Sirius Birthday Romance Event

"Patter, patter-"

Half asleep, I heard the steady drumming of rain. I was still lost in a dream and refused to open my eyes when a flash of light passed outside the window. A heavy peal of thunder followed, crashing against my eardrums and startling me upright.

"Rumble-"

Only after sitting up did I realize it was pouring outside. The murky dream clouding my mind faded with the noise. I lay back down on my pillow, but before I could breathe a sigh of relief, the system spoke.

[Today is November 3. The Sirius Birthday Romance Event has begun! What birthday present will you give Sirius?]

[1. A gift full of love]

[2. Birthday wishes full of love]

[3. A letter full of love]

[4. A hug full of love]

Me: "..."

I wondered whether jumping from an upper floor would let me start over.

"The thunder was so loud this morning! After it woke me up, I couldn't get back to sleep at all!"

Lily complained to me over breakfast. "The wind even blew the window open. There was water all over the floor."

Because of the rain, the sky was still gloomy at seven or eight in the morning, and the lights were on all over Hogwarts. Every so often, a student would come running in from outside with a shriek. I had no idea why they weren't using umbrellas.

"I still have plenty of Wit-Sharpening Potion." I pulled a bottle from my pocket. "Want some?"

"It's not so bad that I need a Wit-Sharpening Potion. A bit of fresh air later might do the trick."

After breakfast, the owls flew in from outside. Despite the heavy rain, they were all dry. They swooped in over our heads and dropped a huge pile of things in front of Sirius, nearly burying him.

"Wow! That's a lot of birthday presents!"

Watching Sirius dodge the presents in a fluster, his good friend James burst out laughing, looking as happy as if he'd received them himself. "But you have to open mine first." As he spoke, he handed Sirius a long, red-and-gold gift box.

Sirius rose to his feet without a care, sending the presents tumbling to the floor. He took James's gift solemnly in his hands, but didn't open it right away. I guessed he planned to look at it when he got back.

"It's Black's birthday today?"

Lily looked surprised. "I never expected him to get so many presents."

"Because he's good-looking. Good-looking people are always more popular," I said. "You'll definitely get even more presents than him on your birthday."

"I'd rather not. I don't want to deal with that many people I don't know." Lily shook her head, then asked as if something had occurred to her, "Do you think Black is good-looking too?"

"He's the best-looking boy at Hogwarts, so of course there's no arguing with his looks." I rubbed my chin. "All I can say is that after heaven gave him a face like that, it really did take away some of his good qualities. You win some, you lose some, I guess."

[Sirius's affection -1]

I didn't understand. He was so far away from me, so how on earth did he know what I was saying?

My words made Lily laugh. On the way to the Herbology classroom, she told me all about how she and Snape had made up. I was distracted the whole time, though, fretting over what on earth the Sirius Birthday Romance Event was.

Heaven knew how distraught I'd been when I saw that string of "full of love" options. For a moment, I'd seriously considered whether I'd killed too many people and disrupted the plot last time, angering the author behind the scenes and prompting this punishment. After wavering and hesitating until the system's timer approached its final second, I'd finally chosen [2. Birthday wishes full of love], steeling myself as if going to my death.

The system hadn't forced me to do anything after I made my choice, but I was sure the damn thing wouldn't let me off easily. Hopefully, I could pass by casually wishing him a happy birthday. As for "full of love"... Sirius's affection for me was already close to dropping below the lower limit. If I really did that, one of us would definitely end up in St. Elizabeths Psychiatric Hospital.

"Sirius, this is my birthday present for you. Happy birthday!"

"Black! Happy birthday!"

"Could you pass this along for me? Just give it to Black."

The classroom was in an uproar throughout the day's lessons. Herbology wasn't so bad, since we were studying plants in the greenhouse, but during the Charms Class afterward, Sirius's desk was piled high. Quite a few students from other classes brought him more presents, and one even asked me to deliver a love letter to him. To keep him from mistaking it for mine and tearing it up in front of me, I spent a long time patiently persuading the student to find someone else to deliver it.

"Good heavens, I got squeezed right out."

After Charms Class, James sighed dramatically in front of us. "Shouldn't I be the best-looking guy at Hogwarts? Those people have no taste!" He leaned toward Lily. "What do you think, Evans? Who's better-looking, Sirius or me?"

Faced with such a ridiculous question, Lily simply rolled her eyes at him. "I don't think either of you is much to look at."

"You're just saying that because you're angry. I don't believe you." James reached his conclusion.

Now I didn't think either of them was much to look at, either.

I pulled Remus over in disgust and pointed at James. "Lupin, don't ever become a narcissist like James."

"I think James is very confident. I wish I could be like that." Remus looked a little envious, which reminded me how he always felt inferior because he was a Werewolf. If only James could share a little of his confidence with him.

"That's true, but..." I'd been hoping James could make a good impression on Lily sooner rather than later, but now it felt like that was being pushed back indefinitely again...

The last class that evening was Astronomy, but it was canceled because it was still raining. The students were delighted to have one less class, while I alone stood out with a miserable look on my face.

The day was almost over, and I still hadn't found a chance to wish Sirius a happy birthday. There was a crowd around him at all times, and I was gritting my teeth with regret. Thinking about it, wouldn't a gift or a letter have been much easier than birthday wishes? The system hadn't specified what kind of gift it had to be or what the letter had to say, and I wouldn't even have had to do it in person. If I picked a leaf off the ground and handed it to Sirius, wouldn't that count as giving him a gift?

