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哈利·波特与火焰杯
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

英文中文双语对照双语交替

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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX - THE SECOND TASK

第二十六章　第二个项目

You said you'd already worked out that egg clue!" said Hermione indignantly.

“你说你已经解开金蛋的线索了！”赫敏气愤地说。

"Keep your voice down!" said Harry crossly. "I just need to - sort of fine-tune it, all right?"

“你小声点儿！”哈利恼火地说道，“我只是需要——弄得更清楚些，不行吗？”

He, Ron, and Hermione were sitting at the very back of the Charms class with a table to themselves. They were supposed to be practicing the opposite of the Summoning Charm today - the Banishing Charm. Owing to the potential for nasty accidents when objects kept flying across the room. Professor Flitwick had given each student a stack of cushions on which to practice, the theory being that these wouldn't hurt anyone if they went off target. It was a good theory, but it wasn't working very well. Neville's aim was so poor that he kept accidentally sending much heavier things flying across the room - Professor Flitwick, for instance.

在魔咒课上，他、罗恩和赫敏单独坐在教室后面的一张桌子旁。今天他们要练习的咒语和飞来咒正好相反——驱逐咒。因为东西在教室里飞来飞去容易造成不幸事故，弗立维教授给了每个学生一大堆软垫做练习用，这样，即使走偏了，也不会把人砸伤。这个想法倒不错，但执行起来并不顺利。纳威念咒时太没有准头了，他总是不小心把一些很重的东西弄得满屋乱飞——比如弗立维教授。

"Just forget the egg for a minute, all right?" Harry hissed as Professor Flitwick went whizzing resignedly past them, landing on top of a large cabinet. "I'm trying to tell you about Snape and Moody. ..."

“暂时忘掉金蛋吧，行吗？”哈利压低声音说，这时弗立维教授无奈地从他们身边飞过，落在一个大柜子上，“我要告诉你们斯内普和穆迪的事……”

This class was an ideal cover for a private conversation, as everyone was having far too much fun to pay them any attention. Harry had been recounting his adventures of the previous night in whispered installments for the last half hour.

这堂课是进行秘密交谈的理想的保护伞，因为同学们都玩得很开心，根本顾不上注意他们。在刚才的半小时里，哈利分几次小声地讲述了他前一天夜里的遭遇。

"Snape said Moodys searched his office as well?" Ron whispered, his eyes alight with interest as he Banished a cushion with a sweep of his wand (it soared into the air and knocked Parvati's hat off). "What. . . d'you reckon Moody's here to keep an eye on Snape as well as Karkaroff?"

“斯内普说穆迪教授也搜查了他的办公室？”罗恩小声说道。他兴奋得两眼泛光，一挥魔杖，对着一只软垫念了驱逐咒（软垫飞到空中，撞掉了帕瓦蒂的帽子）。“啊……穆迪在这里不光留意卡卡洛夫，还在监视斯内普，你说是吗？”

"Well, I dunno if that's what Dumbledore asked him to do, but he's definitely doing it,"

“我也不知道是不是邓布利多叫他去搜查的，但他肯定是这么做了。”哈利说，一边漫不经心地挥了挥魔杖，他的软垫怪模怪样地贴着桌子滑下去了，“穆迪说邓布利多之所以让斯内普留在这里，是为了给他第二次机会……”

said Harry, waving his wand without paying much attention, so that his cushion did an odd sort of belly flop off the desk. "Moody said Dumbledore only lets Snape stay here because he's giving him a second chance or something. ..."

“什么？”罗恩说，眼睛睁得大大的。他的第二个软垫旋转着飞到高空，把枝形吊灯撞得飞了起来，然后重重地落在弗立维的讲台上。“哈利……也许穆迪认为是斯内普把你的名字投进火焰杯的！”

"What?" said Ron, his eyes widening, his next cushion spinning high into the air, ricocheting off the chandelier, and dropping heavily onto Flitwick's desk. "Harry...

“哦，罗恩，”赫敏怀疑地摇了摇头，说道，“上次我们以为斯内普想害死哈利，结果没想到他却是在救哈利，你还记得吗？”

maybe Moody thinks Snape put your name in the Goblet of Fire!"

她给一个软垫念了驱逐咒，软垫从教室上空飞过，落在他们应该瞄准的箱子里。哈利望着赫敏，沉思着……不错，斯内普以前确实救过他的命，然而奇怪的是，斯内普同时又对他恨之入骨，就像当年一起上学时他仇恨哈利的父亲一样。斯内普喜欢给哈利扣分，而且决不错过任何机会惩罚哈利，甚至提出把哈利从学校开除。

"Oh Ron," said Hermione, shaking her head sceptically, "we thought Snape was trying to kill Harry before, and it turned out he was saving Harry's life, remember?"

“我可不在乎穆迪说什么，”赫敏继续说道，“邓布利多并不傻。拿海格和卢平教授来说吧，许多人都不肯给他们工作，尽管斯内普有点儿——”

She Banished a cushion and it flew across the room and landed in the box they were all supposed to be aiming at. Harry looked at Hermione, thinking... it was true that Snape had saved his life once, but the odd thing was, Snape definitely loathed him, just as he'd loathed Harry s father when they had been at school together. Snape loved taking points from Harry, and had certainly never missed an opportunity to give him punishments, or even to suggest that he should be suspended from the school.

“——坏。”罗恩迅速接口，“那么，赫敏，那些专抓黑巫师的猎手为什么要搜查他的办公室呢？”

"I don't care what Moody says," Hermione went on. "Dumbledore's not stupid. He was right to trust Hagrid and Professor Lupin, even though loads of people wouldn't have given them jobs, so why shouldn't he be right about Snape, even if Snape is a bit -"

“克劳奇先生为什么要装病呢？”赫敏不理罗恩，自顾自地说道，“他不能来参加圣诞舞会，却能在半夜三更随心所欲地溜到这里来，这真有些蹊跷，不是吗？”

"- evil," said Ron promptly. "Come on, Hermione, why are all these Dark wizard catchers searching his office, then?"

“你就是因为那个小精灵闪闪才不喜欢克劳奇的。”罗恩说，一边给软垫念了个咒，软垫朝窗户飞去。

"Why has Mr. Crouch been pretending to be ill?" said Hermione, ignoring Ron. "Its a bit funny, isn't it, that he cant manage to come to the Yule Ball, but he can get up here in the middle of the night when he wants to?"

“你就是总以为斯内普想干坏事。”赫敏说，也给软垫念了个咒，她的软垫干净利落地飞进了箱子。

"You just don't like Crouch because of that elf, Winky," said Ron, sending a cushion soaring into the window.

“我只想知道，如果这是斯内普的第二次机会的话，那么他原先究竟做了什么。”哈利板着脸说。他的软垫竟然径直飞过教室上空，稳稳地落在赫敏的那只软垫上面，这使他大为惊讶。

"You just want to think Snapes up to something," said Hermione, sending her cushion zooming neatly into the box.

小天狼星希望了解霍格沃茨的每一个异常情况，因此，那天晚上，哈利派一只棕褐色猫头鹰给他送了封信，把克劳奇先生闯进斯内普办公室，以及穆迪和斯内普之间的对话，原原本本地告诉了他。然后，哈利把全部注意力都转向了眼下这个迫在眉睫的问题：2月24日那天，他怎样才能在水下存活一个小时。

"I just want to know what Snape did with his first chance, if he's on his second one,"

罗恩倾向于再一次使用飞来咒——哈利跟他们说过水肺的作用，罗恩认为哈利完全可以从附近的麻瓜城镇弄一套水肺过来。赫敏断然否定了这个建议，她指出，即使哈利在规定的一小时内学会了怎样操作水肺（这是不可能的），他也肯定会被取消参赛资格，因为他违反了《国际魔法保密准则》——一套水肺嗖嗖地穿过乡村朝霍格沃茨飞来，要想不被麻瓜看见简直是白日做梦。

said Harry grimly, and his cushion, to his very great surprise, flew straight across the room and landed neatly on top of Hermione's.

“当然啦，最理想的办法是让你自己变形，变成一个潜水艇什么的。”赫敏说，“要是我们已经练习过人类变形就好了！可我们要到六年级才讲到这个内容呢，而如果你没有完全掌握就擅自给自己变形，后果不堪设想……”

Obedient to Sirius's wish of hearing about anything odd at Hogwarts, Harry sent him a letter by brown owl that night, explaining all about Mr. Crouch breaking into Snape s office, and Moody and Snape's conversation. Then Harry turned his attention in earnest to the most urgent problem facing him: how to survive underwater for an hour on the twenty-fourth of February.

“是啊，我可不愿意脑袋上支棱着一个潜水望远镜走来走去。”哈利说道，“我想我可以在穆迪面前攻击别人，这样他就会给我变形了……”

Ron quite liked the idea of using the Summoning Charm again - Harry had explained about

“不过，我认为他不会让你想变成什么就变成什么。”赫敏严肃地说，“不行，我认为你最好还是采用一种魔咒。”

Aqua-Lungs, and Ron couldn't see why Harry shouldn't Summon one from the nearest Muggle town. Hermione squashed this plan by pointing out that, in the unlikely event that Harry managed to learn how to operate an Aqua-Lung within the set limit of an hour, he was sure to be disqualified for breaking the International Code of Wizarding Secrecy - it was too much to hope that no Muggles would spot an Aqua-Lung zooming across the countryside to Hogwarts.

就这样，哈利又一次埋头钻研那些布满灰尘的大部头书，寻找一个能使人在没有氧气的情况下存活的咒语，他想他很快就会厌烦图书馆，一辈子都不想再进来了。在午饭时间、晚上和整个周末，他、罗恩和赫敏都泡在这里，苦苦搜寻。哈利还请麦格教授给他写了一张纸条，批准他使用禁书区的藏书，甚至还向那个长得像兀鹫的图书馆管理员平斯夫人请求过帮助——然而，他们没有找到任何办法，可以使哈利在水下待一个小时还能活着讲述自己的故事。

"Of course, the ideal solution would be for you to Transfigure yourself into a submarine or something," Hermione said. "If only we'd done human Transfiguration already! But I don't think we start that until sixth year, and it can go badly wrong if you don't know what you're doing...."

现在，哈利心头又笼罩着以前有过的那种紧张感了，他又觉得上课很难集中思想了。那个大湖，哈利以前总拿它不当回事，把它看成是场地的一部分。现在每当他靠近教室的窗户，大湖就会吸引住他的视线，那一大片铁灰色的阴冷的湖面，它那黢黑而寒冷的水底像月亮一样遥不可及。

"Yeah, I don't fancy walking around with a periscope sticking out of my head," said Harry. "I s'pose I could always attack someone in front of Moody; he might do it for me...."

