James's Birthday Romance Event

After Remus's birthday, my relationship with James began to change in subtle ways.

Although we still seemed as friendly as ever, greeting each other when we met in the common room and chatting over meals, there was a distance between us now. I never again joined the Marauders on their nighttime adventures, simply telling them I had things to do before hurrying off.

During that time, the system popped up several times with options meant to make me reconcile with James—but it wasn't my fault, so why should I be the one to make the first move? I refused every time, right up until spring break arrived.

Lily had already started packing several days before the holiday began. She looked so eager to get home that even Mary couldn't help remarking, "This might be the first time Lily's ever been so excited to go home."

"Hey, girls." I was a little amused. "It hasn't even been a year yet."

Lily practically wanted to pack up everything at Hogwarts and take it home. She even suggested sneaking into Hogsmeade to buy something. I had to admit, she was a true Gryffindor. But there wasn't really much to buy in Hogsmeade, and she only gave up on the idea after I did my best to talk her out of it. We did, however, sneak out in the middle of the night to find Headmaster Dumbledore and relieve him of a huge pile of candy.

"Merlin, do you want to come home with me?"

Lily had so many presents to bring that she had a hard time zipping her trunk shut. Once she finally managed it, she breathed a sigh of relief and looked at me expectantly. "Petunia must really want to see you."

"I'd love to visit your house too, but let's make it another time." I shook my head. If I went, I would probably affect Petunia and Lily's relationship. They would likely keep turning the conversation to me and think I was the one who had brought them closer. But this was a problem the Evans sisters had to work out themselves. An outsider like me showing up at a time like this would definitely do more harm than good.

Lily was disappointed, but she had always respected my choices.

"I'll miss you." After signing the form to leave school, she hugged me, Mary, and her other friends. Finally, she waved at me. "I'll bring you some presents!"

I waved back at Lily and only turned to leave after she was gone. As I turned, I saw Snape standing far back in the shadows. He noticed me looking, his expression turned even worse, and he left without a word.

[Snape's affection -1]

Sometimes I even forgot that my relationship with him was pretty bad too.

Not many students went home for spring break, and since it was a holiday, everyone was out and about. The corridors were crowded, so I avoided the crowds and went for a walk near the Black Lake.

The lake was still, with no sign of what lay beneath its surface. I stood on the shore, troubled by a question.

March 27 was only two days away. It was James's birthday.

Why does it feel like so many people have birthdays these past few months?!

The system would definitely give me a birthday event then. No matter how I looked at it, I wasn't wrong. James was the one who should apologize to me, and I had no desire to celebrate his birthday at all.

Lately, I had often felt James looking over at me. He seemed more distracted than usual, and even his pranks in class had grown quieter. In Transfiguration, he used to love turning other people's pens and paper into all kinds of feathers and oddly shaped fruit. But now he was always staring at me, only to look away when I looked back. Sometimes he even snorted, as if I were the one staring at him.

That guy was impossibly stubborn. When he had so readily apologized on Sirius's behalf and apologized to me in the common room before, I had been shocked by how much his personality had changed. Now it seemed he hadn't changed at all. He had apologized so quickly before because he had never thought anything was wrong, so he hadn't cared.

Now that he really realized he was wrong, he was hesitating and refusing to face it! The thought annoyed me, but when I returned to the dormitory, I still helplessly took out the gift box.

I had started preparing James's present a long time ago. Working on it while we were giving each other the silent treatment really felt like doing someone's laundry while scowling at them.

When I gave him the present, I was definitely going to twist James's head off.

Early on the morning of March 27, I was awakened by the system again. It was the same birthday romance event with nothing changed but the name, the same row of loving options, and the same strangely, inexplicably sickly-sweet background music-come on, at least spare me the background music!

So what was the deal with these romance events? If it was about a bad relationship, mine with Sirius was bad too, so why was Snape the only exception?

I puzzled over the question as I got dressed, then opened the door.

When I reached the dining hall, I was surprised to find James there. He usually slept until the afternoon during holidays. There were quite a few presents on his table too. After all, he was quite popular in the other houses, apart from Slytherin.

