Готовый перевод Тейлор Поттер и философский виал / Taylor Potter and the Philosophical Vial: Тейлор Поттер и Тайное Измерение Глава 1. Дурсли и Уизли

Chapter 1. Dursleys and Weasleys
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July 31, 2022, Little Bay

Fireflies danced and swirled, spelling out "Happy Birthday, Taylor!" Beneath them, moths, butterflies, flies, and dragonflies mimicked a giant cake with twelve candles. It was all Taylor could do because the Dursleys weren't planning on celebrating her birthday. At all. Friends didn't write, call, or visit, as if they'd forgotten that Taylor Potter, the Girl Who Lived, existed. And the emails Taylor sent seemed to vanish into obscurity: no replies, no error messages.

Nothing.

She felt her mother Sophia, and mother Emma, approaching, and sighed softly, not allowing any hope to arise that she would be congratulated. If Taylor had real parents, they would undoubtedly have congratulated their daughter and bought her a huge cake and everything else, but alas, they died in a car accident when Taylor was only a year old.

The door to Taylor's room swung open as if someone was trying to break it down.

"So!" Sophia Dursley, a muscular, athletically built black woman, pointed her finger at Taylor as if she was going to pierce her.

Taylor recoiled involuntarily, her glasses slipped off, and Sophia instantly became a blur of black. A pink blur joined the black blur, which, after she put the glasses back on, transformed into Emma Dursley, a beauty and model whose looks and figure Taylor, let's face it, secretly envied. Potter considered herself skinny, awkward, with overly long arms and legs, an overly wide mouth, and unkempt hair, and there was no one to explain to her that this was normal for a child entering adolescence.

“Important people will come today,” Sophia continued in a threatening tone, “and we will discuss an important matter.

"Mom's going to be on TV!" squealed Madison, Emma and Sophia's daughter and Taylor's cousin, sticking her head out from behind her parents.

"What are you talking about?" Taylor asked.

"None of your business!" Sophia Dursley snapped. "You don't come to dinner, you don't leave your room, you don't disgrace us with your appearance, you sit quietly and do NOTHING. Is that clear to you?"

She stroked Emma Dursley's shoulder affectionately, looking at his wife adoringly, then turned to Taylor, her expression changing from amorous to fierce. Potter, realizing what was going on, sighed softly and bowed her head.

"I got it."

There was no doubt that if she ruined "Aunt Emma's" modeling contract, that was it. Just that, no further clarification or additions.

That evening, Taylor lay bored on her bed, rereading her intrigue textbook from last year. "The rate of spread of rumors, given a normal distribution of villains, is defined as the ratio..." and Taylor couldn't help but yawn. As much of a jerk as Thomas Snape was as a person, he told all this much more vividly and interestingly. Then the tablet vibrated and twitched. The pages of the textbook gave way to an image of a cartoonish, misshapen head with an elongated nose and ears, and tufts of hair sticking out in all directions. Under the head was writing.

\\"Don't go anywhere!"

The next second, the Dursleys' house went crazy. The climate control system cranked up the heat as if it were the dead of winter, the televisions flickered through channels, the stereo system switched to some modern pop that sounded like the howls of a hungry cat, everything beeped and chirped, announcing something, the printers spat out printouts of obscene images, and even the modest mailpad at the entrance began babbling like a deranged parrot, announcing the receipt of at least a hundred letters every second.

The bedlam was crowned by an alarm siren, howling from somewhere above, as if a war had begun.

This time, the door simply flew off its hinges. Behind the enraged Sophia stood Emma Dursley, drenched and covered in something, pitiful and dejected, frustrated to the point of being completely incapable of doing anything. All Taylor's attempts to explain that it wasn't her, that her superpower had nothing to do with it, that she hadn't done anything at all, were in vain, drowned out by the thunderous peals of obscenities spewed by Aunt Sophia.

"An eye for an eye!" She growled, tired of swearing.

A strong blow burned Taylor's face, then a knee slammed into her stomach, and more blows to her ribs, to her back, to her head.

"That's for the physical harm!" Sophia shouted from above. "And for the emotional harm, you'll be arrested in the basement! And you won't come out until you make amends!"

Taylor didn't understand how she could make amends without leaving the basement, but there was no point in explaining now. She was knocked down and dragged by the scruff of her neck into the basement, tossed there like a naughty kitten.

Lying on the old, smelly, hard mattress she'd found in the corner, Taylor sobbed with frustration. She could feel Aunt Emma sobbing just like her upstairs, and Sophia comforting her, stroking, rubbing, and kissing her. There was no one to comfort her, and that made the hurt doubly worse, so she continued to cry and sob.

Just when Taylor was in despair and about to give up — the metal-clad door and window bars were defying her efforts, neither hers nor the insects' — she felt something. It was as if one of her insects had decided to take pity on her and was sending her a comforting impulse. Then, a whisper came from outside.

"I'm telling you for sure, she's right here!"

"Amy?!" Taylor asked with a wild, flaring hope, managing to suppress her scream in time and replace it with a whisper.

Amy Weasley, her best friend and classmate, is here! All is not lost!

