UNCLE VERNON: We've raised you since you were a baby, give you the food off our table, even let you have Dudley's second bedroom purely¹ out of the goodness of our hearts.

AUNT PETUNIA²: Not now, pop kin³. That's for when the Masons arrive.

UNCLE VERNON: Which should be any minute. Now. Let's go over our schedule once again, shall we? Petunia, when the Masons arrive, you will be -

AUNT PETUNIA: In the lounge, waiting to welcome them graciously to our home.

UNCLE VERNON: Good. And Dudley, you will be-

DUDLEY: I'll be waiting to open the door.

UNCLE VERNON: Excellent. And you?

HARRY⁴: I'll be in my bedroom, making no noise and pretending that I don't exist.

UNCLE VERNON: Too right you will. With any luck, this could well be the day I make the biggest deal of my career. And you will not mess it up.

DOBBY: Harry Potter! Such an honor it is!

HARRY: Who are you?

DOBBY: Dobby, sir. Dobby the house-elf.

HARRY: Not to be rude or anything, but this isn't a great time for me to have a house-elf in my bedroom.

DOBBY: Oh, yes, sir, Dobby understands. It's just that, Dobby has come to tell you... it is difficult, sir...Dobby wonders where to begin.

HARRY: Why don't you sit down?

DOBBY: S-s-sit down? Sit down? Oh...

HARRY: Dobby! Shhhh! I'm sorry. I, I didn't mean to offend you or anything.

DOBBY: Offend Dobby! Dobby has heard of your greatness, sir, but never has he been asked to sit down by a wizard, like an equal.

HARRY: You can't have met many decent wizards then.

DOBBY: No, I haven't… that's an awful thing to say. Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby!

HARRY: Stop! Dobby, please stop!

UNCLE VERNON Don't mind that. It's just the... cat.

DOBBY: Bad Dobby!

HARRY: Are you... all right?

DOBBY: Dobby had to punish himself, sir. Dobby almost spoke⁵ ill of his family, sir.

HARRY: Your family?

DOBBY: The wizard family Dobby serves, sir. Dobby is bound to serve one family forever. If they ever knew Dobby was here... But Dobby had to come. Dobby has to protect Harry Potter. To warn him. Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft⁶ and Wizardry this year. There is a plot. A plot to make most terrible things happen.

HARRY: What terrible things? Who's plotting them?

HARRY: Okay! I understand. You can't say! Dobby, Dobby, put the lump. Come on.

UNCLE VERNON: So, when they arrive at the ninth hole-

HARRY: Give me the lump! Dobby, stop! Give it to me and keep quiet.

UNCLE VERNON: What the devil are you doing up here!

HARRY: I was just...

UNCLE VERNON: You've just ruined the punch line of my Japanese golfer joke.

HARRY: Sorry.

UNCLE VERNON: One more sound and you'll wish you'd never been born, boy! I'll fix the door!

HARRY: Yes sir. See why I've got to go back? I don't belong here. I belong in your world -- at Hogwarts. It's the only place I've got friends.

DOBBY: Friends who don't even write to Harry Potter?

HARRY: Well, I expect they've been... hang on, how do you know my friends haven't been writing me?

DOBBY: Harry Potter mustn't be angry with Dobby. Dobby hoped if Harry Potter thought his friends had forgotten him, Harry Potter might not want to go back to school, sir.

妙语佳句，活学活用

1. Mess up

意为"搞得乱七八糟，搞砸"，例如：On rainy days the children really mess up the house, or He had a way of messing up his own business.

此外，mess up 还表示"弄错，做错（尤指因为紧张或困惑而造成的）"，例如：He messed up and took the wrong dossier to the meeting.

2. Speak ill

"说……的坏话，责备……"，例如：Don't speak ill of Ivy⁷. Especially when she's not here to defend herself.

3. What the devil

这里的 the devil起到的是加强语气的作用，和 what the hell… 差不多，例如：What the devil do you think you're doing?

What the devil单用时表示"我的天，天啊"。

4. Hang on

"Wait for a short time, be patient 等一下，稍等"的意思，例如：Hang on, I'm getting it as fast as I can.

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