HPMOR 第14章｜未知与不可知（中英对照）
第14章里，哈利拿到时间转换器后一路推演反物质、因果与可计算性，直到从五小时之外重新看见自己的恶作剧。
英文原文取自 HPMOR 官方第 14 章。下文保留章首题词，并严格按官方故事正文的 139 个自然段与 8 处分隔线排列，每组英文在上、中文在下；中文为依据英文独立校订的非官方译文。hpmor.xyz 对应章 仅用于核对理解、专名、术语与遗漏，未原样转载。
Melenkurion abatha! Duroc minas mill J. K. Rowling!
麦伦库林·阿巴萨！度罗克·米纳斯·米尔·J·K·罗琳！
<em>There were mysterious questions, but a mysterious answer was a contradiction in terms.</em>
神秘的问题是存在的，可「神秘的答案」这个说法本身就自相矛盾。
"Come in," said Professor McGonagall's muffled voice.
「进来。」麦格教授那闷闷的声音说。
Harry did so.
哈利照做了。
The office of the Deputy Headmistress was clean and well-organised; on the wall immediately adjacent to the desk was a maze of wooden cubbyholes of all shapes and sizes, most with several parchment scrolls thrust into them, and it was somehow very clear that Professor McGonagall knew exactly what every cubbyhole meant, even if no one else did. A single parchment lay on the actual desk, which was, aside from that, clean. Behind the desk was a closed door barred with several locks.
副校长的办公室干净而井井有条；紧挨着办公桌的那面墙上，是一大片大大小小、形状各异的木质格子，多数格子里塞着好几卷羊皮纸；不知为何，让人一眼就看出麦格教授对每个格子里装着什么心里有数，哪怕别人都看不明白。真正的桌面上只摊着一张羊皮纸，除此之外整张桌子干干净净。桌子后面是一扇紧闭的门，门上加了好几道锁。
Professor McGonagall was sitting on a backless stool behind the desk, looking puzzled - her eyes had widened, with perhaps a slight note of apprehension, as she saw Harry.
麦格教授坐在桌后一张没有靠背的凳子上，神色困惑——看到哈利时，她睁大了眼睛，或许还带着一丝不安。
"Mr. Potter?" said Professor McGonagall. "What is this about?"
「波特先生？」麦格教授说，「这是怎么回事？」
Harry's mind went blank. He'd been instructed by the game to come here, he had been expecting <em>her</em> to have something in mind...
哈利的脑子一片空白。游戏让他到这儿来，他本指望<em>她</em>心里有数……
"Mr. Potter?" said Professor McGonagall, starting to look slightly annoyed.
「波特先生？」麦格教授说，神情开始有点不耐烦了。
Thankfully, Harry's panicking brain remembered at this point that he <em>did</em> have something he'd been planning to discuss with Professor McGonagall. Something important and well worth her time.
幸好，他那正乱作一团的脑子这时想了起来：他<em>确实</em>有一件事，早就打算和麦格教授谈。而且很重要，值得她花时间。
"Um..." Harry said. "If there are any spells you can cast to make sure no one's listening to us..."
「嗯……」哈利说，「要是您有什么咒语，能确保没人偷听我们谈话的话……」
Professor McGonagall stood up from her chair, firmly closed the outer door, and began taking out her wand and saying spells.
麦格教授从凳子上站起来，用力关上外层的那扇门，然后抽出魔杖，开始念咒。
It was at this point that Harry realised he was faced with a priceless and possibly irreplaceable opportunity to offer Professor McGonagall a Comed-Tea and he couldn't believe he was seriously thinking that and it would be fine the soda would vanish after a few seconds and he told that part of himself to <em>shut up.</em>
这时哈利才意识到，自己正面对一个绝无仅有、也许再也不会有的良机——可以给麦格教授递上一杯笑话茶；而他简直不敢相信，自己居然真的在认真盘算这个念头，还想着「没事的，那汽水几秒钟就会消失」，于是他叫自己脑子里那个声音<em>闭嘴</em>。
It did, and Harry began to organise mentally what he was going to say. He hadn't planned to have this discussion <em>quite</em> so soon, but so long as he was here...
那个声音当真闭嘴了。哈利开始在脑子里组织自己要说的话。他本来没打算<em>这么</em>快就谈这件事，但既然人都来了……
Professor McGonagall finished a spell that sounded a lot older than Latin, and then she sat down again.
麦格教授念完一道听上去比拉丁语还要古老得多的咒语，然后重新坐下。
"All right," she said in a quiet voice. "No one's listening." Her face was rather tight.
「好了，」她用低沉的声音说，「没人听了。」她的表情相当紧绷。
<em>Oh, right, she's expecting me to blackmail her for information about the prophecy.</em>
<em>哦，对了，她现在正等着我用预言的事来讹她一笔。</em>
Eh, Harry'd get around to that some other day.
算了，哪天有兴致再说吧。
"It's about the Incident with the Sorting Hat," Harry said. (Professor McGonagall blinked.) "Um... I think there's an extra spell on the Sorting Hat, something that the Sorting Hat itself doesn't know about, something that triggers when the Sorting Hat says Slytherin. I heard a message that I'm pretty sure Ravenclaws aren't supposed to hear. It came the moment the Sorting Hat was off my head and I felt the connection break. It sounded like a hiss and like English at the same time," there was a sharp intake of breath from McGonagall, "and it said: Salutations from Slytherin to Slytherin, if you would seek my secrets, speak to my snake."
「是关于分院帽的那件事，」哈利说。（麦格教授眨了眨眼。）「嗯……我觉得分院帽上还藏着另一道咒语，一道连分院帽自己都未必知道的咒语，当分院帽念出『斯莱特林』时它就会被触发。我听到了一段消息，我敢说不是拉文克劳该听到的。那段话出现在分院帽离开我脑袋、我感觉到那层联系断开的那一刻。它听起来像嘶嘶声，又同时像英语，」麦格教授猛地倒抽了一口凉气，「它说的是：『斯莱特林向斯莱特林致意，若想探寻我的秘密，就和我的蛇对话吧。』」
Professor McGonagall sat there with her mouth open, staring at Harry as if he'd grown another two heads.
麦格教授张着嘴坐在那里，直勾勾地盯着哈利，好像他多长出了两个脑袋。
"So..." Professor McGonagall said slowly, as though she couldn't believe the words that were coming out of her own lips, "you decided to come to me right away and tell me about it."
「所以……」麦格教授缓缓说道，仿佛连自己都不相信从嘴边说出来的话，「你决定立刻来找我，把这件事告诉我。」
"Well, yes, of course," Harry said. There was no need to admit how long it had taken him to actually think of that. "As opposed to, say, trying to research it myself, or telling any of the other children."
「呃，是的，当然啦。」哈利说。他没必要承认自己想了多久才想到这一步。「而不是，比如说，自己私下研究，或者告诉其他任何一个孩子。」
"I... see," Professor McGonagall said. "And if, perhaps, you were to discover the entrance to Salazar Slytherin's legendary Chamber of Secrets, an entrance that you and you alone could open..."
