Harry,

I would like it if you could find some time to make a visit to my office today. It is located behind the gargoyle on 3rd floor. Maybe, around 8pm? I have some things I need to speak to you about. Looking forward to the meeting.

P.S. I like sugar quills.

This was the letter that Harry had received at breakfast that morning. The loopy writing was easily identifiable. He had never been to the office but Darius had mentioned the location once and he knew where it was. Darius and Sirius had both warned him that the headmaster would likely call for him this term in order to discuss some things. He was not supposed to make any binding promises, enter into any contracts or give out information on horcruxes. Above all, he was to keep his occlumency shields up all the time and avert his eyesight from Dumbledore’s whenever possible. Looking into his eyes directly for a while would make it easier for the old man to access Harry’s memories.

Harry looked up at the head table and found Dumbledore looking towards him. He gave a short nod and then continued his meal. Dumbledore was also satisfied and returned to his conversation with McGonagall. Harry could have refused but that might have opened up a whole new can of worms and he didn’t want to deal with that. Anyway, he knew this was coming sooner or later and the only surprise was how quickly Dumbledore sent the invite.

Darius’ classes the first day back went just as he had expected. It was his OWLs year and all the professors spent the first part of their lesson with lectures on the importance of their OWLs and what effect it would have on their futures.

The first lesson for the day was potions with Professor Snape. Though Darius could not be called Snape’s favourite by any means, the treatment he got from Snape could be found worthy of royalty if it was compared to the way Snape treated the rest of the Gryffindors. His early lessons with his mum where she insisted he actually learn potions and how ingredients reacted with each other instead of simply memorising the recipe was paying of its dividends. Today’s potion was a particularly tricky one. The Draught of Peace could go dreadfully wrong if you didn’t do it properly and knowing the actual basics tended to reduce the mistakes by a lot.

Before the lesson, Snape lectured in his usual biting manner, “I think it is appropriate that I remind you that you are now in your OWLs year and at the end of the year, will have to appear in an exam which will test everything you have learnt about potions in the last five years. As this will have a bearing on your future, you are expected to perform at your best and I will not have any of my students showing themselves to be morons... or they shall suffer my displeasure.

After this year, you will be entering NEWT level Potions and I inform you before-hand. I will only take students with an Outstanding grade into my class. Which means, many of us won’t be seeing each other any longer. But those happy thoughts aside, I want your full concentration for the coming year. We shall practice the Draught of Peace today, a potion that comes up quite often in the OWLs.”

After that it was an hour and a half of working on the fiddly little potion but Darius enjoyed it. Contrary to what was given in the books, students are not required to necessarily work with a partner. Darius had found that out at the end of his first year and had worked alone ever since. Snape seemed to have appreciated that and gave him no flak for it. Darius prepared the ingredients just right, put them in properly, heated the cauldron just right and did the stirring in the correct manner. He used his mother’s technique to keep his workstation neat and tidy and keep the potion going continuously.

The instructions in the book may be correct but they were by no means the only method and certainly not the most efficient method. Darius’ mother had taught him how to plan out his potion-making so that he was cutting his ingredients when he had the time to do so instead of just standing around waiting and then he had the ingredients on time before every step and so on and so forth. It was just a matter of prioritization and planning. By the end, he finished with 15 minutes to spare and his potion was releasing the light silver vapour that signified a perfect potion. He bottled it up and delivered it to Snape’s desk. After receiving a od, he packed up his books and left the classroom.

Professor Flitwick set them to practicing the summoning charms which were almost a certainty in the OWLs after giving them the same lecture on the importance of OWLs.

“The OWLs exam is the first major milestone in your educational career and will define your studies and life for many years to come. You will have to work hard throughout the year to bring your skills up to snuff. As you should already know, the OWLs not only test your theoretical understanding but also your practical application of it. We shall put in our full efforts to be fully prepared whatever may come in the exams by the end of the year.”

Professor McGonagall’s class was not much better.

Professor McGonagall had said, “Transfiguration is both one of the toughest and simplest subjects we offer at Hogwarts-”

There disbelieving snorts at that throughout the class and some students took to giggling at that comment.

Professor McGonagall waited for silence before continuing, “As I was saying, transfiguration is the magical subject of imposing on your magic to change the form of one object or being into another. Through the years you spend at Hogwarts, you will cover less than 10 spells in this subject. The true test lies in how you choose to use the spells. Transfiguration is a matter of study, application and practice along with a bit of a creativity. Once you are able to imagine your desired object or aim quite clearly, you merely use the spell to force the object to change its form according to your wish. This requires adequate force of mind and magic. We shall start today with the Vanishing spell, evanesco, one of the magics that may prove to be a bit difficult, and practice it over the year so that you may be ready to use it in your OWLs.”

Darius had no problem with that whatsoever, netting Gryffindor twenty points by getting it on his first try. He had first tried the spell nearly a year ago and was quite proficient in it by now, though not yet at the level to use it non-verbally. He used the time to practice it n-vbl and was getting it right as often as not. Professor McGonagall was extremely pleased to see that and gave another twenty points. Extra spells or proficiency were looked upon favourably in the OWLs and doing the vanishing n-vbl would be quite a big push to his scores.

Herbology was a breeze though. They were studying some of the more difficult to deal with plants in a new greenhouse but Darius had already gone through One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi and knew how to deal with most plants, at least the common ones. He was able to handle the screechsnap seedlings today with consummate ease.

