HP: I beat the otome game at Hogwarts

The first Hogsmeade weekend has finally arrived on the eve of Halloween.

Lyra and the twins stuffed all their pocket money into their purses, planning to spend it all in Hogsmeade Village.

They had already planned their route: first, to buy new products at Zonko's Joke Shop; then, to buy Halloween candy gift packs at Honeydukes; next, to replenish quills and parchment at Literati House; and finally, to wander around the Screaming Shade area and bring Harry a branch from the Screaming Shade or something.

While they were eating breakfast, they heard Ron and Hermione promise to bring Harry lots and lots of sweets back.

Lyra and the twins had originally planned the same thing, but upon hearing this, they changed their minds. The twins, in particular, felt they should bring Harry a special gift—when they were in their first year, they had sent a Hogwarts toilet seat home as a gift to Ginny, who hadn't started school yet.

Ginny: "Actually, before I could even touch it, my mom screamed and set it on fire."

Ginny accompanied Lyra and the others to the front hall, asking Lyra to bring her back some iced rats. Filch was at the main entrance checking everyone's Hogsmeade application forms, looking at each person suspiciously, as if anyone could sneak into the line and slip away.

“Ah, it’s Miss White—” Filch let Lyra pass without even checking the travel list.

"Thank you for the feather stick last time, Mrs. Lorris liked it very much." He smiled with a face full of wrinkles, which, according to Fred, looked a little creepy.

“Merlin, Filch can laugh?” Ron murmured incredulously from the back of the line.

Harry, who accompanied Ron and Hermione to the front hall, was amused.

"Were you left behind, Scarhead?" a drawn-out voice said. "Are you afraid of running into Dementors in Hogsmeade—"

Lyra turned around at the sound and saw young Malfoy and his two big henchmen.

Harry ignored Malfoy and walked alone up the marble stairs toward the Gryffindor Tower.

Seeing that Potter ignored his taunts, Malfoy became even more enraged and uttered even more sarcastic remarks—

"Or is it because you don't have parents to sign for you..." Draco Malfoy inadvertently noticed Lyra staring at him and instinctively swallowed the rest of his words.

Hermione and Ron both rolled their eyes and ignored Malfoy, and the group of Gryffindors walked away.

The platinum-haired Slytherin who remained in place looked particularly grim.

*

Honeydukes is always the most crowded place, with every inch of its floor packed with Hogwarts students.

The shop is filled with shelves upon shelves, displaying things like peanut butter candy, glowing coconut ice cream, chocolates of all flavors, caterpillar mints, and exploding sandwich candies.

"Look, it's a new product!" Leila pushed her way forward, picked up a toad-shaped cream mint, and loudly read the advertising slogan: "It really does bounce in your stomach!"

Fred and George each took one and put the toad-shaped cream mints into their shopping baskets.

“Oh, I see the ice rats. I’ll go get some. I promised Ginny I’d bring them to her—” Lyra then noticed a row of neatly arranged ice rat boxes on a shelf not far away.

"Ouch!" Without paying attention, Leila bumped into a hard chest. She felt her nose was flattened and physiological tears welled up in her eyes.

"I'm sorry—" the other person said very politely, their voice full of remorse.

"Oh, it's okay, it was my fault..." Leila rubbed her nose and looked up to see a familiar face.

“Ah, Diggory.” Lyra suddenly remembered the last time she saw this perfect Hufflepuff boy was at the autograph session during summer vacation…

“You can call me Cedric,” Cedric Diggory added carefully, “if you prefer.”

“Of course, just call me Lyra,” Lyra said readily. “I think we’re already friends.”

“Yes, we are already friends.” Cedric’s handsome face broke into a bright smile.

"Is something wrong, Diggory?" Fred and George squeezed through the crowd to get to Lyra's side, only to see the Hufflepuff guy flirting with her.

“Hello, Weasleys.” Cedric smiled gently, seemingly unconcerned about the Weasley brothers’ hostility.

George: "Hello, Diggory."

Fred: "Goodbye, Diggory."

"..." Leila rolled her eyes helplessly.

“Here you go, a new product, looks good.” To ease the awkward atmosphere, Leila took a toad-shaped cream mint from her shopping basket and gave it to Cedric Diggory.

“Thank you, I was just about to get one.” Cedric thanked her gently, then glanced at the dark-haired girl’s face, as if he wanted to say something but hesitated whether he should.

“Uh, this might be a bit abrupt, but I wanted to ask,” perhaps driven by curiosity, Cedric finally spoke up, despite Fred and George’s unfriendly stares, “Lyra, do you know Rose Love?”

"!" Leila felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, and quickly denied it three times in a row, "I don't know, I don't know, I've never heard of it."

“Oh, I think she looks a bit like you—” Cedric said, a little disappointed. “In fact, I think the way you denied it just now was exactly the same as hers, which is really amazing.”

"Hehehe, I don't know what you're talking about, maybe it's just a coincidence," Lyra said, unsure if she was showing any guilt, though she was trying her best to control her expression. "I don't know any Rose Love, sorry."

"It's alright, I was too abrupt," Cedric quickly apologized, then politely said goodbye and left.

"When did you become friends with Diggory?" George asked, annoyed.

"How come we didn't know about this?" Fred protested, tugging at the bow in Lyra's hair. "You even call each other by our given names!"

"Hey! Don't touch my bow!" Lyra slapped Fred's hand hard and straightened the bow on her head.

"Why are you all so hostile towards Cedric?" Lyra genuinely couldn't understand. "He's strong, handsome, academically excellent, polite, and doesn't talk badly about others. He's also the captain and Seeker of the Hufflepuff team—"

"You're both handsome Quidditch players, shouldn't you have a lot in common?" Lyra asked sincerely.