「我……明白了，」麦格教授说。「那假如，我是说假如，你发现了萨拉查·斯莱特林那座传说中的密室的入口，一个只有你、只有你一个人能打开的入口……」
"I would close the entrance and report to you at once so that a team of experienced magical archaeologists could be assembled," Harry said promptly. "Then I would open up the entrance again and they would go in very carefully to make sure that there was nothing dangerous. I might go in later to look around, or if they needed me to open up something else, but it would be after the area had been declared clear and they had photographs of how everything looked before people started tromping around their priceless historical site."
「我会先把入口封上，立刻向你汇报，好让你能召集起一支经验丰富的魔法考古队，」哈利立刻回答。「然后我会重新打开入口，让他们非常小心地进去，确认里面没有任何危险。之后我或许再进去转转，或是等他们需要我打开别的东西时才进去；但那一定是在整片区域被宣布安全之后，在他们先拍好照片、记录下在人们开始在这片无价的历史遗迹上踩来踩去之前每样东西原本的样子之后。」
Professor McGonagall sat there with her mouth open, staring at him like he'd just turned into a cat.
麦格教授张着嘴坐在那里，盯着他，好像他刚刚变成了一只猫。
"It's obvious if you're not a Gryffindor," Harry said kindly.
「只要不是格兰芬多，这道理就明摆着。」哈利好心地说。
"I think," Professor McGonagall said in a rather choked voice, "that you <em>far</em> underestimate the rarity of common sense, Mr. Potter."
「我想，」麦格教授用颇为哽咽的声音说，「你<em>大大</em>低估了常识的稀缺，波特先生。」
That sounded about right. Although... "A Hufflepuff would've said the same thing."
这听起来倒差不多。不过嘛……「赫奇帕奇的人也会说出同样的话。」
McGonagall paused, struck. "<em>That's</em> true."
麦格教授一怔，被说动了。「<em>这倒是</em>真的。」
"Sorting Hat offered me Hufflepuff."
「分院帽当时给我的是赫奇帕奇。」
She blinked at him as though she couldn't believe her own ears. "Did it <em>really?</em> "
她朝他眨了眨眼，仿佛不敢相信自己的耳朵。「真的<em>吗？</em>」
"Yes."
「是的。」
"Mr. Potter," McGonagall said, and now her voice was low, "five decades ago was the last time a student died within the walls of Hogwarts, and I am now certain that five decades ago was the last time someone heard that message."
「波特先生，」麦格教授说，这时她的声音压低了，「上一次有学生在霍格沃茨的城墙之内死去，是在五十年前；而现在我可以确定，五十年前也是最后一次有人听到那段话的时候。」
A chill went through Harry. "Then I will be <em>very</em> sure to take no action <em>whatsoever</em> on this matter without consulting you, Professor McGonagall." He paused. "And may I suggest that you get together the best people you can find and see if it's possible to get that extra spell off the Sorting Hat... and if you can't do that, maybe put on <em>another</em> spell, a Quietus that briefly activates just as the Hat is being removed from a student's head, that might work as a patch. There, no more dead students." Harry nodded in satisfaction.
一阵寒意掠过哈利。「那我一定会<em>非常</em>谨慎，在没有同你商量之前，<em>绝对不会</em>就这件事采取任何行动，麦格教授。」他顿了顿。「我还想建议你，把你所能找到的最优秀的人才都召集起来，看看能不能把分院帽上那道额外的咒语去掉……要是办不到，也许可以再施<em>另一道</em>咒语——一道静音咒，就在分院帽从一个学生头上被摘下的一瞬间短暂生效，或许多少能当个补丁用。瞧，以后就不会再有学生死了。」哈利满意地点了点头。
Professor McGonagall looked even more stunned, if such a thing were imaginable. "I cannot <em>possibly</em> award you enough points for this without giving the House Cup to Ravenclaw outright."
麦格教授看上去更加震惊了，如果这种事还能想象的话。「我<em>无论如何</em>都没法给你足够的学院分来奖励这件事——除非直接把学院杯颁给拉文克劳。」
"Um," Harry said. "Um. I'd rather not earn <em>that</em> many House points."
「嗯，」哈利说。「嗯。我可不想拿<em>那么多</em>学院分。」
Now Professor McGonagall was giving him a strange look. "Why not?"
这下轮到麦格教授用奇怪的眼神看他了。「为什么不要？」
Harry was having a little difficulty putting it into words. "Because it would be just too sad, you know? Like... like back when I was still trying to go to school in the Muggle world, and whenever there was a group project, I'd go ahead and do the whole thing myself because the others would only slow me down. I'm fine with earning lots of points, more than anyone else even, but if I earn enough to be decisive in winning the House Cup just by myself, then it's like I'm carrying House Ravenclaw on my back and that's too sad."
哈利一时有点难以启齿。「因为那真的太让人难过了，你明白吗？就像……就像以前我还在麻瓜世界努力上学的时候，每逢有小组作业，我都会一个人把整件事做完，因为别人只会拖慢我的速度。拿很多分、甚至比谁都拿得多，我都没意见；可要是我挣的分多得能靠我一个人就决定学院杯归属，那就好像我把拉文克劳学院整个背在背上，那也太让人难过了。」
"I see..." McGonagall said hesitantly. It was apparent that this way of thinking had never occurred to her. "Suppose I only awarded you fifty points, then?"
「我明白了……」麦格教授迟疑地说。显然她从没往这个方向想过。「那要是我只给你五十分呢？」
Harry shook his head again. "It's not fair to the other children if I earn lots of points for grownup things that I can be part of and they can't. How is Terry Boot supposed to earn fifty points for reporting a whisper he heard from the Sorting Hat? It wouldn't be fair at all."
哈利又摇了摇头。「要是我拿很多分，去奖励那些我能参与、别的孩子却参与不了的大人的事，那对别的孩子就不公平。泰瑞·布特怎么可能靠报告他从分院帽那儿听到的一句低语，就挣到五十分？那太不公平了。」
"I see why the Sorting Hat offered you Hufflepuff," said Professor McGonagall. She was eyeing him with a strange respect.
「我明白为什么分院帽当时给你的是赫奇帕奇了，」麦格教授说。她正用一种异样的敬意打量着他。
That made Harry choke up a bit. He'd honestly thought he wasn't worthy of Hufflepuff. That the Sorting Hat had just been trying to shove him anywhere but Ravenclaw, into a House whose virtues he didn't have...
这番话让哈利有点哽咽。他真心以为自己配不上赫奇帕奇，以为分院帽只是想把他在除拉文克劳以外的地方胡乱一塞——塞进一个他并不具备其美德的学院……
Professor McGonagall was smiling now. "And if I tried to give you <em>ten</em> points...?"
麦格教授如今笑了。「那要是我试着给你<em>十分</em>呢……？」
"Are you going to explain where those ten points came from, if anyone asks? There might be a lot of Slytherins, and I don't mean the children at Hogwarts, who would be really <em>really</em> angry if they knew about the spell being taken off the Sorting Hat and found out I was involved. So I think that absolute secrecy is the better part of valour. No need to thank me, ma'am, virtue is its own reward."
「要是有人问起，您打算解释那十分是从哪儿来的吗？这世上可能有不少斯莱特林——我指的不是霍格沃茨里那些孩子——要是他们知道那道咒语被从分院帽上去掉，又发现我也掺和了一脚，他们怕是会<em>非常</em>、<em>非常</em>愤怒。所以在我看来，彻底的保密才是勇气的上策。不必谢我，夫人，美德本身就是报偿。」
"So it is," Professor McGonagall said, "but I do have a very special something else to give you. I see that I have greatly wronged you in my thoughts, Mr. Potter. Please wait here."
