么东西吗，爸爸？”弗雷德急切地问。
“All I got were a few shrinking door keys and a biting kettle,” yawned Mr. Weasley.
“只有几把会缩小的房门钥匙和一只会咬人的水壶。”韦斯莱先生打着哈欠说，
“There was some pretty nasty stuff that wasn’t my department, though.
“有一些很麻烦的东西，但不归我的部门管。
Mortlake was taken away for questioning about some extremely odd ferrets,
在莫特莱克家发现了一些非常古怪的雪貂，他被带去问话了，
but that’s the Committee on Experimental Charms, thank goodness. . . .”
可那是魔咒实验委员会的事儿，谢天谢地……”
“Why would anyone bother making door keys shrink?” said George.
“为什么有人要做会缩小的钥匙呢？”乔治说。
“Just Muggle-baiting,” sighed Mr. Weasley.
“捉弄那些麻瓜，”韦斯莱先生叹息道，
“Sell them a key that keeps shrinking to nothing so they can never find it when they need it. . . .
“卖给麻瓜一把钥匙，最后钥匙缩到没有，要用时就找不到了……
Of course, it’s very hard to convict anyone because no Muggle would admit their key keeps shrinking — they’ll insist they just keep losing it.
当然，这很难说服任何人，因为没有一个麻瓜会承认自己的钥匙越缩越小——他们会坚持说钥匙丢了。
Bless them, they’ll go to any lengths to ignore magic, even if it’s staring them in the face. . . .
这些麻瓜，他们永远能对魔法视而不见，哪怕它明明摆在他们面前……
But the things our lot have taken to enchanting, you wouldn’t believe —”
可是被我们的人施了魔法的那些东西，你简直不能相信——”
“LIKE CARS, FOR INSTANCE?”
“比如汽车，对吗？”
Mrs. Weasley had appeared, holding a long poker like a sword.
韦斯莱夫人走了进来，手里举着一根拨火棍，像举着一把剑。
Mr. Weasley’s eyes jerked open. He stared guiltily at his wife.
韦斯莱先生张大了嘴巴，心虚地看着他的妻子。
“C-cars, Molly, dear?”
“汽——汽车，莫丽，亲爱的？”
“Yes, Arthur, cars,” said Mrs. Weasley, her eyes flashing.
“对，亚瑟，汽车。”韦斯莱夫人眼里冒着火，
“Imagine a wizard buying a rusty old car and telling his wife all he wanted to do with it was take it apart to see how it worked, while really he was enchanting it to make it fly.”
“想想看，一个巫师买了辆生锈的旧汽车，对他妻子说他只想把它拆开，看看内部的构造，可实际上他用魔法把它变成了一辆会飞的汽车。”
Mr. Weasley blinked.
韦斯莱先生眨了眨眼。
“Well, dear, I think you’ll find that he would be quite within the law to do that,
“哦，亲爱的，我想你会发现他这样做并没有违法，
even if — er — he maybe would have done better to, um, tell his wife the truth. . . . There’s a loophole in the law, you’ll find. . . .
尽管他也许应该事先把真相告诉妻子……法律中有个漏洞，你会发现……
As long as he wasn’t intending to fly the car, the fact that the car could fly wouldn’t —”
只要他不打算用它飞行，汽车会飞这一事实并不……”
“Arthur Weasley, you made sure there was a loophole when you wrote that law!” shouted Mrs. Weasley.
“亚瑟韦斯莱，你在写法律的时候故意留了一个漏洞！”韦斯莱夫人嚷道，
“Just so you could carry on tinkering with all that Muggle rubbish in your shed! And for your information,
“就为了能在你的棚子里捣鼓那些麻瓜的东西！
Harry arrived this morning in the car you weren’t intending to fly!”
告诉你，今天早上哈利就是坐那辆你不打算用它飞行的汽车来的！”
“Harry?” said Mr. Weasley blankly. “Harry who?”
“哈利？”韦斯莱先生茫然地问道，“哪个哈利？”
He looked around, saw Harry, and jumped.
他环顾四周，看到了哈利，马上跳起来。
“Good lord, is it Harry Potter?
“老天爷，是哈利波特吗？
Very pleased to meet you, Ron’s told us so much about —”
见到你非常高兴，罗恩对我们讲了你的那么多——”
“Your sons flew that car to Harry’s house and back last night!” shouted Mrs. Weasley.
“你儿子昨晚开着那辆车，飞到哈利家把他接了过来！”韦斯莱夫人嚷道，
“What have you got to say about that, eh?”
“你有什么话说，嗯？”
“Did you really?” said Mr. Weasley eagerly.
“真的吗？”韦斯莱先生忙问，
“Did it go all right? I — I mean,” he faltered as sparks flew from Mrs. Weasley’s eyes, “that — that was very wrong, boys — very wrong indeed. . . .”
“它飞得好吗？我——我是说，”看到韦斯莱夫人眼里射出的怒火，他连忙改口，“这是很不对的，孩子们，非常非常不对……”
“Let’s leave them to it,” Ron muttered to Harry as Mrs. Weasley swelled like a bullfrog.
“让他们去吵吧，”罗恩悄悄对哈利说，
“Come on, I’ll show you my bedroom.”
“来，我带你去看我的卧室。”
