Darius was very pleased with his last excursion. Not only had he got a hold of another Horcrux, he had achieved another one of his goals as well. Although he had met up with Sirius near the Gaunt cottage, the two of them had made their way there separately. However, he had gotten there much earlier than Sirius. He had first crossed over the hill to make his way to Little Hangleton, specifically, to its graveyard.

The plan was simple, though he was all for delaying Voldemort’s revival, knowing the inexorable march of fate, there was a good chance he wouldn’t be able to do so. If it came to than, however, he would make sure to sabotage the plans as much as he was able to.

The graveyard was not as dreary as it might have been at night and Darius easily picked his way through it. He searched for a fancy headstone that might be used for the graves of the squire and his family. If his memories about the film were correct, it was a cloaked figure holding a scythe, but he couldn’t be sure. He found it soon enough though, after all the graveyard had only so many graves in that tiny area. The words on the grave were still fairly visible. It was no doubt the grave of Riddle Sr. and so he got to work.

His first idea had been to simply vanish Riddle Sr.’s bones and conjure another set of bones to replace them. But he soon came up with a few problems with that idea. It was highly doubtful if any conjured item he created would last even a week, let alone the months between now and the final Triwizard tournament challenge. And vanishing the bones could be waste of a potential resource. If he could find the correct kind of spell, a powerful sympathetic curse would be good enough to take out Voldemort without placing themselves in any danger once the Horcruxes were done for. He placed it in his space pouch finally

He shot down a couple more ideas before sticking to simple tactics. He placed the bones into a wooded casket he transfigured from the surrounding dirt and replaced it with the bones from a grave a few meters away. This way he could keep Riddle Sr.’s bones at hand if it was ever required but also keep a decoy set of bones in the correct grave. If the situation was the same as in the original timeline, then Voldemort would be in for a rude surprise. Using the wrong bones would either outright fail the ritual and cause a backlash upon the caster or the ritual would succeed but end up with Voldemort about a third weaker than he should be. After all, it is a body constructed using a homunculus and a dark ritual tied into the three main components of it, Bone of father, Flesh of servant and Blood of enemy. If one of the three was a fake, it should have a debilitating effect on the ritual.

Putting the place to rights and hiding all evidence of anyone being there before setting off at a brisk trot to the Gaunt cottage. He had an appointment to keep with Sirius after all.

After the business at the Gaunt cottage was over, both Sirius and Darius gave the good news to Harry and the three of them celebrated into the next few hours. Darius couldn’t help but imagine how difficult it must have been for Harry when he was out on the search for the Horcruxes. They had barely any idea about what to do, some spare clues regarding the Horcruxes themselves and so many other things in the way. It is a miracle, or rather some kind of plot armor, that they actually managed to destroy all the Horcruxes and mange to end Voldemort once and for all.

Once that was over with, Darius returned home and looked over his newest books. He had ordered them from Flourish and Blotts just a week ago and spent lot of his free time with it. Basics of Healing was a recommended book for all Healer apprentices and he was rather piqued by the possibilities. He had already gotten his OWLs and his grades would see him through any course he chose. His mother had suggested Enchanting but he thought over it and decided not to.

Enchanting was an extremely lucrative and highly regarded practice, but it took a long time to gain any amount of proficiency in it. He had created a few artefacts and magical objects, which could loosely be considered enchanted objects, but they weren’t really. To him, they were merely runic gadgets created using overlaying runes and patterns giving it magical effects. Enchanting on the other hand was the imbuing of magic into an object and shaping the magic within it for specific purposes. Body enchantment, or to use its actual name, Vertentes, was what he had been doing since he was much younger. It was both the highest and lowest form of enchantment. Lowest because it is much easier to work with your own body than any other object. Strictly speaking there is hardly any imbuing involved other than the minute amounts siphoned off to temper and strengthen the body. It is also the highest because the possibly benefits are incalculable and there is no real ceiling as to ho far one can go with it. Theoretically, by expanding his magic with age and practice and then condensing and purifying it with Vertentes , by the time he was in his early twenties, Darius would be powerful enough to level an entire mansion easily.

But it was something better learnt on his own. There were very few masters in the craft, even considering all the ones around the world and most of them hoarded their designs and knowledge with great jealousy. Even if he should manage to get a teacher, it would be one of the lousiest ones possible, but they would cost a fortune all the same. He would rather take his time and use his ideas to fashion out amazing objects.

But healing was another story altogether. It had to be learnt with a mentor to gain a proper and structured learning experience. After all, it required Exceeds Expectations or outstanding grades in DADA, Charms, Transfiguration, Potions and Herbology. Healing was an incredibly useful skill, which could go all the way from reversing some minor spell damage to bring back someone from the very brink of death. It would also be a good ideal to be proficient at it if he intended to actually go through his idea for an around the world trip. The greatest reason of all though, was the fact that he had an amazing Healer at hand, ready to teach him healing and he would be a fool of he didn’t take the chance.

Perenelle Flamel and he husband knew that there was a lot on young Darius’ plate and they were quite accepting of the fact. It wasn’t like he was a full-time apprentice who would be able to devote all his time to them. In fact, they rather liked being unfettered like this and she knew that he husband had made up her mind to handle future acolytes and apprentices in the same way. But she knew it would be quite difficult to get another on the same level as Darius. The youngster was far more talented than the two of them had been in their youth and they enjoyed teaching him. He was still under age but was able to grasp his lessons, meant for much older individuals, like a sponge and do so while also handling his school work and other extra curricular activities.

Why, just last week she had been requested to teach him the Healer Arts. Perenelle had mentioned her skills in the skill before and was happy enough to pass them to another bright pupil. She had a rather vaunted reputation in France and it wasn’t without reason. A statue in her likeness still stood in the atrium in France for her contributions to the Healing field and building up the best hospital in the country. It had been over a couple of centuries since then and she was still given the respect owed to an Honorary Head Healer position each time she visited France.

She had taken over a dozen apprentices over her long life and each of them had done her proud. She was quite ready to take on another. She paused in her reminisces when there was a knock on the door and she spoke out loud. “Come in!”

He newest student stepped through and she greeted him with a wide smile.

“And how are you today, young Darius?”

“I am doing fine Madam Perenelle. And I thank you for shifting those couple of classes to a different date to accommodate my schedule.”

“Oh, its no trouble at all. I am rather free these days after all. Just don’t make a habit of it.”

“Of course, Madam. Shall we be covering More about curses today or finally move on to healing?”

“Hehe, you may try to use occlumency to occlude your feelings and out a more stoic facade but I’ve learnt to read people over centuries and am not easily fooled. Come on now, let out that grin, I am quite happy that you are looking forward to it, it is always pleasant for a teacher who has an eager student. Aha, there it is. Anyway, have a seat. We shall indeed be starting healing today.”

“Ahaha, only you would be able to read me with such ease Madam. And yes, I’m indeed looking forward to your lessons on the subject.”

“Ok, lets start with a question. What is the most important magical discipline involved in Healing? I want you to think carefully and answer.”

Darius thought over it for nearly five minutes before answering.

“Charms or Potions! Most of the spells in healing are charms, like the cleansing charm, bone-knitting charm, See-through charm and so on. While Potions do most of the work on the body, particularly the ones that need a long time to fix. They are very versatile and with adequate amount of skill, a healer can create the required potions for almost any kind of affliction.”

“That was an excellent and well though out answer and had I been nearly any other Healer on the planet I might have agreed to it. But the answer is neither of the above. The answer is…… divination.

And with that she burst out laughing at the flabbergasted look on Darius face.