就像上次面对树蜂之前一样，时间又在哗哗地溜走，仿佛有人给钟表施了魔法，让它们转得飞快。离2月24日还有一个星期了（还有时间）……还有五天了（他肯定很快就会想出办法）……还有三天了（快让我想出办法吧……求求你）……

"I don't think he'd let you choose what you wanted to be turned into, though," said Hermione seriously. "No, I think your best chance is some sort of charm."

还剩两天了，哈利又开始吃不下饭。星期一的早饭桌上，惟一令人宽慰的是他派去给小天狼星送信的棕褐色猫头鹰回来了。哈利抽出那张羊皮纸，展开，看见的是小天狼星跟他通信以来写得最短的一封信。

So Harry, thinking that he would soon have had enough of the library to last him a lifetime, buried himself once more among the dusty volumes, looking for any spell that might enable a human to survive without oxygen. However, though he, Ron, and Hermione searched through their lunchtimes, evenings, and whole weekends - though Harry asked Professor McGonagall for a note of permission to use the Restricted Section, and even asked the irritable, vulture-like librarian. Madam Pince, for help - they found nothing whatsoever that would enable Harry to spend an hour underwater and live to tell the tale.

派送回信的猫头鹰告知我你们下次到霍格莫德过周末的日期。

Familiar flutterings of panic were starting to disturb Harry now, and he was finding it difficult to concentrate in class again. The lake, which Harry had always taken for granted as just another feature of the grounds, drew his eyes whenever he was near a classroom window, a great, iron-gray mass of chilly water, whose dark and icy depths were starting to seem as distant as the moon.

哈利把羊皮纸翻过来看了看背面，希望能看到些别的，但背面什么也没有。

Just as it had before he faced the Horntail, time was slipping away as though somebody had bewitched the clocks to go extra-fast. There was a week to go before February the twenty-fourth (there was still time) . . . there were five days to go (he was bound to find something soon) .. . three days to go (please let me find something... please). . .

“下下个周末，”赫敏在哈利后面看了短信的内容，小声说道，“拿着——用我的羽毛笔，马上就派这只猫头鹰送回信。”

With two days left. Harry started to go off food again. The only good thing about breakfast on Monday was the return of the brown owl he had sent to Sirius. He pulled off the parchment, unrolled it, and saw the shortest letter Sirius had ever written to him.

哈利把日期草草地写在小天狼星的回信的背面，把信系在棕褐色猫头鹰的腿上，看着它又飞走了。他原先指望得到什么呢？指望小天狼星告诉他如何在水下存活？他写信时只顾告诉小天狼星关于斯内普和穆迪的事了，把金蛋忘得一干二净，只字未提。

Send date of next Hogsmeade weekend by return owl.

“他为什么想知道我们下次到霍格莫德过周末的具体日期呢？”罗恩问。

Harry turned the parchment over and looked at the back, hoping to see something else, but it was blank.

“不知道。”哈利干巴巴地说道。他看见猫头鹰时内心闪过的短暂喜悦消失了。“走吧……去上保护神奇生物课。”

"Weekend after next," whispered Hermione, who had read the note over Harrys shoulder.

哈利不知道海格是为了弥补在炸尾螺上的过错呢，还是因为炸尾螺只剩了最后两条，或者是因为他想证明格拉普兰教授能做到的，他海格也照样能做到。反正，海格回来上课后，就把格拉普兰教授关于独角兽的课继续上了下去。结果证明，海格对独角兽的了解并不比他对巨怪的了解少，不过，他显然觉得独角兽没有獠牙是一件令人失望的事。

"Here - take my quill and send this owl back straight away."

今天，他居然抓到了两只独角兽小崽。小崽与成年的独角兽不同，它们是纯金色的。帕瓦蒂和拉文德一看见它们，就高兴得发了狂似的，就连潘西·帕金森也不得不拼命掩饰自己，以免暴露自己是多么喜欢它们。

Harry scribbled the dates down on the back of Sirius's letter, tied it onto the brown owl's leg, and watched it take flight again. What had he expected? Advice on how to survive underwater? He had been so intent on telling Sirius all about Snape and Moody he had completely forgotten to mention the eggs clue.

“小崽比成年的容易发现，”海格对全班同学说道，“它们两岁左右变成银色，大约四岁的时候出角。直到成年后才会变成纯白色，那大约是在七岁左右。它们小的时候比较轻信……对男孩子不怎么反感……过来，靠近一点儿，你们如果愿意，可以拍拍它们……把这些方糖给它们吃几块……”

"What's he want to know about the next Hogsmeade weekend for?" said Ron.

“你没事吧，哈利？”海格趁大家都聚拢在独角兽小崽周围时，踱到一边，低声问道。

"Dunno," said Harry dully. The momentary happiness that had flared inside him at the sight of the owl had died. "Come on ...Care of Magical Creatures."

“没事。”哈利说。

Whether Hagrid was trying to make up for the Blast-Ended Skrewts, or because there were now only two skrewts left, or because he was trying to prove he could do anything that Professor Grubbly-Plank could. Harry didnt know, but Hagrid had been continuing her lessons on unicorns ever since he'd returned to work. It turned out that Hagrid knew quite as much about unicorns as he did about monsters, though it was clear that he found their lack of poisonous fangs disappointing.

“有点儿紧张，是吗？”海格说。

Today he had managed to capture two unicorn foals. Unlike full-grown unicorns, they were pure gold. Parvati and Lavender went into transports of delight at the sight of them, and even Pansy Parkinson had to work hard to conceal how much she liked them.

“有点儿吧。”哈利说。

"Easier ter spot than the adults," Hagrid told the class. "They turn silver when they're abou' two years old, an' they grow horns at aroun four. Don' go pure white till they're full grown, 'round about seven. They're a bit more trustin when they're babies .. . don mind boys so much.... C'mon, move in a bit, yeh can pat 'em if yeh want. . . give 'em a

“哈利——”海格说着，用粗重的手拍了拍他的肩膀，压得哈利的膝盖直打弯，“在你对付那只树蜂之前，我确实替你担心过，但我现在知道了，只要你想做的事，没有做不成的。我一点儿也不担心了。你肯定会成功的。线索解出来了吗，嗯？”

few o' these sugar lumps. . . .

哈利点了点头，但他尽管在点头，内心却产生了一种荒唐的冲动，想坦白承认自己不知道怎样在湖底存活一个小时。他抬头望着海格——也许海格有时候必须钻进水底，去对付湖里的动物？因为场地上的其他东西都是他照料的——

"You okay. Harry?" Hagrid muttered, moving aside slightly, while most of the others swarmed around the baby unicorns.

“你会赢的，”海格嗓音粗哑地说，又拍了拍哈利的肩膀——哈利觉得自己往松软的泥地里陷了两英寸，“我知道。我能感觉到。你一定会赢的，哈利！”

"Yeah," said Harry. "Jus' nervous, eh?" said Hagrid.

哈利不忍心抹去海格脸上喜悦的充满信心的笑容。他假装自己对小独角兽很感兴趣，勉强对海格笑了笑，就走上前，和同学们一起去抚摸两个小崽了。

"Bit," said Harry.

到了第二个项目的前一天傍晚，哈利觉得自己仿佛陷入了一场噩梦。他十分清楚，即使奇迹出现，他发现了一个合适的咒语，也很难在一夜之间掌握它了。他怎么会让事情落到这步田地呢？他为什么不早点开始钻研金蛋提供的线索呢？他为什么在课堂上开小差——也许某个老师曾经提到过怎样在水下呼吸呢？

"Harry," said Hagrid, clapping a massive hand on his shoulder, so that Harry's knees buckled under its weight, "I'd've bin worried before I saw yeh take on tha Horntail, but I know now yeh can do anythin' yeh set yer mind ter. I'm not worried at all. Yeh're goin ter be fine. Got yer clue worked out, haven' yeh?"

窗外的太阳渐渐西沉，他和赫敏、罗恩坐在图书馆里，心急火燎地翻阅着一本本咒语书，每个人面前的桌上都堆着好几摞书，互相都看不见对方。每当哈利在书上看见“水”这个词时，他的心都要狂跳一下，但再仔细一看，那上面经常是取两品脱水、半磅切碎的曼德拉草，再加一条水螈……

Harry nodded, but even as he did so, an insane urge to confess that he didn't have any idea how to survive at the bottom of the lake for an hour came over him. He looked up at Hagrid - perhaps he had to go into the lake sometimes, to deal with the creatures in it?

“我觉得这样行不通，”罗恩的声音干巴巴地从桌子那头传来，“什么都找不到。什么都没有。也许淘干咒还比较接近，把池塘、水坑的水淘干，但是你不可能有那么大力量，把整个湖里的水都淘干。”

He looked after everything else on the grounds, after all-"

“肯定有办法的。”赫敏低声嘟囔道，把一只蜡烛挪得更近了些。她的眼睛太疲劳了，不得不凑得很近，鼻子离书页只差一寸，才能看清《被遗忘的古老魔法和咒语》上细密的小字。“他们不可能设计一个无法完成的项目。”

Yeh're goin' ter win," Hagrid growled, patting Harrys shoulder again, so that Harry actually felt himself sink a couple of inches into the soft ground. "I know it. I can feel it. Yeh're goin' ter win, Harry n Harry just couldn't bring himself to wipe the happy, confident smile off Hagrid's face.

“他们会的。”罗恩说，“哈利，你明天就直接走到湖边，把脑袋扎进去，朝那些人鱼喊话，叫他们把偷的东西还给你，看他们会不会把它扔出来。这是你最好的办法了，伙计。”

Pretending he was interested in the young unicorns, he forced a smile in return, and moved forward to pat them with the others.

“办法肯定是有的！”赫敏急躁地说，“肯定有的！”

By the evening before the second task. Harry felt as though he were trapped in a nightmare. He was fully aware that even if, by some miracle, he managed to find a suitable spell, he'd have a real job mastering it overnight. How could he have let this happen? Why hadn't he got to work on the egg's clue sooner? Why had he ever let his mind wander in class - what if a teacher had once mentioned how to breathe underwater?

她似乎把图书馆缺乏有用资料看成是对她自己的侮辱，以前她的问题总能在书本里找到答案。

He sat with Hermione and Ron in the library as the sun set outside, tearing feverishly through page after page of spells, hidden from one another by the massive piles of books on the desk in front of each of them. Harry s heart gave a huge leap every time he saw the word "water" on a page, but more often than not it was merely "Take two pints of water, half a pound of shredded mandrake leaves, and a newt..."