It had been a long day and Darius gladly sat down for his dinner at the end of the day. Harry met him there and told him about Dumbledore’s letter.

“There’s nothing we can do, Harry! We already expected that he would try to speak to you but even I didn’t think it would be quite this early. Whatever it is about, he must be quite anxious about it. I suggest you carry Sirius’ two-way mirror and let him know the instant something goes wrong. In fact, let him know the details of the request immediately after dinner so that he isn’t caught off-guard. If you have any troubles in the office, which I don’t think you will but if you do, just call out Sirius’ name and he can floo to Hogsmeade and arrive at the castle as soon as possible. I will not be able to help you here but as your legal guardian, Sirius’ words will have some serious clout.”

“Thanks, Darius! I was starting to freak out about the meeting. Dumbledore had seemed like such a kindly old man till last year but the number of inconsistencies about him that you pointed out are mind-boggling. He is up to something here and I don’t want to be his pawn for it.”

“Nobody likes being used, Harry. You just got to deal with it in the best way possible.”

Harry settled down a bit after that. Though, he still had jitters about meeting Dumbledore privately, Sirius’ two-way communication mirrors gave him a lot of comfort and he resolved himself to go ahead with it.

Just before 8pm, Harry walked up to the Headmaster’s office. He had not been there before, seeing that he had not had any reason to do so in the second year during the basilisk incident. He reached the right corridor and immediately noticed the lone gargoyle. Darius had told him that the inexplicable reference to sugar quills in the letter was actually the password to the office.

“Sugar quills!”

The gargoyle leapt aside and a slowly revolving staircase was present behind it. He got on and found himself I front of a pair of oaken doors and knocked on it.

“Come in!”

He stepped inside and saw an expansive circular office. The walls were adorned with portraits of ex-headmasters who were all doing different things. There were a number of little silver contraptions on spindly tables and he noticed the sorting hat on the rack to the left. At the centre of the room was a large desk, behind which sat Headmaster Dumbledore, his twinkling eyes fixed on Harry.

“Ah! Harry, my boy. I was looking forward to your visit. Come, have a seat. Tell me, how was your first day back?”

“It was fine headmaster. I have long considered Hogwarts a second home and am very glad to be back. The lessons were also rather interesting and I am looking forward to the rest of the year. Though, I could have probably managed to do without the dementors.”

“Excellent, Excellent! I also hope you enjoy your year. And I agree with you on the dementors. Those foul creatures shouldn’t even be allowed near humans let alone children. But the ministry is rather anxious to catch Pettigrew, what with his rather public escape from their custody and saw fit to post them here. Though, I am assured it is only a short term posting and they will be removed by year end unless there is any evidence to the contrary.”

“I look forward to the day. So, what was it that you wanted to discuss today, Headmaster?”

“I noticed that you have taken Arithmancy and CoMC as your electives. May I ask what prompted you to choose them?”

“Well, I was always good at arithmetic when younger and have some interest in learning about the working of spells and their creation, so I chose arithmancy. And CoMC because I would love to learn more about magical creatures. As you know, I was muggle-raised and hence didn’t have any contact with such creatures earlier. I am interested in learning more about them.”

“All admirable reasons, I’m sure but have you given any thought to Divination. I t may prove to be a useful study for you.”

“Why would you say that, Headmaster? According to Darius the subject is only useful to those who truly have the Sight and desire to use and control it in order to become a seer. Anybody else would be wasting their time and are only there to get an easy pass.”

Dumbledore was shocked. That was the first time that somebody had laid it down outright and what galled him was that it was completely correct. His own views on the subject were exactly the same and the only reason he kept Trelawny around was because of her first prophecy. Prefect Darius had hit the nail on the head here but that wasn’t exactly comforting here. He needed Harry to understand the importance of divination.

“I agree with you to a certain limit but would it not be useful to learn about it to a certain extent. I truly believe that you may find that divination will play an important role in your life. Taking classes for it now may make it easier for you in the future.”

“Do you wish for me to take the subject, Headmaster? If so, I’m afraid I must decline. I find two electives to be more than enough and eve if I was to take a third one, it would be Study of Ancient Runes and not Divination. Both my godfather and I gave ample thought to my electives during the summer and came to our conclusions. I do not wish to waste my time with a subject which is not even suited to me.”

“Very well, Harry. If you must be so firm about it. I still hope you can give it some more thought and if you decide to take Divination, let me know and I can arrange for it to happen. Good night, Harry.”

“Thank you for the offer, Headmaster but I don’t believe I will be changing my electives. Good night.”

Harry left the office slightly relieved. The meeting hadn’t gone as bad as it might have. He had felt a light brush on his occlumency shields at the start of the meeting but it was gone as soon as it came. Likely, Dumbledore feeling out his mind but retreated as soon as he came across the barriers so as to not be detected. And Harry would not have if not for the extra help from his enchanted glasses. Well, he would let Sirius and Darius know nut it was better not make a big hullaballoo about this. According to Darius he does this on a fairly regular basis but there is no way to exactly prove it, seeing that it is only passive legilimency.

The night ended on a quite note and Harry returned to his dorms without incident. Darius was also feeling relieved. He had kept an eye on the spot marked as Harry Potter on the Marauder’s map and finally relaxed when he saw him return to the dorms.

Darius wiped the map and proceeded to do his nightly Vertentes practice in peace.