It had been a couple of months since the Death Eater incident and judging by the lack of any more attacks, Voldemort had shifted to his tournament plan. It would be much easier to counter his plans if the timeline was closer to the original. Darius was glad that the trick he had tried worked, at least as far as he could tell. Pettigrew’s mind was ridiculously easy to tamper with, must come with being as weak-willed as he was. Voldemort could have no doubt figured out that it was planted information if he had more time but with the deadly curse on Pettigrew, there was no way he would live long enough for that. The curse was the same necrosis inducing venom spell which Voldemort had placed on the Gaunt ring. There were only a couple of spells that had even the slightest resemblance to it, so I’m sure Voldemort was able to identify it but that didn’t mean e could heal a deadly curse that had been cast for such a long duration, not even sure whether he would bother to do it even if he could.

The OWLs were here. The first exam that decides your life. The students in the 5th year were going absolutely bonkers with the pressure. It was common to see frazzled and frustrated students lounging around the common room with heavy tomes in their hands. The library was as silent as a graveyard and everyone inside was feverishly studying to make up for all the slacking off they did in the earlier years. Unlike the NEWTs, which were much more selective in their approach and only tested the advanced knowledge of a student, the OWLs were known to have questions on obscure topics taught in the first year. It was not much of a problem for Darius, what with his cheat-like Fortis Memoriae, but it was hell on earth for the others. Darius meanwhile was using his time efficiently and was furthering the gap between him and his peers even further, as if the situation now wasn’t enough already.

He had managed to bring down the time taken to complete his animagus transformation to less than a second and it was now a viable addition to his combat strategy. Having an incredibly fast, near invincible animal form you could switch into in the middle of a fight was a great trump card. The highly magic resistant hide of the Wampus cat allowed him to shrug off all but the most potent of curses and spell, i.e., if they cold hit him in the first place. Most wizard couldn’t possibly match the speed he could attain in his Wampus cat form and that was a great advantage to have.

His spell work had also grown dizzyingly fast and he cold fire off spell at a very high speed now, though at the cost of slightly reduced power and accuracy. The stationary dummies at RoR offered no challenge any more and he had started with the moving ones. It had done wonders for his spell work. There was absolutely no use having a vast repertoire of spells or a great deal of power if you couldn’t even hit the opponent. Most wizards were not at the level of their full physical potential. As wizards naturally have higher body specs due to the magic coursing its way through the body, they never really bothered to improve upon it. Even so, Darius maintained his rigorous schedule constantly and maintained a high level of physical fitness. With the addition of the Vertentes, he was head and shoulders above the rest of the people. What most wizards don’t realize is that stamina plays just as important a role in a duel as magical power, many wizards get taken down because they were unable to keep up with the physical exertion rather than getting magically exhausted.

The examiners were here! Omg, they were finally here. Darius was starting to get a bit testy with the atmosphere in the castle. It was like someone was coming to take them all to the gallows for execution. The somber mood was totally killing his mood and it was a great relief when he saw the examiners walk into the hall. Of course, the rest of the students acted as if they had just seen their executioners walk in and the hall was pin-drop silent. Even the lower years seemed to understand the gravity of the situation and seemed to be silent for once. The examiners were led by a wizened looking witch, presumably Madam Marchbanks, the head of the W.E.A. or Wizarding Examinations Authority. There were a gaggle of examiners following her, though Darius didn’t bother to count. The students had already been given their exam schedules and exams were to begin in another couple of days.

Darius’ timetable was as follows-

Monday Charms (Theory)

Charms (Practical)

Tuesday Transfiguration (Theory)

Transfiguration (Practical)

Wednesday Herbology (Theory)

Herbology (Practical)

Thursday Defense against the Dark Arts (Theory)

Defense against the Dark Arts (Practical)

Friday Ancient Runes (Theory)

Monday Potions (Theory)

Potions (Practical)

Tuesday Care of Magical Creatures (Practical)

Wednesday Astronomy (Theory)

Astronomy (Practical)

Thursday Arithmancy (Theory)

Friday History of Magic (Theory)

Darius had all the subjects except two, Divination and Muggle Studies. Divination was a crap subject for anyone who did not actually have the gift of the Inner Eye and Muggle Studies was so outdated it wasn’t even funny. Ancient Runes, Arithmancy and History of Magic were purely theory subjects and CoMC was only practical. The rest of the subjects had both theory and practical examinations. The advanced classes for Arithmancy and Runes in the NEWTs level did have some practical applications but not at the OWLs level.