“我知道我应该怎么做了。”哈利说，他脸朝下趴在《对付恶作剧的锦囊妙计》上，“我应该学会做一个阿尼马格斯，就像小天狼星那样。”

"I don't reckon it can be done," said Rons voice flatly from the other side of the table.

“对啊，你可以随心所欲地把自己变成一条金鱼！”罗恩说。

"There's nothing. Nothing. Closest was that thing to dry up puddles and ponds, that Drought Charm, but that was nowhere near powerful enough to drain the lake."

“或者一只青蛙。”哈利打了个哈欠。他太累了。

"There must be something," Hermione muttered, moving a candle closer to her. Her eyes were so tired she was poring over the tiny print of Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charmes with her nose about an inch from the page. "They'd never have set a task that was undoable."

“成为一个阿尼马格斯要花好几年的时间呢，然后你还要去登记，麻烦多着呢。”赫敏含混地说，她正眯着眼睛查找《古怪的魔法难题及其解答》的索引，“麦格教授告诉过我们，记得吗……你必须到禁止滥用魔法办公室登记……你要变成什么动物，有什么标记，这样别人才不会伤害你……”

"They have," said Ron. "Harry, just go down to the lake tomorrow, right, stick your head in, yell at the merpeople to give back whatever they've nicked, and see if they chuck it out. Best you can do, mate."

“赫敏，我不过是开个玩笑，”哈利有气无力地说，“我知道我绝对不可能明天一早就变成一只青蛙……”

"There's a way of doing it!" Hermione said crossly. "There Just has to be!"

“哦，根本没有用，”赫敏说着，啪地合上《古怪的魔法难题及其解答》，“谁想使自己的鼻毛长成小卷卷呢？”

She seemed to be taking the library's lack of useful information on the subject as a personal insult; it had never failed her before.

“我倒不反对，”弗雷德·韦斯莱的声音突然传来，“这可就成为别人的话题了，是不是？”

"I know what I should have done," said Harry, resting, face-down, on Saucy Tricks for Tricky Sorts. "I should've learned to be an Animagus like Sirius."

哈利、罗恩和赫敏抬起头。弗雷德和乔治刚从书架后面走出来。

An Animagus was a wizard who could transform into an animal.

“你们俩在这里做什么？”罗恩问。

"Yeah, you could've turned into a goldfish any time you wanted!" said Ron.

“找你呀，”乔治说，“麦格教授叫你去，罗恩。还有你，赫敏。”

"Or a frog," yawned Harry. He was exhausted. "It takes years to become an Animagus, and then you have to register yourself and everything," said Hermione vaguely, now squinting down the index of Weird Wizarding Dilemmas and Their Solutions. "Professor McGonagall told us, remember... you've got to register yourself with the Improper Use of Magic Office ...what animal you become, and your markings, so you can't abuse it..."

“做什么？”赫敏问，显得很吃惊。

"Hermione, I was joking," said Harry wearily. "I know I haven't got a chance of turning into a frog by tomorrow morning...."

“我们要把你们带到她的办公室去。”弗雷德说。

"Oh this is no use," Hermione said, snapping shut Weird Wizarding Dilemmas. "Who on earth wants to make their nose hair grow into ringlets?"

罗恩和赫敏望着哈利，哈利觉得心头一沉。麦格教授是不是要训斥罗恩和赫敏呢？也许她已经注意到他们在帮助他了？他应该自己琢磨怎样完成比赛项目的呀！

"I wouldn't mind," said Fred Weasleys voice. "Be a talking point, wouldn't it?"

“我们在公共休息室和你见面，哈利，”赫敏对哈利说，一边起身和罗恩一同离开——他们俩都显得非常紧张，“这些书，你能带回去多少就带回去多少，好吗？”

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked up. Fred and George had just emerged from behind some bookshelves.

“好吧。”哈利说，心中惴惴不安。

"What're you two doing here?" Ron asked.

八点钟的时候，平斯夫人关掉所有的灯，过来把哈利赶出了图书馆。哈利抱着一大堆书，踉踉跄跄地回到格兰芬多公共休息室，走到墙角的一张桌子旁，又开始继续搜寻。《怪男巫的疯狂魔法》里什么也没有……《中世纪巫术指南》里什么也没有……在《十八世纪魔咒选》、《地底深处的可怕动物》和《你不知道自己所拥有的能力，以及你一旦明白怎样运用它们》里，也没有一个字提到水下生存的办法。

"Looking for you," said George. "McGonagall wants you, Ron. And you, Hermione."

克鲁克山爬到哈利的膝盖上，蜷缩着身体，香甜地打起了呼噜。公共休息室里的人渐渐地走光了。同学们临走时都祝他明天好运，口气和海格一样愉快而充满信心。显然，他们都相信他又要完成一个精彩绝伦的表演，就像在第一个项目中一样。哈利无法回答他们，只好点了点头，觉得嗓子眼里仿佛塞了一个高尔夫球。十二点差十分的时候，休息室里就只剩下他和克鲁克山了。他把所有的书都找了个遍，罗恩和赫敏还没有回来。

"Why?" said Hermione, looking surprised.

完了，他对自己说。你做不到了。你明天只好走到湖边，告诉裁判……

"Dunno ... she was looking a bit grim, though," said Fred.

他幻想着自己在向裁判解释他无法完成这个项目。他想象着巴格曼睁圆了眼睛，一脸的惊讶；卡卡洛夫露出黄牙，幸灾乐祸地笑着。他几乎能听见芙蓉·德拉库尔的声音：“我早就知道……他年纪太小了，他还是个男孩呢。”他看见马克西姆夫人在人群前面闪动着波特臭大粪的徽章，看见海格沮丧的难以置信的脸……

"We're supposed to take you down to her office," said George.

哈利忘记了腿上的克鲁克山，猛地站了起来。克鲁克山掉到地板上，气呼呼地嘶嘶地叫着，厌恶地白了哈利一眼，迈着大步走开了，那根瓶刷子般的尾巴高高翘在半空。但哈利已经匆匆登上旋转楼梯，回宿舍去了……他去拿隐形衣，然后再溜回图书馆，如果必要的话，他要在那里熬一个通宵……

Ron and Hermione stared at Harry, who felt his stomach drop. Was Professor McGonagall about to tell Ron and Hermione off? Perhaps she'd noticed how much they were helping him, when he ought to be working out how to do the task alone?

“荧光闪烁。”十五分钟后，他打开图书馆大门时低声说道。

"We'll meet you back in the common room," Hermione told Harry as she got up to go with Ron - both of them looked very anxious. "Bring as many of these books as you can, okay?"

就着魔杖顶上发出的一点微光，他溜进书架间，抽下一本又一本书——关于魔法和咒语的书，关于人鱼和水下怪物的书，关于著名巫师的书，关于魔法发明的书，等等，只要可能有片言只语提及水下生存的书，他都抽出来了。他把这些书都搬到一张桌上，埋头啃读起来，靠着魔杖的那点微光，苦苦搜寻，偶尔看看手表……

"Right," said Harry uneasily.

凌晨一点……凌晨两点……惟一能使自己坚持下去的，是他一遍又一遍地告诉自己：下一本书……在下一本书里……下一本……

By eight o'clock. Madam Pince had extinguished all the lamps and came to chivvy Harry out of the library. Staggering under the weight of as many books as he could carry, Harry returned to the Gryffindor common room, pulled a table into a corner, and continued to search. There was nothing in Madcap Magic for Wacky Warlocks. . . nothing in A Guide to Medieval Sorcery . . . not one mention of underwater exploits in An Anthology of Eighteenth-Century Charms, or in Dreadful Denizens of the Deep, or Powers You Never Knew You Had and What to Do with Them Now Youve Wised Up.

级长洗澡间那幅画上的美人鱼在大笑。哈利像个软木塞一样，在靠近她躺着的那块岩石的泡泡浴里一沉一浮，她把他的火弩箭高高举在他头顶上。

Crookshanks crawled into Harrys lap and curled up, purring deeply. The common room emptied slowly around Harry. People kept wishing him luck for the next morning in cheery, confident voices like Hagrid s, all of them apparently convinced that he was about to pull off another stunning performance like the one he had managed in the first task. Harry couldn't answer them, he just nodded, feeling as though there were a golfball stuck in his throat. By ten to midnight, he was alone in the room with Crookshanks. He had searched all the remaining books, and Ron and Hermione had not come back.

“过来拿呀！”她调皮地咯咯笑着，“过来，跳起来！”

It's over, he told himself. You can't do it. You'll just have to go down to the lake in the morning and tell the judges....

“我过不去，”哈利喘着气说道，一边试着去抓火弩箭，并挣扎着不要沉下去，“还给我！”

He imagined himself explaining that he couldn't do the task. He pictured Bagman's look of round-eyed surprise, Karkaroffs satisfied, yellow-toothed smile. He could almost hear Fleur Delacour saying "I knew it. . . 'e is too young, 'e is only a little boy." He saw Malfoy flashing his POTTER STINKS badge at the front of the crowd, saw Hagrid s crestfallen, disbelieving face. . . .

可她只是一边大声嘲笑他，一边用扫帚尖戳他的身体，弄得他疼痛难忍。

Forgetting that Crookshanks was on his lap. Harry stood up very suddenly; Crookshanks hissed angrily as he landed on the floor, gave Harry a disgusted look, and stalked away with his bottlebrush tail in the air, but Harry was already hurrying up the spiral staircase to his dormitory. ... He would grab the Invisibility Cloak and go back to the library, he'd stay there all night if he had to. ...

“疼死了——别戳我——唉哟——”

"Lumos," Harry whispered fifteen minutes later as he opened the library door.

“哈利·波特必须醒一醒了，先生！”

Wand tip alight, he crept along the bookshelves, pulling down more books - books of hexes and charms, books on merpeople and water monsters, books on famous witches and wizards, on magical inventions, on anything at all that might include one passing reference to underwater survival. He carried them over to a table, then set to work, searching them by the narrow beam of his wand, occasionally checking his watch. . . .

“别戳我——”

One in the morning. . . two in the morning . . . the only way he could keep going was to tell himself, over and over again, next book. . . in the next one. . . the next one. . .

“多比必须戳哈利·波特，先生，他必须醒一醒了！”哈利睁开眼。他仍然在图书馆里，在他睡着时隐形衣已经从他头上滑落到地板上，他的面颊贴在《只要有魔杖，就有办法》的书页上。他坐起来，整了整眼镜，明亮的日光刺得他直眨眼睛。

The mermaid in the painting in the prefects' bathroom was laughing. Harry was bobbing like a cork in bubbly water next to her rock, while she held his Firebolt over his head.

