The Evans Sisters (1)

As a Chinese person, I cooked dumplings to celebrate Christmas. As the saying went, "If you don't eat a bowl of dumplings on Christmas, nobody will care when your ears freeze off." Sure enough, Christmas called for dumplings.

Besides that, I had prepared gifts for all my friends at Hogwarts. Owls made trip after trip that morning, and the space beneath the Christmas tree hung with Chinese knots was piled full.

Of course, the Romance System hadn't spared me on Christmas, the grandest holiday in the West. Starting early that morning, it had given me a series of prompts and options, but none of them could proceed because I wasn't at school. After informing me, [Currently unable to contact the target of the romance event], the system went away disgruntled, leaving me feeling vindicated.

Since I had been back to China, everything I sent everyone this time was a Chinese specialty. I also sent Lily some frozen dumplings, along with a note telling the house-elves how to heat them.

In addition to the Chinese specialties, I sent everyone a few other things.

I sent Remus some storybooks about werewolves. I had said before that I would send him Wolverine comics, but when I got back, I remembered that Wolverine had first appeared in October 1974 and didn't exist yet, so I could only send him something else for now;

I sent Lily lots of interesting books I had collected and all sorts of little things I thought she would like;

I sent James some Chinese myths. I thought he would probably be interested in those adventure stories;

I sent Sirius the Daily Prophet's report on the Black family banquet;

I sent Snape Capital and the complete set of The State and Revolution. I really hoped he would read them and stop going on about blood purity all day, but he wouldn't be Snape if he could bring himself to read them. I even suspected he would throw my gifts straight into the bin;

I included a gift for Peter too, though it was anonymous. I would just treat it as a Christmas surprise;

I also sent the professors some Chinese specialties. Headmaster Dumbledore replied quickly, sending me a huge pile of Hogwarts Christmas treats and an enormous piece of candy. For a moment, I felt like I could use that candy cane to hit someone.

After sorting out the gifts, I hurriedly finished my dumplings and went out. Cokeworth was some distance from London, so to avoid being unable to get back that day, I bought a ticket for the earliest train. I almost missed it, practically sliding all the way there over the icy ground. The dangerous stunt made the station staff shout after me for quite a while, right up until I boarded the train.

There were few people on the train on Christmas Day. Sitting in my seat, I went over the things I would need later again and again. Only after checking them several times and confirming everything was in order did I relax.

"Crunch."

It was snowing in Cokeworth too. As soon as I stepped off the train, the snow crunched beneath my feet. I pulled my scarf tighter and took out my map, checking the house numbers one by one.

"Evans... this is the place!"

I hurriedly put everything I had prepared at the door, then knocked. The moment I faintly heard footsteps inside, I made my escape and hid nearby to watch.

"Where did they go?"

The person who opened the door was Petunia, the very person I was looking for. She instinctively looked straight ahead, but saw no one. Then she looked down and saw a pile of things on the ground, with a note on top that read, "Christmas presents for Petunia."

I noticed her face light up instantly. Almost at once, she scooped up all the gifts and carried them inside.

With that, the first step had succeeded. I breathed a sigh of relief, only to grow nervous again soon afterward.

I wondered whether Petunia would believe what I had told her. It all depended on whether she opened the Two-Way Mirror on the first day of term.

Now that the things had been delivered, I brushed the snowflakes the wind had blown onto me off my clothes and headed for the train station.

Ever since early morning, Petunia had felt that something was missing. It wasn't until she saw the gift boxes that it suddenly came back to her-

This was the first Christmas Lily wasn't home.

Her face scrunched up at the thought of that name. That freak—it was best that she wasn't home! And that horrible, filthy little spider wasn't around either. It was the best Christmas ever!

Her parents clearly didn't think so, though. While opening presents, they brought up Lily more than once, wondering about her life now. It made Petunia increasingly unhappy.

"Things from the magical world really are amazing." Dad was having a wonderful time playing with the gift Lily had sent home, while Mum kept examining the moving photograph. Petunia had been bottling up her anger, and just as she was about to burst out shouting, there was a knock at the door.

Just look at those two, so absorbed in the things the witch had brought back that they couldn't even hear someone knocking!

She angrily tossed down her fork and ran to open the door.

There was nothing outside—if she had looked more carefully, she probably would have seen a single set of footprints coming through the snow, and that those footprints now led off to the side—but Petunia noticed none of it. She simply looked around, and when she found no one there, her mood grew even worse. Just as she was about to slam the door, she noticed a pile of presents on the doorstep, with a note on top.

Oh my! Christmas presents for me, and so many of them!

In an instant, Petunia felt her heart soar. She even raised a hand to smooth her hair, but quickly realized no one would notice her fixing it at a time like this. Instead, she carried the presents inside.

"Who was at the door?" Dad only asked then.

"My..." Petunia answered quickly, "Yes, it was my friend. They came to bring me presents." As she spoke, she made a point of showing off the gifts in her arms.

"Then you should have invited your friend in. It's so cold outside." Mum quickly stood up.

"There's no one outside. I guess they dropped them off and left." Petunia skipped upstairs. "Anyway, I'm going to open my presents. I don't want to look at the things that freak sent!"

As Mum and Dad grumbled, "Honestly, that child," she dashed back to her room.

There were three boxes in all. She opened the first to find it packed full of sweets, bracelets, hair clips and things like that. Most were styles she had never seen before, but they were so pretty that she couldn't put them down. She turned them over and examined them for quite a while before remembering to open the second box.

She froze for a moment when she opened it. The second box was full of all kinds of photographs.

She picked them up and saw that they were all of Lily.

She saw a group of revolting, disgusting people pointing at Lily and laughing, and someone deliberately throwing things at her. There was also a picture of Lily walking down the road while everyone around her kept their distance.

Was this how Lily was living at Hogwarts?

For a moment, she felt a little joy. Did that freak think the magical world was such a wonderful place? Serves her right. She'd have been better off at home.

But soon, as her longing for the magical world faded, she felt a little guilty and worried. Before magic came along, the sisters had gotten on quite well. If the place they had dreamed of wasn't actually so wonderful, there had been no need for her to let things get so tense between her and Lily.

And Lily always said she was doing well in her letters home, which had made Petunia very angry at the time. Now that she thought about it...

Petunia sat there in a daze for a long time before opening the third box.

There was a mirror in the third box, with a note beside it.

"This is a Two-Way Mirror. You can use it to see another world. If you want to know more about Lily's life, open the Two-Way Mirror on the evening of January 8, the day Hogwarts starts term. I'll show you the real Hogwarts."

─────

[Author's note]

★Notice★

"A Hogwarts Romance: 1971" has no fixed main storyline. Every ending depends on the choices made along the way.

★Side quest reminder★

*Congratulations on unlocking Petunia's main storyline-[The Evans Sisters · 1]