You Two Are Both Beyond Saving

"Do you want to come watch Quidditch practice with us this afternoon?"

Not long after Lily arrived, James came into the Hospital Wing with his textbooks too. When Remus saw me, he gave me an apologetic smile. "Something happened in class, and the three of us were kept behind."

"I was wondering why James didn't come with Lily," I remarked without thinking. "Sure enough, someone has to suffer the moment I'm not there."

After all, whenever I went to class with them, Sirius was always making snide remarks at me. James was so busy keeping an eye on the two of us to stop us fighting that he had no time to pick on Snape. The moment I took sick leave, the conflict flared up again. I really couldn't relax for a second.

"Ahem." Lily cleared her throat. I immediately sat up straight and said to James gravely, "Lose your memory. Forget what I just said."

James was very unhappy with me. "Aren't we good friends?"

"We are, but Lily's a better friend," I replied at once.

James opened his mouth, then stopped. In the end, he changed the subject. "So, are you going to watch the Quidditch match? It's been almost two months, and you've barely been to Flying Class, and you haven't even managed to get off the ground once..." He kept shaking his head. "Don't tell me you have no talent for flying? I even bet Sirius you'd make the Gryffindor Quidditch Team!"

"You two bet on that?" Anyone could have guessed that Sirius had bet against me making it. Unfortunately, if it had been anything else, I could have risen to the challenge just to prove him wrong, but I really couldn't manage Quidditch. Even the me who had just arrived in this world could have given it a try.

The main reason was that my first death had been from being thrown from a great height. It had left me terrified of heights, and even the system couldn't help me overcome that fear. Never mind playing Quidditch, even walking along the edge of a tall building made my heart race and my head spin. I avoided Flying Class whenever I could. At worst, I'd get a T. All my other grades were Os anyway, and most professors didn't care about a Flying Class grade.

"So, are you going to watch Quidditch practice?" James asked persistently, though his eyes never left Lily. It was obvious what he was really after.

"No." Lily rejected him decisively. "Lin is still sick. She should be resting properly today."

"If she can't go, you can just come watch." James immediately showed his hand—or rather, his map of the State of Yan was already ridiculously short. If he'd gone to assassinate Qin Shi Huang, he probably would have been caught before he even entered the city gates.

It was painful to watch. Now I could roughly understand why, even though Snape and James hadn't clashed nearly as much, he and Lily still hadn't made any progress. With James's current emotional intelligence and way of speaking, even if Snape did nothing, James could drive Lily's affection for him to the center of the earth just by talking. Seeing Lily's expression grow increasingly sour, I hurried to distance myself from James before she looked at me. "I don't know him. Who is this? How did he get into the Hospital Wing?"

I decided not to bring this up in front of Lily again until James's brain got better.

"Hey, Merlin, you can't..." James had just started to scold me for being such a poor friend when Lily swung a slap at his head.

"Get out!"

James flew out of the Hospital Wing like a Bludger, nearly crashing into Snape, who was waiting for Lily at the door.

After throwing James out, Lily glared at me, looking rather like she was frustrated that I wouldn't live up to my potential. "You actually made friends with someone like him? He doesn't see you as a friend at all!"

At a time like this, I would never contradict Lily, so I nodded without hesitation. "He only became friends with me to get close to you. That's so awful of him!"

Remus looked at me, then at Lily, then at Sirius outside the door, who was trying to pick James up. He was caught in a terrible dilemma for a moment, apparently unsure which side he should go to.

"Lupin." I called his name, and he immediately looked over. "I don't think I'll be better this afternoon, but I'm quite curious about Quidditch practice. Could you tell me about it after you watch?"

Remus instinctively started to speak, then hesitated. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. Just as I felt he was about to faint from nerves, Madam Pomfrey walked in.

"Why are you all gathered around here?" She began ushering them out. "Hurry up and leave, all of you."

Lily gave me a few more reminders before leaving. Remus was the last to go. He glanced at me before he left, and for some reason, he looked extremely frustrated.

After what happened in the Hospital Wing, Lily's dissatisfaction with James reached its peak. When James greeted us that evening, she pulled me away with her and loudly told me not to have anything to do with certain ill-intentioned villains anymore. I nodded repeatedly, saying Lily was right, and then received [Sirius affection -1] for the first time in a while.

How touching. I'd thought it had already bottomed out.

