《HP官方资料翻译集（人物篇）》霁随心

57、科维努斯·冈特

　　科维努斯·冈特（Corvinus Gaunt）
　　斯莱特林的直系后代，伏地魔的祖先，生活于18世纪，蛇佬腔。曾在霍格沃茨管道改建时保护密室入口。

　　【链接】
　　冈特家族：http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=2443774&chapterid=86
　　伏地魔：http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=2443774&chapterid=96

　　以下关于密室，涉及科维努斯·冈特的翻译取自豆瓣上的日志，译者WitchWillow，地址：http://www.豆瓣.com/note/299586351/ （豆瓣改成拼音），微改。

　　地下密室是萨拉査·斯莱特林瞒着霍格沃茨另外三位创始人创建的。许多世纪以来人们都认为密室只是个传说；然而这一流言流传了如此之久，这说明斯莱特林提及过密室，听者也相信它的存在，或许还有人在斯莱特林的允许下进入过密室。
　　四位创始人无疑都希望在这个魔法学校留下他们自己的印记，他们努力使这个学校成为世界上最好的地方。他们一致同意各自建造自己的学院，可以自己挑选公共休息室和寝室的位置。不过，只有斯莱特林更进了一步：他在学校内建造了一个实际上非常私人的秘密总部，只有他自己或者他允许的人才能进入。
　　也许斯莱特林最早建造密室只是为了在那儿教他的学生们一些其他三位创始人反对的咒语（黑魔法课一开始就遭到了反对）。然而，正如密室的装潢所意味的那样，当斯莱特林完成密室时，他认为自己在学校有着夸大的举足轻重的地位。其他三位创始人中没有一位留下他们自己的巨大雕像，也没有一位用象征他们个人力量的徽章来装饰学院（刻于密室的蛇就象征着斯莱特林作为一个蛇佬腔的力量）。可以肯定的是，当斯莱特林被其他三位创始人赶出学校的时候，他决定从今以后，这间密室将是一个怪兽的巢穴，只有他或者他的后代才能控制这个怪兽——蛇怪。并且，只有蛇佬腔才能进入密室。他知道，这一点就能防止其他三位创始人以及其他教师进入。

　　密室的存在只有斯莱特林的后人们和他们选择告诉的人知道。所以几个世纪以来传言经久不息。
　　有明显证据显示自斯莱特林死后到在二十世纪汤姆·里德尔进入密室，这间密室不止一次被打开过。刚刚建好时，进入密室需要通过一个隐蔽的活板门和一系列魔法隧道。然而，当十八世纪时霍格沃茨的水管设施越来越繁多密集时（这是一个巫师向麻瓜学习的罕见例子，因为到那时为止他们也只是站着方便，然后消除证据），密室入口因为位于拟建的盥洗室里而受到了威胁。当时学校里有一个叫科维努斯·冈特的学生——斯莱特林的直系后代，也是汤姆·里德尔的祖先——解释了活板门是怎样被秘密保护起来，在新管道建立在密室入口上面之后还是可以进入密室。
　　关于城堡里面住着一个怪兽的流言在几个世纪里也广为流传。这也是因为那些可以听到怪兽、和怪兽交流的人通常没那么谨言慎行：冈特家族根本忍不住四处吹嘘他们知道的一切。因为没有其他人能听到这个怪兽在地板下或是后来在水管里滑行的声音，相信他们的人并不多，直到在里德尔大胆把城堡里的怪兽放了出来。
　　几个世纪以来，历任校长，更不用说许多历史学家，都对城堡进行过好几次彻底的搜查，每一次都总结说密室只是个传说。他们没能找到的原因很简单：他们之中没人是蛇佬腔。

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作者有话要说：　　关于密室的英文原文对照：
The subterranean Chamber of Secrets was created by Salazar Slytherin without the knowledge of his three fellow founders of Hogwarts. The Chamber was, for many centuries, believed to be a myth; however, the fact that rumours of its existence persisted for so long reveals that Slytherin spoke of its creation and that others believed him, or else had been permitted, by him, to enter.
There is no doubt that each of the four founders sought to stamp their own mark upon the school of witchcraft and wizardry that they intended would be the finest in the world. It was agreed that each would construct their own houses, for example, choosing the location of common rooms and dormitories. However, only Slytherin went further, and built what was in effect a personal, secret headquarters within the school, accessible only by himself or by those he allowed to enter.
Perhaps, when he first constructed the Chamber, Slytherin wanted no more than a place in which to instruct his students in spells of which the other three founders may have disapproved (disagreements sprung up early around the teaching of the Dark Arts). However, it is clear by the very decoration of the Chamber that by the time Slytherin finished it he had developed grandiose ideas of his own importance to the school. No other founder left behind them a gigantic statue of themselves or draped the school in emblems of their own personal powers (the snakes carved around the Chamber of Secrets being a reference to Slytherin's powers as a Parselmouth).What is certain is that by the time Slytherin was forced out of the school by the other three founders, he had decided that henceforth, the Chamber he had built would be the lair of a monster that he alone - or his descendants - would be able to control: a Basilisk. Moreover, only a Parselmouth would be able to enter the Chamber. This, he knew, would keep out all three founders and every other member of staff.
The existence of the Chamber was known to Slytherin's descendants and those with whom they chose to share the information. Thus the rumour stayed alive through the centuries.
There is clear evidence that the Chamber was opened more than once between the death of Slytherin and the entrance of Tom Riddle in the twentieth century. When first created, the Chamber was accessed through a concealed trapdoor and a series of magical tunnels. However, when Hogwarts' plumbing became more elaborate in the eighteenth century (this was a rare instance of wizards copying Muggles, because hitherto they simply relieved themselves wherever they stood, and vanished the evidence), the entrance to the Chamber was threatened, being located on the site of a proposed bathroom. The presence in school at the time of a student called Corvinus Gaunt -direct descendant of Slytherin, and antecedent of Tom Riddle - explains how the simple trapdoor was secretly protected, so that those who knew how could still access the entrance to the Chamber even after newfangled plumbing had been placed on top of it.
Whispers that a monster lived in the depths of the castle were also prevalent for centuries. Again, this is because those who could hear and speak to it were not always as discreet as they might have been: the Gaunt family could not resist boasting of their knowledge. As nobody else could hear the creature sliding beneath floorboards or, latterly, through the plumbing, they did not have many believers, and none, until Riddle, dared unleash the monster on the castle.
Successive headmasters and mistresses, not to mention a number of historians, searched the castle thoroughly many times over the centuries, each time concluding that the chamber was a myth. The reason for their failure was simple: none of them was a Parselmouth.