分节阅读23
ghorn, who had been by with decanters and gsses, turned to face the roo aga, his eyes fell idiately upon harry
”hpf,” he said, lookg away ickly as though frightened of hurtg his eyes ”here —” he gave a drk to dubledore, who had sat down without vitation, thrt the tray at harry, and then sank to the chions of the repaired fa and a disgruntled silence his legs were short they did not touch the floor
”well, how have you been keepg, horace?” dubledore asked
”not well,” said sghorn at once ”weak chest wheezy rheuatis too can39t ove like i ed to well, that39s to be expected old a fatigue”
”and yet you t have oved fairly ickly to prepare such a wele for at such short notice,” said dubledore ”you can39t have had ore than three utes39 warng?”
sghorn said, half irritably, half proudly, ”o didn39t hear y truder char go off, i was takg a bath still,” he added sternly, seeg to pull hiself back tother aga, ”the fact reas that i39 an old an, alb a tired old an who39s earned the right to a iet life and a few creature forts”
he certaly had those, thought harry, lookg around the roo it was stuffy and cttered, yet nobody uld say it was unfortable there were ft chairs and footstools, drks and books, boxes of chotes and pp chions if harry had not known who lived there, he would have guessed at a rich, fsy old dy
”you39re not yet as old as i a, horace,” said dubledore
”well, aybe you ought to thk about retirent yourself,” said sghorn bntly his pale gooseberry eyes had found dubledore39s jured hand ”reactions not what they were, i see”
”you39re ite right,” said dubledore serenely, shakg back his sleeve to reveal the tips of those burned and bckened rrs the sight of the ade the back of harry39s neck prickle unpleasantly ”1 a undoubtedly slower than i was but on the other hand ”
he ed and spread his hands wide, as though to say that a had its pensations, and harry noticed a rg on his unjured hand that he had never seen dubledore wear before: it was r, rather csily ade of what looked like gold, and was set with a heavy bck stone that had cracked down the iddle sghorn39s eyes lred for a ont on the rg too, and harry saw a ty frown ontarily crease his wide forehead
”, all these precautions agast truders, horace are they for the death eaters39 benefit, or e?” asked dubledore
”what would the death eaters want with a poor
oken-down old buffer like ?” deanded sghorn
”i iage that they would want you to turn your nsiderable talents to ercion, torture, and urder,” said dubledore ”are you really tellg that they haven39t e recruitg yet?”
sghorn eyed dubledore balefully for a ont, then uttered, ”i haven39t given the the chance i39ve been on the ove for a year never stay one pce ore than a week ove fro le hoe to le hoe — the owners of this pce are on holiday the canary isnds — it39s been very pleasant, i39ll be rry to leave it39s ite easy once you know how, one siple freezg char on these absurd burgr ars they e stead of sneako-spes and ake sure the neighbors don39t spot you
gg the piano”
”nio,” said dubledore ”but it unds a rather tirg existence for a
oken-down old buffer search of a iet life now, if you were to return to hogwarts —”
”if you39re gog to tell y life would be ore peaceful at that pestilential school, you can save your
eath, alb! i ight have been hidg, but funny ruors have reached sce dolores u
id left! if that39s how you treat teachers these days —”
”profesr u
id ran afoul of our centaur herd,” said dubledore ”i thk you, horace, would have known better than to stride to the forest and call a horde of angry centaurs 39filthy half-
eeds39”
”that39s what she did, did she?” said sghorn ”idiotic woan never liked her”
harry chuckled and both dubledore and sghorn looked round at hi
”rry,” harry said hastily ”it39s jt — i didn39t like her either”
dubledore stood up rather suddenly
”are you leavg?” asked sghorn at once, lookg hopeful
”no, i was wonderg whether i ight e your bathroo,” said dubledore
”oh,” said sghorn, clearly disappoted ”send on the left down the ha