Harry watched the girl and her mother disappear as the train rounded the corner. Houses flashed past the window. Harry felt a great leap of excitement. He didn't know what he was going to but it had to be better than what he was leaving behind.
The door of the compartment slid open and the youngest redheaded boy came in.
"Anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry. "Everywhere else is full."
Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at Harry and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked. Harry saw he still had a black mark on his nose.
"Hey, Ron."
The twins were back.
"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train -- Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."
"Right," mumbled Ron.
"Harry," said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then.
"Bye," said Harry and Ron. The twins slid the compartment door shut behind them.
"Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out.
Harry nodded.
"Oh -well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes," said Ron. "And have you really got -- you know..."
He pointed at Harry's forehead.
Harry pulled back his bangs to show the lightning scar. Ron stared.
"So that's where You-Know-Who
"Yes," said Harry, "but I can't remember it."
"Nothing?" said Ron eagerly.
"Well -- I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else."
"Wow," said Ron. He sat and stared at Harry for a few moments, then, as though he had suddenly realized what he was doing, he looked quickly out of the window again.
"Are all your family wizards?" asked Harry, who found Ron just as interesting as Ron found him.
"Er -- Yes, I think so," said Ron. "I think Mom's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."
"So you must know loads of magic already."
The Weasleys were clearly one of those old wizarding families the pale boy in Diagon Alley had talked about.
"I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like?"
"Horrible -well, not all of them. My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers."
"Five," said Ron. For some reason, he was looking gloomy. "I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left -- Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat."
Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat gray rat, which was asleep.
"His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff -- I mean, I got Scabbers instead."
Ron's ears went pink. He seemed to think he'd said too much, because he went back to staring out of the window.
Harry didn't think there was anything wrong with not being able to afford an owl. After all, he'd never had any money in his life until a month ago, and he told Ron so, all about having to wear Dudley's old clothes and never getting proper birthday presents. This seemed to cheer Ron up.
"... and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about be ing a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort"
Ron gasped.
"What?" said Harry.
"You said You-Know-Who's name!" said Ron, sounding both shocked and impressed. "I'd have thought you, of all people --"
"I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name," said Harry, I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn.... I bet," he added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying him a lot lately, "I bet I'm the worst in the class."
"You won't be. There's loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quick enough."
哈利看到那幾個孩子的母親在向他們揮手告別,而他們的妹妹,眼淚漣漣的臉上帶著歡笑,飛跑著想跟上正在加速的列車,直到跟不上了,但她仍一個勁地揮手告別。
當列車轉彎時,哈利清晰地看到那位母親和妹妹臉上失望的表情。鐵道兩旁的一排排房子從車窗外飛快地閃過,這令哈利感到無比興奮。他并不知道接下來會遇到些什么,但他明白未來一定會比過去更美好。
最年幼的那個紅發(fā)男孩推開哈利的包廂門,走了進來。
"這兒有人嗎?"他指著哈利對面的座位說,"其他地方都坐滿了人。"哈利搖了搖頭。那孩子于是便坐了下來。他瞥了哈利一眼,然后又迅速將目光移至車窗外,裝出一副若無其事的樣子。哈利看到了他鼻子上仍有一塊黑斑。
"嘿,羅恩。"
那對孿生兄弟回來了。
"告訴你,我們現(xiàn)在就到火車中部去——那兒的李。喬丹有一只大毒蜘蛛。""嗯,是的。"羅恩嘟噥道。
"哈利,我們做個自我介紹好嗎?我是弗來德。威斯里,他是喬治。威斯里,這是羅思,我們的弟弟。我們待會兒見。"哈利與羅恩和他們道別之后,孿生兄弟倆關上車廂門回去了。
"你真的是哈利·波特嗎?"羅恩不加思索地問道。
哈利點點頭。
"噢,真是這樣。我開始還以為是弗來德和喬治跟我開玩笑呢。"羅恩說,"你真的有那個……"說著,用手指住哈利的前額。
哈利撥開遮住前額的發(fā)梢,露出額頭中央那閃電狀的疤痕。羅恩目不轉睛地看著。
"這就是'那個人'留給你的標志了吧?"
"沒錯,但我已經忘記了害怕的……?"
"什么都忘記了嗎?"羅恩急切地問。
"嗯……我只記得見到幾縷綠光,其他的就都忘了。""嘩!"羅恩驚嘆道。他坐著打量哈利好一會兒,忽然間,他似乎意識到了自己剛才在做什么,便又急忙轉身望著窗外。
"你們全家都是魔法師嗎?"哈利充滿好奇地問,因為他發(fā)現(xiàn)羅恩也同樣有趣。
"嗯,我想是吧。"羅恩說,"媽好像有個當會計的表哥,但他從來就不是我們談論的話題。""那你們一定很了解魔法吧。"
威斯里家族明顯是戴阿官道那個顏色蒼白的孩子所說的那些魔法世家之一。
"我聽說你曾和馬格人一起住過,"羅恩說,"他們長什么樣?""難看極了。但也不是全都難看嘍。我姨媽、姨文還有表弟卻挺難看的。真希望我也有三個懂魔法的兄弟啊。""我有五個,"不知為什么,羅恩看起來有些悲傷,"我是家里第六個到霍格瓦徹去的。你也許會說我有許多榜樣和奮斗的目標,生活也有保障,比爾和查理都已經畢業(yè)了——比爾是班長,查理則是飛行隊的隊長。如今伯希也是個班長了,弗來德和喬治雖然喜歡胡鬧,但他們成績都很好,而且人人都覺得他們確實很有喜劇天分。每個人都期盼著我能做得和哥哥們一樣好,即使我能做到,人們也覺得這是理所當然,因為我的哥哥們已經做到了。假如你有五個哥哥,你就不會得到新的玩意兒。比爾的舊袍子,查理的破魔棒和伯希的臭老鼠現(xiàn)在都變成我的了。"羅恩從夾克衣里掏出一只胖乎乎的,睡著了的灰鼠。
"它叫斯卡伯斯,一天到晚就是睡,真是個沒用的廢物。伯希因為當上了班長而從爸爸那兒得到一只貓頭鷹作為獎勵,我買不起……我是說我只有斯卡伯斯。"羅恩耳尖發(fā)紅,也許是因為覺得自己說多了,他又呆望著窗外。
哈利覺得養(yǎng)不起貓頭鷹也算不上是一種罪過。畢竟,一個月之前他仍是不名一文。他把過去那些諸如被迫要穿達德里的破衣服及從未收過一件像樣的生日禮物這樣的傷心往事都告訴了羅恩。這似乎讓羅恩的心情好轉了一些。
"直到哈格力告訴我有關成為魔法師的事、我父母的情況以及福爾得摩特,我才知道這些。"羅恩屏住了呼吸。
"怎么了?"哈利問。
"你說出了'那個人'的名字!"羅恩又驚又喜,"我覺得你是所有人中最——""說出他的名字并不是為了顯示我很勇敢或者別的什么,"哈利說,"明白我的意思嗎?我覺得自己還有很多東西要學。"話中略帶憂慮,"我猜我可能會是班里成績最差的。""不會的,那兒有很多馬格人,他們都很棒喲。"