Things went back to normal after that incident. Luckily, it had happened during the weekend and Darius’ absence had not been noted. He had a whole new power to get used to and had so many new ideas he wanted to try. But he also knew that he could not be rash about it. When he still wasn’t awakened, the initial influx of emotions had knocked him out and though he didn’t believe it would be quite as bad as the first time, there was no reason to risk it.

Mione was still worried though. She was always hovering around, likely trying to make sure he didn’t collapse again but finally started to behave normally after a few more days. They continued their RoR practice as well.

It took a few days to learn the initial parts of his powers. The Clairempathy allowed him to sense the emotions and feelings of any sentient beings, including ghosts. He was mighty surprised when he was trying to feel the emotions of the students around him on the way to the Great Hall, when he detected the strongest wave of self-hatred and regret that he had ever felt. He looked around to identify the person and found the Bloody Baron passing by. Darius knew about his story of course and could understand the reason for his feelings.

But occlumency seems to prevent his senses partially. For instance, he knew Snape hated teaching. The man was a Master Potioneer and a genius at that but that didn’t mean he liked to teach. But he still didn’t get any such negative feelings out of the man during the classes.

But even more amazing were the abilities associated with being I an Aura Master. Just a little bit of magic sent to his eyes would allow him to see the Aura of everyone around him. The sending magic to the eyes bit was a bit tricky but his natural instincts for the skill helped him in achieving it. He had to prepare his magic as if he was going to cast a spell and then direct it to his optic nerves. The magical energy allowed him to see beyond the mundane and gave him a view of Auras. He was still a novice at reading them, but despite that they were a great help in understanding people.

Mione had an amazingly ordered Aura, it was a smooth and gentle flow, though it did get excited every time she encountered books!! Harry’s aura was also unique, the innermost part was a beautiful glowing aura, but the outer parts seemed to swirl and flicker all the time. The horrific part though was the remnant aura his scar held. Despite the horcrux being removed there were still trace amounts of an extremely malevolent aura, though it did help Darius in identifying the Dark Lord’s aura. The teachers at school all had stupendous auras, particularly Dumbledore and surprisingly Lupin. Dumbledore’s was like a blazing fire, Darius was sure he could recognise it even from a mile away. Lupin’s was also surprisingly strong, the werewolf within him must be the cause of it. But without a single doubt, the greatest aura in the school was Fawkes. That magnificent bird’s aura would be visible for miles, it was that powerful. The only thing Darius knew for certain, was that the bird was bonded to Dumbledore, but he was sure the bird must be much, much older that the old wizard.

Practising either of the two skills was not easy at all, they were right up there with wandless magic as far as the level of difficulty was concerned. Only the preliminary abilities were somewhat easy to use but he was sure that there was much more hidden underneath the surface. Just the Aura master abilities had the potentially branch out into game-breaking abilities. Patho-Ergokinesis was a prized awakening skill for a reason!

The time went by swiftly with nothing amazing happening and was overall a calm few months. Darius’ attempts at learning his powers were coming along but at quite a slow pace. The greatest asset he had now, was that he was instantly able to identify people by their auras, this meant there was almost no chance of anyone sneaking up on him, whether disillusioned, invisible or disguised. He was also able to get a better handle on his clairempathy and was quite easily able to tell truth and lies apart now.

Darius and Mione’ relationship was going on just fine. They were doing all their practice together, he helped her advance far ahead in her schoolwork and they just loved each other’s company. They had gone on another date the next Hogsmeade weekend and enjoyed it just as much. She had also taken to use magical remedies for all the small problems she had, based on Darius’ advice of course. She had always hated her buck-teeth and bushy hair and it took just some persuasion from him for her to acquiesce to magical help. After Madam Pomfrey’s two-minute cure, she was no longer so sceptical and made good use of the Owl Order pamphlets from the Owl Post at Hogsmeade to order some custom-made hair potions. The interested looks she got from the others after that almost made Darius wish she hadn’t done so in the first place. Almost! She looked gorgeous and was the ideal girl with both brains and beauty.

Harry and Daphne were getting along swell too. Some of the Slytherins were enraged when they first found out and tried to come after Harry. Too bad for them, Harry was one of the premier members of the DA. They were taken down without even realising what happened and then shoved into the nearest broom closet. It was a tight fit for the four hulking Slytherins and quite an embarrassing position to be in when they were finally discovered a couple of hours ago. They attempted to retaliate though, the keyword here being attempted. Darius set the Weasley twins on the Slytherin’s case and they were only to happy to test their entire arsenal of new products on the offending Slytherins. There was merry laughter in the hall on that day, when half the Slytherin house turned into chickens when they began to eat their breakfast.

Neville and Hannah were arguably the most similar couple. They got along swimmingly and were seemingly the perfect couple. She had helped a lot with the remainder of his self-esteem issues and he had brought her out of the shell she was in and made her more open with everyone.

The teachers had also started coming down hard on the students. OWLs were one of the most important examinations in a witch or wizard’s life and everyone was working at a feverish pace to ace it. Darius had no worries about it though, as usual. The fortis memoriae was the single most useful spell for any student to learn. Even Mione, for all her disgust at cheating, acknowledged the sheer usefulness of the spell. She was able to devote much more time to learning practical magic now and was still able to go through more books than she did before.

