The Evans Sisters (2)

I hadn't wanted to sit with James, but as soon as I arrived at the station, I saw him talking to his parents about Quidditch. I was about to slip into the crowd and hide, but the bastard had such sharp eyes that he spotted me at once.

"You're the only one on the platform with black hair. It would've been hard not to notice you." James seemed baffled by my complaints, but he soon put everything else out of his mind and launched into a long account of how many Quidditch matches he'd played over Christmas and how well he'd done. Since Lily had stayed at Hogwarts, I had no choice but to listen to his lecture with Remus. I really wasn't interested, and before long I fell asleep, only to be shaken awake by James when it was time to get off the train.

"No one's ever fallen asleep during a lecture by the great Potter. You're the first!" James seemed utterly astonished that anyone could be indifferent to Quidditch. He gestured like an Italian to express his shock, nearly hitting Remus, who was walking beside him.

"Oh, really?" I said coldly. "I'm deeply honored."

Once we reached school, James started repeating everything he'd said on the train to Sirius. As I marveled at how he could repeat the same speech several times, word for word, with so much enthusiasm, I handed out the little gifts I'd prepared to the classmates around me.

"Thank you for your Christmas present." After I'd tossed out a round of gifts, Remus came over while everyone was busy unwrapping theirs. He stood so close I could almost feel his breath. "I really like it."

"I'm glad you like it. I was worried there might be cultural differences." I didn't understand why he'd come so close, but I decided he was probably just shy. Lowering my voice, I leaned in toward him too. "I translated those Chinese novels myself."

Remus's eyes sparkled, and he looked ready to say something else, but Sirius's voice rang out at a very inopportune moment.

"I sent you a proper Christmas present, Merlin, and all you sent me was a lousy newspaper." He shook the thing in his hand as he spoke. I couldn't believe he'd kept that newspaper until now. I'd thought he'd blast it to pieces with an Avada Kedavra the moment he received it. "Honestly, some people are so petty."

I was about to fire back when the system options suddenly popped up. I hadn't seen them all holiday and had almost forgotten they existed, so they gave me quite a fright.

[Sirius feels a little hurt that I didn't give him a proper present...]

[1. I didn't expect him to care so much. Burst into tears.]

[2. Tell him that I am his present.]

[3. Ignore him and go to sleep.]

I didn't even want to complain about how ridiculous the options were. I just wanted to ask what it meant by "Sirius feels a little hurt that I didn't give him a proper present." System, stop assigning people random thoughts!

"Heh, I don't think a toy spider counts as a proper present." I shrugged at him. "Unfortunately for you, I'm not afraid of bugs." Then I deliberately put on the expression of an American school bully. "Oh, could it be that our dear young Master Black is afraid of spiders, and that's why he thought of using one to scare people?"

Sirius's face darkened at once. I felt that I'd mastered the art of mockery. If I were dropped into an American high school show now, I could probably make it as the baseball team captain with a cheerleading captain girlfriend who had a great figure.

Strangely, though, Sirius didn't deduct any affection points this time. He just put the newspaper away and didn't look at me again.

"You haven't seen each other in so long, and you're already arguing..." Lily sounded helpless. "I really don't know how much Sirius must hate you."

"Children are always contrary." I started eating my fries. "He'll understand my good intentions when he grows up. I really hope Mrs. Walburga knows how hard this is for me."

Lily couldn't help laughing. Perhaps she laughed too loudly, because even Snape glanced over.

After dinner, everyone went back to the dormitories, while I alone headed outside. Everyone was used to me doing the opposite by now; sometimes, it attracted attention only when I didn't go out at night. I'd planned to take the Two-Way Mirror and bring Petunia to the Forbidden Forest to show her the dangers of the magical world, but I'd barely taken two steps when James appeared out of nowhere and clapped me enthusiastically on the shoulder.

"Merlin, want to go on an adventure with us tonight?" He looked very mysterious. "Sirius said he discovered something incredible over Christmas."