「确实如此，」麦格教授说，「不过我另有一样颇为特别的东西要送给你。波特先生，我看得出，我在心里大大地错怪了你。请在这里稍等。」
She got up, went over to the locked back door, waved her wand, and a sort of blurry curtain sprang up around her. Harry could neither see nor hear what was going on. It was a few minutes later that the blur vanished and Professor McGonagall was standing there, facing him, with the door behind her looking as though it hadn't ever been opened.
她站起身，走到那道锁着的后门跟前，挥了挥魔杖，一团模糊的帘幕一下子在她周围升起。哈利既看不见也听不见里面发生了什么。几分钟后，那团模糊消失了，麦格教授正站在那里，面向着他，身后的门看起来仿佛从未被打开过。
And Professor McGonagall held out in one hand a necklace, a thin golden chain bearing in its center a silver circle, within which was the device of an hourglass. In her other hand was a folded pamphlet. "This is for you," she said.
麦格教授一只手递出一条项链——一根纤细的金链，中央挂着一枚银圈，银圈里嵌着一个沙漏的图案。她另一只手拿着一本折好的小册子。「这是给你的，」她说。
Wow! He was going to get some sort of neat magical item as a quest reward! Apparently that business with refusing offers of monetary rewards until you got a magic item actually worked in real life, not just computer games.
哇！他要得到一件相当不错的魔法物品，当作任务奖励了！看来「先拒绝金钱酬谢、直到对方掏出魔法物品」这一套，不光在电子游戏里管用，在现实里也居然真的行得通。
Harry accepted his new necklace, smiling. "What is it?"
哈利微笑着接过新项链。「这是什么？」
Professor McGonagall took a breath. "Mr. Potter, this is an item which is ordinarily lent only to children who have already shown themselves to be highly responsible, in order to help them with difficult class schedules." McGonagall hesitated, as though about to add something else. "I <em>must</em> emphasise, Mr. Potter, that this item's true nature is <em>secret</em> and that you must <em>not</em> tell any of the other students about it, or let them see you using it. If that's not acceptable to you, then you can give it back now."
麦格教授深吸一口气。「波特先生，这件东西通常只借给那些已经证明自己非常负责任的孩子，用来帮他们应付繁重的课程安排。」麦格顿了一下，仿佛还想再说点什么。「我<em>必须</em>强调，波特先生，这件东西的真实用途是<em>秘密</em>，你<em>绝不能</em>告诉其他任何学生，也不能让他们看到你使用它。如果你接受不了，那现在就可以还给我。」
"I can keep secrets," Harry said. "So what does it do?"
「我能保守秘密，」哈利说。「那它到底是干嘛用的？」
"So far as the other students are concerned, this is a Spimster wicket and it is used to treat a rare, non-contagious magical ailment called Spontaneous Duplication. You wear it under your clothes, and while you have no reason to show it to anyone, you also have no reason to treat it as an awful secret. Spimster wickets are not interesting. Do you understand, Mr. Potter?"
「在别的学生眼里，这是一副『斯皮姆斯特护架』，用来治疗一种叫作『自发增殖』的罕见、不传染的魔法病症。你把它戴在衣服底下；你固然没有理由展示给人看，但也同样没有理由把它当成什么了不得的秘密。斯皮姆斯特护架没什么好稀罕的。你明白了吗，波特先生？」
Harry nodded, his smile widening. He sensed the work of a <em>competent</em> Slytherin. "And what does it <em>really</em> do?"
哈利点点头，笑容更灿烂了。他嗅出了<em>高明</em>的斯莱特林的手笔。「那它<em>真正</em>是干嘛用的？」
"It's a Time-Turner. Each spin of the hourglass sends you one hour back in time. So if you use it to go back two hours every day, you should always be able to get to sleep at the same time."
「这是时间转换器。沙漏每转一圈，就把你送回一小时之前。所以你只要每天用它倒退两小时，就能总在固定的时间入睡。」
Harry's suspension of disbelief blew completely out the window.
哈利最后一点「先别怀疑」的余地，彻底飞出了窗外。
<em>You're giving me a time machine to treat my sleep disorder.</em>
<em>你给了我一台时间机器，用来治我的睡眠问题。</em>
<em>You're giving me a TIME MACHINE to treat my SLEEP DISORDER.</em>
<em>你给了我一台时间机器，就为了治我的睡眠问题。</em>
<em>YOU'RE GIVING ME A TIME MACHINE IN ORDER TO TREAT MY SLEEP DISORDER.</em>
<em>你给了我一台时间机器，就为了治好我的睡眠问题！</em>
"Ehehehehhheheh..." Harry's mouth said. He was now holding the necklace away from him as though it were a live bomb. Well, no, not as if it were a live bomb, that didn't <em>begin</em> to describe the severity of the situation. Harry held the necklace away from him as though it were a time machine.
「呃嗬嗬嗬嗬嗬……」哈利的嘴发出声音。他此刻正把那根项链远远拿开，仿佛那是一颗会随时炸开的炸弹。呃，不，不像炸弹——炸弹根本<em>不够格</em>来描述这件事的严重程度。哈利把它拿得远远的，仿佛那是一台时间机器。
<em>Say, Professor McGonagall, did you know that time-reversed ordinary matter looks just like antimatter? Why yes it does! Did you know that one kilogram of antimatter encountering one kilogram of matter will annihilate in an explosion equivalent to 43 million tons of TNT? Do you realise that I myself weigh 41 kilograms and that the resulting blast would leave A GIANT SMOKING CRATER WHERE THERE USED TO BE SCOTLAND? </em>
<em>嘿，麦格教授，您知道吗，时间反演之后的普通物质，看上去和反物质一模一样？是啊，确实如此！您知道一公斤反物质与一公斤物质相遇，会湮灭成一场相当于四千三百万吨 TNT 的爆炸吗？您意识到我自己就有四十一公斤重，而这样一场爆炸，会在我原本应该是苏格兰的地方，留下一个正冒着烟的巨坑吗？</em>
"Excuse me," Harry managed to say, "but this sounds really really <em>really REALLY DANGEROUS!</em> " Harry's voice didn't quite rise to a shriek, he couldn't possibly scream loud enough to do this situation justice so there was no point in trying.
「抱歉，」哈利勉强挤出声音，「可这听起来确实真的真的<em>真的真的</em>危险！」哈利的声音还没拔高到尖叫——他实在没法尖叫得足够响，好配得上这件事的严重程度，所以也没必要白费力气。
Professor McGonagall looked upon him with tolerant affection. "I'm glad you're taking this seriously, Mr. Potter, but Time-Turners aren't <em>that</em> dangerous. We wouldn't give them to children if they were."
麦格教授带着宽容的喜爱望着他。「我很高兴你这么认真地看待这件事，波特先生，可时间转换器并<em>没那么</em>危险。要是真危险，我们也不会把这种东西交给学生用。」
"Really," Harry said. "Ahahahaha. Of course you wouldn't give time machines to children if they were dangerous, what <em>was</em> I thinking? So just to be clear, sneezing on this device will <em>not</em> send me into the Middle Ages where I will run over Gutenberg with a horse cart and prevent the Enlightenment? Because, you know, I hate it when that happens to me."
