Harry Potter and the importance of chocolate
哈利波特和巧克力的重要性

译者:小初初

An article about magic AND chocolate? It doesn’t get much better than this…
关于魔法和巧克力的文章？没有比这篇更好的了…

Early childhood
早期
The first time chocolate was mentioned in the Harry Potter series, Harry didn’t get to eat it at all. On a birthday trip to the zoo, Piers and Dudley enjoyed chocolate ice creams, whilst Harry was begrudgingly bought a cheap lemon ice lolly. Harry was treated as an outsider by the Dursleys long before he knew how different from them he really was. Thankfully, chocolate tracked Harry’s development and entry into the wizarding world – once he found where he truly belonged, it wasn’t long before chocolate was a way that people showed him friendship and, ultimately, love.
哈利波特系列小说中第一次提到巧克力时，哈利一点也没吃到。在动物园的一次生日旅行中，佩妮和达力喜欢吃巧克力冰淇淋，而哈利只得到一个便宜的柠檬冰棍。很久以前，哈利就被德思礼一家视为局外人，他才知道自己和他们有多不同。谢天谢地，巧克力一直跟着哈利的成长和进入魔法世界的过程——他找到了真正属于他的地方，不久之后，人们就开始用巧克力来向他展示友谊，并最终表达爱。

The start of the change arrived with Rubeus Hagrid on the night he finally gave Harry his Hogwarts letter. As well as the staggering news that Harry was a wizard, he also brought the Boy Who Lived a sticky chocolate cake for his eleventh birthday. Then not long afterwards, in a mirroring of the scene at the zoo, Hagrid bought Harry an ice cream in Diagon Alley when they went to buy his school supplies. No lemon ice lolly this time – Hagrid bought Harry chocolate and raspberry ice cream with chopped nuts. Already, Harry was allowed chocolate in this strange new world he supposedly belonged to, and it was being bought by someone who cared about him, rather than by the Dursleys who – given half the chance – wouldn’t have bought him that ice lolly at all.
变化的开始是在鲁伯海格终于把霍格沃茨的信给哈利的那晚。除了令人震惊的哈利是个巫师的消息外，他还带来了那个在十一岁生日时吃着巧克力蛋糕的男孩。不久之后，海格在对角巷给哈利买了一个冰淇淋，当时他们去买他的学习用品。这次没有柠檬冰棍了——海格买了哈里巧克力和覆盆子冰激凌，里面有切碎的坚果。哈利已经被允许在这个他本该属于的陌生的新世界里吃巧克力了，而且巧克力是由关心他的人买的，而不是德思礼夫妇买的，如果给他们机会，他们根本不会给他买那个冰棍。

Starting at Hogwarts
Then Harry boarded the Hogwarts Express to his new wizarding life and chocolate appeared again. Harry shared his purchases from the trolley witch with Ron, but arguably it wasn’t until sharing the Chocolate Frogs that they really bonded. Ron relaxed as he explained all about Chocolate Frog cards and marvelled over Harry revealing that in Muggle photos the subjects stayed put. By the time Draco Malfoy turned up in their compartment and announced, ‘You’ll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don’t want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there’, Harry and Ron were already united against him.
从霍格沃茨开始
之后哈利登上霍格沃茨快车，开始了他新的魔法生活，巧克力又出现了。哈利和罗恩分享了他从卖食品的女巫那里买的东西，但可以说，直到分享了巧克力青蛙，它们才真正结合在一起。罗恩十分放松，他解释了关于巧克力青蛙卡片的事情，并对哈利透露麻瓜照片中的被摄对象留在原处感到惊奇。当德拉科·马尔福出现在他们的隔间里并宣布，你很快就会发现一些巫师家庭比其他家庭要好得多，波特。你不想和错误的人交朋友。我可以帮你，哈利和罗恩已经联合起来对付他了。

As the years went by, chocolate was a gift given and received by Harry in friendship and love on many occasions. During Christmas of his first year, Harry received Chocolate Frogs as a gift from Hermione – a representation, perhaps, of the fact that Hermione was now Harry’s friend too, alongside Ron (who had shared his Chocolate Frogs when the boys first met). One poignant moment was when Mrs Weasley sent Harry a ‘handsome chocolate egg decorated with small, iced Snitches’, including him amongst her own family members.
随着岁月的流逝，巧克力是哈里在友谊和爱情中多次送给和接受的礼物。在哈利第一年的圣诞节期间，他收到了赫敏送给他的巧克力蛙作为礼物，这也许代表了赫敏现在也是哈利的朋友，罗恩（罗恩在孩子们第一次见面时分享了他的巧克力青蛙）。一个令人痛心的时刻是，韦斯莱夫人送给哈利一个“漂亮的巧克力蛋，上面装饰着小小的冰榭寄生”，其中包括她的家人。

