HP: I beat the otome game at Hogwarts

Chapter 170 Re-invitation

"Wow--"

The girls who had spontaneously gathered around to look at the card screamed.

This is so romantic! A giant bouquet of roses and an invitation card! In the common room! In public!

"This will be something people talk about for years to come—"

The girls chattered excitedly, as if they themselves were the ones who had received the flowers and invitations.

Hermione and Ron, who were in their upstairs dormitory, heard everything. They figured Harry had already finished making his invitations, and when they heard the screams and exclamations downstairs, they thought Harry had succeeded!

The two rushed down the stairs, only to find Harry looking lifeless, standing next to Lyra and a giant bouquet of roses.

Lyra was still holding a card in her hand, while some of the girls on the other side blushed with excitement.

"Merlin's briefs! Harry had that trick up his sleeve!" Ron exclaimed, both excited and shocked. "He even ordered roses to invite Lyra—"

Hermione was clearly much smarter than Ron; she had already started looking at Harry with pity, while rolling her eyes at the idiot next to her.

"Shut up! If Harry had that kind of brain, would he still be single?" Hermione exclaimed helplessly, "Look at Harry's face, does he look like he got the invitation?"

Although Ron wasn't very bright in some ways, thankfully he wasn't blind. He finally noticed that his good brother's face showed no joy whatsoever; on the contrary, it was faintly green...

Hmm, maybe the rose petals are a bit reflective...?

Harry could only watch helplessly as everyone around him marveled at Lyra's mysterious and passionate suitor. He didn't want to say a word to Hermione and Ron, who approached with pity.

Lyra looked at the giant bouquet of roses in front of her with a bit of a headache. After thinking for a moment, she took out her wand and cast a shrinking spell, shrinking the bouquet to the size of an apple, and held it in her hand.

“Thank you, Harry,” Lyra said to Harry. “Thanks to you for helping me just now, otherwise the flower might still be stuck in the window.”

"If I had known these damn roses were for you, I would have been happy to stand at the window and watch them get stuck there," Harry thought.

"You're welcome." Harry, who didn't actually dare to say the truth, heard himself give Lyra a dry reply.

"Oh, Ron, have you seen Fred and George?" Lyra asked Ron, who had just come downstairs.

"No, they're not in the boys' dorm," Ron replied curtly.

Hermione stood to the side, her smile looking extremely forced.

“Oh, right,” Lyra said, holding the shrunken rose and card, then suddenly remembered something. “Harry, what were you about to say?”

“…It’s nothing,” Harry said in a low voice. “I forgot.”

"So, you were interrupted by these roses delivered by owls before you even had a chance to extend an invitation?"

Ron and Hermione watched Lyra disappear around the corner as she went up the stairs, then turned back to look at their poor friend with pity.

“No, I did say that, but I was rambling on and on, and Lyra didn’t hear me at all. Before I could even say it again, those damn birds brought those damn roses—”

Harry numbly recounted the events to his two friends, then numbly headed towards the stairs.

"I'm going upstairs to sleep."

"..."

Ron and Hermione didn't dare remind Harry that it was only 7 p.m., and there was still a long time before bed.

“This is indeed a huge blow to the spirit…” Ron murmured.

Hermione nodded silently.

*

The next day, Leila got her wish and beat up Fred and George in the common room.

The two screamed in agony, drawing everyone's attention to the three of them. Even with her thick skin, Leila couldn't ignore it.

"Hmph, consider yourself lucky," Leila said resentfully, "I'll let you off this time—"

"Where did you all go yesterday?" Leila asked curiously after a while.

She had intended to borrow the magical map from Harry yesterday, but she got distracted by the roses and forgot about it, and then she was too lazy to go downstairs again.

Angelina and Aria heard that someone had given her a large bouquet of roses, and they spent the whole night pestering her for the latest gossip.

The dorm had a late-night chat. At first, they were talking about Layla's suitors, but then they started talking about Angelina's dance partner and Arya's relationship troubles.

“A girl from Beauxbatons lost an earring, which Andrew found,” Arya said. “As a result, that girl kept looking for opportunities to get close to Andrew, going to the Hufflepuff table every day to say hello to him! She even asked him if he had a dance partner for the Christmas dinner!”

"What did Andrew say?" the other two girls asked hurriedly.

“Andrew said he already has a dance partner, and told her that his dance partner is his girlfriend, at Gryffindor House—” Arya said with some pride.

"Then why are you still angry?" Angelina said. "I think you deliberately gave Andrew a hard time tonight. He was completely confused and even gave me a bewildered look."

“I’m angry! He has absolutely no idea what that Beauxbatons girl is up to!” Arya pounded her pillow. “He really thinks it’s a coincidence that he runs into that Beauxbatons girl seven or eight times a day—”

“Oh, innocent Hufflepuff!” the roommates exclaimed.

“Why don’t you just tell Andrew to reject that girl?” Angelina suggested. “Or, next time you’re in front of that girl, could you assert your dominance?”

“I think you’d better not remind Andrew,” Leila said. “His natural naiveté will drive away any suitors with ulterior motives, and it’ll save you and Andrew from having any conflicts.”

Leila was genuinely offering advice to her roommate, completely unaware that she might be seen as a clueless airhead by others.

Fred and George casually changed the subject from Lyra's question, and the two even casually joked about the prom invitations Lyra had received so far, subtly probing to confirm that Lyra had not accepted any of the boys' invitations.

Leila was completely unaware of this.

After a good night's sleep, Harry, much calmer, sought out Hermione and Ron to reconsider his plan. He was unwilling to give up without letting Lyra know his feelings.

"We'll create another opportunity for you to invite us again—"