[James invited me out for a nighttime excursion...]

[1. Hug James enthusiastically. "I've wanted to do this for ages"!]

[2. Refuse. I only want to spend time alone with Sirius.]

[3. Refuse. I only want to spend time alone with Remus.]

[4. Refuse. I want to spend tonight with Lily.]

[5. Refuse and say I'm going to find Snape.]

[6. Forget it. Go to sleep.]

???

Should I be grateful this wasn't some kind of romance event? Otherwise, everything really would have been over.

"Sorry, James, I'm planning to brew a potion tonight." I lied through my teeth. "I've already tried it many times over the holiday, and I really can't think about anything else. You go ahead without me." Without waiting for anything else he might say, I darted toward the door and nearly collided with a student coming in.

"Sorry, sorry, I was in too much of a hurry."

I apologized instinctively, then turned to see Sirius's face, looking as though I owed him the entire Black family's honor.

"So you do know how to apologize?" he mocked coolly. But I didn't have time to bother with him, so I pretended not to see him and barged right past his shoulder. Sirius staggered, and his previously lazy, hands-in-pockets expression turned to one of utter shock.

"Childish!" Sirius introduced himself.

I took the Two-Way Mirror and ran all the way to the secret passage where I'd brewed potions before. I actually hadn't lied; I'd always planned to show Petunia what I could do-though the ingredients I used might frighten her into screaming.

"Good evening, Petunia."

I took out the Two-Way Mirror, and sure enough, Petunia hadn't been able to contain her curiosity. Her face appeared on the other side, and she looked visibly surprised when she saw me.

"You don't look British," Petunia said.

"I'm Chinese," I introduced myself briefly. "An international student."

Petunia clearly had no idea what China was. Watching her nod blankly, I decided to get to the point.

"From now on, whenever you're free, you can use the Two-Way Mirror to see what life at Hogwarts is like." I showed her my Potions Class textbook. "For example, right now I'm going to work on my Potions Class assignment."

I began taking out all sorts of strange ingredients. Petunia's expression changed the instant she saw the jumble of materials, and she nearly screamed at the sight of the various slimy, peculiar liquids. When I picked up an herb that was still wriggling, her whole face turned blue from holding back a scream.

"What's that! What's that! What's that!" Perhaps she was so shocked that she repeated herself several times. She even covered the surface of the mirror with her hand, too frightened to look.

"Just some medicinal ingredients," I said in a tone as casual as if I were talking about eating or drinking. "They do seem a little scary at first, but you get used to them. If you stare at them long enough, you'll see how cute they are."

"I don't want to look! Get them away, quick!" Petunia screamed silently. I couldn't help feeling that she had become the famous painting The Scream.

"All right." I put everything into the pot with some reluctance, experiencing for the first time the wicked pleasure of teasing a child.

Only after confirming that I wasn't holding any more of those things did Petunia reappear in the mirror. When she noticed the strangely colored fumes rising from the cauldron, her tone became cautious.

"Does every student have to do this?"

"Of course." I nodded. "Every student has to take Potions Class and brew potions, or they won't pass at the end of term."

"That's terrifying!" Petunia kept shaking her head. "I thought that in the magical world, you only had to wave your hand and all the potions would brew themselves..."

"As far as I know, even our Potions Class teacher can't do that." I scratched my head. "The ingredients they use are more complicated, and a lot of the time they have to go hunting for what they need."

"Hunting?!" Petunia's voice shot up eight octaves. I was genuinely worried the neighbors would come over to complain.

"Yeah, things like werewolf teeth and venomous spider slime." I recalled some of the things I'd hunted for before. "Potions have success rates too. The harder a potion is, the less likely it is to succeed. Sometimes the cauldron even explodes."

"Explodes?!" Petunia covered her face. "That's far too dangerous."