Darius had also brought in some of their friends in the DA in the secret. No reason why they should waste time learning academics by rote when there was such a convenient alternative. Fred and George, Harry, Daphne, Neville, Hannah, Susan, Luna and Lee were the only ones Darius taught the spell to, and even that after they took a wizard’s oath not to divulge it to any outsiders without his explicit permission. The twins and Lee were especially overjoyed since they also had the OWLs right around the corner. Though Darius did suspect that the twins might not put it to use for the exams. They were geniuses in their own right but still got minimal OWLs in canon and he suspected that it was to escape the clutches of their harpy-like mother and not end up in a ministerial job.

For some reason the Thestral herd had grown even closer to him once he had unlocked his powers. The came up to him as soon as they noticed him and started cosying up to him. Darius suspected it was due to his aura master abilities. With the awakening of that particular ability, his own aura had shot up in strength and power. It had also imbibed the dual nature of his core and exhibited a perfect mix of life and death, rather similar to the Thestrals.

One surprise was that the Buckbeak incident was still taking place. Hagrid was not in the crosshairs like last time since Malfoy didn’t actually get hurt but they were still going after the hippogriff. Darius made a visit down to Hagrid’s hut at least once a week and got to know about this the earliest. Hagrid was a very kind soul and really loved his little monsters, so Darius really felt for the poor guy. Hagrid had taught Darius a lot over the past few years, in fact more than most of the other teachers. Whatever the other teachers taught Darius, he had generally learnt it long ago so he didn’t really learn much from them. His main source of knowledge was self-study and the RoR.

But Hagrid was different. The man had selflessly taught Darius all he knew about various beasts and it was much more than he could have learnt otherwise. The man had encountered nearly every known magical beast. It was a less known fact that Hagrid went on a different trip nearly every summer break to see a different animal. He had been groundskeeper since his expulsion and every knut he made went into these trips. The man was a veritable walking talking monster library.

“Hagrid, you needn’t worry about it at all. They don’t have a case against you at all. Buckbeak is in a bit more precarious position but I’m sure we can get him out of it. No poncy gits like the Malfoys are going to harm such a magnificent creature.”

“Thanks fer tha’ Darius. It does me good ta hear that. And thanks fer all the material ye got fer me. It should be much easier to figh’ his case wit’ this.”

“Don’t worry about it, Hagrid. I like the Hippogriffs as well. Though I got to admit that I like the Thestrals better!”

“To each his own. An’ it is nice that at leas’ some one likes those poor misunderstood beasts. They are extremely useful animals, once you can get pas’ the superstitions.”

“I know. And flying on them is also an exhilarating experience. But back to Buckbeak, you needn’t worry so much. Even if you lost the case, it won’t be too difficult to sneak him away to someone who can care for it. I know someone who has ample space in their mansion to house a hippogriff.”

“Really? Thanks a lot, Darius. I am feelin’ a lot more relieved since we have some other arrangements.”

“No problem, Hagrid. By the way, how did you like your year as a teacher?”

“It was great. I loved ta teach all the kids abou’ all the differen’ animals. I was really worried afta’ the Buckbeak incident though. If something serious had happened, I would hafta teach about Flobberworms for the rest of the year. But thanks ta ya, it all got sorted out.”

“Well, I have been wondering for the past few days. Since you have so much experience in CoMC, why don’t you apply for OWLs in it? Hogwarts is not the only place you can give OWLs, y’know? You can give it in the Ministry as well. Though there is the restriction of being only able to appear for it once in our entire life. But you never gave it before, so you should be able to appear for it.”

“Are ya sure? I would love ta give he exam. But won’t it be awkward?”

“Absolutely sure. The Ministery offers OWLs, NEWTs and Mastery exams to anyone who is interested. You just need to apply by owl post and go to the Ministery on the assigned date. I am confident that you can easily get your Mastery in CoMC. And it would be a lot easier for you as a teacher if you got a mastery. At least snobs like Malfoy wouldn’t be able to kick you out easily.”

“Mastery?? I canna do that Darius. I appreciate the vote o’ confidence. But how on earth am I prepared fer Mastery?”

“You are more than qualified, Hagrid. You just don’t have the self-confidence to take the examination. I promise you, you are more than capable enough to take them and ace them as well. Go on, go for it.”

“Ver well, I’ll try it ou’ this summer. And I really appreciate the help, Darius.”

“It was no biggie, Hagrid. Just trying to get you to live up to your potential. But I gotta leave now. See ya.”’

“Bye, Darius.”

Darius had since helped Hagrid a number of times to learn some more of the theory bits. Hagrid didn’t need help with the practical portion at all, he was as good as the examiners who would conduct the test. Darius also sneakily placed an overpowered Fortis Memoriae on Hagrid every time he visited, to help Hagrid learn the theory quicker. His OWLs were at the same time as the rest of the students but within the Ministry ad the NEWTs a week later. The Mastery would be about a month later, in the middle of the summer break.

Darius knew this was a major change to the timeline, but he couldn’t help but help his friend. It hurt him to see Hagrid not utilizing the immense potential he had in the field. Plus it shouldn’t vreate a vast change in the future. Hagrid would also get much better treatment in society with his status as a master, not to mention a raise in the pay scale.

Unfortunately, the case went the same way as in canon and Buckbeak was sentenced to execution. Darius found it suspicious though. He had provided Hagrid excellent material, which should have definitely got Buckbeak off the hook. There must have been some major strings pulled for this to happen. But he couldn’t understand the purpose, even Malfoy Jr wasn’t pushing so hard for it this time around. Someone else was also there on the field and they had their own agenda!