Halfway through my meal, I heard a great flurry of noise in the distance. It was very different from the sound of owls arriving that I usually heard. I looked up and saw owls dropping a huge pile of things from Mr Potter onto James from above. After a clattering crash, James was nearly buried alive.

"James! Don't leave me!"

Sirius, overcome by the urge to act, jumped onto the table and pulled James out. James, meanwhile, made all sorts of rather unintelligent-sounding noises, as though he were trapped in a jungle swamp rather than a pile of presents he could easily climb out of.

"Oh no! You'll be dragged down too if this goes on!" James's tone sounded like something out of a Shakespeare play. "I'm about to leave you forever, to leave everyone!"

Some students who had been drinking water choked on it at their sudden performance and sprayed it all over their faces.

All afternoon, whenever a new present arrived, James went through every single one again. He checked them every time, which meant it was practically all he did that afternoon.

"What on earth is James doing?" Remus, who intended to finish his holiday homework in the first few days, looked up from his work to find James still going through his presents. Shocked, he finally couldn't help asking.

Sirius, who was sitting nearby reading, snorted. "He's probably looking to see if there's a present from a certain someone."

Remus understood at once and shook his head. "Evans has already gone home, and besides, their relationship isn't good. I'm afraid James is unlikely to get the present he wants."

Hearing that, Sirius looked up from his book, his face dark.

"He's looking for a present from Merlin."

He turned a page with obvious displeasure, making enough noise to sound as though he were about to tear it out.

"James really does care about her. He still hasn't even opened the present I gave him."

Sirius's deliberately raised voice finally made James stop rummaging through his presents for the moment. He looked up and gazed at Sirius with great sincerity.

"Darling, you have to believe me. You're the one I love most."

Then he lowered his head and resumed searching through the presents.

Sirius: "..."

James went through all the presents yet again, but he still didn't see the name he was hoping for. He grew irritated once more and couldn't help pacing around the common room.

"If you can't sit still, I can find some nails and nail you to the chair."

"Don't be so bad-tempered, mate." James looked more bad-tempered than anyone as he raked his hands through his hair. The poor hair was practically being ravaged into a patch of weeds. Remus watched him and thought that if the customers who bought the Potter family's shampoo saw James, they probably wouldn't want to buy it anymore. "I just... well, I just want to walk around."

Just then, an owl arrived. James immediately rushed to the pile of presents and started looking through them one by one again, as if something might respawn among them. His behavior made Sirius raise his book again, unwilling to spare him another glance.

"Nutcase," Sirius said succinctly.

"So you really are looking for a present from Merlin?" Remus was surprised. His words struck a nerve, and James jumped up, waving his hands in a way that only made him look more suspicious, as though he could take back Remus's words that way.

"If you really want a present from her, why don't you just go and tell her?" Remus was still confused. "Didn't you want to apologize to her too?"

"When I wrote her that letter, I said it was my fault this time, and I said I was wrong afterward too," James said confidently. "I apologized ages ago."

This time, Remus really fell silent. He felt that even the most difficult spell wouldn't have left him so utterly speechless.

It took him a long time to find his words again. "But afterward you said, 'You were wrong too.' That didn't look like an apology at all..."

"Anyway!" James covered his ears. "I already said it. She's the one who wouldn't accept it! I'm not saying it again!"

With that, James resumed pacing around the common room. Remus was at a complete loss. He looked over at Sirius, only to find that Sirius seemed entirely absorbed in the world of his book.

He had thought James would pace like that all night, but after two laps, James suddenly ran back and sat down on the sofa. Sirius was a little surprised, and when he looked up, he saw that Merlin had come in.

"Sirius!" James grabbed his hand and shouted louder than ever before, "Look at all these presents I got! This present! It's such a present!"

Sirius finally emerged from the world of his book and gave James a look of unprecedented disgust. "I really want to send you to St. Mungo's."

