The speeding motorcycle took the sharp corner so fast in the darkness that both policemen in the pursuing car shouted ’whoa!’ Sergeant Fisher slammed his large foot on the brake, thinking that the boy who was riding pillion was sure to be flung under his wheels; however, the motorbike made the turn without unseating either of its riders, and with a wink of its red tail light, vanished up the narrow side street.

　　 ’We’ve got ’em now!\" cried PC Anderson excitedly. ’That’s a dead end!\"

　　 Leaning hard on the steering wheel and crashing his gears, Fisher scraped half the paint off the flank of the car as he forced it up the alleyway in pursuit.

　　 There in the headlights sat their quarry, stationary at last after a quarter of an hour’s chase. The two riders were trapped between a towering brick wall and the police car, which was now crashing towards them like some growling, luminous-eyed predator.
　There was so little space between the car doors and the walls of the alley that Fisher and Anderson had difficulty extricating themselves from the vehicle. It injured their dignity to have to inch, crab-like, towards the miscreants. Fisher dragged his generous belly along the wall, tearing buttons off his shirt as he went, and finally snapping off the wing mirror with his backside.

　　 ’Get off the bike!’ he bellowed at the smirking youths, who sat basking in the flashing blue light as though enjoying it.

　　 They did as they were told. Finally pulling free from the broken wind mirror, Fisher glared at them. They seemed to be in their late teens. The one who had been driving had long black hair; his insolent good looks reminded Fisher unpleasantly of his daughter’s guitar-playing, layabout boyfriend. The second boy also had black hair, though his was short and stuck up in all directions; he wore glasses and a broad grin. Both were dressed in T-shirts emblazoned with a large golden bird; the emblem, no doubt, of some deafening, tuneless rock band.
’No helmets!’ Fisher yelled, pointing from one uncovered head to the other. ’Exceeding the speed limit by - by a considerable amount!’ (In fact, the speed registered had been greater than Fisher was prepared to accept that any motorcycle could travel.) ’Failing to stop for the police!’

　　 ’We’d have loved to stop for a chat,’ said the boy in glasses, ’only we were trying -’

　　 ’Don’t get smart - you two are in a heap of trouble!’ snarled Anderson. ’Names!’

　　 ’Names?’ repeated the long-haired driver. ’Er - well, let’s see. There’s Wilberforce... Bathsheba... Elvendork...’

　　 ’And what’s nice about that one is, you can use it for a boy or a girl,’ said the boy in glasses.

　　 ’Oh, OUR names, did you mean?’ asked the first, as Anderson spluttered with rage. ’You should’ve said! This here is James Potter, and I’m Sirius Black!’

　　 ’Things’ll be seriously black for you in a minute, you cheeky little -’

　　 But neither James nor Sirius was paying attention. They were suddenly as alert as gundogs, staring past Fisher and Anderson, over the roof of the police car, at the dark mouth of the alley. Then, with identical fluid movements, they reached into their back pockets.

　For the space of a heartbeat both policemen imagined guns gleaming at them, but a second later they saw that the motorcyclists had drawn nothing more than -

　　 ’Drumsticks?’ jeered Anderson. ’Right pair of jokers, aren’t you? Right, we’re arresting you on a charge of -’

　　 But Anderson never got to name the charge. James and Sirius had shouted something incomprehensible, and the beams from the headlights had moved.
　　
　　The policemen wheeled around, then staggered backwards. Three men were flying - actually FLYING - up the alley on broomsticks - and at the same moment, the police car was rearing up on its back wheels.

　　 Fisher’s knees bucked; he sat down hard; Anderson tripped over Fisher’s legs and fell on top of him, as FLUMP - BANG - CRUNCH - they heard the men on brooms slam into the upended car and fall, apparently insensible, to the ground, while broken bits of broomstick clattered down around them.

　　 The motorbike had roared into life again. His mouth hanging open, Fisher mustered the strength to look back at the two teenagers.

　　 ’Thanks very much!’ called Sirius over the throb of the engine. ’We owe you one!’

　　 ’Yeah, nice meeting you!’ said James. ’And don’t forget: Elvendork! It’s unisex!’

　　 There was an earth-shattering crash, and Fisher and Anderson threw their arms around each other in fright; their car had just fallen back to the ground. Now it was the motorcycle’s turn to rear. Before the policemen’s disbelieving eyes, it took off into the air: James and Sirius zoomed away into the night sky, their tail light twinkling behind them like a vanishing ruby.
夜幕深沉。一輛疾速行駛的摩托車在拐角處突然轉(zhuǎn)彎，以至于兩個(gè)追蹤車上的警察同時(shí)叫道：“哇！”費(fèi)希爾警官一邊用他的大腳猛踩剎車，一邊想著那個(gè)坐在后座上的男孩肯定會(huì)被拋到摩托車輪子下。然而，那輛摩托車在沒有把任何一個(gè)人摔下去的情況下成功轉(zhuǎn)了個(gè)彎。它消失在那個(gè)狹窄的街道，只留下一道紅色的車尾燈光。

　　“我們已經(jīng)成功了！”安德森在巡邏車上興奮地大叫，“那是一條死胡同！”

