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Chapter 1 Owl Post
第一章 猫头鹰邮递
Harry Potter was a highly unusual boy in many ways.
就许多方面来说，哈利·波特是个不同寻常的男孩。
For one thing, he hated the summer holidays more than any other time of year.
比如说，他在一年中最恨的就是暑假。
For another, he really wanted to do his homework, but was forced to do it in secret, in the dead of night.
再比如说，他倒是真心想做他的家庭作业，但他却被迫偷偷地、总是在深夜才做。
And he also happened to be a wizard.
而且，他碰巧是个男巫。
It was nearly midnight, and he was lying on his front in bed, the blankets drawn right over his head like a tent,
现在差不多已经是半夜了，他正趴在床上，被单像帐篷一样罩在脑袋上。
a torch in one hand and a large leather-bound book (A History of Magic, by Bathilda Bagshot) propped open against the pillow.
他一手拿着电筒，靠在枕头上，打开了一本皮面书——巴希达巴沙特所著的《魔法史》。
Harry moved the tip of his eagle-feather quill down the page, frowning as he looked for something that would help him write his essay,
哈利皱着眉头，在书页上从上而下地移动着那支羽毛笔的笔尖，他正在寻找能帮助他写论文的材料，
'Witch-Burning in the Fourteenth Century Was Completely Pointless—discuss'.
论文题目是《十四世纪焚烧女巫的做法是完全没有意义的——讨论稿》。
The quill paused at the top of a likely-looking paragraph.
羽毛笔停留在一段似乎会有用的文字开头。
Harry pushed his round glasses up his nose, moved his torch closer to the book and read:
哈利把鼻梁上的圆形眼镜向上推了推，又让电筒发出的光更靠近那本书。他读道：
Non-magic people (more commonly known as Muggles) were particularly afraid of magic in medieval times, but not very good at recognising it.
在中世纪的时候，非魔法界人士（更普遍的叫法是“麻瓜”）是特别害怕魔法的，但是他们并不善于识别魔法。
On the rare occasion that they did catch a real witch or wizard, burning had no effect whatsoever.
他们偶尔真地抓到男巫或女巫，但在这种时候，焚烧并没有收到什么效果。