Chocolate as a remedy
Aside from a way to show love and friendship, chocolate was also used as a remedy in the wizarding world: a remedy against some of the gravest creatures ever to darken the pages of the Harry Potter books – the Dementors. J.K. Rowling told us, ‘the mood-enhancing properties of chocolate are well known in both the Muggle and wizard worlds. Chocolate is the perfect antidote for anyone who has been overcome in the presence of Dementors, which suck hope and happiness out of their surroundings.’ We saw the remedy in action when Dementors entered the Hogwarts Express in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: ‘A loud snap made them all jump. Professor Lupin was breaking an enormous slab of chocolate into pieces.’ Madam Pomfrey was very impressed by the new addition to the Hogwarts teaching staff – ‘So we’ve finally got a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher who knows his remedies’ – and once we got to know him, we were too!
巧克力作为药品
除了表达爱和友谊之外，巧克力还被用作巫师世界的一种治疗药物：治疗一种使哈利波特书的书蒙上了一层黑暗的色彩，有史以来最可怕的生物的份害——摄魂怪的方法。JK罗琳告诉我们，巧克力的情绪增强特性在麻瓜界和巫师界都是众所周知的。对于那些被摄魂怪征服的人来说，巧克力是最好的解药，因为摄魂怪会从周围的环境中吸走希望和快乐。《哈利波特与阿兹卡班的囚徒》中摄魂怪进入霍格沃茨特快列车时，我们看到了有效的解药：“一声巨响让他们都跳了起来。卢平教授正在把一大块巧克力切成碎片。“庞弗雷夫人对霍格沃茨这位新教授印象深刻——‘所以我们终于有了一个对付黑魔法老师的防御系统，他知道他的治疗方法’——我们了解了卢平，同时我们也了解了巧克力！

Chocolate and trouble
Chocolate might have helped guard against some of the effects of a Dementor attack, but people’s love of chocolate did cause some problems in itself. Remember when Romilda Vane spiked those Chocolate Cauldrons with love potion? Poor Ron really didn’t see it coming – who could blame him for eating the delicious treats? Hermione, too, played on the general love of chocolate, when she filled chocolate cakes with a sleeping draught, which were soon devoured by Crabbe and Goyle. A lesson here that in the wizarding world, not everything was always as it seemed – not even chocolate.
巧克力和麻烦
巧克力可能有助于防止摄魂怪袭击带来的某些影响，但人们对巧克力的喜爱本身确实造成了一些问题。还记得罗米达·万恩用爱情药水加在那些巧克力里吗？可怜的罗恩真的没想到会这样——谁能怪他吃了这么好吃的东西呢？赫敏也擅长利用人们对巧克力的普遍喜爱，她在巧克力蛋糕里放了一种安眠药，很快就被克拉布和高尔吃掉了。这里的一个教训是，在巫师世界里，并不是所有的东西都像看起来的那样——甚至连巧克力都不是。

Chocolate and comfort
These incidents aside, chocolate in the wizarding world ultimately became something that gave comfort, both to Harry and to others. Perhaps, in Harry’s case and other Hogwarts students brought up by Muggles, it was the familiarity of chocolate – aside from how delicious it is – that brought them comfort. It didn’t matter that they were eating Chocolate Frogs rather than just a plain old Muggle chocolate bar; chocolate was something familiar, something they could relate to, in a world that was so startlingly different from the Muggle one they’d grown up in.
巧克力和舒适
撇开这些事件不谈，魔法世界里的巧克力最终成为了给哈利和其他人带来安慰的东西。也许，在哈利和其他在麻瓜世界长太的霍格沃茨学生的情况下，是巧克力熟悉的味道——除了它的美味——给他们带来了安慰。尽管他们吃的不是一块普通的麻瓜巧克力棒，而是巧克力蛙，但这无关紧要；在一个与他们成长的麻瓜世界截然不同的世界里，巧克力是一种熟悉的东西，是他们可以联想到麻瓜世界的东西。

But it wasn’t just wizards brought up by Muggles who found comfort in chocolate. When Draco Malfoy put a Leg-Locker Curse on Neville Longbottom and he choked out, ‘There’s no need to tell me I’m not brave enough to be in Gryffindor, Malfoy’s already done that,’ Harry gave Neville his last Chocolate Frog to try to cheer him up. And if you still don’t take our word for the comforting power of chocolate after all this, perhaps Albus Dumbledore could persuade you. After Ginny Weasley was rescued from the Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore declared there would be no punishment and that she should be prescribed some hot chocolate: ‘I always find that cheers me up,’ said the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had.
但不仅仅是麻瓜们培养出来的巫师们在巧克力中找到了安慰。当德拉科·马尔福咒骂纳威·隆巴顿时，他哽咽着说：“没必要告诉我不够勇敢去格兰芬多，马尔福已经这么做了，”哈利把最后一只巧克力青蛙给了纳威，试图让他振作起来。如果你还是不相信巧克力的安慰力量，也许阿不思邓布利多可以说服你。金妮·韦斯莱从密室获救后，邓布利多宣布不会受到惩罚，她应该被来一些热巧克力：“我总是发现这让我很高兴，”霍格沃茨最伟大的校长说。