7、13.10.1952 ...
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亲爱的盖勒特：
无论在迷信之中这个日子有多可怕，这将又是一个平和的十三号。* 如今正是英国的好年景。安适如常。感谢你的来信——尽管是闷闷不乐的。我想我看见了你昔日便具备的诗歌才华，它在你的谈话中如此闪耀，彰显着丝毫未损的风采。
是，我对自己都对你做过些什么心知肚明。我不会为了那一切必要的事情而道歉。必须有人阻止你继续持有足以伤害世界的力量。为了——好吧，为了更伟大的事业。* 并且鉴于我是这么一个固执己见的老顽固——几周前有个学生对我做出了这个令人难忘的评价——我绝不会去谋杀你。（为了更符合那样的形象，我甚至已经长了一些白发了。）而当我想到一个像你这样灼目的天才灵魂正在虚度着这漫漫长日，我感到难过。听闻你遭受的磨难亦会令我感到悲伤。但愿这至少能为你提供一点乐子。
你拥有绝对的知情权，盖勒特，你值得完全了解我对那次决斗的战利品的意图。（我承认，我认同你那些基于严谨言辞之上的爱好，鉴于其中所意味着的本性。）如果我能成功地打破它血腥的传承史，我想要把它带进我的坟墓里……好吧，就像他们说的那样，我是个老顽固。但是，基于我现在所看到的一切，我相信这是对这个世界来说更好的选择。
在一些特殊的事情上我无法预料你的反应，这必然是其中之一。我得承认这一点。
我必须得再一次道歉，因为——如果你当时摆弄那些冰是打算教给我俄罗斯地理的话，我恐怕你是失败了的。因为我那时候失神地太厉害，没办法集中任何应当的注意力。我总觉得这里边有些古怪。虽然那时候我们已经相识了大概两个月，并且我认可那样的燃情岁月的确非常迷人，可你提起它的次数也太频繁了。那短暂的时光对你真有那么重要吗？它分明在你离开时就被抛弃了。
我真希望你能早点告诉我那些看守们做的一切。那样的话，我就会立刻让人把他们换掉，一串小恩小惠足矣。相信我，当我说出我不希望从你所得的惩罚中看到如此屈辱时，我已经因此在愤火中倍感煎熬。
我必须去工作了。
此致谢忱，
阿不思·邓布利多
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[原文]
October 13th, 1952
Dear Gellert,
Again the thirteenth is peaceful, however much the superstitious fear it. These have been good years for England. Very quiet. Thank you for your letter, however sulky. You retain, I see, that talent for poetry that so sparkled your conversation in your youth.
Yes, I know full well what I have done to you. I will not apologize for what was necessary. You had to be removed from power, kept from harming the world, because—well, for the greater good. And seeing as I am a self-righteous old dingbat, as a student most memorably dubbed me a few weeks ago, I would not have murdered you. (I'm even getting some gray hair myself, to properly look the part.) And yet it saddens me, to think of a mind and talent as brilliant as yours wasting away in taffy days; and it saddens me to hear of your suffering. I hope I can provide at least some s|mall joys.
I think you deserve to know, Gellert, in confidence, of my intentions for what I won from you in that duel. (I admit that I agree with your habit of circumspect wording, given the nature of it.) I intend to take it with me to my grave. If I can succeed in breaking its bloody history...well, as it's been said, I'm a dingbat. But I believe, with all that I've now seen, that the world is better off without it.
This is one of those peculiar cases in which I'm unable to anticipate your reaction, I must admit.
I must make one more apology, though—if your intent, that time with the ice, was indeed to teach me Russian geography, I'm afraid you quite failed, as I was far too distracted at the time to pay proper attention. I find it odd, though—we knew each other for perhaps two months, and I admit the passion was intriguing, yet you write on it so often. Was that brief time, which you threw away when you left, really so important to you
I wish you had told me earlier, what those guards were doing to you. I would have had them removed at once, if only through chains of favors. Believe me when I say I had no wish for such degradations to be a part of your sentence; your words left me burning hot with outrage.
I must to work.
With thanks,
AD
作者有话说
第7章 13.10.1952