“哈利·波特必须赶快了！”多比尖声尖气地说，“第二个项目还有十分钟就要开始了，哈利·波特——”

"Come and get it!" she giggled maliciously. "Come on, jump!"

“十分钟？”哈利声音嘶哑地说，“十——十分钟？”

"I can't," Harry panted, snatching at the Firebolt, and struggling not to sink. "Give it to me!"

他低头一看表。多比没有说错。现在已经九点二十了。顿时，似乎有一块沉重的大石头从哈利的胸腔落进了胃里。

But she just poked him painfully in the side with the end of the broomstick, laughing at him.

“快点儿，哈利·波特！”多比尖着嗓子说，一边拉着哈利的袖子，“你应该和其他勇士一起，到下面的湖边去，先生！”

"That hurts - get off- ouch -"

“太晚了，多比，”哈利绝望地说，“我不做这个项目了，我不知道怎么办——”

"Harry Potter must wake up, sir!"

“哈利·波特会做这个项目的！”小精灵尖声说，“多比知道哈利没有找到合适的书，所以多比就替他找到了！”

"Stop poking me -"

“什么？”哈利说，“但你不知道第二个项目是什么——”

"Dobby must poke Harry Potter, sir, he must wake up!"

“多比知道，先生！哈利·波特必须到湖里去，找到他的韦崽——”

Harry opened his eyes. He was still in the library; the Invisibility Cloak had slipped off his head as he'd slept, and the side of his face was stuck to the pages of Where There's a Wand, There's a Way. He sat up, straightening his glasses, blinking in the bright daylight.

“找到我的什么？”

"Harry Potter needs to hurry!" squeaked Dobby. "The second task starts in ten minutes,

“——把他的韦崽从人鱼手里夺回来！”

and Harry Potter -"

“韦崽是什么？”

"Ten minutes?" Harry croaked. "Ten - ten minutes?"

“你的韦崽，先生，你的韦崽，就是把自己的毛衣送给多比的那个韦崽。”

He looked down at his watch. Dobby was right. It was twenty past nine. A large, dead weight seemed to fall through Harry's chest into his stomach.

多比拉了拉他穿在短裤上面的那个缩小了的暗紫色红色毛衣。

"Hurry, Harry Potter!" squeaked Dobby, plucking at Harry's sleeve. "You is supposed to be down by the lake with the other champions, sir!"

“什么？”哈利喘着气说，“他们抓走了……他们抓走了罗恩？”

"It's too late, Dobby," Harry said hopelessly. "I'm not doing the task, I don't know how-"

“那是哈利·波特最心爱的东西，先生！”多比尖声说，“‘它不见了一小时——’”

"Harry Potter will do the task!" squeaked the elf. "Dobby knew Harry had not found the right book, so Dobby did it for him!"

“‘——便希望全无’，”哈利背诵着，一边惊恐地瞪着小精灵，“‘它已彻底消逝，永不出现。’多比——我怎么办呢？”

"What?" said Harry. "But you don't know what the second task is -"

“你必须把这个吃下去，先生！”小精灵尖声说着，把手伸进短裤口袋，掏出一团东西，像是无数根滑溜溜的、灰绿色的老鼠尾巴。“就在你下水前吃，先生——鳃囊草！”

"Dobby knows, sir! Harry Potter has to go into the lake and find his Wheezy -"

“做什么用的？”哈利盯着鳃囊草，问道。

"Find my what?"

“它可以使哈利·波特在水下呼吸，先生！”

"- and take his Wheezy back from the merpeople!"

“多比，”哈利欣喜若狂地说，“听着——你真的有把握吗？”

"What's a Wheezy?"

他无法完全忘记多比上次对他的“帮助”，结果害得他右胳膊的骨头全换去了。

"Your Wheezy, sir, your Wheezy-Wheezy who is giving Dobby his sweater!"

“多比绝对有把握，先生！”小精灵认真地说，“多比能听见一些事情，先生，多比是个家养小精灵，他生火和拖地板时，走遍了城堡的每个角落。多比听见麦格教授和穆迪教授在教工休息室里谈论下一个项目……多比不能让哈利·波特失去他的韦崽！”

Dobby plucked at the shrunken maroon sweater he was now wearing over his shorts.

哈利的疑虑一扫而光。他一跃而起，脱掉隐形衣，胡乱地塞进书包，又抓过鳃囊草装进口袋，然后大步走出图书馆，多比紧紧跟在后面。

"What?" Harry gasped. "They've got. . . they've got Ron?"

“多比应该到厨房去了，先生！”他们匆匆来到走廊里时，多比尖声说道，“他们会找多比的——祝你好运，哈利·波特。先生，祝你好运！”

"The thing Harry Potter will miss most, sir!" squeaked Dobby. "'But past an hour-'"

“再见，多比！”哈利喊道，然后飞快地冲过走廊，一步三级地奔下楼梯。

"- 'the prospect's black,'" Harry recited, staring, horror-struck, at the elf. " 'Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.' Dobby - what've I got to do?"

门厅里还剩下最后几个拖拖拉拉的人，他们都吃过了早饭，正在穿过两扇橡木大门，出去观看第二个项目。他们吃惊地望着哈利闪电般地跑过，他跳下石阶时，把科林和丹尼斯·克里维兄弟俩撞得飞了起来。他终于来到了外面阳光明媚的寒冷的场地上。

"You has to eat this, sir!" s queaked the elf, and he put his hand in the pocket of his shorts and drew out a ball of what looked like slimy, grayish-green rat tails. "Right before you go into the lake, sir - gillyweed!"

他顺着草坪往下跑时，看见去年十一月围着火龙场的那些座位，现在一层层地排在湖对岸，已经是座无虚席，并在下面的湖里映出倒影。哈利拼命绕过湖，朝裁判们跑去，他们坐在水边另外一张铺着金黄色桌布的桌子旁。塞德里克、芙蓉和克鲁姆站在裁判桌旁，望着哈利全速向他们奔来。

"What's it do?" said Harry, staring at the gillyweed.

“我……我来了……”哈利上气不接下气地说道，在泥地里一滑，停住了脚步，不小心把芙蓉的长袍溅脏了。

"It will make Harry Potter breathe underwater, sir!"

“你上哪儿儿去了？”一个盛气凌人的声音不满地说，“比赛项目马上就要开始了！”

"Dobby," said Harry frantically, "listen - are you sure about this?"

哈利转过头。珀西·韦斯莱坐在裁判桌旁——克劳奇先生又没能来。

He couldn't quite forget that the last time Dobby had tried to "help" him, he had ended up with no bones in his right arm.

“好了，好了，珀西！”卢多·巴格曼说。他看到哈利，似乎心中的一块石头落了地，“让他喘口气吧！”

"Dobby is quite sure, sir!" said the elf earnestly. "Dobby hears things, sir, he is a house-elf, he goes all over the castle as he lights the fires and mops the floors. Dobby heard Professor McGonagall and Professor Moody in the staffroom, talking about the next task. . . . Dobby cannot let Harry Potter lose his Wheezy!"

邓布利多朝哈利微笑着，但卡卡洛夫和马克西姆夫人却似乎很不高兴看见他……从他们脸上的表情看，他们显然以为他不会露面了。

Harrys doubts vanished. Jumping to his feet he pulled off the Invisibility Cloak, stuffed it into his bag, grabbed the gillyweed, and put it into his pocket, then tore out of the library with Dobby at his heels.

哈利弯下腰，用手扶着膝盖，大口地喘着气。他胸腹一侧突然剧痛难忍，就好像一把刀子插进了他有肋骨间，可是来不及缓解这种疼痛了。卢多·巴格曼已经来到勇士们中间，吩咐他们在岸边一字排开，每人间隔十英尺。哈利排在最后一个，紧挨着克鲁姆。克鲁姆穿着游泳裤，已经拿出魔杖，做好了准备。

"Dobby is supposed to be in the kitchens, sir!" Dobby squealed as they burst into the corridor. "Dobby will be missed - good luck, Harry Potter, sir, good luck!"

“怎么样，哈利？”巴格曼领着哈利又往前走了几步，避开克鲁姆，小声问道，“知道自己要做什么吗？”

"See you later, Dobby!" Harry shouted, and he sprinted along the corridor and down the stairs, three at a time.

“知道。”哈利喘着气说，一边按摩着肋骨。

The entrance hall contained a few last-minute stragglers, all leaving the Great Hall after breakfast and heading through the double oak doors to watch the second task. They stared as Harry flashed past, sending Colin and Dennis Creevey flying as he leapt down the stone steps and out onto the bright, chilly grounds.

巴格曼用力捏了一下哈利的肩膀，返身回到了裁判桌旁。他用魔杖指着自己的喉咙，就像在世界杯赛上那样，说了句：“声音洪亮！”于是他的声音就像雷鸣一样，掠过暗黑色的湖面传到看台上。

As he pounded down the lawn he saw that the seats that had encircled the dragons' enclosure in November were now ranged along the opposite bank, rising in stands that were packed to the bursting point and reflected in the lake below. The excited babble of the crowd echoed strangely across the water as Harry ran flat-out around the other side of the lake toward the judges, who were sitting at another gold-draped table at the water's edge. Cedric, Fleur, and Krum were beside the judges' table, watching Harry sprint toward them.

“大家听好，我们的勇士已经各就各位。我一吹口哨，第二个项目就开始。他们有整整一个小时的时间，夺回他们手里被抢走的东西。我数到三。一……二……三！”

"I'm . .. here ..." Harry panted, skidding to a halt in the mud and accidentally splattering Fleurs robes.

尖厉的口哨声在寒冷、静止的空气中回响。看台上爆发出一阵欢呼和掌声。哈利没有观望其他勇士在做什么，他只顾三下两下脱掉鞋袜，从口袋里掏出那一把鳃囊草，塞进嘴里，然后趟水走进湖里。

"Where have you been?" said a bossy, disapproving voice. "The task's about to start!"

真冷啊，他觉得双腿的皮肤火辣辣地疼，像着了火一样。他越往前走，湖水越深，湿透的长袍重重地往下坠着。现在湖水已经没过膝盖，两只迅速麻木的脚踩在泥沙和光溜溜、黏糊糊的石子上，不停地打滑。他飞快地使劲嚼着鳃囊草，那感觉不太好，韧韧的、滑腻腻的，像章鱼的触手。他在齐腰深的水里停住了脚步，把鳃囊草咽了下去，等待奇迹发生。

Harry looked around. Percy Weasley was sitting at the judges' table - Mr. Crouch had failed to turn up again.

