HP: I beat the otome game at Hogwarts

Chapter 104 An Early Christmas Surprise

"Help me figure out which of these two colors I should choose?" Aria asked, holding up two lipsticks, looking troubled.

“I think orange looks very vibrant.” Leila was braiding her hair; she wanted to tie it all up today, as letting it down seemed a bit too casual.

“I think the pink one is nice,” Angelina said, pausing to look at her roommate’s lipstick as she applied mascara. “Pink makes people look gentler. You two last met at a Quidditch match, so you don’t need to leave a lively impression.”

Arya seemed to be convinced by Angelina's idea, but orange actually suited her skin tone better, and she was still hesitating.

Leila glanced at the time: "It's okay, you can worry about it for another five minutes."

The Gryffindor girls got up at six o'clock in the morning to prepare for their Hogsmeade weekend with the Hufflepuff boys—an hour earlier than their usual wake-up time for class.

"Oh no, I haven't decided what to wear today—" Aria wailed at the pile of clothes on the bed.

*

“We can buy all the Christmas things we want at Hogsmeade,” Hermione said happily as she handed out jars of jam to everyone. “Mom and Dad really love the fluffy tooth mints they bought from Honeydukes!”

“Harry, what do you want to buy?” Ron asked, spreading butter on a slice of bread. “We can buy it for you.”

Harry did need to buy Christmas gifts for his friends this year. He had already thought of gifts for Ron and Hermione, but there was one more gift... Harry looked around and didn't see Lyra and the twins, or Angelina and Arya, at the Gryffindor table.

Saturday mornings are usually quiet in the Great Hall, but today, being Hogsmeade weekend, Harry saw many people he didn't want to see sitting at the tables—

For example, Malfoy and his henchmen in Slytherin; Diggory and his friends in Hufflepuff; and the top student in Ravenclaw.

“Uh, Hermione,” Harry decided to turn to his only female friend for help, “you know what girls like, I mean, Christmas presents—”

“Oh, I think it depends on personality and personal preference.” Hermione glanced at Harry knowingly, but before she could finish speaking, Ron interrupted her.

“That’s the same as saying nothing at all,” Ron rolled his eyes and turned to Ginny, who was sitting nearby and had overheard their conversation, and shouted, “Ginny, what kind of gifts do you girls want for Christmas?”

“I think I’d like anything… a gift from a friend.” Ginny glanced at Harry, who had asked the question first, and said, blushing, “If it were me, I think a gift that I could carry with me or put on my bedside table would be nice, so I could think of the person who gave it to me often…”

“Is that so…” Harry said thoughtfully.

“I think it makes no difference whether you said it or not. Girls are such a hassle,” Ron said, taking a big bite of his fried ham. “If you ask me, giving candy is the best option—”

"It's the easiest and laziest option!" Hermione commented sharply.

After breakfast, Harry said goodbye to Ron and Hermione, who were bundled up in thick cloaks and scarves, and headed towards the Gryffindor Tower alone.

The castle was very quiet; Harry could hear his own footsteps echoing alone in the corridors. Snowflakes were falling outside the window, and all was still.

"Harry—"

Harry turned around and saw Fred, George, and Lyra, who was dressed in a dazzling outfit.

Even Harry, who is usually oblivious to girls' fashion sense, could tell that Lyra was different from usual: her hair was styled in an intricate braid, revealing her slender neck like an elegant swan, and she wore a pair of sparkling earrings that made the dark-haired girl even more eye-catching.

Harry's eyes darkened.

At that moment, the twins and Lyra waved to him from behind a statue of a one-eyed, hunchbacked witch.

“What are you doing here?” Harry asked. “Shouldn’t we be going to…Hogsmeade Village?”

“We’ll give you a little holiday cheer before we leave,” Fred said in a low voice. “Come with us.”

Fred nodded toward an empty classroom to the left of the one-eyed statue, and Harry followed the three of them in, completely bewildered.

George closed the door, turned around and said to him, "Here's an early Christmas present for you, Harry."

Fred pulled something out of his cloak and placed it on an empty table. It was a large, square, old parchment, but nothing was written on it.

Harry hesitated, glancing at the three faces with mysterious smiles. If it were just Fred and George, he would have thought it was another joke by the twins, but Lyra was also there...

"what is this?"

“Well, this is the secret to our success,” George said, stroking the parchment affectionately.

“It’s a little hard to give this to you, but we’ve discussed it and we all agree that you need it more than we do,” Fred said.

“We’ve memorized its contents,” Leila said with a smile. “We’ve decided to give it to you.”

“But what would I need a tattered piece of parchment for?” Harry looked at the three of them in confusion.

“A tattered piece of parchment!” Fred grinned, looking at Harry with a disdainful expression. “Show it to Harry, guys.”

“I solemnly swear that I have not done anything good.” George took out his wand and gently touched the parchment.

Spiderweb-like ink lines immediately appeared in every corner of the parchment, and green writing began to appear at the very top—

Supplier of auxiliary items for magical pranksters

Gentlemen Moonface, Wormtail, Bigfoot, and Fork

Proudly presented

Marauder's Map

What was just a tattered piece of parchment has now transformed into a detailed map depicting every aspect of Hogwarts Castle and its various locations. Even more remarkably, the name and location of every person in the castle are marked on the map.

Harry could see Headmaster Dumbledore pacing in his study, Filch wandering on the third floor, and the twins and Lyra standing on the fourth floor right next to his name...

But what surprised Harry the most was—

The map showed a series of passages he had never been to before.

"It's the secret passage leading to Hogsmeade," Fred briefly explained, recommending that Harry take the secret passage through Honeydukes's Cellars to Hogsmeade.

George explained how to restore the map to a blank, tattered parchment after use.

“Harry, remember when I said I’d find a way to make sure you weren’t the only third-year student staying at school?” Lyra winked at Harry. “This is our Christmas surprise for you.”

The three of them left satisfied.

Harry stared at the back of one of the dark-haired figures, feeling his heart pounding louder and louder, breaking the silence of the entire castle.