James felt deeply aggrieved. How could even his good friend not care about his feelings? Then he looked at the pile of presents and saw that Merlin's was the only one missing, which made him even sadder.

"You're as loud as if someone dropped a rock on your foot, although I think it was more likely your head that got hit."

Just as he was feeling utterly dejected, Merlin's voice rang out behind him. He looked up at once and saw that Merlin had somehow made her way behind their sofa.

"What's it to you?" He very much wanted to talk to Merlin, but when he actually saw her, the words on his lips turned sarcastic. "This is the common room."

"It's nothing to me." With that, Merlin tapped a rectangular box against his head, and he froze.

"You dare face magical creatures, but you don't dare face your mistakes. Mr Potter's courage really does come and go."

"Just for today, happy birthday."

When Merlin let go, the box slid off his head and fell. He watched the present, only coming to his senses when it was nearly on the floor, and hurriedly caught it in a flurry.

"Merlin!"

He vaulted over the sofa-clearly, he wasn't very practiced at it, because he stumbled and almost fell when he landed. But he quickly caught his balance and called Merlin's name aloud.

"I'm sorry." He finally said it. "What happened that day was my fault."

"I shouldn't have taken everyone somewhere so dangerous without investigating at all, and I definitely shouldn't have casually used magic that would anger something I'd never seen before..."

"I'm sorry I caused you to be so badly hurt." His face flushed bright red. Unlike last time, the common room was full of people, and everyone stared in astonishment as the school bully offered what was probably the first serious, sincere apology of his life.

"I know you were trying to save me, but I..." His hands were trembling. "I didn't think it would end like that. For a moment, I thought something had really happened to you..."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Merlin."

He looked as though he wanted to grab Merlin, but he merely raised a hand before quickly lowering it again. Merlin remembered how he had grabbed her wrist as soon as he came up to her last time, hurting her so badly she had nearly jumped.

He didn't say anything like, "Can you forgive me?" either. He just looked at her.

It was only an apology, and she had accepted his last one easily enough. But at that moment, Merlin suddenly understood that James was truly sorry this time, and for a moment she didn't know what expression to give him in reply.

"You don't need to worry about that," she said at last, smiling at him. "We're friends, James."

"That was never what I was angry about. I was just worried—what if you run into even greater danger on an adventure in the future?"

"That's just what Sirius said..." James muttered. "All right, I'll try to investigate before going in the future."

"Since you're being sincere, I'll accept your apology this time." Merlin tapped him on the head. "Third time's the limit. There won't be a next time!"

"Ow!" James cried out, as always, as though Merlin had twisted his head off.

With the matter finally settled, the great weight on his heart was lifted at last. After asking Merlin, he unwrapped the present, and his eyes widened the moment he saw what was inside.

It was a hand-drawn map of the secret passages at Hogwarts.

Sirius had no doubt that he might faint from excitement on the spot.

All evening, he talked with Merlin about the best places for adventures at Hogwarts, as though trying to make up for everything they hadn't said before. Even when curfew came, he was still reluctant to part.

"See you tomorrow, Merlin!" He waved at Merlin.

"See you tomorrow, James." Merlin yawned and waved back.

James really seemed to love the map. He held it in his hands even as he walked, and when they returned to the dormitory, Sirius was shocked to see him actually sleeping with the map in his arms.

"Why don't you just eat it? Then you'll never have to be apart." Sirius really couldn't stand it.

"I know you're jealous of me, brother." James said it casually as he hugged the map, but Sirius's heart jolted, and he retorted on reflex.

"Jealous of what? Jealous of the present Merlin gave you? Don't be ridiculous!"

With that, he lay down in bed, angrily turned off the light, and went to sleep.

Unfortunately, no one was destined to pay him any attention that night. James was completely absorbed in his joy, and with the full moon approaching, Remus was no longer returning to the dormitory either. Sirius could only keep it to himself.

[Author's note]

★ Side quest reminder ★

*Congratulations on triggering James's birthday romance event-[The anticipated present]

[Sirius's darkening value unlocked. Current darkening: 7%]