Unfortunately, it was too late. All I could do now was grab Lily and repeatedly knock my head against her back while making meaningless noises like "@#￥%&." Lily was already used to my sudden bouts of madness. She told me with great disdain to go out in the rain and clear my head, then tossed her long hair and went back to the common room with Mary to do her homework.

Abandoned by Lily, I was all alone. There was only an hour left in the day. I looked around, but Sirius had gone off somewhere, and all I could see were James and Remus doing their homework together. I didn't want to ask them where Sirius had gone, but I didn't want to sit there either, and I couldn't sleep. After dawdling for a long while, I got up and went out.

"Rumble-"

The rain had stopped for quite a while around noon, and I'd thought that was the end of it. To my surprise, it had started coming down even harder that evening. Now, once I stepped outside, I couldn't hear anything but the rain. I wandered along the corridor and, before I knew it, arrived at the Astronomy Tower.

Normally, entry to the Astronomy Tower was forbidden except for Astronomy lessons, but the door was open. Maybe it was because we'd originally had Astronomy that night. I slipped inside and found the windows wide open, the wind driving rain through them and bringing a biting chill. November nights were already cold, and after standing there for a while, I began to shiver. I moved over to the windows to shut them.

It was a simple enough thing to do, but while closing a window, I made the terrible mistake of glancing down. This was the highest point in all of Hogwarts, and the instant I took in the dizzying height, I began to tremble violently and go weak at the knees, terrified that the wind would drag me down. Holding the window frame, I carefully tried to move back, but before I could, a voice suddenly rang out behind me.

"What are you doing here? Didn't you know Astronomy was canceled?"

If Sirius hadn't moved quickly, I'd probably have fallen from the Astronomy Tower.

"Could you... stop talking all of a sudden when you're wearing the Invisibility Cloak?"

The feeling of almost falling had been terrifying. After Sirius pulled me back, I clung to him like a koala and refused to let go. "One day, you or James is going to scare me to death."

"...Let go first." Sirius hesitated for a long while before finally forcing out those words.

"I'm scared," I said honestly. "You think I want to hug you?"

"If you don't, then let go." A look of disgust appeared on Sirius's face. He looked like he wanted to shout; it must have been hard for him to keep his voice down. "If I'd known this would happen, I wouldn't have saved you."

"Have some shame. If you hadn't spoken, would I have nearly fallen?" I tried to let go, but my fingers were still shaking from that momentary feeling of weightlessness. I tried for a long time without succeeding.

Sirius had probably had enough of watching me struggle. He let out a long sigh, then crouched down.

"Relax." His tone was still unpleasant, which was no surprise. He hated me so much that he'd probably wash the clothes he was wearing ten times when he got back. "I'm not actually going to throw you down there."

"Really? I don't believe you. Swear it."

"If you say another word, I really will throw you out."

"Stingy."

Sirius: "..."

I finally fell silent, and the Astronomy Tower became so quiet that only the patter of rain could be heard. It reminded me that the last time I'd spent time with Sirius had also been on a rainy day. It seemed like nothing good ever happened when I ran into Sirius in the rain. Maybe I'd better stay inside on rainy days from now on.

Sirius was half crouched on the floor. He hesitated for a while before taking my hand. Compared with my icy body, his hand was quite hot, and the warmth relaxed my body, which had grown stiff with cold. Only then did I finally feel like my feet were on solid ground.

"Are you afraid of heights?" he asked.

"Something like that," I answered vaguely. I didn't want him to know that I was terrified of heights.

"No wonder you changed the subject every time James invited you to Quidditch practice." The rain was so loud that I couldn't tell whether the soft chuckle I heard was my imagination. "And you haven't flown even once in Flying Class."

"You knew that?" I was very surprised. I thought I'd done a decent job of hiding my fear of heights. Even Lily hadn't noticed yet, but Sirius had?

After I asked, Sirius's previously gentle expression immediately grew tense again. He stopped talking, flung my hand away as if throwing out rubbish, and stood up abruptly.

"I'm going back." He brushed off his coat as if I were something dirty. "You'd better hurry back too. Don't lose Gryffindor any more points."

"Have you been possessed?" I was astounded. "You actually care about losing points?"

Sirius's expression grew even uglier. I thought I was about to get a notification like "Sirius's affection -xx," but to my surprise, nothing appeared. He just glared at me, turned, and made to leave. As he was about to step out of the Astronomy Tower, I suddenly remembered my task and hurriedly called after him.

"Wait, Black!"

He didn't stop, continuing straight toward the door.

"Happy birthday," I said to him.

At that moment, Sirius seemed to pause, but he soon disappeared from view. It didn't matter, though. As the bells rang to mark midnight, the system remained silent, with no notification at all. I figured the task must have been completed.

As long as the task was done, that was all that mattered.

I stretched and returned to the Gryffindor Common Room, yawning.

─────

[Author's note]

★Tip★

Before entering a route, everyone has their own birthday romance event. However, every option depends on the current affection level. If affection is too low, even choosing a more intimate option won't unlock the related storyline. Each option's subsequent storyline differs depending on affection.

If affection is high enough, the other person will seek you out, so there's no need to worry about missing a birthday romance event.

As for "full of love," it's just a little embellishment for the romance event.

★Side quest reminder★

*Congratulations on triggering the Sirius Birthday Romance Event-[Astronomy Tower]