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The Vanishing Glass
第二章：消失的玻璃(3452words)第三部分 （1103words）
After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls.
吃过午饭，他们来到爬虫馆。馆里阴冷、晦暗，沿四面墙都是明亮的玻璃窗。
Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone.
隔着玻璃只见各色蜥蜴和蛇在木块或石块上爬来爬去，溜溜达达。
Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons.
达力和皮尔想看看剧毒的大眼镜蛇和攻击性很强的巨蟒。
Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon’s car and crushed it into a trash can — but at the moment it didn’t look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.
达力很快就找到了馆里最大的一条巨蟒。它能用身体缠绕弗农姨父的汽车两圈，然后把车挤压成一堆废铁……不过这时看来它并没有这种心思，它睡得正香呢。
Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.
达力用鼻子紧贴着玻璃，盯着这盘亮闪闪的棕色巨蟒。
“Make it move,” he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn’t budge.
“让它动呀。”达力哼哼唧唧地央求他父亲。弗农姨父敲了敲玻璃，三蟒却纹丝不动。
“Do it again,” Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.
“再敲一遍。”达力命令说。弗农姨父用指节狠狠地敲玻璃，可大蟒继续打盹。
“This is boring,” Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.
“真烦人。”达力抱怨了一句，拖着脚慢慢吞吞地走开了。
Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn’t have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself — no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long.
哈利在巨蟒待的大柜子前边挪动着脚步，仔细打量着这条巨蟒。如果它怏怏不乐最终在这里死去，哈利不会觉得奇怪。因为它没有伙伴只有一些愚蠢的家伙整天用手指敲玻璃想把它弄醒。
It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.
这比拿储物问当卧室更糟糕，尽管每天来光顾他的只有佩妮姨妈，捶门要他起床，可至少他还能在整栋房子里到处走走。
The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry’s.
巨蟒突然睁开亮晶晶的小眼睛，慢慢地、慢慢地抬起头，直到与哈利的眼睛一般高。
It winked.
它眨了眨眼。
Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren’t. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.
哈利大为惊骇。他立刻飞快地四下里扫了一眼，看是否有人在注意他们。没有人注意。他回过头看着巨蟒，也对它眨了眨眼。
The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly:
“I get that all the time.”
巨蟒猛地把头转向弗农姨父和达力那边，然后又抬眼看着天花板。它的眼神显然在对哈利说：“我总是碰到像他们这样的人。”
“I know,” Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn’t sure the snake could hear him. “It must be really annoying.”
The snake nodded vigorously.
“我知道。”哈利隔着玻璃小声说，尽管他不能肯定巨蟒能否听到他说话，“那一定让你很烦。”
巨蟒用力点点头。
“Where do you come from, anyway?” Harry asked.
The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.
Boa Constrictor, Brazil.
“Was it nice there?”
“那么，你是从哪里来的？”哈利问。
巨蟒甩着尾巴猛地拍了下玻璃窗上的小牌子。哈利仔细看了一下。
蟒蛇，巴西。
“那边不错吧？”
The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. “Oh, I see — so you’ve never been to Brazil?”
巨蟒又甩着尾巴猛地拍了一下那块牌子，哈利继续读道：这是本动物园內繁殖的样品。
“哦，我明白了——这么说你从来没有去过巴西？”
As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. “DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT IT’S DOING!”
巨蟒正在摇头回答，哈利背后突然传来震耳欲聋的喊叫，哈利和巨蟒都吓了一跳。“达力！德思礼先生！快来看这条蛇！你们绝不会相信它在做什么！”
Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.
达力摇摇摆摆地赶紧朝他们走过来。
“Out of the way, you,” he said, punching Harry in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor.
“别挡道。”他说，朝哈利胸口就是一拳。哈利大吃一惊，重重地摔在水泥地上。
What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened — one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.
随后发生的事来得太突然，谁也说不清是怎么回事。只见皮尔和达力—下子贴在玻璃上，马上又惊恐万状，大喊大叫，连蹦带跳往后退去。
Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor’s tank had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.