"And not only that," came the answer. "Come on, Eric!"

The bars of the grate began to be squeezed by a force field, but they immediately stopped. The field was working, but the bars, slipping out of their sockets, creaked so loudly they could have woken the entire town. There was a murmur outside, then a laser beam appeared, beginning to burn through the bars. They hissed and heated up, the beam cutting through the bars, but slowly, and Taylor clenched her teeth and fists in anticipation. At any moment, the Dursleys could wake up and... do something. Taylor didn't know what, but she didn't expect anything good after today's events. Before this, in the past six weeks, everything had been relatively tolerable. The Dursleys were a little afraid of Taylor's superpowers, even if they didn't show it, but breaking the contract?

"What are you messing around about?" Another voice, unfamiliar to Taylor, came from outside. "Get it to me!"

"Victoria, don't!" Amy cried, but it was too late.

With a crash and a bang, a section of the wall with the bars crashed into the basement, and Taylor barely managed to jump out of the way. Glowing, shining like a beacon in the night, Victoria Weasley, Amy's younger sister, punched a hole in the wall and let out a joyful whoop.

"Taylor! I'll save you!"

"Damn it! They're awake!" Taylor screamed, feeling movement above her. "We need to get out of here as fast as we can!"

Victoria scooped Taylor up, and Potter felt a little uneasy under the young fan's adoring gaze. They flew through the hole, Eric and Crystal Weasley, the twin brother and sister, already floating in the air, catching Amy, who waved hello to her friend. The five of them soared upward, toward the bright moon, followed by Sophia Dursley's furious scream.

"You will pay for this, you naughty girl!"

"Don't worry," Amy Taylor shouted, "Lisa will think of something!"

Lisa Granger, Taylor's second best friend, possessed the superpower of a Thinker and was quite the inventor. Potter breathed a sigh of relief – she hadn't been forgotten!

"You can hug me around the neck," Victoria giggled in her ear, "it will be easier for you, and it will be more pleasant for me to carry you!"

"Haven't anyone told you that you're quite straightforward?" Taylor sighed in response.

Victoria said nothing, just smiled, hummed, and giggled quietly all the way to the Weasleys' house, the so-called Loft.

The Weasley house was unlike any other, and that was hardly surprising, as it was inhabited by capes, people with superpowers. The Loft had five floors and an attic, where one of Amy's first failed experiments rustled and howled. The Weasleys themselves jokingly nicknamed it a Ghoul, but overall, the creature was relatively harmless, meeting the requirements for an artificially bred creature (ABC) and cleaning the attic of dust, spiders, and flies. The house was adorned with numerous turrets, balconies, and landing pads — most of the Weasley capes could fly — and the vast garden surrounding the Loft was given a slight Stranger effect to distract people and cause them to pass by without noticing anything unusual. Here you could fly, relax, experiment with powers, talk about them, and just do whatever you wanted. The head of the family - Sarah Weasley - treated Taylor and Lisa like her children, in addition to the seven she already had.

Needless to say, Taylor liked life in the Weasley house much more than life in the Dursley house.

* * *
August 12, 2022

Officially, the reason for visiting Toybox Alley was textbooks and supplies, but de facto, everyone was there to have fun and stretch, since there, in one of the pocket dimensions, they could show off their superpowers.

"It didn’t work out this year, but come and visit me next summer,” Lisa said.

"What about your dentist parents?" Taylor smiled. "How do they feel about you bringing two girls home?"

"Well, you don't think they'll immediately pull all your teeth out for this, do you?" Granger burst out laughing. "And besides, I'm Thinker, I'll think of something. It won't be boring, believe me! Oops, sorry, Taylor, I didn't mean to remind you of the events of this summer. So, I've been digging through your tablet, studying the videos and so on, and I can tell you straight: it's clear that this case is unclear."

Amy, who had been listening to her friends' conversation, giggled quietly.

"Okay, everyone, gather up," Sarah Weasley's voice was heard. "It's time to go!"

"Are we going to fly?" Taylor asked.

"We'll go by fireplace," Amy explained.

"What?"

"Fireplaceis a Console-Activated Module of Destination Interpretation," Lisa interjected, adjusting her blond hair, "or, simply put, a teleporter booth. Unlike capes-teleporters, it can only send you to another such booth, but for traveling between cape enclaves, there's no better way. Fast, cheap, convenient."
T.N. Here again there is a problem with the translation of abbreviations.

"I never use it," Taylor blinked.

"There's nothing complicated about it, I'll teach you in a moment!"

The booth was truly simple. You enter, type in the name of your destination (the code for the desired booth), and you're teleported. As Lisa explained, this method of typing helps avoid pronunciation errors and misinterpretations, as the booth simply won't work if the name is entered incorrectly. Also, teleportation occurs one at a time to avoid mixing up people in the event of possible errors in sending and receiving.

Leading by example, Carol Weasley, Prefect of Wormwarts, the Cape school where Taylor had been studying since last year, stepped into the booth and quickly typed in a name. There was a slight flash, a pop, and the booth cleared.

