CHAPTER ONE
THE BOY WHO LIVED
大难不死的男孩

It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar（奇怪的） -- a cat reading a map. For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen -- then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat 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. 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. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive -- no, looking at the sign; cats couldn't read 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 he was hoping to get that
day.
在街角边上，他注意到了第一个不同寻常的信号-----一只猫在看一张地图。刚开始，德思礼先生还没有弄明白自己看到了什么-所以他又把头转过去确认一下。有一只灰褐色夹有深色条纹的猫正站在女贞路的角落里，但它的眼前并没有地图，他在想自己在想什么？这一定是灯光问题。德思礼先生眨了眨眼睛然后盯着那只猫，那只猫也开始盯着他。一直到德思礼先生将车驶出街角上到路上，他在后视镜中又看了那只猫一下。而现在那只猫那只猫正在读着Privet Drive的路牌—不对，它应该是正在看那个路牌；猫怎么能读地图和路牌呢。德思礼先生微微地抖了一下然后把那只猫从他的脑子里赶走。在接下来的路程里，他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。

But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks（斗篷）. Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes -- the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed（击打） his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on（落到，指向） a huddle（拥挤，杂乱一团） of these weirdos（古怪的人） standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together. Mr. Dursley was enraged（激怒） 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（翠绿色） cloak! The nerve（勇气，胆量） of him! But then（但另一方面是） it struck（打，敲） Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt -- these people were obviously collecting for something... yes, that would be it. The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot（停车场）, his mind back on drills.
但是当快要到镇上时，钻机的事就又被一些事代替了。当他被困在与以往一样的堵车长龙中时，他没有办法不使自己不去注意那些在街上穿着奇装异服的人群。竟然有人穿着斗篷，德思礼先生‖不能接受这些滑稽的衣服——尤其是穿在年轻人的身上。他猜想这是什么愚蠢的新风尚。他敲打着方向盘，目光看向那杂乱一团、穿着古怪的拥挤人群。他们兴奋的在一起低声交谈着。而在其中有几个人根本不是年轻人，这激怒了德思礼先生，原因嘛，就是有一个比自己还要老的男子，竟然穿着一件翠绿色的斗篷！他是多么有胆量啊。但这可能是个无聊的噱头——很明显人们是为了什么事情而聚集在一起的。是的，就是这样。交通恢复了正常，几分钟后德思礼先生到了Grunnings的停车场，是到上班的时候了，他又把精力放在了钻机的事情上来。