Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.
"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."
He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.
"How did you know it was me?" she asked.
"My dear Professor, I 've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."
"You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.
"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."
Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.
"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no -- even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls... shooting stars.... Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent -- I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."
"You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."
"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors."
She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day YouKnow-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?"
"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"
"A what?"
"A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of"
"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone -"
"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You- Know-Who' nonsense -- for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort." Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name.
"I know you haven 't, said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, Voldemort, was frightened of."
"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."
"Only because you're too -- well -- noble to use them."
"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."
Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing next to the rumors that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"
丹伯多把打火機收好,徑直走到四號門,坐到了墻上那只貓旁邊。他沒看那只貓,但不久他說話了:"很高興見到你,麥
"你知道我的名字?"她問道。
"親愛的教授,我從未見過一只貓坐得這么老實的。""你也會這樣坐的,如果你是成天坐在一面磚石墻上。"麥
"整天?你應該去慶祝才是。我今天來的時候一路上不知道有多少派對和大餐呢。"麥
"沒錯,每個人都在慶祝。"她不耐煩地說。"你一定認為他們已經很小心了,不是的——即使是馬格人都意識到有事發(fā)生了,他們還報導出來了。"她回頭去看杜斯利夫婦黑呼呼的窗口。"我聽到了,成群的貓頭鷹……流星雨……他們真是太愚蠢了。人們肯定會注意到的。肯特郡的流星雨——我敢打賭是丹德拉斯。迪哥干的。
他從來就愛干沒意義的事。""你不能怪他們。"丹伯多緩緩地說。"我們已經幾年沒有好好慶祝過了。""我知道。"麥
"一杯凍檸檬汁。這是我非常喜歡的一種馬格甜品。""不用了,"麥
"就我看,即使是'那個人'已經離開了……"
"親愛的教授,像你這樣聰明的人都會這樣稱呼他嗎?'那個人'這算什么名字——十一年來我一直試著說服人們稱呼他的真名:福爾得摩特。"麥
丹伯多好像沒留意到。"如果我們老是叫'那個人'就會搞得很混亂。直呼福爾得摩特的名字沒有什么好害怕的。""我知道你沒有。"麥
"但是你不同。每個人都知道你是'那個人——'不對,福爾得摩特——唯一害怕的人。""真是抬舉我了。"丹伯多冷靜地說,"福爾得摩特擁有我沒有的力量。""只是因為你不屑于去用它們罷了。"
"還好這是晚上。自從波姆弗
你知道人們怎么說嗎?關于他為什么失蹤以及是什么制止了他?