他听见观众席上传来笑声，知道自己一定显得很蠢，就这样走进湖里，没有表现出任何魔法本领。下半身已经浸在寒冷刺骨的湖水里，一股凛冽的寒风毫不留情地吹动着他的头发，他剧烈地颤抖起来。他身体没有沾水的部分起满了鸡皮疙瘩，他故意不去看观众。笑声更响了，其中不夹杂着斯莱特林们嘘声尖叫和嘲笑……

"Now, now, Percy!" said Ludo Bagman, who was looking intensely relieved to see Harry.

接着，很突然地，哈利觉得似乎有一个看不见的枕头压住了他的嘴和鼻子。他一吸气，只觉得脑子里天旋地转。他肺里空空的，脖子两侧突然一阵刀割般的剧痛——

"Let him catch his breath!"

哈利赶紧用两手抓住喉咙，摸到耳朵下面有两道狭长的裂缝，在寒冷的空气里一开一合……他有鳃了！他没有犹豫，采取了惟一合理的举动——一头钻进了水里。

Dumbledore smiled at Harry, but Karkaroff and Madame Maxime didn't look at all pleased to see him. ... It was obvious from the looks on their faces that they had thought he wasn't going to turn up.

吸进第一口冰冷的湖水，就像获得了生命所需的氧气。他的脑袋不再天旋地转。他又使劲吸了一口湖水，感觉到水从他的鳃里顺畅的流过，把氧气输送进他的大脑。他把双手伸到面前，仔细打量着。它们在水下显得有些发绿，样子怪可怕的，而且手指间有蹼相连。他转过头看自己光裸的脚——脚变长了，脚趾间也有蹼相连，就好像他的脚突然变成了鸭蹼。

Harry bent over, hands on his knees, gasping for breath; he had a stitch in his side that felt as though he had a knife between his ribs, but there was no time to get rid of it; Ludo Bagman was now moving among the champions, spacing them along the bank at intervals of ten feet. Harry was on the very end of the line, next to Krum, who was wearing swimming trunks and was holding his wand ready.

水不再冰冷刺骨了……相反，他觉得很凉爽，很舒服，身体也变得非常轻盈……哈利继续向前划水，他惊喜地发现，那两只带蹼的脚能使他在水中前进得这么远，这么快。他还发现，似乎根本不需要眨眼睛他就可以看得清清楚楚了。很快，他就游出很远，再也看不见湖底了。他翻了一个身，朝湖底深处扎下去。

"All right. Harry?" Bagman whispered as he moved Harry a few feet farther away from Krum. "Know what you're going to do?"

他在一片黑乎乎、朦朦胧胧的奇异景色中游来游去，耳边一片寂静。他只能看见方圆十英尺内的情景，困此他在水里每划行一下，就有崭新的景色从前面的黑暗中突然浮现：波动、缠结的黑色水草构成的丛林，散落着闪闪发亮的小石子的宽阔平整的泥沙。他越游越深，朝着湖中央前进。他的眼睛睁得大大的，目光穿透灰亮的、诡谲的湖水，望着远处的黑影，那里的湖水是阴暗朦胧的。

"Yeah," Harry panted, massaging his ribs.

小鱼儿轻捷地游过他，像一支支银色的飞镖。有一两次，他仿佛看见了一个大家伙正在前面移动，但等游近了一看，才发现那不过是一根黑乎乎的大木头，或是一团茂密纠结的水草。看不见其他勇士、人鱼和罗恩——谢天谢地，也没有看见巨乌贼。

Bagman gave Harry's shoulder a quick squeeze and returned to the judges' table; he pointed his wand at his throat as he had done at the World Cup, said, "Sonorus!" and his voice boomed out across the dark water toward the stands.

他使劲往远处看，前面是一片碧绿的水草，有两英尺深，真像一片十分茂密的草坪。哈利两眼一眨不眨地望着前面，竭力辨认阴影中的形体……就在这时，没有一点儿防备，他的脚踝被什么东西一把抓住了。

"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle.

哈利扭动着转过身体，看见了一个格林迪洛——一个头上长角的水怪，从水草中探出身体，长长的指甲紧紧抓住哈利的腿，嘴里露出尖尖的长牙——哈利赶紧把带蹼的手伸进长袍，摸他的魔杖。可是他刚抓到魔杖，又有两个格林迪洛从水草里钻了出来，抓住哈利的长袍，拼命把他往下面拉。

They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One . . . two . . . three!"

“力松劲泄！”哈利喊道，可是并没有声音……一个大水泡从他嘴里冒了出来，他的魔杖没有朝格林迪洛喷出火花，而似乎用一道沸腾的水柱射向它们，只见它们身上被水柱击中的地方，绿色的皮肤顿时变得通红。哈利把脚从格林迪洛的纠缠中挣脱出来，奋力向前游去，不时又朝身后放出一些滚热的水柱。偶尔，他感到一个格林迪洛又抓住了他的脚，便用力地把它踢走。最后他觉得自己的脚碰到了一个带角的脑袋，低头一看，一个被踢昏了的格林迪洛两眼发直，顺水漂去，它的同伴朝哈利挥了挥拳头，隐到水草中去了。

The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air; the stands erupted with cheers and applause; without looking to see what the other champions were doing, Harry pulled off his shoes and socks, pulled the handful of gillyweed out of his pocket, stuffed it into his mouth, and waded out into the lake.

哈利放慢速度，把魔杖塞回长袍里，环顾着四周，仔细倾听着。他在水里转了三百六十度，只感到寂静压迫着他的耳膜。他知道自己一定在很深的湖底了，但是周围除了水草，没有任何活动的东西。

It was so cold he felt the skin on his legs searing as though this were fire, not icy water. His sodden robes weighed him down as he walked in deeper; now the water was over his knees, and his rapidly numbing feet were slipping over silt and flat, slimy stones.

“你的进展如何啊？”

He was chewing the gillyweed as hard and fast as he could; it felt unpleasantly slimy and rubbery, like octopus tentacles. Waist-deep in the freezing water he stopped, swallowed, and waited for something to happen.

哈利以为自己犯了心脏病。他猛地转过身，模模糊糊地看见哭泣的桃金娘正在他前面漂动，透过厚厚的、珍珠色的镜片望着他。

He could hear laughter in the crowd and knew he must look stupid, walking into the lake without showing any sign of magical power. The part of him that was still dry was covered in goose pimples; half immersed in the icy water, a cruel breeze lifting his hair, Harry started to shiver violently. He avoided looking at the stands; the laughter was becoming louder, and there were catcalls and jeering from the Slytherins. ...

“桃金娘！”哈利想喊——但是仍然发不出声音，嘴里只冒出一个很大的水泡。哭泣的桃金娘居然咯咯笑出了声。

Then, quite suddenly, Harry felt as though an invisible pillow had been pressed over his mouth and nose. He tried to draw breath, but it made his head spin; his lungs were empty, and he suddenly felt a piercing pain on either side of his neck -Harry clapped his hands around his throat and felt two large slits just below his ears, flapping in the cold air. . . . He had gills. Without pausing to think, he did the only thing that made sense - he flung himself forward into the water.

“你应该到那边去试试！”她指了指导，说道，“我不陪你去了……我不大喜欢他们，每次我一靠近，他们就过来追我……”

The first gulp of icy lake water felt like the breath of life. His head had stopped spinning; he took another great gulp of water and felt it pass smoothly through his gills, sending oxygen back to his brain. He stretched out his hands in front of him and stared at them. They looked green and ghostly under the water, and they had become webbed. He twisted around and looked at his bare feet - they had become elongated and the toes were webbed too:

哈利朝着她竖起两个大拇指表示感谢，然后又出发了，这次他注意游得高一些，远离那些水草，免得遭到格林迪洛的暗算。

It looked as though he had sprouted flippers.

他又游了至少二十分钟。现在水底是大片大片的黑色淤泥，湖水因为他的搅动泛起了黑乎乎的水涡。过了好久，他终于听见了人鱼那令人难忘的歌声。

The water didn't feel icy anymore either ... on the contrary, he felt pleasantly cool and very light. . . . Harry struck out once more, marveling at how far and fast his flipper-like feet propelled him through the vater, and noticing how clearly he could see, and how he no longer seemed to need to blink. He had soon swum so far into the lake that he could no longer see the bottom. He flipped over and dived into its depths.

只有一个钟头的时间，

Silence pressed upon his ears as he soared over a strange, dark, foggy landscape. He could only see ten feet around him, so that as he sped throuugh the water new scenes seemed to loom suddenly out of the incoming darkness: forests of rippling, tangled black weed, wide plains of mud littered with dull, glimmering stones. He swam deeper and deeper, out toward the middle of the lake, his eyes wide, staring through the eerily gray-lit water around him to the shadow beyond, where the water became opaque.

要寻找和夺回我们拿走的物件……

Small fish flickered past him like silver darts. Once or twice he thought he saw something larger moving ahead of him, but when he got nearer, he discovered it to be nothing but a large, blackened log, or a dense clump of weed. There was no sign of any of the other champions, merpeople, Ron - nor, thankfully, the giant squid.

哈利游得更快了，不一会儿，他看见前面浑浊的湖水里出现了一块大岩石，上面绘着许多人鱼，他们手里拿着长矛，正在追逐着一些看上去像是巨型乌贼的东西。哈利从岩石旁游过，追寻着人鱼的歌声。

Light green weed stretched ahead of him as far as he could see, two feet deep, like a meadow of very overgrown grass. Harry was staring unblinkingly ahead of him, trying to discern shapes through the gloom . . . and then, without warning, something grabbed hold of his ankle.

……别再拖延，时间已过去一半，以免你寻找的东西在这里腐烂……

Harry twisted his body around and saw a grindylow, a small, horned water demon, poking out of the weed, its long fingers clutched tightly around Harry's leg, its pointed fangs bared - Harry stuck his webbed hand quickly inside his robes and fumbled for his wand.

突然，四下里赫然出现了许多粗糙的石头蜗居，上面斑斑点点地沾着水藻。哈利看见那些黑乎乎的窗户里有一些面孔……这些面孔与级长洗澡间里那幅画上的人鱼完全不一样……

By the time he had grasped it, two more grindylows had risen out of the weed, had seized handfuls of Harry's robes, and were attempting to drag him down.

人鱼的皮肤呈铁灰色，墨绿色的头发长长的，蓬蓬乱乱。他们的眼睛是黄色的，残缺不全的牙齿也是黄色，脖子上戴着用粗绳子串起的卵石。哈利游过时，他们朝他不怀好意地笑着。有一两个为了看得更清楚些，还从洞穴里跑出来，手里拿着长矛，用粗壮有力的银色鱼尾拍击着湖水。

"Relashio!" Harry shouted, except that no sound came out. ... A large bubble issued from his mouth, and his wand, instead of sending sparks at the grindylows, pelted them with what seemed to be a jet of boiling water, for where it struck them, angry red patches appeared on their green skin. Harry pulled his ankle out of the grindylows grip and swam, as fast as he could, occasionally sending more jets of hot water over his shoulder at random; every now and then he felt one of the grindylows snatch at his foot again, and he kicked out, hard; finally, he felt his foot connect with a horned skull, and looking back, saw the dazed grindylow floating away, cross-eyed, while its fellows shook their fists at Harry and sank back into the weed.