「真的吗，」哈利说。「啊哈哈哈。那是当然，要是危险，你们才不会把时间机器交给孩子，我到底在想什么呢？所以干脆把话说清楚：对着这东西打个喷嚏，<em>不会</em>把我送进中世纪，让我赶着马车把古腾堡碾过去，从而阻止启蒙运动吧？因为，你知道的，我最讨厌这种事落到我头上了。」
McGonagall's lips were twitching in that way she had when she was trying not to smile. She offered Harry the pamphlet she was holding, but Harry was carefully holding out the necklace with both hands and staring at the hourglass to make sure it wasn't about to turn. "Don't worry," McGonagall said after a momentary pause, when it became clear that Harry wasn't going to move, "that can't possibly happen, Mr. Potter. The Time-Turner cannot be used to move more than six hours backwards. It can't be used more than six times in any day."
麦格教授的嘴唇正以她那种强忍着笑的方式抽动。她把手里的小册子递向哈利，可哈利正小心翼翼地用双手捧着那根项链，死死盯着沙漏，好确认它不会突然转动。「别担心，」麦格在片刻停顿后说，这时她已经明白哈利是不打算挪动了，「那种事绝不可能发生，波特先生。时间转换器最多只能倒退六小时。而且同一天里不能用超过六次。」
"Oh, good, very good, that. And if someone bumps into me the Time-Turner will <em>not</em> break and will <em>not</em> trap the whole castle of Hogwarts in an endlessly repeating loop of Thursdays."
「哦，好，很好，那个很好。那要是有人撞到我，时间转换器<em>不会</em>坏掉，也<em>不会</em>把整座霍格沃茨城堡困进一个无限循环的星期四里吧。」
"Well, they <em>can</em> be fragile..." said McGonagall. "And I do think I've heard about strange things happening if they're broken. But nothing like <em>that!</em> "
「唔，它们<em>确实</em>有点脆弱……」麦格说。「而且我确实觉得，我好像听说过它们坏了之后会发生些怪事。但绝对不会是<em>那样</em>！」
"Perhaps," Harry said when he could speak again, "you ought to provide your time machines with some sort of <em>protective shell</em>, rather than <em>leaving the glass exposed</em>, so as to <em>prevent that from happening</em>."
「也许，」哈利在又能重新开口时说，「你们应该给时间机器配上一副<em>保护壳</em>，而不是<em>把玻璃暴露在外</em>，这样才能<em>防止那种事发生</em>。」
McGonagall looked quite struck. "That's an excellent idea, Mr. Potter. I shall inform the Ministry of it."
麦格看上去相当受触动。「这是个绝妙的主意，波特先生。我会把这件事上报给魔法部。」
<em>That's it, it's official now, they've ratified it in Parliament, everyone in the wizarding world is completely stupid.</em>
<em>行了，这下算是板上钉钉了，连议会都通过了，整个巫师世界的每个人都是蠢货。</em>
"And while I hate to get all <em>PHILOSOPHICAL,</em>" Harry desperately tried to lower his voice to something under a shriek, "has anyone thought about the <em>IMPLICATIONS</em> of going back six hours and doing something that changes time which would pretty much <em>DELETE ALL THE PEOPLE AFFECTED</em> and <em>REPLACE THEM WITH DIFFERENT VERSIONS -</em>"
「而既然我最烦一下子变得<em>哲学起来，</em>」哈利拼命想把声音压到尖叫以下，「可有没有人想过，倒退六小时去做一件改变时间的事，其<em>后果</em>几乎就像<em>把所有受牵连的人统统删掉</em>，然后<em>再换上一批不同版本的人</em>——」
"Oh, you can't <em>change</em> time!" Professor McGonagall interrupted. "Good heavens, Mr. Potter, do you think these would be allowed students if <em>that</em> was possible? What if someone tried to change their test scores?"
「哦，你不能<em>改变</em>时间！」麦格教授打断他。「天哪，波特先生，要是<em>那</em>种事有可能，你觉得我们还会允许学生使用这种东西吗？要是有人想改自己的考试成绩怎么办？」
Harry took a moment to process this. His hands relaxed, just a little, from their white grip on the hourglass chain. Like he wasn't holding a time machine, just a live nuclear warhead.
哈利花了一点时间来消化这话。他握着沙漏链子的手，从惨白的紧攥中稍微松动了一点。倒像他手里拿的并不是什么时间机器，而是一枚还活着的核弹头。
"So..." Harry said slowly. "People just find that the universe... happens to be self-consistent, somehow, even though it has time-travel in it. If I and my future self interact then I'll see the same thing as both of me, even though, on my own first run through, my future self is already acting in full knowledge of things that, from my own perspective, haven't happened yet..." Harry's voice trailed off into the inadequacy of English.
「所以……」哈利慢慢说。「人们只是发现，宇宙……竟然碰巧是自洽的，尽管它里面有时光旅行。要是我和未来的自己相遇并相互作用，那么我和未来的自己看到的就会是同一件事；尽管在我自己的第一轮经历里，未来的我早已在充分知情的情况下行动，而那些事从我现在的角度看，根本还没发生……」哈利的声音渐渐低下去，一直低到英语不再够用。
"Correct, I think," said Professor McGonagall. "Although wizards <em>are</em> advised to avoid being seen by their past selves. If you're attending two classes at the same time and you need to cross paths with yourself, for example, the first version of you should step aside and close his eyes at a known time - you have a watch already, good - so that the future you can pass. It's all there in the pamphlet."
「我想，是的，」麦格教授说。「不过巫师<em>确实</em>被劝告要避免被过去的自己看见。比如说，你要是同时要上两堂课、需要和另一个自己擦肩而过，那么先出现的你呢，就该在预定的时刻站到一旁、闭上眼睛——你已经有一块手表了，很好——好让未来的那个你能走过去。这些册子里都写明了。」
"Ahahahaa. And what happens when someone <em>ignores</em> that advice?"
「啊哈哈哈哈。那要是有人<em>无视</em>这个建议，会怎么样？」
Professor McGonagall pursed her lips. "I understand that it can be quite disconcerting."
麦格教授抿起嘴唇。「据我所知，那可能会相当令人不安。」
"And it doesn't, say, create a paradox that destroys the universe."
「那它不会，打个比方，制造出一个毁灭宇宙的悖论吧。」
She smiled tolerantly. "Mr. Potter, I think I'd remember hearing if <em>that</em> had ever happened."
她宽容地笑了笑。「波特先生，我想，要是<em>那种事</em>当真发生过，我应该会记得听到。」
"<em>THAT IS NOT REASSURING! HAVEN'T YOU PEOPLE EVER HEARD OF THE ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE? AND WHAT IDIOT EVER BUILT ONE OF THESE THINGS FOR THE FIRST TIME?</em> "
<em>这一点也根本不能让人安心！你们这些人难道从没听说过人择原理吗？还有，到底是谁、是哪个白痴，头一次把这东西给造了出来？</em>
Professor McGonagall actually laughed. It was a pleasant, glad sound that seemed surprisingly out of place on that stern face. "You're having another 'you turned into a cat' moment, aren't you, Mr. Potter. You probably don't want to hear this, but it's quite endearingly cute."