I didn't want to upset Lily, and besides, what James had done before really had been a bit much, so I didn't speak to him for several days. Sirius and I disliked each other, so if I ignored him, he wouldn't pay me any attention either. James, on the other hand, kept following me around and trying to talk to me. He even pulled my hair from behind during class, giving me a real urge to play Quidditch on his head.

"Potter's beyond saving," even Snape told me. "An idiot like him could get himself killed without anyone doing a thing to him."

Though I very much wanted to agree, whenever I saw him hanging around Mulciber, Avery, and the others, dabbling in Dark Magic and playing tricks on ordinary students, I felt there was a certain dark humor in him saying that.

"The same goes for you, Snape," I warned him. "James will only ruin his love life at worst. If you keep this up, you'll really get yourself killed."

Snape merely sneered and ignored me. I was used to him ignoring me by now. We only seemed to get along and chat about our studies when Lily was present. As soon as she was gone, we couldn't exchange half a sentence.

Snape looked down on every ordinary wizard except Lily, which of course included me. For Lily's sake, he tried to act friendly toward me-though once, when I'd run into him and Mulciber plotting something during a nighttime excursion, he'd blurted out "Mudblood" at me. We both knew exactly how things stood. Just as James and the others tried not to bully students in front of Lily, we maintained a curious understanding.

I still went out every night. Occasionally, I ran into Snape and the others hurrying along, but more often I saw James and his group. Remus seemed to have successfully joined their little group. Several times, they looked like they wanted to talk to me, but I immediately ducked into a secret passage and carried on brewing potions.

I really couldn't change Snape, and James and Lily didn't seem to be making any progress at the moment either. My previous seven restarts had made me keenly aware that nothing I did would help until they changed their own minds. Rather than waste time obsessing over it, I might as well think about how to ease Remus's suffering.

"Halloween is next week. I'm thinking about what I could put together to celebrate."

After using up the medicinal ingredients I had on hand, I slumped in a library chair, sighing over and over. Perhaps my sighs caught Lily's attention. She gave me a questioning look, so I tossed her a note. As I wrote it, I belatedly realized that it was already almost Halloween. Time really did fly when I was immersed in studying.

I rubbed my temples. The system was suppressing me severely. Whenever I brewed a potion beyond my year level, it left me exhausted and dizzy, or even caused more serious negative conditions. After I forced myself to brew them several times, the system issued a warning and also told me [this is for game balance] and [the restriction will be lifted after a key main-story plot is unlocked].

Good heavens, if Voldemort was the main storyline, wouldn't I have to wait until fifth year?

"You haven't looked well lately. Is it because you've been preparing for this?"

Lily tossed the note back. After reading it, I instinctively rubbed my face. The system had gone so far as to warn me, so it was only natural that Lily could tell.

"No, it's mainly because..."

I was trying to think of an excuse when I suddenly sensed something approaching. I turned my head, but there was nothing there. The next moment, something was shoved into my palm. It was like seeing a ghost in broad daylight, and I nearly jumped.

"Lin?"

Perhaps my face looked even worse, because Lily asked me quietly, keeping her voice down.

"The wind's too strong." I stood up to close the window, then took out the note in my palm when Lily lowered her head and returned to her book.

"Look up."

Full of questions, I looked up. James appeared in front of a bookcase, taking off the Invisibility Cloak, though it was still draped over his head. In his arms was something that looked like a wooden board, with "Merlin, I'm sorry" written on it. When he saw me looking, he put on an extraordinarily pitiful expression. His watery eyes, like those of an abandoned little animal, shocked me so much that I nearly choked on my own saliva. James could actually make that expression! That defied science!

Fortunately, Lily was reading at the time. Only Snape noticed me staring ahead as if I'd seen a ghost, and he instinctively turned to see what was happening. But by the time he looked over, James had already put the Invisibility Cloak back on, so he saw nothing.

[Snape affection -1]

I guessed he thought I was crazy. But I really did wonder if something was wrong with me. How else could I have seen James like that?

I shook my head. That must have been a dream I'd had in the library. It seemed I really had been a bit too tired lately. I'd skip tonight's excursion and go to bed early.

─────

[Author's note]

In "A Romance at Hogwarts: 1971," everyone except Lily has their own flaws. If you choose a solo route, it's perfectly normal for him to still behave terribly. If you really can't accept that, we also offer a side route where you can crush everyone in your path. Feel free to give it a try!

★Tip★

After a conflict with James, you must have sufficient affection and have completed all previous James romance main-story achievements to receive his apology.

★Side-quest reminder★

*Congratulations on unlocking a James romance main-story achievement-[Merlin, I'm sorry]