HPMOR 第3章｜拿现实同其他可能相比（中英对照）

"Good Lord," said the barman, peering at Harry, "is this - can this be -?"

「天哪，」酒吧老板盯着哈利，「这是不是——难道真是——？」

Harry leaned towards the bar of the Leaky Cauldron as best he could, though it came up to somewhere around the tips of his eyebrows. A question like that deserved his very best.

哈利尽量朝破釜酒吧的吧台探过身去，可吧台差不多和他的眉毛一样高。碰上这样的问题，他当然要给出最精彩的回答。

"Am I - could I be - maybe - you never know - if I'm not - but then the question is - who? "

「我是不是——难道我会是——也许吧——谁知道呢——要是我_不是_——可问题是——谁？」

"Bless my soul," whispered the old barman. "Harry Potter... what an honour."

「老天爷啊，」年迈的酒吧老板低声说。「哈利·波特……真是荣幸。」

Harry blinked, then rallied. "Well, yes, you're quite perceptive; most people don't realise that so quickly -"

哈利眨了眨眼，随即振作起来。「嗯，是的，你还挺敏锐；大多数人可没这么快就意识到——」

"That's enough," Professor McGonagall said. Her hand tightened on Harry's shoulder. "Don't pester the boy, Tom, he's new to all this."

「够了，」麦格教授说。她搭在哈利肩上的手收紧了。「别烦这孩子，汤姆，他才刚接触这一切。」

"But it is him?" quavered an old woman. "It's Harry Potter?" With a scraping sound, she got up from her chair.

「可真是他？」一个老妇人颤声问。「是哈利·波特？」伴着椅子刮地的声音，她站了起来。

"Doris -" McGonagall said warningly. The glare she shot around the room should have been enough to intimidate anyone.

「多丽丝——」麦格警告道。她扫过房间的目光，理应足以吓住任何人。

"I only want to shake his hand," the woman whispered. She bent low and stuck out a wrinkled hand, which Harry, feeling confused and more uncomfortable than he ever had in his life, carefully shook. Tears fell from the woman's eyes onto their clasped hands. "My granson was an Auror," she whispered to him. "Died in seventy-nine. Thank you, Harry Potter. Thank heavens for you."

「我只是想和他握握手，」老妇人低声说。她俯下身，伸出一只布满皱纹的手。哈利一头雾水，而且这辈子从没这么不自在过，只好小心地握住她的手。老妇人的泪水落在两人交握的手上。「我的孙子是傲罗，」她低声对他说。「七九年牺牲的。谢谢你，哈利·波特。谢天谢地有你。」

"You're welcome," Harry said automatically, and then he turned his head and shot Professor McGonagall a frightened, pleading look.

「不客气，」哈利自动答道，随后转过头，惊慌又求助地望向麦格教授。

Professor McGonagall slammed her foot down just as the general rush was about to start. It made a noise that gave Harry a new referent for the phrase "Crack of Doom", and everyone froze in place.

众人眼看就要一拥而上，麦格教授猛地一跺脚。那声巨响让哈利第一次知道，「末日霹雳」究竟该指什么；所有人顿时僵在原地。

"We're in a hurry," Professor McGonagall said in a voice that sounded perfectly, utterly normal.

「我们赶时间，」麦格教授用平静得不能再平静的声音说。

They left the bar without any trouble.

他们毫无阻碍地离开了酒吧。

"Professor?" Harry said, once they were in the courtyard. He had meant to ask what was going on, but oddly found himself asking an entirely different question instead. "Who was that pale man, by the corner? The man with the twitching eye?"

「教授？」来到庭院后，哈利开口了。他原本想问刚才到底是怎么回事，却奇怪地发现自己问出了另一个完全不同的问题。「墙角那个脸色苍白的男人是谁？就是那个眼睛抽搐的男人？」

"Hm?" said Professor McGonagall, sounding a bit surprised; perhaps she hadn't expected that question either. "That was Professor Quirinus Quirrell. He'll be teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts this year at Hogwarts."