麦格教授居然真的笑了。那声音愉快而欢喜，出现在那张严厉的脸上，显得出奇地格格不入。「你又来一次『你变成猫了』的时刻了吧，波特先生。这话你大概不想听，可那真的可爱得招人喜欢。」
"Turning into a cat doesn't even <em>BEGIN</em> to compare to this. You know right up until this moment I had this awful suppressed thought somewhere in the back of my mind that the only remaining answer was that my whole universe was a computer simulation like in the book <em>Simulacron 3</em> but now <em>even that is ruled out</em> because this little toy <em>ISN'T TURING COMPUTABLE!</em> A Turing machine could simulate going back into a defined moment of the past and computing a different future from there, an oracle machine could rely on the halting behavior of lower-order machines, but what you're saying is that reality somehow self-consistently computes in one sweep using information that hasn't... happened... yet..."
「变成猫，都<em>根本算不上</em>能跟这件事比。你知道吗，直到此刻，我脑海深处一直压着这么一个糟糕的念头：唯一的答案恐怕就是，我整个宇宙是一台电脑模拟，就像书里那本《Simulacron 3》一样；可如今<em>连这个也被排除了</em>，因为这个小玩意儿<em>根本不是图灵可计算的！</em>图灵机可以模拟回到过去某个确定时刻、再从那一点算出另一条未来，神谕机可以依赖更低阶机器的停机行为；但你说的是，现实竟然能用还没……发生……的信息，在一瞬间就自洽地完成了整体运算……」
Realisation struck Harry a pile-driver blow.
领悟像一记打桩机般重重砸中哈利。
It all made sense now. It all <em>finally</em> made sense.
这一切都说得通了。这一切<em>终于</em>都说得通了。
"<em>SO THAT'S HOW THE COMED-TEA WORKS!</em> Of <em>course!</em> The spell doesn't <em>force</em> funny events to happen, it just makes you <em>feel an impulse to drink</em> right before funny things are going to happen anyway! I'm such a fool, I should have realised when I felt the impulse to drink the Comed-Tea before Dumbledore's second speech, <em>didn't</em> drink it, and then choked on my own saliva instead - drinking the Comed-Tea doesn't cause the comedy, the comedy causes you to drink the Comed-Tea! I saw the two events were correlated and assumed the Comed-Tea had to be the cause and the comedy had to be the effect because I thought temporal order restrained causation and causal graphs had to be acyclic BUT IT ALL MAKES SENSE ONCE YOU DRAW THE CAUSAL ARROWS GOING <em>BACKWARDS IN TIME!</em> "
<em>原来笑话茶是这么回事！</em>当然啦！那道咒语并不<em>强迫</em>好笑的事发生，它只是让你在好笑的事反正就要发生之前，<em>产生一股想喝它的冲动</em>！我真是个大傻瓜，早该在邓布利多第二次讲话之前、我感觉到想喝笑话茶的冲动、却<em>没</em>喝、反而被自己的口水呛到的那一刻，就想明白——喝笑话茶并不会引发笑料，是笑料引发你去喝笑话茶！我看到这两件事相关，就认定笑话茶必然是原因、笑料必然是结果，因为我认为时间顺序限制了因果、因果图必然无环；可只要把那些因果箭头画成<em>时光倒流</em>的方向，一切就都说得通了！
Realisation struck Harry the <em>second</em> pile-driver.
领悟第二次像打桩机般砸中哈利。
This one he managed to keep quiet, making only a small strangling sound like a dying kitten as he realised who'd put the note on his bed this morning.
这一次他成功压住了声音，只发出一点像垂死小猫般的细微窒息声——因为他意识到今早是谁把那张字条放到了他床上。
Professor McGonagall's eyes were alight. "After you graduate, or possibly even before, you really <em>must</em> teach some of these Muggle theories at Hogwarts, Mr. Potter. They sound quite fascinating, even if they're all wrong."
麦格教授的眼睛亮了起来。「等你毕业之后，也许甚至不用等到毕业，你<em>一定</em>要在霍格沃茨教几门这样的麻瓜理论，波特先生。它们听起来相当迷人，哪怕这些理论全都错了。」
"Glehhahhh..."
「呃嘞哈啊啊……」
Professor McGonagall offered him a few more pleasantries, demanded a few more promises to which Harry nodded, said something about not talking to snakes where anyone could hear him, reminded him to read the pamphlet, and then somehow Harry found himself standing outside her office with the door closed firmly behind him.
麦格教授又同他寒暄了几句，索要了几个他一一点头的承诺；她说起别在有人能听见的地方跟蛇说话，又提醒他去看那本册子；然后不知怎么，哈利就发现自己已经站在她办公室门外，门在他身后牢牢关上。
"Gaahhhrrrraa..." Harry said.
「嘎啊啊啊啊啊……」哈利说。
Why yes his mind <em>was</em> blown.
是啊，他的脑子<em>确实</em>给炸掉了。
Not least by the fact that, if not for the Prank, he might well have never obtained a Time-Turner in the first place.
尤其令他震撼的是：要不是那场恶作剧，他很可能一开始压根儿就得不到时间转换器。
Or would Professor McGonagall have given it to him anyway, only later in the day, whenever he got around to asking about his sleep disorder or telling her about the Sorting Hat's message? And would he, at that time, have wanted to pull a prank on himself which would have led to him getting the Time-Turner <em>earlier?</em> So that the only <em>self-consistent</em> possibility was the one in which the Prank started before he even woke up in the morning...?
又或者，麦格教授本来也会把它给他，只不过会晚些时候，等他哪天想起来去问睡眠问题、或向她报告分院帽的消息时再说？那么届时，他会不会想对自己开一个恶作剧，从而<em>更早</em>拿到时间转换器？这样一来，唯一<em>自洽</em>的可能，就是那场恶作剧早在早上他还没醒来之前就已经开始了……？
Harry found himself considering, for the first time in his life, that the answer to his question might be literally <em>inconceivable.</em> That since his own brain contained neurons that only ran forwards in time, there was <em>nothing</em> his brain could do, no operation it could perform, which was conjugate to the operation of a Time Turner.
哈利生平第一次发现自己正这样想：他这个问题，答案恐怕真的是<em>无法想象的</em>。既然他自己的大脑里只有单向朝前运行时间的神经元，那他的大脑就<em>什么</em>也做不了，没有任何它能执行的运算，能对应上时间转换器所执行的运算。
Up until this point Harry had lived by the admonition of E. T. Jaynes that if you were ignorant about a phenomenon, that was a fact about your own state of mind, not a fact about the phenomenon itself; that your uncertainty was a fact about you, not a fact about whatever you were uncertain about; that ignorance existed in the mind, not in reality; that a blank map did not correspond to a blank territory. There were mysterious questions, but a mysterious answer was a contradiction in terms. A phenomenon could be mysterious <em>to</em> some particular person, but there could be no phenomena mysterious of themselves. To worship a sacred mystery was just to worship your own ignorance.