哈利飞快地向前游去，一边环顾着四周，很快，石头蜗居越来越多了，有些蜗居周围还带着花园。他看见一扇门前拴着一个小格林洛迪。人鱼从四面八方涌现出来，都好奇地望着他，冲着他长蹼的手和鳃囊指指点点，并用手掩着嘴窃窃私语。哈利迅速转了个弯，眼前出现了一片十分奇特的景象。

Harry slowed down a little, slipped his wand back inside his robes, and looked around, listening again. He turned full circle in the water, the silence pressing harder than ever against his eardrums. He knew he must be even deeper in the lake now, but nothing was moving but the rippling weed.

那地方似乎是人鱼小村庄的广场，四周坐落着一些房子，房子前面漂浮着一大群人鱼。中间有一些人鱼在齐声歌唱，呼唤勇士过去。他们身后耸立着一座粗糙的雕像：一个用巨石雕刻成的大人鱼。在人鱼石像的尾巴上，牢牢地捆绑着四个人。

"How are you getting on?"

罗恩被拴在赫敏和秋·张之间。另外还有一个最多八岁的小姑娘，一头云雾般的银发使哈利确信她是芙蓉·德拉库尔的妹妹。他们四个看上去都睡得很沉，脑袋无力地耸拉在肩膀上，嘴里不停地冒出一串细细的水泡。

Harry thought he was having a heart attack. He whipped around and saw Moaning Myrtle floating hazily in front of him, gazing at him through her thick, pearly glasses.

哈利奋力朝人质游去。他以为人鱼为把长矛横过来朝他进攻，但他们并没有这样做。把人质拴在雕像上的绳子是水草编的，又粗又滑，非常结实。他脑海里闪过一个念头，想起了小天狼星圣诞节给他买的那把小刀——锁在一英里之外城堡中他的箱子里呢，完全派不上用场。

"Myrtle!" Harry tried to shout - but once again, nothing came out of his mouth but a very large bubble. Moaning Myrtle actually giggled.

他看了看旁边。人质周围的许多人鱼手里都拿着长矛。他飞快地朝一个长着绿色长胡子、戴着鲨鱼牙齿做的短项链的七英尺高的人鱼游去，比比划划地要求借它的长矛用一用。那人鱼哈哈大笑，摇了摇头。

"You want to try over there!" she said, pointing. "I won't come with you. ... I don't like them much, they always chase me when I get too close. ..."

“我们不能帮忙。”人鱼用沙哑低沉的声音说。

Harry gave her the thumbs-up to show his thanks and set off once more, careful to swim a bit higher over the weed to avoid any more grindylows that might be lurking there.

“拿过来！”哈利恶狠狠地说（但他嘴里只冒出一些水泡），一边使劲地想从人鱼手里夺过长矛，但人鱼把长矛拽了回去仍然摇着头，哈哈大笑。

He swam on for what felt like at least twenty minutes. He was passing over vast expanses of black mud now, which swirled murkily as he disturbed the water. Then, at long last, he heard a snatch of haunting mersong.

哈利在水里转了个身，朝四下张望。需要一个锋利的东西……什么都行……

"An hour long you'll have to look, And to recover what we took..."

湖底散落着一些岩石。他俯冲下去，抓起一块特别尖的，回到雕像旁边。他用石头拼命砍砸捆绑罗恩的绳子，几分钟后，绳子被砸断了。罗恩神志不清地浮在湖底上方几英寸的地方，随着水波漂来荡去。

Harry swam faster and soon saw a large rock emerge out of the muddy water ahead. It had paintings of merpeople on it; they were carrying spears and chasing what looked like the giant squid. Harry swam on past the rock, following the mersong.

哈利看看四周。不见其他勇士的影子。他们在磨蹭什么呢？为什么不抓紧一些？他回到赫敏身边，又举起尖石头，开始砍砸她身上的绳子——

". . . your time's half gone, so tarry not Lest what you seek stays here to rot. ..."

立刻，好几双粗壮的、灰色的手抓住了他。六七个人鱼把他从赫敏的身边拽开，他们摇着绿头发的脑袋，哈哈大笑。

A cluster of crude stone dwellings stained with algae loomed suddenly out of the gloom on all sides. Here and there at the dark windows, Harry saw faces . . . faces that bore no resemblance at all to the painting of the mermaid in the prefects' bathroom. . . .

“你只能带走你自己的人质，”其中一个对他说，“别管其他人……”

The merpeople had grayish skin and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow, as were their broken teeth, and they wore thick ropes of pebbles around their necks. They leered at Harry as he swam past; one or two of them emerged from their caves to watch him better, their powerful, silver fish tails beating the water, spears clutched in their hands.

“不行！”哈利气愤地说——但嘴里只冒出两个水气泡。

Harry sped on, staring around, and soon the dwellings became more numerous; there were gardens of weed around some of them, and he even saw a pet grindylow tied to a stake outside one door. Merpeople were emerging on all sides now, watching him eagerly, pointing at his webbed hands and gills, talking behind their hands to one another. Harry sped around a corner and a very strange sight met his eyes.

“你的项目是救出你自己的朋友……别管其他人……”

A whole crowd of merpeople was floating in front of the houses that lined what looked like a mer-version of a village square. A choir of merpeople was singing in the middle, calling the champions toward them, and behind them rose a crude sort of statue; a gigantic merperson hewn from a boulder. Four people were bound tightly to the tail of the stone merperson.

“她也是我的朋友！”哈利指着赫敏嚷道，一个银色的大气泡无声地从他嘴唇间冒了出来，“而且我也不希望她们死掉！”

Ron was tied between Hermione and Cho Chang. There was also a girl who looked no older than eight, whose clouds of silvery hair made Harry feel sure that she was Fleur

秋·张的脑袋靠在赫敏肩上，那个银色头发的小姑娘脸色发青，看上去毫无生气。哈利挣扎着想摆脱人鱼，但他们笑得更厉害了，又把他拉了回去。哈利绝望地看着四周。其他勇士都上哪儿去了？如果他把罗恩送到水面，再回来解救赫敏和其他人，还来得及吗？他还能找到她们吗？他低头看了看表，想知道还剩多少时间——表停了。

Delacour's sister. All four of them appeared to be in a very deep sleep. Their heads were lolling onto their shoulders, and fine streams of bubbles kept issuing from their mouths.

就在这时，他周围的人鱼突然兴奋地指着他的脑袋上方。哈利一抬头，看见塞德里克正朝他们游来。他脑袋周围有一个巨大的气泡，使他的五官看上去都被拉长加宽了，显得非常滑稽。

Harry sped toward the hostages, half expecting the merpeople to lower their spears and charge at him, but they did nothing. The ropes of weed tying the hostages to the statue were thick, slimy, and very strong. For a fleeting second he thought of the knife Sirius had bought him for Christmas - locked in his trunk in the castle a quarter of a mile away, no use to him whatsoever.

“迷路了！”他用口型说，神情十分紧张，“芙蓉和克鲁姆也快过来了！”

He looked around. Many of the merpeople surrounding them were carrying spears. He swam swiftly toward a seven-foot-tall merman with a long green beard and a choker of shark fangs and tried to mime a request to borrow the spear. The merman laughed and shook his head.

哈利觉得一块石头落了地，他看着塞德里克从口袋里掏出一把小刀，割断绳子，救出了秋·张。他拉着秋·张往上游去，很快就不见了。

"We do not help," he said in a harsh, croaky voice.

哈利环顾四周，等待着。怎么不见芙蓉和克鲁姆呢？时间不多了，根据那首歌里唱的，过了一小时，人质就永远找不回来了……

"Come ON!" Harry said fiercely (but only bubbles issued from his mouth), and he tried to pull the spear away from the merman, but the merman yanked it back, still shaking his head and laughing.

人鱼们突然欢快地尖叫起来。那些抓住哈利的人鱼松开了手，扭头向后张望着。哈利转过身，看见一个庞然大物正朝他们游来，下面是人的身体，穿着游泳裤，上面是鲨鱼的脑袋……是克鲁姆。看来他想给自己变形来着——可是不太成功。

Harry swirled around, staring about. Something sharp . . . anything . . .

半人半鲨的克鲁姆径直游向赫敏，对着她身上的绳子又扯又咬，问题是克鲁姆的新牙齿结构古怪，凡是比海豚小的东西，他咬起来都很别扭，而且哈利可以肯定克鲁姆的动作并不小心，他简直要把赫敏撕成两半了。哈利冲上前去，重重拍了一下克鲁姆的肩膀，举起那块尖石头。克鲁姆一把抓过去，开始砍砸赫敏身上的绳子。几秒钟后，他就成功了。他抓住赫敏的腰，没有再回头望一眼，就带着她迅速升向水面。

There were rocks littering the lake bottom. He dived and snatched up a particularly jagged one and returned to the statue. He began to hack at the ropes binding Ron, and after several minutes' hard work, they broke apart. Ron floated, unconscious, a few inches above the lake bottom, drifting a little in the ebb of the water.

现在怎么办呢？哈利焦急地想。只要他能确信芙蓉正在赶来……怎么还不见她的影子啊。没有别的办法，只有……

Harry looked around. There was no sign of any of the other champions. What were they playing at? Why didn't they hurry up? He turned back to Hermione, raised the jagged rock, and began to hack at her bindings too -At once, several pairs of strong gray hands seized him. Half a dozen mermen were pulling him away from Hermione, shaking their green-haired heads, and laughing.

他抓起克鲁姆扔下的那块石头，但是人鱼纷纷围拢在罗恩和小姑娘身边，对哈利拼命摇头。哈利拔出魔杖。

"You take your own hostage," one of them said to him. "Leave the others ..."

“闪开！”

"No way!" said Harry furiously - but only two large bubbles came out.

他嘴里冒出一串气泡，但他清楚地意识到人鱼们明白了他的意思，因为它们突然都不笑了，一双双黄眼睛盯着哈利的魔杖，显得很害怕的样子。他们人多势众，他孤身一人，但哈利从他们脸上的神情看出，他们和巨乌贼一样，对魔法一窍不通。

Your task is to retrieve your own friend . . . leave the others ..." She's my friend too!" Harry yelled, gesturing toward Hermione, an enormous silver bubble emerging soundlessly from his lips. "And I don't want them to die either!"