「嗯？」麦格教授答道，听起来有点惊讶；也许她同样没料到这个问题。「那是奎里纳斯·奇洛教授。今年他会在霍格沃茨教黑魔法防御术。」

"I had the strangest feeling that I knew him..." Harry rubbed his forehead. "And that I shouldn't ought to shake his hand." Like meeting someone who had been a friend, once, before something went drastically wrong... that wasn't really it at all, but Harry couldn't find words. "And what was... all of that?"

「我有种极其奇怪的感觉，好像认识他……」哈利揉了揉额头。「而且我最好别跟他握手。」就像遇见一个从前曾是朋友、后来却彻底出了问题的人……其实又完全不是那么回事，可哈利找不到合适的话来形容。「还有，刚才那一切到底是怎么回事？」

Professor McGonagall was giving him an odd glance. "Mr. Potter... do you know... how much have you been told... about how your parents died?"

麦格教授用一种古怪的眼神看着他。「波特先生……关于你父母是怎么死的……你究竟听说过_多少_？」

Harry returned a steady look. "My parents are alive and well, and they always refused to talk about how my genetic parents died. From which I infer that it wasn't good."

哈利平静地回望着她。「我的父母活得好好的，他们一直不肯谈我的_亲生_父母是怎么死的。由此我推断，那肯定不是什么好事。」

"An admirable loyalty," said Professor McGonagall. Her voice went low. "Though it hurts a little to hear you say it like that. Lily and James were friends of mine."

「令人钦佩的忠诚，」麦格教授说。她压低了声音。「可听你这么说，我还是有点难受。莉莉和詹姆曾是我的朋友。」

Harry looked away, suddenly ashamed. "I'm sorry," he said in a small voice. "But I have a Mum and Dad. And I know that I'd just make myself unhappy by comparing that reality to... something perfect that I built up in my imagination."

哈利别开视线，突然感到羞愧。「对不起，」他小声说。「可我_有_妈妈和爸爸。而且我知道，拿眼前的现实去和我在想象中构筑出来的某个完美东西比较，只会让自己难过。」

"That is amazingly wise of you," Professor McGonagall said quietly. "But your genetic parents died very well indeed, protecting you."

「你能这么想，真是出奇地明智，」麦格教授轻声说。「不过，你的_亲生_父母死得十分英勇——他们是为保护你而死的。」

Something strange clutched at Harry's heart. "What... did happen?"

一种奇异的东西攫住哈利的心。「到底发生了_什么_？」

Professor McGonagall sighed. Her wand tapped Harry's forehead, and his vision blurred for a moment. "Something of a disguise," she said, "so that this doesn't happen again, not until you're ready." Then her wand licked out again, and tapped three times on a brick wall...

麦格教授叹了口气。她用魔杖点了点哈利的额头，他的视线模糊了一瞬间。「给你做个伪装，」她说，「这样就不会再发生这种事，至少在你准备好之前不会。」随后她的魔杖再次一闪，在砖墙上敲了三下……

...which hollowed into a hole, and dilated and expanded and shivered into a huge archway, revealing a long row of shops with signs advertising cauldrons and dragon livers.

……砖墙向里陷下，现出一个洞口；洞口不断撑开、扩大、震颤，最后变成一道巨大的拱门，露出一长排店铺。店铺的招牌上写着坩埚和龙肝。

Harry didn't blink. It wasn't like anyone was turning into a cat.

哈利连眼睛都没眨。又不是有人变成猫。

And they walked forwards, together, into the wizarding world.

他们一起向前走去，进入巫师世界。

There were merchants hawking Bounce Boots ("Made with real Flubber!") and "Knives +3! Forks +2! Spoons with a +4 bonus!" There were goggles that would turn anything you looked at green, and a lineup of comfy armchairs with ejection seats for emergencies.