在此之前，哈利一直奉行 E·T·杰恩斯的告诫：如果你对某个现象一无所知，那是关于你自己心境的事实，而不是关于现象本身的事实；你的不确定性是关于你自己的事实，而不是关于你所不确定的那个东西的事实；无知存在于头脑之中，而不存在于现实之中；一张空白的地图，并不对应着一片空白的疆域。神秘的问题是存在的，但「神秘的答案」这个说法本身就是自相矛盾。一个现象可以<em>相对于</em>某个特定的人显得神秘，但绝不可能有现象本身是神秘的。崇拜一个神圣的奥秘，不过是崇拜你自己的无知罢了。
So Harry had looked upon magic and refused to be intimidated. People had no sense of history, they learned about chemistry and biology and astronomy and thought that these matters had always been the proper meat of science, that they had <em>never been</em> mysterious. The stars had once been mysteries. Lord Kelvin had once called the nature of life and biology - the response of muscles to human will and the generation of trees from seeds - a mystery "infinitely beyond" the reach of science. (Not just a little beyond, mind you, but <em>infinitely</em> beyond. Lord Kelvin certainly had felt a huge emotional charge from <em>not knowing something</em>.) Every mystery ever solved had been a puzzle from the dawn of the human species right up until someone solved it.
于是哈利面对魔法，拒绝被吓倒。人们没有历史感：他们学了化学、生物、天文，就以为这些领域从来都是科学的正经内容，以为它们<em>从来就没有</em>神秘过。可星辰曾经就是奥秘。开尔文勋爵曾把生命与生物学的本质——肌肉对人类意志的响应，以及树木从种子里生长出来——称作「<em>无穷地</em>超出」科学所能触及的神秘。（注意，不是只超出一点点，而是<em>无穷地</em>超出。开尔文勋爵显然从<em>不知道某件事</em>里，感受到过巨大的情绪冲击。）每一个被解开过的奥秘，都从人类物种的黎明之初起就是一道谜，直到有人把它解开。
Now, for the first time, he was up against the prospect of a mystery that was threatening to be <em>permanent</em>. If Time didn't work by acyclic causal networks then Harry didn't understand what was meant by cause and effect; and if Harry didn't understand causes and effects then he didn't understand what sort of stuff reality might be made of instead; and it was entirely possible that his human mind never <em>could</em> understand, because his brain was made of <em>old-fashioned linear-time neurons,</em> and this had turned out to be an impoverished subset of reality.
如今，生平第一次，他迎头撞上一个有可能<em>永远</em>无解的奥秘。如果时间并不按无环的因果网络运作，那哈利就不懂「因果」到底是什么意思；如果哈利不懂因果，他就不懂现实究竟可能由什么东西构成；而完全有可能，他那颗人类的头脑<em>永远</em>无法理解，因为他的大脑由<em>过时的线性时间神经元</em>构成，而这竟被发现只是现实的一个贫乏子集。
On the plus side, the Comed-Tea, which had once seemed all-powerful and all-unbelievable, had turned out to have a much simpler explanation. Which he'd missed <em>merely</em> because the truth was completely outside his hypothesis space or anything that his brain had evolved to comprehend. But now he actually <em>had</em> figured it, probably. Which was sort of encouraging. Sort of.
往好处想，曾经显得无所不能又让人难以置信的笑话茶，原来有个简单得多的解释。他<em>仅仅</em>是因为真相完全落在他假设空间之外、或者落在他大脑进化出来所能理解的范围之外，才错过了它。但现在他其实<em>已经</em>把它想通了，大概吧。这多少算点鼓励。多少算一点吧。
Harry glanced down at his watch. It was nearly 11AM, he'd gotten to sleep last night at 1AM, so in the natural state of affairs he'd go to sleep tonight at 3AM. So to go to sleep at 10PM and wake up at 7AM, he should go back five hours total. Which meant that if he wanted to get back to his dorm at around 6AM, before anyone was awake, he'd better hurry up and...
哈利低头看了一眼手表。快上午 11 点了；他昨晚凌晨 1 点才睡，所以照自然规律，今晚他得凌晨 3 点才能睡。那样要想晚上 10 点睡、早上 7 点醒，他就该总共倒退五个小时。这也就是说，如果他想在早上 6 点左右、赶在别人醒来之前回到宿舍，他最好赶紧动身，然后……
Even in <em>retrospect</em> Harry didn't understand how he'd pulled off <em>half</em> the stuff involved in the Prank. Where had the <em>pie</em> come from?
哪怕<em>事后回想</em>，哈利也不明白自己到底是怎么做成那场恶作剧里<em>一半</em>的事的。那个<em>馅饼</em>究竟是从哪儿来的？
Harry was starting to seriously fear time travel.
哈利开始真的怕起时光旅行来了。
On the other hand, he had to admit that it <em>had</em> been an irreplaceable opportunity. A prank you could only pull on yourself once in a lifetime, within six hours of when you first found out about Time-Turners.
另一方面，他又不得不承认，这<em>确实</em>是个不可多得的机会。一个你一辈子只能对自己开一次的恶作剧，而且是在你头一次得知时间转换器的六个小时之内。
In fact that was even <em>more</em> puzzling, when Harry thought about it. Time had presented him with the finished Prank as a <em>fait accompli,</em> and yet it was, quite clearly, his own handiwork. Concept and execution and writing style. Every last part, even the ones he still didn't understand.
事实上，当他细想时，这件事反而更加<em>令人费解</em>。时间把那场已经完成的恶作剧当作一个<em>既成事实</em>摆在他面前，可它又明明是出于他自己之手。构思、执行、还有文风。每一个环节，哪怕是他至今仍不明白的那些。
Well, time was a-wasting and there were at most thirty hours in a day. Harry did know <em>some</em> of what he had to do, and he might figure out the rest, like the pie, while he was working. There was no point putting it off. He couldn't exactly accomplish anything stuck here in the <em>future.</em>
好吧，时间不等人，而一天里最多也只有三十个小时。哈利<em>确实</em>知道自己要做的<em>一部分</em>事，剩下的——比如那个馅饼——他也许能在动手的过程中想明白。拖着没意义。他总不能一直卡在这<em>未来</em>里，一事无成。
Five hours earlier, Harry was sneaking into his dorm with his robes pulled up over his head as a thin sort of disguise, just in case someone was already up and about and saw him at the same time as Harry lying in his bed. He didn't want to have to explain to anyone about his little medical problem with Spontaneous Duplication.
五个小时前，哈利正偷偷溜回宿舍，把长袍兜到头上当作一层薄薄的伪装，免得万一有人已经起床走动，正好同时撞见他本人和躺在床上的那个哈利。他不想向任何人解释自己那个叫「自发增殖」的医学小毛病。
Fortunately it seemed that everyone was still asleep.
幸运的是，看起来大家都还在睡。
And there also seemed to be a box, wrapped in red and green paper with a bright golden ribbon, lying next to his bed. The perfect, stereotypical image of a Christmas present, although it wasn't Christmas.
而且，他床边似乎还放着一个盒子，用红绿相间的纸包着，系着一条亮闪闪的金色丝带。那正是圣诞礼物的典型模样——虽说现在并不是圣诞节。
Harry crept in as softly as he could manage, just in case someone had their Quieter turned down low.
哈利尽可能放轻脚步溜进来，以防有人把「静音器」调得很低。
There was an envelope attached to the box, closed by plain clear wax without a seal impressed.
