After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle.
記了一大難復雜的筆記之后，每個人都分到了一根火柴，大家開始使足勁兒要把這根火柴變成一支針。
By the end of the lesson, only Hermione Granger had made any difference to her match;
然而，一節課結束時，只有荷米恩·格林佐使她的火柴有一點點變化。
Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave Hermione a rare smile.
麥康娜教授讓全班人都看了如何讓這支火柴變得銀白和變尖，還給了荷米恩一個非常少見的微笑。
The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke.
大家都盼望著上的課程是黑巫術防御法，因此這門課程的老師屈拉，他上的課實在太搞笑了。
His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania，
屈拉上課時，教室里總是彌漫著一股濃烈的大蒜味。人們傳說這是屈拉教授為了避開以前在羅馬尼亞遇到過的一個吸血鬼。
and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days.
屈拉一直擔心那個吸血鬼會有一天跑回來找他。
His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie,
他那頂纏頭巾狀的帽子，據他自己講是某個非洲王子為了感謝他幫忙趕走一個難纏的還魂僵尸而送給他的。
but they weren't sure they believed this story.
不過，大家都不怎么相信這個故事。

For one thing, when Seamus Finnigan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie,
因為有一次謝默斯·范尼更好奇地問他是怎么大戰還魂僵尸時，
Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather;
屈拉的臉馬上就紅了，還借故談起天氣以轉移話題。
for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban,
而且大家發現屈拉的頭巾帽子總是散發著一種奇特的味兒，
and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.
威斯里家的雙胞胎堅持說那也是大蒜的味道。如此說來，屈拉對吸血鬼的防衛真是從頭到腳，武裝到了牙齒呢。
Harry was very relieved to find out that he wasn't miles behind everyone else.
哈利發現他與班上其他同學的差距并不大，這使他悄悄松了一口氣。
Lots of people had come from Muggle families and, like him, hadn't had any idea that they were witches and wizards.
大部分同學都是來自一般家庭，而且都跟他一樣，一點兒也不覺得自己是個女巫或男巫。
There was so much to learn that even people like Ron didn't have much of a head start.
這兒實在有太多東西要學了，即使像羅恩那樣的人也沒有超前太多。