The first few days in the castle were hectic. Between having to send owls to his mother daily, several classes, getting used to the castle's layout and directions, getting along with all his new friends and his personal magic practice, his days were rather full. He made quite a splash in several of the classes, especially those that had practical wand work requirements like transfiguration, charms and defence against the dark arts. He was enough of a prodigy in potions that even Snape could do nothing but give him a grudging A grade. He may have been the first Gryffindor to achieve that in quite a few years. History of magic was a drag that was nothing but endless amounts of dates and events. Despite having read up a lot earlier, he was barely able to keep his head above the water, not to mention the other students. He was also quite decent at astronomy and herbology due to his prior knowledge but had no real skill or inclination towards the subjects.
Professor McGonagall had invited him to her office on the first Saturday after the start of classes. She frankly told him that she, along with a few more teachers were highly impressed with his skills and upon his agreement, would approach the headmaster to have an exception made and transfer him to the second year. He politely but firmly refused the offer. He would have to catch up quite a bit on his weaker subjects, which would also leave him with lesser time to do his own research and magical practice. It would also widen the gap between him and Harry making it difficult to get closer to him. Of course, he said none of those reasons and simply stated that he would like to let his stay at school take the normal progression and not get ahead of his capabilities. Professor McGonagall respected his choice and excused him after once again commending him on his performance and telling him to keep it up.
Fred and George Weasley were quickly becoming legendary pranksters in the school and with the map, they were never caught by Filch. The two of them and him had quickly become fast friends and they had introduced him to Lee Jordan as well. The dreadlocked boy was already the quidditch commentator. The four of them often explored the castle and grounds, hoping to find even more secrets or passages. They had almost taken on the mantle of being the new generation of Marauders and he worked hard to understand the workings of the map, so they could make even more. The Gemino curse was still beyond his capabilities and would give an inferior copy anyways. As far as he could make out, the map had cleverly been anchored to the various protection wards of Hogwarts with a variation of the Protean charm, thereby synchronising the detection wards and the map. It would take him maybe another year or so before he would be able to duplicate the feat of creating such a map. The four of them also often made their way to the kitchens and he had gotten quite familiar with several of the house-elves there.
His first try at flying was quite good and even Madam Hooch praised his skills. He felt he was good enough to fly well but he had nothing on the instinctive superior skills that people like Harry or Ginny had. He was satisfied to fly a couple of times a week and found it very relaxing. The try-outs in the second week were a hoot. He had taken a seat in the stands and watched as Charlie put the people through the paces. Wood was already in the team and was quickly joined by new chasers Angelina and Alicia. The twins took place as the beaters after vastly outshining all the other participants. Unfortunately, Katie couldn't participate, being a first year and all but he had dragged her to see the try-outs and she was already ready to put her name down for next year's team. He did go for the quidditch matches, at least the Gryffindor ones and quite enjoyed them. The Quidditch cup was won by Ravenclaw though.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
His interactions with Snape were hilarious. The man had a grudging respect for his potioneering skills but couldn't let up on him without breaking his persona. Snape did give some hints to improve his skills and left him astounded at the depth of the man's understanding of the subject. He often practised brewing some potions in the room of requirement and was rapidly improving. He hadn't got the chance to nick Snape's textbook as of yet though. He was being very careful, he had only one shot at this and failure could lead to the book being moved elsewhere. Well, he was in no hurry.
He managed to complete all his transfigurations easily and McGonagall was more than happy to help him understand the complex theory behind the spell work. He had also struck up a conversation with her about animagi during some of her spare time, attempting to come across more as a student curious about the subject than someone on the cusp of achieving it themselves. It was a known fact that she was an Animagus and she gave some valuable tips on the subject.
Charms was equally easy for him and he helped out a lot of his classmates with their spells. Flitwick was over-enthusiastic and taught him a lot of spell off-course, pleased at his grasp of charms. Flitwick had been a duelling champion during his time and it hadn't taken much on his part to convince the short professor the need for a duelling club at school. Flitwick promised to talk to Dumbledore about instating a duelling club next year.
The twins also got him acquainted with the mischievous poltergeist, Peeves. He had managed to impress Peeves with some ideas of tricks to play on people and had won his respect. The surprising thing was that the Weasley twins already had their plans for their joke items in the fledgling stage and one of the contributors for the ideas was Peeves. He brought up some of their future ideas from the skiving snack boxes and got to working with the twins on developing them. He himself had a generous fortune at his bank vault and frankly told the twins so. He offered to bankroll their shop in the future if they were interested in return for part-ownership. The twins were grateful and worked more zealously than ever with the added incentives.
He also met Hagrid by the lake, planned encounter of course and talked to him about various magical creatures. Hagrid was even more knowledgeable on the subject than he had expected and Hagrid found him a very willing listener as he regaled him with tales of various magical creatures he had met and those living in the forest. Hagrid even took him to meet some Unicorns in the forest paddock and he saw Hippogriffs from a distance. Other than that, he saw a tribe of Centaurs hunting though didn't step up to speak to them. Hagrid was truly a genial person and Darius loved spending a couple of evenings a week at his hut, avoiding his rock cakes and toffees of course. He even brewed some haemostasis potions for Hagrid to use on wounded animals and told Hagrid about the value of some of the things he had collected in his hut over the years. But the man was not interested in material wealth at all and only magical creatures held his interested. He exchanged letters with Hagrid once in a while and thought about whether he could wrangle himself a trip with Hagrid next summer when he delivered Harry's letter. Something to ponder upon later.