盒子上附着一个信封，用普通通透的蜡封住，上面没有盖任何纹章。
Harry carefully pried the envelope open, and took out the letter inside.
哈利小心翼翼地撬开信封，取出里面的信。
The letter said:
信上写道：
<em>This is the Cloak of Invisibility of Ignotus Peverell, passed down through his descendants the Potters. Unlike lesser cloaks and spells it has the power to keep you hidden, not merely invisible. Your father lent it to me to study shortly before he died, and I confess that I have received much good use of it over the years.</em>
这是伊格诺图斯·佩弗利尔的隐形斗篷，经由他的后代波特家世代相传。与那些次等的斗篷和咒语不同，它的力量在于把你彻底藏起来，而不仅仅是让你隐形。你的父亲在他去世前不久，把它借给我研究；而我要坦白，这些年来我从它身上得到了不少好处。
<em>In the future I shall have to get along with Disillusionment, I fear. It is time the Cloak was returned to you, its heir. I had thought to make this a Christmas present, but it wished to come back to your hand before then. It seems to expect you to have need of it. Use it well.</em>
恐怕从今往后，我只好靠着「幻身咒」将就了。现在，是该把这件斗篷还给你这个继承人的时候了。我本想把它当作圣诞礼物送出，可它却执意要在此之前回到你手上。它似乎料到你会有用得上它的时候。请好好善用它。
<em>No doubt you are already thinking of all manner of wonderful pranks, as your father committed in his day. If his full misdeeds were known, every woman in Gryffindor would gather to desecrate his grave. I shall not try to stop history from repeating, but be MOST careful not to reveal yourself. If Dumbledore saw a chance to possess one of the Deathly Hallows, he would never let it escape his grasp until the day he died.</em>
毫无疑问，你已经在盘算种种精彩的恶作剧了，就像你父亲当年干的那样。要是他那些坏事全被世人知道，格兰芬多学院里每一位女士都会聚拢起来，去亵渎他的坟墓。我不会试图阻止历史重演，但请你务必极其小心，千万别暴露自己。如果邓布利多看到一丝拥有某件死亡圣器的机会，他直到死那天都不会让它从他手中溜走。
<em>A Very Merry Christmas to you.</em>
祝你圣诞快乐。
The note was unsigned.
这封字条上没有署名。
"Hold on," Harry said, pulling up short as the other boys were about to leave the Ravenclaw dorm. "Sorry, there's something else I've got to do with my trunk. I'll be along to breakfast in a couple of minutes."
「等一下，」哈利说，在别的男孩正要离开拉文克劳宿舍时骤然停住。「抱歉，我还有件跟箱子有关的事要办。我过几分钟就去吃早饭。」
Terry Boot scowled at Harry. "You'd better not be planning to go through any of our things."
泰瑞·布特对哈利皱起眉头。「你最好别是打算翻我们任何人的东西。」
Harry held up one hand. "I swear that I intend to do nothing of the sort to any of your things, that I only intend to access objects that I myself own, that I have no pranking or otherwise questionable intentions towards any of you, and that I do not anticipate those intentions changing before I get to breakfast in the Great Hall."
哈利举起一只手。「我发誓，我绝无意对你们任何人的东西做出那类事情；我只打算取用我自己拥有的物品；我对你们中的任何一位都没有恶作剧或别的可疑意图；而且，我也不打算在抵达大厅吃早饭之前，让这些意图发生任何改变。」
Terry frowned. "Wait, is that -"
泰瑞皱起眉头。「等等，那是——」
"Don't worry," said Penelope Clearwater, who was there to guide them. "There were no loopholes. Well-worded, Potter, you should be a lawyer."
「别担心，」前来带路的佩内洛·克利尔沃特说。「他没留下任何空子。措辞真严谨，波特，你该去当律师。」
Harry Potter blinked at that. Ah, yes, Ravenclaw <em>prefect.</em> "Thank you," he said. "I think."
哈利·波特听了这话眨了眨眼。啊，对，拉文克劳的<em>级长</em>。「谢谢你，」他说。「我想是吧。」
"When you try to find the Great Hall, you will get lost." Penelope stated this in the tones of a flat, unarguable fact. "As soon as you do, ask a portrait how to get to the first floor. Ask another portrait the <em>instant</em> you suspect you might be lost again. <em>Especially</em> if it seems like you're going up higher and higher. If you are higher than the whole castle ought to be, <em>stop</em> and wait for search parties. Otherwise we shall see you again four months later and you will be five months older and dressed in a loincloth and covered in snow and <em>that's if you stay inside the castle.</em>"
「等你去找大厅的时候，你一定会迷路。」佩内洛用陈述一条板上钉钉的事实般的平淡口吻说。「你一旦迷路，就问一幅画像：去一楼怎么走。只要<em>一</em>怀疑自己可能又要迷路，就立刻再问另一幅画像。<em>尤其</em>是当你感觉似乎越走越高的时候。要是你高过了整座城堡本该有的高度，就<em>停下来</em>，等搜寻队来找你。不然的话，我们会在四个月后再见到你——那时你比现在大了五个月，腰间围着一块遮羞布，浑身都盖满了雪——<em>而这还得是你一直待在城堡里的情况</em>。」
"Understood," said Harry, swallowing hard. "Um, shouldn't you tell students all that sort of stuff right away?"
「明白了，」哈利说，用力咽了口唾沫。「嗯，你们难道不应该立刻把这些东西都告诉学生吗？」
Penelope sighed. "What, <em>all</em> of it? That would take weeks. You'll pick it up as you go along." She turned to go, followed by the other students. "If I don't see you at breakfast in thirty minutes, Potter, I'll start the search."
佩内洛叹了口气。「什么，<em>全部</em>？那得花上好几个星期。你会一边走一边慢慢学会的。」她转身要走，其他学生也跟着。「要是我三十分钟后没在早餐时看到你，波特，我可就开始找你了。」
Once everyone was gone, Harry attached the note to his bed - he'd already written it and all the other notes, working in his cavern level before everyone else woke up. Then he carefully reached inside the Quietus field and pulled the Cloak of Invisibility off Harry-1's still-sleeping form.
等所有人都走了，哈利把字条固定到床上——他早就写好了这张和其余所有字条，是在大家醒来前、于他箱子的洞穴夹层里写好的。然后他小心地把手伸进静音咒的范围，从仍在熟睡的哈利一号身上，把隐形斗篷拽了下来。
And just for the sake of mischief, Harry put the Cloak into Harry-1's pouch, knowing it would thereby already be in his own.
纯粹为了找乐子，哈利把隐形斗篷塞进了哈利一号的莫克皮袋里——因为他知道，这样一来，它就已经算是在他自己的莫克皮袋里了。
"I can see that the message is passed on to Cornelion Flubberwalt," said the painting of a man with aristocratic airs and, in fact, a perfectly normal nose. "But might I ask where it came from <em>originally?</em> "
「我能看到，这条消息已经转交给科尼利恩·弗拉伯沃尔特了，」一幅画像说，画中人带着贵族气派，而事实上他的鼻子长得完全正常。「但我能不能问一下，这消息<em>最初</em>是从哪儿来的？」
Harry shrugged with artful helplessness. "I was told that it was spoken by a hollow voice that belled forth from a gap within the air itself, a gap that opened upon a fiery abyss."