“我数到三！”哈利喊道。一大串气泡从他嘴里喷出，他竖起三个手指，确保他们明白他的意思。“一……”（他放下一个手指）“二……”（他又放下一个手指）——

Cho's head was on Hermiones shoulder; the small silver-haired girl was ghostly green and pale. Harry struggled to fight off the mermen, but they laughed harder than ever, holding him back. Harry looked wildly around. Where were the other champions? Would he have time to take Ron to the surface and come back down for Hermione and the others?

人鱼散开了。哈利冲上前去，开始砍砸把小姑娘捆在雕像上的绳子，终于，她也自由了。哈利拦腰抱起小姑娘，抓住罗恩长袍的领子，两脚一蹬，离开了水底。

Would he be able to find them again? He looked down at his watch to see how much time was left - it had stopped working.

他前进得真慢啊。他划动着带蹼的双手，却再也不能推动身体向前；他拼命地拍打带蹼的双脚，但罗恩和芙蓉的妹妹像两只装满土豆的口袋，拖着他往下沉……他眼睛望着上空，他知道自己一定还在很深的水下，水面望上去还是漆黑一片……

But then the merpeople around him pointed excitedly over his head. Harry looked up and saw Cedric swimming toward them. There was an enormous bubble around his head, which made his features look oddly wide and stretched.

人鱼和他一起游上来了。他看见他们轻快自如地在他周围游来游去，望着他在水里挣扎……是不是时间一到，他们就会把他拉回水底去？他们会不会吃人？哈利使出吃奶的力气游着，最后两条腿都发僵了，肩膀也因为罗恩和小姑娘的拖累而痛得要命……

"Got lost!" he mouthed, looking panic-stricken. "Fleur and Krum're coming now!"

他越来越喘不上气了。他又感觉到肚子两侧疼痛难忍……他开始非常清楚地意识到，他嘴里的湖水是多么潮湿、多么寒冷……不过沉甸甸的黑色已经越来越淡……他可以看见上面的天光了……

Feeling enormously relieved, Harry watched Cedric pull a knife out of his pocket and cut Cho free. He pulled her upward and out of sight.

他用带蹼的双脚奋力踢蹬，却发现它们又变成了普通的脚……他开始感到晕晕乎乎，但他知道日光和空气就在十英尺的上方……他一定要到达那里……一定……

Harry looked around, waiting. Where were Fleur and Krum? Time was getting short, and according to the song, the hostages would be lost after an hour. . . .

哈利踢蹬着双腿，速度那么快，用了那么大的力气，他的肌肉似乎都在尖叫着发出抗议了；他的脑袋里仿佛也浸满了水，他喘不上气来，他需要氧气，他必须前进，不能停止——

The merpeople started screeching animatedly. Those holding Harry loosened their grip, staring behind them. Harry turned and saw something monstrous cutting through the water toward them: a human body in swimming trunks with the head of a shark. ... It was Krum.

突然，他感到自己的头猛地露出水面，美妙、清新、凉爽的空气拂过他潮湿的脸庞，他感到隐隐作痛；他大口地吞咽着空气，觉得自己一辈子都没有好好呼吸过，他一边喘着气，一边拉着罗恩和小姑娘继续向前。在他周围，许多绿发蓬乱的脑袋和他一起冒出水面，但他们都对他善意地微笑着。

He appeared to have transfigured himself- but badly.

看台上人声鼎沸，又叫又嚷，一个个似乎全都站了起来。哈利猜想他们大概以为罗恩和小姑娘都死了，但是他们错了……罗恩和小姑娘双双睁开了眼睛。小姑娘看上去惊恐而迷茫，罗恩只是吐出一大口湖水，在明亮的光线下眨了几下眼睛，便转向哈利说：“全湿透了，是不是？”接着他看见了芙蓉的妹妹，“你把她也弄上来做什么？”

The shark-man swam straight to Hermione and began snapping and biting at her ropes; the trouble was that Krum's new teeth were positioned very awkwardly for biting anything smaller than a dolphin, and Harry was quite sure that if Krum wasn't careful, he was going to rip Hermione in half. Darting forward. Harry hit Krum hard on the shoulder and held up the jagged stone. Krum seized it and began to cut Hermione free. Within seconds, he had done it; he grabbed Hermione around the waist, and without a backward glance, began to rise rapidly with her toward the surface.

“芙蓉没有出现，我不能把她撇在下面。”哈利喘着气回答。

Now what? Harry thought desperately. If he could be sure that Fleur was coming. . . .

“哈利，你这个傻瓜，”罗恩说，“你该不会把那首歌当真了吧？邓布利多不会让我们哪一个人淹死的！”

But still no sign. There was nothing to be done except. . .

“那首歌里说——”

He snatched up the stone, which Krum had dropped, but the mermen now closed in around Ron and the little girl, shaking their heads at him. Harry pulled out his wand.

“那只是为了让你们在规定时间里回来！”罗恩说，“但愿你在下面没有因为逞英雄而耽误时间！”

"Get out of the way!"

哈利觉得又泄气又恼火。对罗恩来说这一切都没什么，他睡着了，他感觉不到在湖底下是多么阴森恐怖，周围都是拿着长矛的人鱼，一个个都像是杀人的老手。

Only bubbles flew out of his mouth, but he had the distinct impression that the mermen had understood him, because they suddenly stopped laughing. Their yellowish eyes were fixed upon Harry's wand, and they looked scared. There might be a lot more of them than there were of him, but Harry could tell, by the looks on their faces, that they knew no more magic than the giant squid did.

“好了，”哈利没好气地说，“帮我拉她一把，她大概不很会游泳。”

"You've got until three!" Harry shouted; a great stream of bubbles burst from him, but he held up three fingers to make sure they got the message. "One . . ." (he put down a finger) "two . . ." (he put down a second one) -They scattered. Harry darted forward and began to hack at the ropes binding the small girl to the statue, and at last she was free. He seized the little girl around the waist, grabbed the neck of Rons robes, and kicked off from the bottom.

他们拖着芙蓉的妹妹，趟水走向岸边。裁判们都站在那里望着，二十个人鱼像仪仗队一样陪伴着他们，嘴里还尖声尖气地唱着难听的歌。

It was very slow work. He could no longer use his webbed hands to propel himself forward; he worked his flippers furiously, but Ron and Fleur's sister were like potato-filled sacks dragging him back down. ... He fixed his eyes skyward, though he knew he must still be very deep, the water above him was so dark, . . .

哈利可以看见庞弗雷夫人大惊小怪地围着赫敏、克鲁姆、塞德里克和秋·张团团转，他们都裹着厚厚的毯子。哈利和罗恩游近岸边时，邓布利多和卢多·巴格曼微笑地望着他们，珀西脸色煞白，看上去年龄比平常小了好几岁，急不可耐地冲过来迎接他们。与此同时，马克西姆夫人正在使劲拉住芙蓉·德拉库尔。芙蓉完全歇斯底里了，拼命挣扎着要往水里扑。

Merpeople were rising with him. He could see them swirling around him with ease, watching him struggle through the water. .. . Would they pull him back down to the depths when the time was up? Did they perhaps eat humans? Harry's legs were seizing up with the effort to keep swimming; his shoulders were aching horribly with the effort of dragging Ron and the girl...

“加布丽！加布丽！她还活着吗？她受伤了吗？”

He was drawing breath with extreme difficulty. He could feel pain on the sides of his neck again ... he was becoming very aware of how wet the water was in his mouth .. . yet the darkness was definitely thinning now... he could see daylight above him.. ..

“她很好！”哈利想告诉她，但他太疲劳了，连话都说不出，更别说大声喊叫了。

He kicked hard with his flippers and discovered that they were nothing more than feet...water was flooding through his mouth into his lungs ... he was starting to feel dizzy, but he knew light and air were only ten feet above him ... he had to get there ...

珀西抓住罗恩，把他拽到岸上（“放开，珀西，我没事！”）；邓布利多和巴格曼把哈利拉了起来；芙蓉挣脱了马克西姆夫人的阻拦，一把搂住了妹妹。

he had to ...

“是格林洛迪……那些格林洛迪朝我进攻……哦，加布丽，我以为……我以为……”

Harry kicked his legs so hard and fast it felt as though his muscles were screaming in protest; his very brain felt waterlogged, he couldn't breathe, he needed oxygen, he had to keep going, he could not stop -And then he felt his head break the surface of the lake; wonderful, cold, clear air was making his wet face sting; he gulped it down, feeling as though he had never breathed properly before, and, panting, pulled Ron and the little girl up with him. All around him, wild, green-haired heads were emerging out of the water with him, but they were smiling at him.

“你们都到这儿来。”庞弗雷夫人说。她抓住哈利，把他拉到赫敏和其他人身边，用一条毯子严严实实地裹住他，他觉得自己仿佛穿上了束缚犯人和疯子的约束衣。庞弗雷夫人还把一种火辣辣的药剂强行灌进他的嘴里，顿时就有热气从他耳朵里冒了出来。

The crowd in the stands was making a great deal of noise; shouting and screaming, they all seemed to be on their feet; Harry had the impression they thought that Ron and the little girl might be dead, but they were wrong . . . both of them had opened their eyes; the girl looked scared and confused, but Ron merely expelled a great spout of water, blinked in the bright light, turned to Harry, and said, "Wet, this, isn't it?" Then he spotted Fleur's sister. "What did you bring her for?"

“哈利，干得好！”赫敏喊道，“你成功了，你完全是自己解决的！”

"Fleur didn't turn up, I couldn't leave her," Harry panted.

“其实——”哈利说。他刚想跟她说说多比的事，但一转眼看见卡卡洛夫正注视着自己。几个裁判中，惟有他没有离开桌子，也惟有他看见哈利、罗恩和芙蓉的妹妹平安回来后，没有露出喜悦和宽慰的表情。“是啊，没错。”哈利改口说，并故意提高一点儿声音，让卡卡洛夫听见。

"Harry, you prat," said Ron, "you didn't take that song thing seriously, did you?

“你的头发里有一只水甲虫，赫－米－恩。”克鲁姆说。哈利感到克鲁姆是想把赫敏的注意力吸引到他自己身上。也许是为了提醒赫敏刚才是他把她从湖底救上来的。但是赫敏不耐烦地拂去水甲虫，说道：“可是，哈利，你超过时间了……你花了很长时间才找到我们吗？”

Dumbledore wouldn't have let any of us drown!"