"Go ahead, it's your turn," Sarah smiled kindly. Taylor swallowed and stepped into the cabin.

Under the watchful eyes of the Weasley family, she typed "Toybox Alley" into the keypad beneath the screen and pressed the start button. There was a flash and a pop, and half-blinded and deafened, Taylor instinctively turned to her superpower and the insects around her. She immediately realized something had gone wrong. She should have been in the square at the center of Toybox Alley, in one of the communal fireplaces, not in some room. Without waiting for the alarm to go off or the owners of the room to appear, Taylor rushed out of the building. Fortunately, the 3D map was right before her eyes, thanks to the insects. Her Quidditch practice and Tactician game had not been in vain, and Taylor even felt a moment of joy.

But just for a second.

A gloomy alleyway stretched around them, lined with gloomy capes and gloomy, shabby buildings. "UnSQUELAR Cars," read the sign on one, beneath a picture of a grotesquely enormous automobile. "Elite Goods, Uber Training," read the window of another, where a cartoon, animated video game character was pulverizing some villains. Taylor even paused for a moment, wondering if the store was connected to Uber and L33t from the Eidolorin Quidditch team.

"Feel like a king – sex in another person's body!" A guy in a crown and scepter winked at Taylor. "Acid tattoos and highs!" a lizard, its tongue lolling, licked its lips and hissed. "Bakud's explosive discounts on all stink bombs! Until you're our client, you're safe from explosions!"

And capes, capes all around, in dark suits, looming, tugging at Taylor, vying with each other to offer different things.

"A girl? A boy? A pony?"

"Superpower in powder, take it, you won’t regret it!"

"Do you want to fly to the moon?"

"Whose gang are you from?"

"Would you like to earn some extra money?"

Taylor was being harassed from all sides, hovering, breathing in her face, and she retreated, weighing her tactics and strategy. Obeying her will, the insects from this and the neighboring alleys swarmed in, huddling together, and yet, at the same time, it might not be enough. Suddenly, the crowd parted, something enormous approached Taylor, and licked her face.

"Fang!" Potter exclaimed joyfully, recognizing the dogs and their owner. "Rachel!"

"Get in," Hagrid snapped, sitting on the back of the huge dog.

"Hey, she owes us money!" someone stepped forward.

Hagrid silently kicked him in the face, and the alley dweller flew back and hit the wall.

"A lie," Hagrid said curtly, sending Fang forward.

The crowd parted, and Fang burst out of the alley in a few huge leaps, finding himself, to Taylor's great amazement, in Toybox Alley. Hagrid immediately helped her off the dog and spoke curtly.

"The Fallen Alleys are no place for students," she said, and then ran off.

Taylor watched thoughtfully, then turned and looked at the dark alley behind her. What was Hagrid doing there? Why had Taylor been transported to an alley of... um, Fallen? The memory came to her of its own accord: ERISED and the words about Taylor's mother, "Annette Potter single-handedly destroying a gang of Fallen!" Probably a catchall term for all sorts of criminal elements, Taylor decided, and the name was surprisingly fitting, and it was all worth pondering or asking the clever Lisa Granger, but later.

"Taylor!" Victoria swooped down on her. "Where have you been? We lost you!"

Because now was the time for friends, fun and a walk along the Toybox Alley!

They walked, shopped, had fun, and socialized until they were exhausted. They attended a meeting where Niceguy Lockhart, the new DADA teacher this year, was presenting his new book, "Friendly Capes of Africa." Handsome and charming, he immediately captivated both Amy and Taylor; even Lisa gritted her teeth and admitted that Lockhart was a sweetheart. Niceguy himself was delighted to see Taylor, got her autograph under the flashing lights of the cameras, and presented her with a complete, licensed edition of his books, along with an electronic frame containing twenty portraits — everyday photographs of Lockhart.

Otherwise, there were no problems, as the subjects at Wormwarts this year were the same as last year, and all that was needed was a few extra supplies. The spandex suits were quite stretchy, but Taylor decided she'd also like a suit with special pockets for Quidditch. Lisa wanted a special mask with built-in night vision and heat vision devices, and Amy wanted to decorate her own clothes. The whole thing culminated in a massive shopping spree, led by Victoria, who declared she knew everything.

"Your sister's enthusiasm scares me," Taylor remarked, not looking up from her chocolate shake.

She, Amy, and Lisa sat in the ice cream parlor while Victoria, laden with shopping, flew off to pick up Sarah Weasley.

"She's a fan of yours," Lisa giggled, licking the spoon she was using to scoop up scoops of ice cream.

"And from the very birth," Amy added gloomily, "when she was told stories about the Girl Who Lived."

"It's okay, she'll see you in person and calm down," Lisa encouraged her.

Then Taylor recounted her adventures in Fallen Alley, and Lisa, frowning, pursued the details at length, but offered no conclusions. Taylor was extremely nervous when being sent to the Loft, but there was no malfunction, and she traveled safely.

And nothing else strange happened until the very departure to Wormwarts.

* * *

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http://notabenoid.org/book/88456/594121

Переводчики: Camrad_RIP