It had already been five years since his new life. He was also finally used to the name of Darius Icarus. He had completely settled into his new life in Hogsmeade. The village was amazing and was so much more than the descriptions in the books. His mother was on good terms with most of the residents and he was already well known amongst them for his intelligence and curiosity.

The kindly couple who managed Honeydukes let him have some chocolates every time he visited and he finally tasted butterbeer for the first time his last birthday when Rosmerta was able to sneak him a mug. It was better than he could have imagined and he made it a point to visit at leaast once a week for a mug. Dogweed and Deathcap was interesting too and his mother was delighted with his interest in the subject and was already teaching him about the various herbs and ingredients though he hadn't started with potions yet.

Zonko's was certainly interesting but it got boring after a couple of visits. He could see why Weasley's wizard wheezes did so well. Zonko's kept old stock and there wasn't much innovation involved. Maybe he could pair up with the Weasley twins and join in their business later.

The greatest find of all though was Tomes and Scrolls, the Hogsmeade bookstore. The owner was named Leonard Vance and seeing my enthusiasm about the books, willingly let me come in and read some books in my spare time. The guy was very pleased with my habit and even started helping him out with the difficult bits. He had already read a lot of the Hogwarts material he got his hands on. It was a bit Hermione-ish of him but it was too big an allure to pass up on.

The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1, 2 & 3) by Miranda Goshawk

Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling

One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore

Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger

Advanced Potion-Making by Libatius Borage

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble

A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

Intermediate Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

Spellman's Syllabary

Advanced Rune Translation

This covered a lot of the material taught there but the lack of a wand kept me from putting the theory into practice. But memorising the herbology, potions and ancient runes theory would be just as useful. In fact, he believed that runes would be one of the effective ways to make the advances in magical society that he wanted. Able to function in a way eerily similar to the computer coding of muggles, they were a good replacement for making magical versions of modern items.

Another piece of good news was that he had finally figured out where he fitted into the whole timeline. Slightly after he was two years old, the wizarding world erupted with the news of Voldemort's fall. As Harry should have been a year old at the time, he was apparently a year senior to Harry. The wizards and witches were truly jubilant and there were a dozen parties the entire week after that in Hogsmeade itself not to mention all over the rest of the country. His mother received so many owls that she was nearly driven crazy by them. But he did learn an important secret, though not in the Order of the Phoenix, his mother had a few acquaintances in it, notably Minerva McGonagall, the deputy headmistress of Hogwarts. She had dropped by a week after and had lengthy conversation with his mother.

The years had passed by quickly after that with all the reading and preparations he had been doing. The books at Tomes and Scrolls had proven most useful and he searched out all the preparation he could do while still young.

He also searched through the second-hand books to see if he could find some discarded books of Hogwarts students. He was mainly hoping to find some of Snape's early potions books but no luck there. He did manage to land his hands on a few other treasures though. He found the potions textbooks of 'LILY POTTER' and the transfiguration textbooks belonging to Kingsley Shacklebolt. They both had copious notes in them and he would go through them thoroughly later. He also searched the advanced books section of the shop. A few interesting finds were the books on occlumency, animagi transformations, rune overlay and intent casting.

Occlumency would be vital to him with all the secrets he was hiding. It would also serve to train in focussing his mind which would help him with his spells and also intent casting.

Animagi transformations had been a surprisingly interesting read and he discovered to his surprise that there were several ways to initiate the transformation. In fact, it was so detailed that he wouldn't be surprised that Marauders had learnt the art from this book itself. It had the Native American way of drawing support from animals and totems, the European way of finding one's inner animal and unleashing it and many more outlandish methods.

Rune overlay was the method of magically grafting runes onto an object and in essence transforming it into a magical tool. He was going to have a lot of fun experimenting with that one.

Intent casting was the one which may prove to be the most important of the lot. It explained the theory of how one's will affected magical power and how to hone it to cast magic without casting aides like wands. An ancient and unpredictable art, it granted the magician the power to cast without a wand and utilize non-verbal spells easily. It required long periods of effort to hone the mind but the pay-out was worth it.

All of these methods gave Darius an additional way of practice i.e., his mind and will. He had started meditating and practice channelling magic through his body which had the three-fold effect of preparing himself for intent casting, strengthening his mind for occlumency and animagi transformations and also developing his physical body better. He was already as tall as 7-8 year olds at the age of 5. He also had quite a strong body, rarely got ill and his mental faculties were improving. It wasn't a glaring difference now but he bet that it would benefit him greatly in the future.

His timetable every day was quite full. He sat on a stool beside his mother in the mornings at the shop, occasionally asking her any doubts he had about herbs or potions. He meditated for intent casting in the afternoons and spent his evenings at one of the shops in Hogsmeade, generally Three Broomsticks for the butterbeer or Tomes and Scrolls for the books. Another session of meditation followed dinner and then sleep. He was discovering that the magical meditation was a viable replacement for sleep. He woke up after each session wide awake and bursting with energy. He would get around to experimenting with that one of these days. He didn't have many friends his own age. Though there were a few kids in Hogsmeade, they were too juvenile for his taste and he rather spent his time buried in all those magical tomes.

His mother had promised that he could soon brew some simple potions under her guidance if he was interested. Being one of the few subjects that didn't require the use of wands, at least in the earlier periods, he was itching to get started.

The years ahead were certainly going to be entertaining.