有商贩在兜售跳跳鞋（「用的可是真弗鲁伯！」），还在叫卖「刀子 +3！叉子 +2！勺子自带 +4 加值！」。有一种护目镜，能把你看到的一切变成绿色；还有一排舒服的扶手椅，紧急时可以把人弹射出去。

Harry's head kept rotating, rotating like it was trying to wind itself off his neck. It was like walking through the magical items section of an Advanced Dungeons and Dragons rulebook (he didn't play the game, but he did enjoy reading the rulebooks). Harry desperately didn't want to miss a single item for sale, in case it was one of the three you needed to complete the cycle of infinite wish spells.

哈利的脑袋不停转啊转，仿佛想把自己从脖子上拧下来。这就像走进《高级龙与地下城》规则书里的魔法物品部分（他没玩过这个游戏，不过很喜欢看规则书）。哈利拼命不想漏掉任何一件待售物品，万一其中一件正好是完成无限祈愿术循环所需的三件物品之一。

Then Harry spotted something that made him, entirely without thinking, veer off from the Deputy Headmistress and start heading straight into the shop, a front of blue bricks with bronze-metal trim. He was brought back to reality only when Professor McGonagall stepped right in front of him.

接着，哈利看见了一样东西，完全没多想，便离开副校长身边，直奔那家蓝砖砌墙、铜色金属镶边的商店。直到麦格教授径直挡在他面前，他才回过神来。

"Mr. Potter?" she said.

「波特先生？」她说。

Harry blinked, then realised what he'd just done. "I'm sorry! I forgot for a moment that I was with you instead of my family." Harry gestured at the shop window, which displayed fiery letters that shone piercingly bright and yet remote, spelling out Bigbam's Brilliant Books. "When you walk past a bookshop you haven't visited before, you have to go in and look around. That's the family rule."

哈利眨了眨眼，这才意识到自己刚刚做了什么。「对不起！我一时忘了自己是和你一起，不是和家人一起。」他指向店铺橱窗。橱窗里燃着一行字母，亮得刺眼，却仿佛远在天边，拼出_比格班姆的卓越藏书_。「经过一家以前没去过的书店，就得进去逛逛。这是我们家的家规。」

"That is the most Ravenclaw thing I have ever heard."

「这是我听过的最拉文克劳的一件事。」

"What?"

「什么？」

"Nothing. Mr. Potter, our first step is to visit Gringotts, the bank of the wizarding world. Your genetic family vault is there, with the inheritance your genetic parents left you, and you'll need money for school supplies." She sighed. "And, I suppose, a certain amount of spending money for books could be excused as well. Though you might want to hold off for a time. Hogwarts has quite a large library on magical subjects. And the tower in which, I strongly suspect, you will be living, has a more broad-ranging library of its own. Any book you bought now would probably be a duplicate."

「没什么。波特先生，我们第一步是去古灵阁，也就是巫师世界的银行。你的亲生父母在那里有一间家族金库，里面放着他们留给你的遗产；你需要钱买学校用品。」她叹了口气。「不过，我想，多给你留点零花钱买书，也说得过去。只是你或许该先等等。霍格沃茨有一座相当大的魔法图书馆。而且我敢肯定，你多半会住进的那座塔里还有一座藏书范围更广的图书馆。你现在买的书，很可能会和那里的重复。」

Harry nodded, and they walked on.

哈利点点头，两人继续往前走。

"Don't get me wrong, it's a great distraction," Harry said as his head kept swivelling, "probably the best distraction anyone has ever tried on me, but don't think I've forgotten about our pending discussion."

「别误会，这是个_非常棒_的分心办法，」哈利说，脑袋还在不断转动，「大概从来没有谁用过比这更好的办法来让我分心，但别以为我忘了我们还没谈完的事。」

Professor McGonagall sighed. "Your parents - or your mother at any rate - may have been very wise not to tell you."

麦格教授叹了口气。「你的父母——至少你母亲——当初没告诉你，可能是很明智的。」

"So you wish that I could continue in blissful ignorance? There is a certain flaw in that plan, Professor McGonagall."

「所以你希望我继续幸福地蒙在鼓里？麦格教授，这个计划有个明显的漏洞。」

"I suppose it would be rather pointless," the witch said tightly, "when anyone on the street could tell you the story. Very well."