哈利带着刻意的无奈耸耸肩。「有人告诉我，那是一个空洞的声音说出来的，它从空气本身的一道缝隙里鸣响而出，而那道缝隙，开向一片燃烧的深渊。」
"Hey!" Hermione said in tones of indignation from her place on the other side of the breakfast table. "That's <em>everyone's</em> dessert! You can't just take one whole pie and put it in your pouch!"
「喂！」赫敏从早餐桌的另一边，用愤愤不平的腔调喊道。「那是<em>大家</em>的甜点！你不能就这么拿走一整个派，塞进你的莫克皮袋里！」
"I'm not taking one pie, I'm taking two. Sorry everyone, gotta run now!" Harry ignored the cries of outrage and left the Great Hall. He needed to arrive at Herbology class a little early.
「我不是拿一块派，我是拿两块。抱歉了各位，我得赶紧走了！」哈利对那些愤怒的喊叫声置之不理，转身离开了大厅。他得早一点赶到草药学课堂。
Professor Sprout eyed him sharply. "And how do <em>you</em> know what the Slytherins are planning?"
斯普劳特教授目光锐利地盯着他。「那你又是怎么<em>知道</em>斯莱特林们正在谋划什么的？」
"I can't name my source," Harry said. "In fact I have to ask you to pretend that this conversation never happened. Just act like you happened across them naturally while you were on an errand, or something. I'll run on ahead as soon as Herbology gets out. I think I can distract the Slytherins until you get there. I'm not easy to scare or bully, and I don't think they'll dare to seriously hurt the Boy-Who-Lived. Though... I'm not asking you to run in the hallways, but I would appreciate it if you didn't dawdle along the way."
「我不能说出消息来源，」哈利说。「事实上，我必须请你假装这场对话从未发生过。就装作你是在办事途中碰巧遇上他们的，或者随便什么理由。草药学一放学我就往前面跑。我想我能拖住那些斯莱特林，直到你赶到。我这个人不容易被吓着，也不容易被欺负，我觉得他们不敢真的去伤害大难不死的男孩。不过呢……我不是要你在走廊里跑起来，但要是你路上别磨蹭，我会很感激。」
Professor Sprout looked at him for a long moment, then her expression softened. "Please be careful with yourself, Harry Potter. And... thank you."
斯普劳特教授看了他好一会儿，随后神情柔和下来。「请你照顾好自己，哈利·波特。还有……谢谢你。」
"Just be sure not to be late," Harry said. "And remember, when you get there, you weren't expecting to see me and this conversation never happened."
「一定要确保别迟到，」哈利说。「还有，记住，你到那儿的时候，就当自己没预料会见到我，而且这场对话从未发生过。」
It was horrible, watching himself yank Neville out of the circle of Slytherins. Neville had been right, he'd used too much force, way too much force.
看着自己把纳威从斯莱特林的圈子里拽出来，那感觉可怕极了。纳威说得对，他用了太多蛮力，实在太过了。
"Hello," Harry Potter said coldly. "I'm the Boy-Who-Lived."
「你好，」哈利·波特冷冷地说。「我是大难不死的男孩。」
Eight first-year boys, mostly the same height. One of them had a scar on his forehead and he wasn't acting like the others.
八个一年级男孩，大多一般高。其中一个额头上有一道伤疤，而他的举止和旁人都不一样。
<em>Oh wad some power the giftie gie us
To see oursel's as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
And foolish notion -</em>
啊，愿有某种力量，把这礼物赐予我们——
让自己像别人看我们那样，看清自己！
那将使我们免去多少过错，
和多少愚妄的念头——
Professor McGonagall was right. The Sorting Hat was right. It was clear once you saw it from the outside.
麦格教授说得对。分院帽也说得对。一旦从外面看，这一切就清清楚楚了。
There was something wrong with Harry Potter.
哈利·波特有些不对劲。
梗与典故
- 反物质的数量级。 哈利在心算里抓住一个物理常识的惊人推论：反物质与等量普通物质相遇会湮灭，能量按质能方程 E=mc² 释放。既然每公斤反物质对应每公斤物质大约可放出相当于四千三百万吨 TNT 的当量，那么他自己 41 公斤的体重一旦湮灭，足以在苏格兰原来所在的地方炸出一个巨坑。事实边界要说明：反物质与质能关系本身是公认物理结论，而「4300 万吨」「41 公斤」这些具体数字是哈利自己的估值；小说用它来表现哈利被「时间反演的物质恰如反物质」这一点吓到。6
- 人择原理。 哈利吼出「你们没听过人择原理吗」，是在反驳麦格「时间不能改变」的说法。人择的宽泛表述是：我们观察到的世界之所以如此，部分原因在于若世界不是这样，就不会有我们来观察它。哈利的恼火在于，用「恰好自洽、因为我们恰好在」来解释宇宙为何无悖论，等于拿观察者的存在去回避真正困难的因果机制，而不是给出解答。7
- 《Simulacron 3》。 丹尼尔·F·加卢耶 1964 年的科幻小说，写一个用于市场研究的计算机模拟世界里，居民有自我意识却几乎不知道自己是模型；主角在调查中逐渐怀疑自己所在的世界本身也是模拟。哈利此前一直压着「我的宇宙是模拟」这个念头，可一旦时间转换器出现，他反倒排除了这条解释——因为能自洽地在一瞬间算出穿越结果的时间机器，已经超出了图灵机可计算的范围。8
- 开尔文勋爵的「无穷地超出」。 热力学奠基人开尔文勋爵（1824–1907）曾把生命与生物学的本质——肌肉对人类意志的响应、树木从单一种子里一代代生长出来——形容为「无穷地超出」任何既有科学探究的范围。这段话见于他的引文；哈利借此说明一个道理：连最伟大的科学家，也曾真切地从「不知道某件事」里感受到巨大的情绪冲击。11
- 末尾的彭斯诗。 苏格兰诗人罗伯特·彭斯（1759–1796）在《致教堂里女士帽上的虱子》（1786）末节写下这几句（原文为苏格兰方言）：「啊，愿有某种力量把这礼物赐予我们，让自己像别人看我们那样看清自己！那将使我们免去多少过错，和多少愚妄的念头。」本章结尾，哈利第一次从「圈外」看到自己拽出纳威的样子，才明白「哈利·波特有些不对劲」。12
Fuentes de referencia
- 1The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
en.wikipedia.org
- 2Stephen R. Donaldson 作者问答（含「七真言」）
stephenrdonaldson.com
- 3r/HPMOR：以 Rowling 替换关键词的题首惯例
reddit.com
- 4Johannes Gutenberg
en.wikipedia.org
- 5Age of Enlightenment
en.wikipedia.org
- 6Antimatter
en.wikipedia.org
- 7Anthropic principle
en.wikipedia.org
- 8Simulacron-3
en.wikipedia.org
- 9Edwin Thompson Jaynes
en.wikipedia.org
- 10Map–territory relation
en.wikipedia.org
- 11Quotes by Lord Kelvin（含 1898《史密森学会董事会年报》引文）
zapatopi.net
- 12To a Louse, on seeing one on a Lady's Bonnet at Church
en.wikisource.org
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