The night before the first exam, the students were freaking out and studying till the last moment. Just to be on the safe side, Darius also went through the entire syllabus once, with the Fortis memoriae spell activated of course. Mione was even more nervous about his OWLs than he was, despite knowing about the Fortis Memoriae. It felt nice to have someone so concerned anyway and he reassured her that he would do very well in the examinations.

The next day dawned and Darius left his Vertentes early and headed down to the Great Hall for a hearty breakfast. Charms was up first, and Darius didn’t want to perform anything less than his best.

The crowd cleared out as breakfast got over, though the exam students still milled around. At half past nine, the students were let into the Great Hall and told to take their seats. The arrangement was just as it had been described in the books. Four long rows of single seats meant for a single individual. All the students bustled about taking their seats. When the hubbub finally settled down, Professor McGonagall gave the customary warning regarding cheating and then distributed the exam sheets to us with a single wave of her wand.

As soon as the hourglass was turned, beginning the start of the examination, Darius put his head down and started on is paper. It was extremely simple for him and he went about it diligently. There were a vast number of questions though. Darius wasn’t sure what the requirement for an ‘O’ was, but he was pretty sure that answering about 70% of it correctly should have been more than enough.

The questions ranged from levitation charms, all the way up to the Patronus charm. Color charms, cheering charms, summoning, banishing, severing and everything in between. By the time Darius finished the paper, there was only about half an hour left, but he was well satisfied with his attempt. Unless he was very much mistaken, and he didn’t think he was, he must have broken the record for the Charms written examination.

The exams were followed by lunch, where Darius had to spend half the time trying to calm a hyper Mione before he got to having his lunch. The other students, at least those outside the DA, were practicing all the spells in whatever little time we had left.

He got called in pretty early and walked up to the only free examiner, a certain Professor Ember. She was a relatively young witch, only in her mid-thirties or so, and gave a bright smile as he approached.

“Hello, Darius Icarus, right?”

“Hello ma’am, that’s right.”

“Now, I want you to relax and take it easy. Too many people make mistakes they wouldn’t otherwise make just because they are too tense. Now, first I would like you to levitate these five feathers and make them do a circle of eight in the air.”

And so it began. We moved from levitation to color changing, then size manipulation, summoning and banishing, utility charms and more. It was a pretty thorough exam.

“Well, Darius, I have to say your performance was commendable. In such extraordinary cases we allow students to perform their best spell, for a better grade?”

Well, he didn’t know that’s how it worked, or he would have thought it through earlier. This must be how students can achieve the coveted O+ grade. His repertoire of charms was not expansive as his dueling spells and only one thing came to mind. Harry may have used it to get an O in DADA, but technically, it was a charm.

“Expecto Patronum!”

The ocelot Patronus burst out of the end of the wand and zipped around the place like it owned it. Thank god there weren’t any DA members in the room at the same time as me, or we would be having a whole herd of Patronuses going around the place. Ember gave a wide grin when she saw it and clapped twice.

“Impressive, very impressive! The Patronus charm is a NEWTs level charm and even most of them don’t know it. That’s going to be a big boost, Darius. Very well, you may go now Darius, and keep up the good work.”

After that, Darius was led out through a side door and asked to return to his common room. This was done to prevent the people who have completed their exams from disclosing the contents to their friends. Darius headed back to the tower, a bit exhausted, but exceedingly pleased with himself.

Transfiguration the next day went much the same way. The theory was much more difficult due to the complicated spell formulae and the complex theories behind transfiguration, not to mention the endless variations of its applications. At least in charms, each spell stuck to doing what it was supposed to do, in transfiguration a single spell could be used for multiple effects or in multiple scenarios.

The practical was a breeze as well. Darius managed to complete everything flawlessly and impressed the examiners there as well. For the extra spell, he chose not to use the Aegis. Beyond impressive though it might be, especially for an OWLs student, it was as of yet not complete. He chose to show conjurations, a NEWTs level technique, and conjured a multitude of objects of varying complexities. McGonagall was watching from one end of the hall and Darius noticed her giving a very self-satisfied smile from the corner. He couldn’t have been prouder.