「既然街上随便哪个人都能把这段故事告诉你，继续瞒着你确实毫无意义，」女巫语气僵硬地说。「好吧。」

And she told him of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, the Dark Lord, Voldemort.

于是她向他讲起了那个不可直呼其名的人，黑魔王，伏地魔。

"Voldemort?" Harry whispered. It should have been funny, but it wasn't. The name burned with a cold feeling, ruthlessness, diamond clarity, a hammer of pure titanium descending upon an anvil of yielding flesh. A chill swept over Harry even as he pronounced the word, and he resolved then and there to use safer terms like You-Know-Who.

「伏地魔？」哈利低声念道。按理说这应该很好笑，可它一点也不好笑。这个名字像火一样烧灼着哈利，却冷得刺骨。它冷酷无情，清澈如钻石，仿佛一把纯钛锤子正砸向一块柔软的血肉砧台。哈利念出这个词时，寒意扫过全身；他当场决定，以后还是用「神秘人」这类安全些的称呼。

The Dark Lord had raged upon wizarding Britain like a wilding wolf, tearing and rending at the fabric of their everyday lives. Other countries had wrung their hands but hesitated to intervene, whether out of apathetic selfishness or simple fear, for whichever was first among them to oppose the Dark Lord, their peace would be the next target of his terror.

黑魔王像一匹野狼般横行于英国巫师界，把人们的日常生活撕得支离破碎。其他国家都焦急不安，却迟疑着不肯介入；不论是因为冷漠自私，还是因为单纯的恐惧——哪个国家第一个站出来反对黑魔王，那个国家的和平就会成为他恐怖统治的下一个目标。

(The bystander effect, thought Harry, thinking of Latane and Darley's experiment which had shown that you were more likely to get help if you had an epileptic fit in front of one person than in front of three. Diffusion of responsibility, everyone hoping that someone else would go first.)

（_旁观者效应，_哈利想。他想起拉塔内和达利的实验：癫痫发作时，只有一个人在场，反倒比三个人都在场更容易得到帮助。责任分散——每个人都盼着别人先迈出第一步。）

The Death Eaters had followed in the Dark Lord's wake and in his vanguard, carrion vultures to pick at wounds, or snakes to bite and weaken. The Death Eaters were not as terrible as the Dark Lord, but they were terrible, and they were many. And the Death Eaters wielded more than wands; there was wealth within those masked ranks, and political power, and secrets held in blackmail, to paralyse a society trying to protect itself.

食死徒追随黑魔王，也替他冲锋在前，像啄食伤口的食腐秃鹫，又像咬伤猎物、使其衰弱的毒蛇。食死徒不像黑魔王那么可怕，但依然可怕，而且人数众多。食死徒拥有的不只是魔杖；那些蒙面人中有财富、政治权力，还有用来讹诈的秘密，足以让一个试图自保的社会瘫痪。

An old and respected journalist, Yermy Wibble, called for increased taxes and conscription. He shouted that it was absurd for the many to cower in fear of the few. His skin, only his skin, had been found nailed to the newsroom wall that next morning, next to the skins of his wife and two daughters. Everyone wished for something more to be done, and no one dared take the lead to propose it. Whoever stood out the most became the next example.

一位年迈而德高望重的记者，叶米·韦伯，呼吁提高税收并实行征兵。他大喊，多数人竟被少数人吓得畏缩不前，实在荒谬。第二天早晨，编辑部墙上钉着他的皮——只有他的皮；旁边还有他妻子和两个女儿的皮。人人都希望再做些什么，却没人敢带头提出来。谁最显眼，谁就会被拿来做下一个例子。

Until the names of James and Lily Potter rose to the top of that list.

直到詹姆和莉莉·波特的名字升到了这份「下一个例子」名单的最前面。

And those two might have died with their wands in their hands and not regretted their choices, for they were heroes; but for that they had an infant child, their son, Harry Potter.