　　艱難地向前傾斜著靠在方向盤上并猛力換擋，費(fèi)希爾在追蹤中迫使車子在狹窄的小巷中穿梭，以至于車的一側(cè)上的油漆都被刮掉了。

　　他們苦苦追尋的兩個(gè)人就在車前燈照射之下，在十五分鐘的追趕下終于停下來。兩名騎手在一面高聳的磚墻和警車之間被堵住了，現(xiàn)在他們的處境就像是面對(duì)著某個(gè)咆哮的、兩眼發(fā)亮的食肉動(dòng)物。

　　車門和小巷的墻之間的空間很小，所以費(fèi)希爾和安德森很難從車上下來。如果要他們像螃蟹一樣爬著接近那兩個(gè)惡劣的騎手，那可是會(huì)傷害他們的自尊的。費(fèi)希爾用他的大肚子緊貼著墻行走，為此他的襯衫扣子都從衣服上繃開了，最終他的后背把后視鏡給折斷了。

　　“下車！”他沖著那兩個(gè)傻笑的少年吼道。他們看似愉悅地坐在閃著光的□□后面，就好像很享受似的。

　　他們按照他說的辦了。費(fèi)希爾終于掙脫了損壞的后視鏡，他怒視著他們。他們看起來大概十九歲的樣子，騎車的那個(gè)人有著長(zhǎng)長(zhǎng)的黑發(fā)，他那英俊而高傲的臉龐使費(fèi)希爾十分不愉快地想起他女兒那玩吉他的懶惰男友。另一個(gè)男孩也有著黑色的頭發(fā)，然而他的頭發(fā)很短，并且在腦后亂糟糟地支棱著；他戴著眼睛，咧嘴笑著。兩人都穿著印有金色大鳥的T恤衫，而那毫無疑問地象征著某個(gè)震耳欲聾的、不成調(diào)子的搖滾樂團(tuán)。
“不戴頭盔！”費(fèi)希爾叫道，手從一個(gè)沒有戴頭盔的腦袋指向另一個(gè)。用——用那么快的速度超速行駛！”（實(shí)際上，限定的速度遠(yuǎn)比費(fèi)希爾能夠允許摩托車行駛的大得多。）“不顧警察的阻止！”

　　“我們很樂意停下來小談一下，”戴眼鏡的男孩說，只有我們?cè)趪L試——”

　　“不要耍小聰明——你們倆有麻煩了！”安德森咆哮道，“姓名！”

　　“姓名？”長(zhǎng)頭發(fā)的男孩重復(fù)道。“呃...好吧，讓我們想一想。威爾伯福斯...所羅門王...伊奧溫（小精靈）...”

　　“這名字可真不錯(cuò)，男女通用，”戴眼鏡的男孩說。

　　“哦，你指的是我們的名字？”第一個(gè)男孩問道，安德森憤怒地低罵著�！澳銘�(yīng)該說清楚！他是詹姆波特，我是小天狼星布萊克！”

　　“事情馬上就會(huì)變得更麻煩，你這個(gè)厚顏無恥的小——”

　　但詹姆和小天狼星都沒有注意他，他們突然變得像獵狗一樣警惕，盯著費(fèi)希爾和安德森的身后，越過警車的頂部，他們望向小巷黑暗的入口。然后，他們同時(shí)迅速把手伸到后面的口袋里。

　　在心跳聲之間，兩個(gè)警察都想象著正有許多把手槍對(duì)著他們，然而過了一會(huì)兒，他們看見那兩個(gè)騎手從口袋中拿出的不過是——

　　“小木棍？”安德森嘲笑道，“真是一對(duì)愛開玩笑的人，是不是？很好，我們要逮捕你們，罪名是——”

　　然而安德森沒能說出他們的罪名。詹姆和小天狼星大叫著說出了某些難以理解的話，前車燈的光束晃動(dòng)了一下。

　　兩個(gè)警察轉(zhuǎn)過身，然后吃驚地望向后面。三個(gè)男子正在飛——確實(shí)在飛——他們緊貼在掃帚上——與此同時(shí)，警車用后輪猛跳起來。
費(fèi)希爾兩膝一軟，他艱難地坐下來，安德森被費(fèi)希爾的腿絆倒了，摔在他身上。

　　隨著“砰砰砰”三聲巨響，他們聽到那些騎在掃帚上的人撞在仰面朝天的汽車上，顯然，他們已毫無知覺地摔倒在地上，同時(shí)，被撞壞了的掃帚的碎片嘩嘩地落在他們身邊。

　　摩托車又一次生龍活虎地咆哮起來。嘴巴大張著，費(fèi)希爾用盡全部力氣回頭看著那兩個(gè)少年。
　　“十分感謝！”小天狼星發(fā)動(dòng)了摩托車�！拔覀兦纺阋粋�(gè)人情！”

　　“是啊，非常高興遇見你們！”詹姆說，“不過別忘記：伊奧溫！那是男女通用的！”

　　隨著一聲使整個(gè)地球都顫抖的震動(dòng)聲，費(fèi)希爾和安德森驚恐地互相緊抱著對(duì)方，他們的車剛剛掉回了原位。現(xiàn)在輪到摩托車跳起來了，在兩個(gè)警察懷疑自己的眼神之前，它飛入了空中。詹姆和小天狼星沖到夜色中，他們身后的尾燈閃爍著，就像一顆將要消失的紅寶石。

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