哈利坐了起来，大口喘气；蟒蛇柜前的玻璃不见了。巨蟒迅速地伸展开盘着的身体，溜到地板上——整个爬虫馆的人都尖叫着向出口跑去。
As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, “Brazil, here I come. … Thanksss, amigo.”
当巨蟒溜过哈利身旁时，哈利清清楚楚地听到一个咝咝的声音轻轻地说：“巴西，我来了……多谢，我的朋友。”
The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.
“But the glass,” he kept saying, “where did the glass go?”
爬虫馆的管理员深感震惊。
“可这玻璃，”他不停地叨叨，“这玻璃到哪里去了？”
The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber.
动物园园长再三道歉，并亲自给佩妮姨妈泡了一杯加糖的浓茶。皮尔和达力只在一旁东拉西扯。
As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn’t done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon’s car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death.
其实就哈利所看到的，除了巨蟒从他们身边溜过时，跟他们闹着玩，拍打了一下他们的脚后跟，别的什么也没有-。可当他们坐上弗农姨父的汽车后，达力说他的腿如何如何差一点儿被巨蟒咬断，皮尔则赌咒说这条巨蟒想把他缠死。
But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, “Harry was talking to it, weren’t you, Harry?”
而且，最糟糕的是当皮尔镇静下来以后，他突然说：“哈利还跟它说话呢，是不是，哈利？”
Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, “Go — cupboard — stay — no meals,” before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.
弗农姨父一直等到皮尔安全离开他们家之后才开始跟哈利算账。他气得几乎连话都说不出来。他勉强说了一句：“去——储物间——待着一不准晚饭。”就倒在扶手椅上了，佩妮姨妈连忙跑去给他端来一大杯白兰地。
Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn’t know what time it was and he couldn’t be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn’t risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.
哈利在黑洞洞的储物间里躺了好久，一直盼望能有一块手表。他不知道现在是几点钟，而且也不能肯定德思礼一家是不是睡了。等他们睡了，他就可以冒险偷偷溜到厨房去找点东西吃。
He’d lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he’d been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash.
他还是个婴儿时，他的父母死于车祸。他记得，从那时起到现在，他已经在弗农姨父家生活近十年了，那是十年苦难的生活。
He couldn’t remember being in the car when his parents had died. Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead.
他已经不记得父母身亡时，他自己也在车上。他有时躺在储物间里长时间拼命回忆，然后就会出现一种奇妙的幻象：一道耀眼的闪电般的绿光，前额上一阵火辣辣的疼痛。
This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn’t imagine where all the green light came from. He couldn’t remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.
他猜想，这就是那场车祸，但他不知道那道绿光是从哪里来的。他一点也不记得他的父母了。姨父姨妈从来不提他们，当然，也不准他问。家里也没有他们的照片。
When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were his only family.
哈利年纪还小的时候经常做梦，梦见某一位亲戚突然来把他接走，可是他的梦从来没有实现过。德思礼一家是他唯一的亲戚。
Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too.
可有时候他得（也许是盼望）街上的陌生人似乎认识他。而且，他们都是一些非常奇怪的陌生人。
A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley.
一次他跟佩妮姨妈和达力上街买东西，就有一个戴紫兰色大礼帽的小个子男人向他鞠躬行礼。
After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything.
佩妮姨妈怒冲冲地追问哈利认识那人，之后就把他和达力赶出了商店，什么东西也没有买。
A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus.
另一次在公共汽车上，一个放荡不羁、穿一身绿衣服的老太婆笑眯眯地招手。
A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word.
还有一次，一个穿紫色拖地长大衣的秃头男子在大街上竟然跟他握手，之后一句话没说就走开了。
The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.
而最令人感到不可思议的是，当哈利想更仔细地看他们的时候，他们便消失得无影无踪了。
At school, Harry had no one.
学校里，哈利没有一个朋友。
Everybody knew that Dudley’s gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley’s gang.
大家都知道，达力一伙最恨的就是松松垮垮的旧衣服、戴一副破碎眼镜的怪人哈利·波特。谁也不愿意去跟达力一伙作对。
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