如果只有他们自己，两人大可以手握魔杖赴死，绝不会后悔自己的选择，因为他们本来就是英雄。可他们还有一个尚在襁褓中的儿子——哈利·波特。

Tears were coming into Harry's eyes. He wiped them away in anger or maybe desperation, I didn't know those people, not really, they aren't my parents now, it would be pointless to feel so sad for them -

哈利眼里涌出泪水。他带着愤怒，也许带着绝望，把泪水抹掉。我根本不认识那些人，至少不是真的认识；他们现在也不是我的父母，为他们这么难过没有意义——

When Harry was done sobbing into the witch's robes, he looked up, and felt a little bit better to see tears in Professor McGonagall's eyes as well.

哈利把脸埋在女巫的长袍里抽泣。等他终于哭完、抬起头时，看见麦格教授眼中也有泪水，心里便好受了一点。

"So what happened?" Harry said, his voice trembling.

「后来发生了什么？」哈利问，声音微微发颤。

"The Dark Lord came to Godric's Hollow," Professor McGonagall said in a whisper. "You should have been hidden, but you were betrayed. The Dark Lord killed James, and he killed Lily, and he came in the end to you, to your cot. He cast the Killing Curse at you, and that was where it ended. The Killing Curse is formed of pure hate, and strikes directly at the soul, severing it from the body. It cannot be blocked, and whomever it strikes, they die. But you survived. You are the only person ever to survive. The Killing Curse rebounded and struck the Dark Lord, leaving only the burnt hulk of his body and a scar upon your forehead. That was the end of the terror, and we were free. That, Harry Potter, is why people want to see the scar on your forehead, and why they want to shake your hand."

「黑魔王来到戈德里克山谷，」麦格教授低声说。「你本该被藏起来，可有人背叛了你们。黑魔王杀了詹姆，又杀了莉莉，最后来到你的婴儿床边。他对你施放了索命咒，一切就在那里结束了。索命咒由纯粹的恨意构成，直取灵魂，将它从身体中割离。它无法挡住，击中谁，谁就会死。但你活了下来。你是有史以来唯一一个中了索命咒还能活下来的人。索命咒反弹回去，击中了黑魔王，只留下他烧焦的残躯，以及你额头上的一道伤疤。恐怖就此结束，我们获得了自由。这就是为什么，哈利·波特，人们想看你额头上的伤疤，也就是为什么他们想和你握手。」

The storm of weeping that had washed through Harry had used up all his tears; he could not cry again, he was done.

那场哭泣的风暴卷过之后，哈利的眼泪已经流尽；他再也哭不出来了。

(And somewhere in the back of his mind was a small, small note of confusion, a sense of something wrong about that story; and it should have been a part of Harry's art to notice that tiny note, but he was distracted. For it is a sad rule that whenever you are most in need of your art as a rationalist, that is when you are most likely to forget it.)

（在他脑海深处的某个角落，还藏着一丝小得不能再小的困惑：这个故事似乎有什么地方不对。留意这点微小的异样，本该是哈利的理性之艺；可他分心了。因为有一条可悲的规律：你越需要自己的理性之艺，就越容易把它忘掉。）

Harry detached himself from Professor McGonagall's side. "I'll - have to think about this," he said, trying to keep his voice under control. He stared at his shoes. "Um. You can go ahead and call them my parents, if you want, you don't have to say 'genetic parents' or anything. I guess there's no reason I can't have two mothers and two fathers."

哈利从麦格教授身侧退开。「我——得想想这件事，」他说，尽力控制住声音。他盯着自己的鞋子。「嗯。你要是愿意，直接叫他们我的父母就好，不用说什么『亲生父母』之类的。我想，我有两个妈妈、两个爸爸，也没什么理由不行。」

There was no sound from Professor McGonagall.

麦格教授没有发出任何声音。

And they walked together in silence, until they came before a great white building with vast bronze doors, and carven words above saying Gringotts Bank.

他们一路默默同行，直到一座高大的白色建筑出现在眼前。楼前立着巨大的青铜门，门上方刻着几个字：古灵阁银行。