分节阅读49

  looked like half a ld pheasant
  ”i was jt tellg young arc here that i had the pleasure of teachg his uncle daocles,” sghorn told harry and neville, now passg around a basket of rolls ”outstandg wizard, outstandg, and his order of rl ost well-deserved do you see uch of your uncle, arc?”
  unfortunately, beiby had jt taken a r outhful of pheasant his haste to answer sghorn he swallowed too fast, turned purple, and began to choke
  ”anapneo,” said sghorn cally, potg his wand at belby, whose airway seed to clear at once
  ”not  not uch of hi, no,” gasped belby, his eyes streag
  ”well, of urse, i daresay he39s by,” said sghorn, lookg estiongly at belby ”i doubt he vented the wolfsbane potion without nsiderable hard work!”
  ”i suppose  ” said belby, who seed afraid to take another bite of pheasant until he was sure that sghorn had fished with hi ”er he and y dad don39t t on very well, you see, i don39t really know uch about”
  his voice tailed away as sghorn gave hi a ld sile and turned to en stead
  ”now, you, rac,” said sghorn, ”i happen to know you see a lot of your uncle tiberi, becae he has a rather splendid picture of the o of you huntg nogtails , i thk, norfolk?”
  ”oh, yeah, that was fun, that was,” said en ”we went with bertie s and ruf scriour ?this was before he beca ister, obvioly ?“
  ”ah, you know bertie and ruf too?” bead sghorn, now offerg around a sall tray of pies how, belby was issed out ”now tell  ”
  it was as harry had spected everyone here seed to have been vited becae they were nnected to body well-known or fential ?everyone except gny zabi, who was terrogated after en, turned out to have a faoly beautiful witch for a other fro what harry uld ake out, she had been arried seven tis, each of her hbands dyg ysterioly and leavg her ounds of gold it was neville39s turn next: this was a very unfortable ten utes, for neville39s parents, well-known aurors, had been tortured to sanity by beltrix lestran and a uple of death eater cronies at the end of neville39s terview, harry had the ipression that sghorn was reservg judgnt on neville, yet to see whether he had any of his parents39 fir
  ”and now,” said sghorn, shiftg assively his seat with the air of a pere troducg his star act ”harry potter! where to beg? i feel i barely scratched the surface when we t over the sur!” he ntepted harry for a ont as though he was a particurly r and ulent piece of pheasant, then said, ”39the chosen one,39 they39re callg you now!”
  harry said nothg belby, en, and zabi were all starg at hi
  ”of urse,” said sghorn, watchg harry closely, ”there have been ruors for years i reber when ?well ?after that terrible night ?lily ?jas ?and you survived ?and the word was that you t have powers beyond the ordary ?“
  zabi gave a ty little ugh that was clearly supposed to
  dicate aed skepticis an angry voice burst out fro behd sghorn
  ”yeah, zabi, becae you39re talented at posg  ”
  ”oh dear!” chuckled sghorn fortably, lookg around at gny, who was grg at zabi around sghorn39s great belly ”you want to be careful, bise! i saw this young dy perfor the ost arvelo bat-boy hex as i was passg her carria! i wouldn39t cross her!”
  zabi rely looked nteptuo
  ”anyway,” said sghorn, turng back to harry ”such ruors this sur of urse, one doesn39t know what to believe, the prophet has been known to prt uracies, ake istakes ?but there sees little doubt, given the nuber of witnesses, that there was ite a disturbance at the istry and that you were there the thick of it all!”
  harry, who uld not see any way out of this without ftly lyg, nodded but still said nothg sghorn bead at hi
  ” odest, odest, no wonder dubledore is fond ?you were there, then? but the rest of the stories ? sensational, of urse, one doesn39t know ite what to believe ?this fabled prophecy, for stance ?“
  ”we never heard a prophecy,” said neville, turng raniu pk as he said it
  ”that39s right,” said gny staunchly ”neville and i were both there too, and all this 39chosen one39 rubbish is jt the prophet akg thgs up as ual”
  ”you were bot