"I think so too." I nodded in agreement. Before I'd been transported into Hogwarts, I'd always wondered why the professors didn't do anything about the severe bullying there. Only after I actually lived here did I realize that the magical world had a rather high threshold. Students used jinxes in fights, deadly creatures were everywhere in the school, they brewed poisons in class, and slipping Amortentia into gifts was an everyday occurrence. It was overflowing with martial spirit. Perhaps this was natural selection, survival of the fittest. What a cruel world.

But then, thinking about the setting of Hogwarts Legacy, a few hundred years ago people had thrown Avadas around casually and could kill dozens of students on their way to class. Clearly, the magical world had improved a great deal. As expected of the younger generation—they really were well behaved.

After hearing what I said, Petunia fell silent. It wasn't that she didn't know what to ask; she was clearly at a loss. It seemed the real magical world was a far cry from what she'd imagined. What a shame. Had I shattered an innocent child's dream of magic?

"Bang!"

After I carefully added two drops of Wit-Sharpening Potion, the liquid in the cauldron suddenly turned a vivid red. The next moment, a tremendous explosion rang out. Petunia shot upright like a dying patient roused from her sickbed, only to see me calmly tidying the table.

"Another failure," I said evenly. "That's the twenty-seventh cauldron ruined."

Petunia: "..."

By the time I'd cleaned everything up, it was almost midnight. I said goodbye to Petunia and left the secret passage, ready to return to the dormitory. It was already past curfew, and the corridors of Hogwarts were deserted. As I hurried back by moonlight, a rumble suddenly sounded in the distance.

"What was that sound!?" Petunia seemed even more nervous than I was now.

"Normally, there shouldn't be such a loud commotion at night..." I turned my head in puzzlement and heard a series of footsteps drawing closer. A few seconds later, James and his group came into view, sprinting wildly.

"Run!"

James looked surprised the moment he saw me, but the next instant he grabbed my wrist and dragged me into a run, shouting as he went.

"What happened?" At this distance, I could hear something enormous running around the corner, and I could even smell a stench peculiar to beasts.

"No time to explain!"

James gave a hurried reply. When I turned my head, I saw Fluffy the three-headed dog charging this way in a rage. He was extremely fast, and when I turned, the Two-Way Mirror I'd been holding turned to face him too, bringing Petunia face-to-face with Fluffy at close range.

"Aaaah!"

Fortunately, her scream was drowned out by Fluffy's roar.

"Isn't that a three-headed dog?" I was shocked. The Philosopher's Stone wasn't even at Hogwarts right now, so how on earth had they found this guy?

"Too much nonsense." Sirius was very impatient with my successive questions. He came closer and stared at me with his usual cold, mocking eyes. "If you're really that curious, I can throw you over there and let you study him properly."

"Sirius, don't say that." James shook his head. "This isn't the time to mock each other."

I really couldn't understand it. They'd started chatting while running, so why couldn't they just explain what had happened?

"I don't know where you found this guy, but it just so happens I know some things people say about three-headed dogs."

I tapped the Two-Way Mirror and said to Petunia, whose face had gone deathly pale with fright, "Sorry for the trouble, but could you turn on the radio? Three-headed dogs fall asleep when they hear music."

"Huh? Me? The radio? Oh!"

After a series of intense shocks, Petunia's brain was like that of a sleep-deprived senior-year student up at six in the morning. She spoke for a while without getting her thoughts in order, and only after a few seconds did she wake as if from a dream and hurriedly switch on the radio beside her.

Late at night, there were usually a few stations that played music all night. Petunia flipped through a few channels and found one playing soft music. As the music came through, Fluffy's enormous body swayed, and he soon collapsed in the middle of the corridor, sleeping soundly.

"There, problem solved." I pointed at Sirius. "Could young Master Black do that?"

Sirius: "..."

[Sirius's affection -1]

What a familiar notification sound.

─────

[Author's note]

★Tip★

Even if you refuse certain side quests, you can still join in later, as long as the event hasn't ended.

★Side quest reminder★

*Congratulations on unlocking Petunia's main quest-[The Evans Sisters · 2]

*Participated in the Marauders' event. Affection of Marauders members +5