HP: I beat the otome game at Hogwarts

Chapter 139 Draco's Terrible Summer Vacation

Sirius asked Harry to find out Lyra's preferences so he could prepare a gift she would like.

The train was still at the station, which was a good opportunity to ask, but... I felt embarrassed to speak up in front of everyone.

Harry's face turned red.

"Harry, are you hot?" Lyra had just teamed up with George to defeat Fred and was feeling smug when she turned around and saw Harry covered in sweat.

"Uh, maybe..." Harry hadn't thought of an excuse yet, "Lyra, I mean... I wanted to ask..."

Hermione, who knew the situation, was speechless and immediately took over the conversation.

"Laila, is there anything you've been looking for lately?"

"What?" Leila asked, somewhat bewildered. "Why are you suddenly asking that?"

“Oh, it’s like this, Sirius wants to throw Harry a birthday party at the end of July,” Hermione said, readily offering an excuse, “a formal party where every guest gets a small gift, but Sirius doesn’t know what young girls like these days, so he wanted to ask Harry’s friends for suggestions—”

“Uh, yes, I was just about to ask Hermione too,” Harry quickly agreed, nodding vigorously, “and then have Ron ask Ginny or something—”

“Ginny probably likes things like bow hair clips and dolls,” Ron said without thinking as he played a card.

Hermione secretly rolled her eyes.

“Ron, didn’t you notice that Ginny isn’t five years old anymore?” Fred mocked.

“Ronnie’s always been a bit silly, hasn’t he?” George added. “I bet Ronnie still hasn’t realized that Ginny has never worn the pink bow hair clip he gave her last year.”

"what?"

“So, Lyra,” Harry pressed Lyra, ignoring Ron’s exclamation, “what do you like?”

Lyra sensed that Harry was asking a very serious question; his emerald green eyes were fixed on him, filled with her reflection.

“I don’t really have anything I particularly like lately,” Leila thought for a moment. “If I’m planning party favors, I could choose something meaningful, like a photo frame where I can put photos taken at the party—”

“Good idea,” Fred said casually, holding his cards and racking his brains for a way to beat Ron. “George and I can take the pictures.”

"Don't even think about it!"

Lyra immediately remembered the time the red-haired twins promised to help take photos, but all they snapped were embarrassing moments of her, Angelina, and Arya: eyes closed, showing their teeth, mouth half-open like an idiot...

She was determined to find a reliable person to be her photographer so that her beautiful outfit for the party wouldn't go to waste.

But Lyra's opposition only strengthened Fred and George's resolve to become photographers, and the three of them started a new round of bickering.

Hermione: "......"

Harry: "......"

Only Ron, oblivious to the despair in his two best friends, watched Lyra gleefully as she beat Fred with her licorice wand.

After accepting Harry's invitation to his birthday party, Lyra waved goodbye to everyone and left the station.

Everyone assumed that she went back to France every year to visit relatives, but in reality, she simply went to France for a vacation.

Having spent her summer vacation in France every year, she has already explored most of the country. This summer, Leila plans to switch to skiing in Switzerland.

Leila has heard that there are many handsome men in Switzerland, and she feels that she is about to have a very happy week.

Her pen pal was completely unaware of this and was still looking forward to spending a wonderful summer in France with his rose, just like every year.

*

Draco Malfoy was in a terrible mood.

This terrible mood started at the end of the semester. First, that damned hippogriff escaped from them, and then the news broke that Sirius Black had been wrongfully imprisoned for twelve years, and now the wizarding world's newspapers are full of this news.

Draco's mother, Narcissa, was a Black before her marriage, and he himself was half a Black.

But he had no feelings for this uncle who had been exonerated—he had never met him since birth, and he was a notorious traitor. Moreover, his mother never spoke of this uncle at home, and when she did mention him, she had a complicated expression on her face.

Draco believed he had good reason to dislike his cousin Sirius Black, for example, Sirius Black was a Gryffindor; he was expelled from the Black family; he was a good friend of Scarface's father and also Scarface's godfather.

Most importantly, his presence made his mother feel ashamed and embarrassed.

Now, Mom doesn't like to attend the tea parties and balls of various ladies anymore, obviously influenced by the news that Sirius Black was exonerated.

This cheap uncle was portrayed as a hero in the British wizarding world by the newspapers—

He endured humiliation in Azkaban for twelve years for the sake of friendship, but escaped from prison because his friend's only orphan, the savior of England, was in danger. After going through many hardships, he finally caught the real traitor and avenged his friend.

What a remarkable lone hero!

Pooh!

Draco Malfoy spat at the radiant photograph of Sirius Black in the newspaper, then tore the newspaper to shreds, finally feeling a little better.

"Toto!" the platinum-haired young master commanded angrily, "From now on, no newspaper containing any information about Sirius Black is allowed to enter Malfoy Manor!"

The house-elf Toto, barely daring to breathe, trembled as he swept up the shredded newspapers from the floor and prepared to leave.

"Wait!" Draco suddenly stopped, asking in a deep voice the same old question, "Did you receive any mail for me today?"

After receiving the seventy-sixth negative answer, Draco Malfoy's face grew even more somber.

The house-elf Toto was so frightened that he didn't dare to lift his head and retreated tremblingly.

Draco, his face dark, poked Toto's carefully crafted strawberry cream tart to pieces with a spoon, and even pushed aside the cookies his mother had made for him, not touching them at all.

He felt very unlucky throughout the entire semester.

Last summer, he and that dark-haired girl had made a pact to keep a low profile and endure until he came of age and gained a voice in his parents' eyes. (Layla, completely unaware of this: ???)

But keeping it low-key and concealing it doesn't mean she can ignore Malfoy, does it?

Not to mention that she's been attracting attention at Hogwarts, and before he's even blamed her, she's the one who's started arguing with him.

It was because of trivial things like ruining her social gathering with other boys and disrupting Scarface's Quidditch match!

Now that it's summer vacation, they dare to completely disappear—

For a whole week, that damn black-haired girl didn't send him a single letter!