Chapter 1 The Boy Who Lived 大难不死的男孩
Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet
Drive女贞路, were proud to骄傲say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people (最后一个…的人，即最不希望…
的人)you'd expect to希望be involved被卷入in anything strange奇怪的or mysterious神秘故事, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense. (因为他们根本不相信这种无稽之谈)
Mr. Dursley was the director老板of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills钻机. He was a big, beefy man with hardly几乎没有any neck, although he did have a very large mustache胡子. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde金发and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over 伸长脖子透过garden fences围栏, spying on偷窥the neighbors. The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion(在他们看来) there was no finer boy anywhere. The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret 秘密, and their greatest fear最大的担心was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone 住在四号普里怀特街的杜斯利先生及夫人，非常骄傲地宣称自己是十分正常的人。但是他们最不希望见到的就是任何奇怪或神秘故事中的人物，因为他们对此总是嗤之以鼻。
杜斯利先生是一家叫作格朗宁斯的钻机工厂的老板。他非常肥壮、结实，几乎肥到没有颈根，但却有一把大胡子。杜斯利夫人则非常苗条，一头金发。她的颈根有常人的两倍那么长，这使得她整天伸长脖子透过花园围栏去偷窥邻居家的动静变得非常容易。杜斯利夫妇有个儿子叫做达利。在他们眼中，这世界上再没有比达利更棒的男孩了。
杜斯利一家几乎有他们想要的一切东西。但是他们也有一个秘密，而且他们最大的担心就是有一天别人会发现这个秘密。
found out about the Potters. Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended假装she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing不中用的husband were as un Dursleyish as it was possible to be. The Dursleys shuddered浑身发抖to think what the neighbors would say if the Potters arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away避开波特一家; they didn't want Dudley mixing with混在一起a child like that.
When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull灰暗gray Tuesday, our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest预示that strange and mysterious离奇古怪的things would soo
n be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed哼着小曲as he picked out his most boring tie for work, and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled使劲搬动a screaming依依呀呀的Dudley into his high chair. None of them noticed a large, tawny褐owl flutter past掠过the window. 波特夫人是杜斯利夫人的妹妹，但是她们已经有很多年没有见面了、事实上，杜斯利夫人假装她从来没有什么妹妹，因为她的妹妹和那不中用的妹夫没有一丝一毫杜斯利家族的风范。一想到波特一家的到来会招致邻居的议论，杜斯利一家就会浑身发抖。杜斯利一家知道波特夫妇也有一个儿子，只是未曾谋面。这个小男孩也成了杜斯利一家避开波特一家的借口，因为他们不希望听话的达利与这种小孩混在一起。
当杜斯利先生和夫人在灰暗阴沉的星期二早晨醒来时，我们的故事便开始了。虽然外面阴云密布的天空并不能预示着今天一定会有什么离奇古怪的事情发生。杜斯利先生一边哼着小曲一边拿出他最差的领带准备去上班，杜斯利夫人则一边口中叨念着一边把依依呀呀的达利放到高椅子上去。
没没有一个人注意到这时有一只巨大的褐的猫头鹰从窗外掠过。
shudderAt half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase公文包, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed作罢, because Dudley was now having a tantrum发脾气and throwing his cereal麦片at the walls.
“Little tyke, chortled笑着的Mr. Dursley as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of倒着车驶出number four's drive.
It was on the corner of拐角处the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar不寻常的—a cat reading a map. For a second片刻, Mr. Dursley didn't realize意识到what he had seen —then he jerked his head around猛地转过头to look again. There was a tabby cat肥嘟嘟的猫standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light眼花了. Mr. Dursley blinked眨眼and stared at the cat.
It stared back. As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror镜子. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive —no, looking at the sign; cats couldn't read 八点半时，杜斯利先生拿起他的公文包去上班。临行前，在杜斯刊夫人的面颊上吻了一下算是告别。他本来要在达利脸上也亲一口的，但是因为达利正在发脾气并且把麦片往墙上扔，便只好作罢。
"小淘气！"杜斯利先生呵呵大笑地走出门口钻进他的车，倒着车驶出了四号车道。
当他驶到街的拐角处时，他发现了第一件不寻常的事情——一只猫在看地图。开始时杜斯利先生并没有感到有什么不妥。到他意识到并猛地转过头去看时，只见那只肥嘟嘟的猫还蹲在那里，可是地图却没有了。天哪，杜斯利先生想，我怎么可能有这种想法呢？刚才我一定是眼花了。杜斯利先生眨了眨
眼，又看了那只猫一眼。
那只猫回了他一眼。正在杜斯利先生驶进拐角准备上另一条路时，他又在后视镜里看了一眼那只猫，现在那只猫正在读着"普里怀特街"的路牌——不，它只是朝路牌看而已，猫是不可能会认识任何地图或路牌的。杜斯利
maps or signs. Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove toward town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills钻机订单he was hoping to get that day.
But on the edge边缘of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam塞车长龙, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be好像a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks披风. Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes —the getups式样you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed敲击his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of一these weirdos古怪的人standing quite close by. They were whispering小声谈论excitedly together. Mr. Dursley was enraged生气to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green祖母绿cloak!
The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt —these people were obviously明显地collecting for something…先生浑身一抖，想极力摆脱关于那只猫的任何想法。在接下来的路程里，杜斯利想的全都是关于他如何希望得到一大笔钻机的订单之类的事情。
就快要到镇上的时候，关于钻机的想法又被其他事情代替了。像往常一样，杜斯利先生的车被卡在塞车长龙中动弹不得，他不得不注意好像有很多穿着奇怪的人走来走去。他们都穿着披风。杜斯列先生最看不惯穿得稀奇古怪的人——都是年轻人投酷的玩意！他想这也许是某种新的款式吧。
他的手指不耐烦地敲击着方向盘，并目又看了看近处一衣着古怪的人。
他们在兴奋地小声谈论着什么，什斯利突然变得很生气，因为他发现他们并不都是年轻小伙子，其中一个穿着祖母绿披风的人居然比他年纪都大，搞什么鬼！
但接着杜斯利先生又不生气了，可能这是一出表演吧——这人很明显在收集某样东西。
yes, that would be it. The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on回到drills. Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to背靠着the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on 集中drills that morning. He didn't see the owls swooping猛冲past in broad daylight, though people dow
n in the street did; they pointed and gazed注视open-mouthed as owl after owl sped 飞驰overhead. Most of them had never seen an owl even at nighttime.
Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free 没有morning. He yelled发了脾气at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more. He was in a very good mood心情还不错until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch拉伸his legs and walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the bakery面包店.
He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them瞪了他们angrily as he passed. He didn't know 是的，肯定是这样。车龙开始移动起来，不久，杜斯利先生就到了格朗宁斯工厂停车场。他的注意力又回到钻机上来了。
杜斯利先生喜欢在他九楼的办公室里背靠着墙坐着。如果不这样做的话，他会觉得整个上午都无法集中精神做事。他从来没在大白天见过猫头鹰飞过，但是有人在街上看到了。他们回头指着，目瞪口呆地看着一只接一只的猫头鹰从头顶飞过。
还好，杜斯利先生那天早上没见着一只猫头鹰，一切都很正常。他冲五个不同的人发了脾气。他打了几个重要的电话并在电话里嚷了一通。直到午饭时他的心情都还不错，那时他想到自己应该活动活动筋骨了，于是走到面包店给自己买了一个面包圈。
他几乎都快忘掉那些穿着被风的人了。但是当他走过面包店隔壁时，那人又出现了。杜斯利先生生气地瞪了他们一眼。