Herbology theory was a joke for Darius. He just needed to answer the material given in the textbooks word for word. It did not even require any application like the previous two papers. The practical in the afternoon on the other hand was quite decent. He got a particularly stubborn Snargaluff and had to struggle with it a bit but that shouldn’t stop him from getting an ‘O’.

Defense against the Dark Arts was, unsurprisingly, the easiest of the lot. He had read books on the subject till the mastery level and spent hours in the RoR reading up obscure books on the subject. He had personally taught various kids the subject and taught them well at that. Even if he didn’t have the cheaty Fortis Memoriae, he would have absolutely aced this exam. He had a ready answer for every question and the various scenarios described in them.

The practical in the afternoon had Professor Tofty, the very same professor who took the exam for Harry Potter in canon storyline. The test had been all to easy. There was an obstacle course, similar to the one Lupin uses for the third years, some tests for counter-curses and hexes and a test on spell proficiency of a variety of basic defence spells. The examiners must speak amongst themselves, Darius’ reputation had already preceded himself and Professor Tofty had already cleared an area for his extra demonstration. This time Darius was already ready for the show. He performed a series of spells which he had already done, only, they were all done non-verbally. He could have a done a number of them windlessly as well, but that might have been a bit too much, plus he didn’t want to expose every card in his hand. He finished off with a demonstration of spell swatting, Professor Tofty very willing to act as the partner for the demonstration.

Ancient runes was just too easy. He was already thorough with the theory. It would have been a different story if there was a practical part but fortunately there wasn’t one. Runes were very versatile, and with there endless combinations they could be a nightmare for practicals.

While Potions was not his strongest suit, he wasn’t too shabby at it either. His theory was perfect, as usual. The practical in the afternoon was not as easy. The Draught of Peace came out perfect though the Invigoration Draught, not so much. It was more than acceptable enough but if the exam was to be graded solely on that potion alone, he would not end up higher than ‘EE’ grade. But based on the other potion and the written test, he should be able to scrape an ‘O’ easily. He had realized it before as well, but this just struck it home. He was more than a decent Potioneer and could get by easily, but he didn’t have that sheer talent or feel for potions that took people beyond the level of Mastery. He would be able to get till there at least but that would be the end of his road as far as potions were concerned.

CoMC went the same way as the Herbology practical, it was near perfect except for a small singe from the fire crab. Though with the speed at which he repaired his clothes and healed himself, Darius didn’t think the examiner had even noticed him among the multitude of students present. Nevertheless, it was an excellent showing.

Astronomy was a cinch. He already memorized everything in the book down to the smallest detail, so the theory was not a problem at all. The practical, he cheated on it just a bit. They were to be held at night, so he used the miniature planetarium he had bought form Diagon Alley to see the night sky. It cost a hefty amount, but it was worth it. It could be synchronized to the movements of the celestial bodies and it took but minutes to memorize the whole thing. When he went to the practicals, he just had to mark everything in the star chart and he was done. He was finished in less than half the time required.

Arithmancy was the toughest of the theory papers he had had. Not only did it test the knowledge of the student, it also tested the comprehension of it to great detail. Luckily, Darius was actually quite good at the subject and didn’t have much of a problem with it. Taking apart spell models and reverse engineering them was another hobby of his and he wouldn’t have been able to create his memory fortification spell without it.

History of Magic was easily the dullest paper of the lot. All Darius had to do was to write down whatever he had read in the book word for word.

All in all, the exams went fantastically well. Unless he was very much mistaken, and he didn’t think he was, he was bringing home 10 OWLs. The entire mood of the castle had lightened up after the OWLs were over and the near visible pall of pressure which was present on all the students was finally lifted. The only thing remaining was about a week’s time before the end of term feast before they set off for their homes. He spent the remaining time snuggling up with Mione on the Hogwarts grounds and enjoying life. No studies or practice for a week, after all it is good to rest once in a while. Also, he had managed to complete the project he had been working on for over a year, so he was pleased as punch.