“没有……我找到你们并不算晚……”

"The song said -"

哈利越来越觉得自己真是傻透了。现在他离开了水面，便完全清楚邓布利多肯定布置了有效的安全防御措施，不会允许人质因为勇士没有露面而丧失的，这是明摆着的事呀。他为什么不能抓起罗恩就走呢？他完全可以第一个回来的……塞德里克和克鲁姆就没有浪费时间替别人操心，他们没有把人鱼的歌声当真……

"It was only to make sure you got back inside the time limit!" said Ron. "I hope you didn't waste time down there acting the hero!"

邓布利多蹲在水边，正在和那个首领模样的特别粗野、凶狠的雌人鱼密切交谈。邓布利多发出人鱼在水面上发出的那种尖利刺耳的声音，显然，他也会说人鱼的话。最后，他站直身子转向其他裁判，说道：“先开个碰头会再打分吧。”

Harry felt both stupid and annoyed. It was all very well for Ron; he'd been asleep, he hadn't felt how eerie it was down in the lake, surrounded by spear-carrying merpeople who'd looked more than capable of murder.

几个裁判聚在一起。庞弗雷夫人从珀西紧紧拽着的手里拉出罗恩，把他领到哈利和其他人身边，给了他一条毯子和一些提神药剂，然后又过去领来芙蓉和她的妹妹。芙蓉的脸上和胳膊上都是左一道右一道的伤痕，袍子也撕破了，但她似乎毫不介意，也不让庞弗雷夫人替她清理干净。

"C'mon," Harry said shortly, "help me with her, I don't think she can swim very well."

“去照料加布丽吧，”她对庞弗雷夫人说，接着转向哈利，“你救了她，”她激动得几乎喘不上气，“尽管她不是你的人质。”

They pulled Fleur's sister through the water, back toward the bank where the judges stood watching, twenty merpeople accompanying them like a guard of honor, singing their horrible screechy songs.

“是啊。”哈利说。他现在真希望自己当时别管这三个姑娘，就让她们拴在石雕像上好了。

Harry could see Madam Pomfrey fussing over Hermione, Krum, Cedric, and Cho, all of whom were wrapped in thick blankets.

芙蓉低下头，在哈利的每边面颊上亲了两口（哈利觉得脸上像着了火似的，如果他耳朵里再冒出热气，他一点儿也不会感到奇怪），然后又对罗恩说，“还有你——你也帮了忙——”

Dumbledore and Ludo Bagman stood beaming at Harry and Ron from the bank as they swam nearer, but Percy, who looked very white and somehow much younger than usual, came splashing out to meet them. Meanwhile Madame Maxime was trying to restrain Fleur Delacour, who was quite hysterical, fighting tooth and nail to return to the water.

“是啊。”罗恩说，一副满怀期望的样子，“是啊，帮了一点儿忙——”

"Gabrielle! Gabrielle! Is she alive? Is she 'urt?"

芙蓉扑过来，也亲了他几口。赫敏看上去气得要命，但就在这时，卢多·巴格曼那被魔法放大的声音在他们耳边突然响起，把他们吓了一跳，也使看台上的观众顿时安静下来。

"She's fine!" Harry tried to tell her, but he was so exhausted he could hardly talk, let alone shout.

“女士们，先生们，我们终于做出了决定。人鱼首领默库斯把湖底下发生的一切原原本本地告诉了我们，我们决定在满分为五十分的基础上，给各位勇士打分如下……”

Percy seized Ron and was dragging him back to the bank ("Gerroff, Percy, I'm all right!"); Dumbledore and Bagman were pulling Harry upright; Fleur had broken free of Madame Maxime and was hugging her sister.

“芙蓉·德拉库尔尽管表现出了对泡头咒的出色运用，但在接近目标时遭到格林洛迪的攻击，未能成功解救人质。我们给她25分。”

"It was ze grindylows . . . zey attacked me ... oh Gabrielle, I thought... I thought.. ."

看台上传来一片掌声。

"Come here, you," said Madam Pomfrey. She seized Harry and pulled him over to Hermione and the others, wrapped him so tightly in a blanket that he felt as though he were in a straitjacket, and forced a measure of very hot potion down his throat. Steam gushed out of his ears.

“我应该得零分的。”芙蓉摇了摇她优美的头，声音沙哑地说。

"Harry, well done!" Hermione cried. "You did it, you found out how all by yourself!"

“塞德里克·迪戈里也采用了泡头咒，他是第一个带着人质返回的，但他在一小时规定时间外超出了一分钟。”人群中赫奇帕奇的学生们热烈欢呼，声音震耳欲聋。哈利看见秋·张用火辣辣的目光望了塞德里克一眼。“因此，我们给他47分。”

"Well -" said Harry. He would have told her about Dobby, but he had just noticed Karkaroff watching him. He was the only judge who had not left the table; the only judge not showing signs of pleasure and relief that Harry, Ron, and Fleur's sister had got back safely. "Yeah, that's right," said Harry, raising his voice slightly so that Karkaroff could hear him.

哈利的心往下一沉。如果塞德里克都超过了规定时间，他肯定也超时了。

"You haff a water beetle in your hair, Herm-own-ninny," said Krum. Harry had the impression that Krum was drawing her attention back onto himself; perhaps to remind her that he had just rescued her from the lake, but Hermione brushed away the beetle impatiently and said, "You're well outside the time limit, though, Harry. . . . Did it take you ages to find us?"

“威克多尔·克鲁姆运用了变形术，虽不完整，但仍然有效，他是第二个带着人质返回的。我们给他40分。”

"No ... I found you okay...."

卡卡洛夫巴掌拍得格外起劲，一副得意洋洋的样子。

Harry's feeling of stupidity was growing. Now he was out of the water, it seemed perfectly clear that Dumbledores safety precautions wouldn't have permitted the death of a hostage just because their champion hadn't turned up. Why hadn't he just grabbed Ron and gone? He would have been first back.... Cedric and Krum hadn't wasted time worrying about anyone else; they hadn't taken the mersong seriously. ...

“哈利·波特用了鳃囊草，取得了惊人的效果。”巴格曼继续说道，“他最后一个返回，远远超过了一小时规定时间。然而，人鱼女首领告诉我们，波特先生是第一个找到人质的，他没能及时返回，是因为他要确保所有的人质都安全返回，而不是只关心他自己的人质。”

Dumbledore was crouching at the water's edge, deep in conversation with what seemed to be the chief merperson, a particularly wild and ferocious-looking female. He was making the same sort of screechy noises that the merpeople made when they were above water; clearly, Dumbledore could speak Mermish. Finally he straightened up, turned to his fellow judges, and said, "A conference before we give the marks, I think."

罗恩和赫敏都半是遗憾半是同情地望了哈利一眼。

The judges went into a huddle. Madam Pomfrey had gone to rescue Ron from Percy's clutches; she led him over to Harry and the others, gave him a blanket and some Pepperup Potion, then went to fetch Fleur and her sister. Fleur had many cuts on her face and arms and her robes were torn, but she didn't seem to care, nor would she allow Madam Pomfrey to clean them.

“大多数裁判，”说到这里，巴格曼非常不满地扫了卡卡洛夫一眼，“觉得这充分体现了高尚的道德风范。然而……波特先生的分数是45分。”

"Look after Gabrielle," she told her, and then she turned to Harry. "You saved 'er," she said breathlessly. "Even though she was not your 'ostage."

哈利的心欢跳起来——他第一次与塞德里克打了个平手。罗恩和赫敏惊讶极了，呆呆地望着哈利，然后开心地哈哈大笑，和其他观众一起拼命鼓起掌来。

"Yeah," said Harry, who was now heartily wishing he'd left all three girls tied to the statue.

“真有你的，哈利！”罗恩在喧哗声中扯着嗓子喊道，“原来你不是犯傻啊——你是在表现道德风范！”

Fleur bent down, kissed Harry twice on each cheek (he felt his face burn and wouldn't have been surprised if steam was coming out of his ears again), then said to Ron, "And you too-you 'elped -"

芙蓉也在用力拍着巴掌，但是克鲁姆显得很不高兴。他又想跟赫敏搭话，但她只顾为哈利欢呼喝彩，根本不理睬他。

"Yeah," said Ron, looking extremely hopeful, "yeah, a bit -"

“第三个——也就是最后一个项目将在6月24日傍晚进行，”巴格曼继续说道，“勇士们将提前一个月得知项目的具体内容。感谢大家对勇士们的支持。”

Fleur swooped down on him too and kissed him. Hermione looked simply furious, but just then, Ludo Bagman's magically magnified voice boomed out beside them, making them all jump, and causing the crowd in the stands to go very quiet.

结束了，哈利迷迷糊糊地想，这时庞弗雷夫人开始护送勇士和人质们返回城堡，去换干爽的衣服……结束了，他通过了……他什么也不用操心了，直到6月24日……

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision. Merchieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows. . . .

哈利踏上进入城堡的石阶时，心里想道，下次再去霍格莫德村，一定要给多比买一大堆袜子，让他一年到头每天都能穿上一双新袜子。

"Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, was attacked by grindylows as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage.

We award her twenty-five points."

Applause from the stands.

"I deserved zero," said Fleur throatily, shaking her magnificent head.

"Cedric Diggory, who also used the Bubble-Head Charm, was first to return with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour." Enormous cheers from the Hufflepuffs in the crowd; Harry saw Cho give Cedric a glowing look. "We therefore award him forty-seven points."

Harrys heart sank. If Cedric had been outside the time limit, he most certainly had been.

"Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was second to return with his hostage. We award him forty points."

Karkaroff clapped particularly hard, looking very superior.

"Harry Potter used gillyweed to great effect," Bagman continued. "He returned last, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Merchieftainess informs us that Mr.

Potter was first to reach the hostages, and that the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own."

Ron and Hermione both gave Harry half-exasperated, half-commiserating looks.

"Most of the judges," and here, Bagman gave Karkaroff a very nasty look, "feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However . . . Mr. Potter's score is forty-five points."

Harry's stomach leapt - he was now tying for first place with Cedric. Ron and Hermione, caught by surprise, stared at Harry, then laughed and started applauding hard with the rest of the crowd.

"There you go. Harry!" Ron shouted over the noise. "You weren't being thick after all -you were showing moral fiber!"

Fleur was clapping very hard too, but Krum didn't look happy at all. He attempted to engage Hermione in conversation again, but she was too busy cheering Harry to listen.

"The third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June,"

continued Bagman. "The champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions."

It was over. Harry thought dazedly, as Madam Pomfrey began herding the champions and hostages back to the castle to get into dry clothes ... it was over, he had got through ... he didn't have to worry about anything now until June the twenty-fourth. . ..

Next time he was in Hogsmeade, Harry decided as he walked back up the stone steps into the castle, he was going to buy Dobby a pair of socks for every day of the year.