"Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asked.
"Spells -- enchantments," said Hagrid, unfolding his newspaper as he spoke. "They say there's dragons guardin' the highsecurity vaults. And then yeh gotta find yer way -- Gringotts is hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the Underground. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter get out, even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat."
Harry sat and thought about this while Hagrid read his newspaper, the Daily Prophet. Harry had learned from Uncle Vernon that people liked to be left alone while they did this, but it was very difficult, he'd never had so many questions in his life.
"Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual," Hagrid muttered, turning the page.
"There's a Ministry of Magic?" Harry asked, before he could stop himself.
"'Course," said Hagrid. "They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, 0f ' course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if ever there was one. So he pelts Dumbledore with owls every morning, askin' fer advice."
"But what does a Ministry of Magic do?"
"Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country."
"Why?"
"Why? Blimey, Harry, everyone'd be wantin' magic solutions to their problems. Nah, we're best left alone."
At this moment the boat bumped gently into the harbor wall. Hagrid folded up his newspaper, and they clambered up the stone steps onto the street.
Passersby stared a lot at Hagrid as they walked through the little town to the station. Harry couldn't blame them. Not only was Hagrid twice as tall as anyone else, he kept pointing at perfectly ordinary things like parking meters and saying loudly, "See that, Harry? Things these Muggles dream up, eh?"
"Hagrid," said Harry, panting a bit as he ran to keep up, "did you say there are dragons at Gringotts?"
"Well, so they say," said Hagrid. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon."
"You'd like one?"
"Wanted one ever since I was a kid -- here we go."
They had reached the station. There was a train to London in five minutes' time. Hagrid, who didn't understand "Muggle money," as he called it, gave the bills to Harry so he could buy their tickets.
People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid took up two seats and sat knitting what looked like a canary-yellow circus tent.
"Still got yer letter, Harry?" he asked as he counted stitches. Harry took the parchment envelope out of his pocket.
"Good," said Hagrid. "There's a list there of everything you need."
"你為什么會(huì)說瘋子去打劫惡魔銀行?"哈利不解地問。
"因?yàn)?span lang="EN-US">……"哈格力一邊說,一邊攤開了他的報(bào)紙,"他們說有許多龍?jiān)诳词刂切┍kU(xiǎn)金庫,而且你得找出逃跑路線——惡魔銀行在格林高斯城下幾英里的地方,很深很深的地底下,即使你得手了,在你想方設(shè)法出來的時(shí)候也會(huì)被餓死的。"哈利坐在一邊思考這個(gè)問題,而哈格力在讀他的報(bào)紙《先知日?qǐng)?bào)》,哈利從他姨丈那兒知道當(dāng)人們遇到問題時(shí)就會(huì)一個(gè)人呆在一邊,但這的確太困難了,從他出生到現(xiàn)在還從沒遇到過這么多的問題。
"魔法大臣還是像往常一樣將事情搞得一團(tuán)糟。"哈格力抱怨著,翻開報(bào)紙的另一頁。
"還有魔法大臣?"哈格力脫口而出。
"當(dāng)然了。"哈格力說:"他們?cè)胱尩げ嘧瞿Хù蟪?,?dāng)然,丹伯多從不愿意離開霍格瓦徹,所以沒接這項(xiàng)工作,那是個(gè)笨手笨腳的家伙,他每天早上都會(huì)帶著貓頭鷹來向丹伯多請(qǐng)教。""但是魔法大臣是做什么的?"
"他們的主要職責(zé)就是讓魔法遠(yuǎn)離馬格人。"
"為什么?"
"為什么?啊呀,哈利,每個(gè)人都想擁有魔法去解決問題呀。"正在這時(shí),小船輕輕地撞上了港口的岸墻,哈格力折起報(bào)紙,兩人一起登上石階走進(jìn)了街道。
當(dāng)他們經(jīng)過小鎮(zhèn)去車站的時(shí)候,許多的路人都盯著哈格力看,哈利不怪他們,是因?yàn)楣窳κ浅H说膬杀陡?,而且他總是不停地指著那些極平常的東西——比方說停車計(jì)時(shí)表,然后大聲的說,"看那,哈利,馬格人真是異想天開。""哈格力,"哈利氣喘吁吁地跑著跟上哈格力,問道:"你曾說在惡魔銀行有龍,是嗎?""他們是這樣說的。唉,我都想要一條龍。"哈格力說。
"你想要一條龍?"
"當(dāng)我還是小孩子的時(shí)候就非常想了——這邊走。"他們到達(dá)了火車站,五分鐘之后就有一班去倫敦的火車。還不懂什么是所謂的馬格人錢的哈格力把錢給了哈利,讓他去買火車票。
火車上更多的人看著哈格力。他一個(gè)人就占了兩個(gè)位子,正坐著編織一種看上去像馬戲團(tuán)帳篷的淺黃色東西。
"信還在嗎,哈利?"哈格力一邊問一邊數(shù)著他所縫的針數(shù)。
哈利從口袋里掏出羊皮紙信封。
"太好了!"哈格力說,"里面有一張單已經(jīng)列出了你所需要的東西。"