Winter melted away from England's memories with its snow and its wind, leaving behind a remembrance of the bitter days.
The month of February shied away, clutching the winter's cloak.
When March came, it brought the first colors of spring, livening up the entire country's sulky mood.
Days became longer, warmer, and soother.
Even in the wizarding community, all knew how to appreciate the weather and the thousands of colors of spring, like countless faces.
Southern England welcomed less snowfall in March and April than northern.
Still, rainfall remained an occasional sight.
Chilly winds kept sweeping the nights, misting the wet mornings.
April passed by in these drizzles, cold shivers, and refreshing breezes.
It's been five months since Darcie had begun her training under the stern, watchful, and praising tutelage of two ghosts.
Those two ghosts were — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Mr. A. E. Waite.
They were the Chiefs of the two Circles of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
From Mr. Waite, Darcie learned the basic concepts of Hermetic Kabbalah.
The mystic expert taught Darcie how Kabbalah was connected with Alchemy, how the Classical Elemental influenced Kabbalah, the Tree of Life, and, in turn, the Alchemical properties of substances.
Darcie also learned the basic principles of astrology from Mr. Waite, and how to combine its theories with Alchemy, too.
Then there was Mr. Waite's specialty — Divination.
Darcie learned both tarot card divination and Geomancy, but only in the latter did she make significant progress.
Geomancy was based on markings, patterns, and calculations, rather than interpretations (as with tarot cards), leading to Darcie's favoritism toward the former divination art.
With Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Darcie spent most of her time learning Herbology's basics.
She had already learned enough of elementary Potioneering.
Even then, when the old ghost taught her how to connect the concepts of Potioneering with Alchemy, it was as if a new door had opened itself to her.
Darcie's mastery over Runology and ancient texts stumped both ghosts, leaving them incapable of gauging her true capabilities in that regard.
If there was something that had occupied most of Darcie's time in these last few months, then it was the Magic Circles.
Magic Circles not only combined the fields of elemental geometry, runes, sigils, glyphs, and magical principles, but they were also inherently needed to do Alchemy.
Some Magical Circles let one bring out a specific property of an ingredient, and some let one use the natural magical force in the world to destruct and construct ingredients, creating a finished product.
When combined, five months felt just too short for Darcie to even cover the basics.
It was especially so when she only visited 221B Baker Street three days a week.
Even Darcie, with all her intelligence, wasn't as ridiculous as that.
Darcie had already memorized and familiarized herself with most of the subjects of Hogwarts' first and second years.
But it was only so because these two years dealt with the most elementary content of the magical studies, and there was much more theoretical than practical work involved with them.
Not to mention, Darcie didn't have a Wand, leaving her incapable of practicing certain spells.
Sure, with her Wandless and Non-Verbal magic, she didn't need a wand much.
It didn't mean that she didn't want a Wand altogether, though.
It all had put a pause on her further studies into the 3rd year's subjects according to Hogwarts' curriculum.
Darcie didn't mind it. Not at all.
Her knowledge was growing vaster and vaster, her basics getting cleared at a rate that even she felt slow to keep up with.
Darcie even believed that till her admission into Hogwarts, she would never have time to advance her regular curriculum studies.
Not when the entire World Tour was awaiting her at the end of her training with the two ghosts.
But this all was a side of Darcie's life that only a few knew.
To others, Darcie Malfoy was becoming a greater mystery with every passing day, her entire life and existence shrouded in a thick veil of magical mist.
Darcie published two more papers during this time.
One paper was on how to combine Runology and Arithmancy, leading to countless distinct possibilities based on the system of runes used during certain divinations.
Arithmancy was already a subject well-known and well-researched by the wizarding community.
But few possessed the vast wealth of knowledge in runes for them to pry into its secrets.
This paper, in itself, had shocked the scholars.
Of course, this paper had been published under the care of Ms. Esmeralda Willow, the Headmistress of the London branch of the Euro-Glyph School of Extraordinary Language, giving it much more weight.
The second paper Darcie published was on combining the 16 geomantic figures of Geomancy with the four Classical Elements, using the principles of eight trigrams of I Ching (-a Chinese classical text-) as the basis.
When one read these papers, they all felt like just anyone could have drawn these inferences based on the data available.
But only when one attempted it did one get to know how wide the scales of knowledge it would need to come to the same conclusions.
At last, all, at least those who were wise and intelligent enough to know, came to understand that Darcie possessed a magnificent, photographic memory, as already mentioned by the minister of magic.
And it was the Malfoys who enjoyed the direct results of Darcie's soaring reputation.
Darcie spent only her Sundays at home, but she devoted her entire time to her family, putting aside her training.
She and Draco catching snitches occupied Darcie's Sunday mornings, enjoying the cool spring wind on their broomsticks.
In the afternoon, she attempted light Potioneering using her mother's wand, giving an excuse of teaching her brother a few things.
Then there were her parents.
A small smile remained on Lucius' lips, like an ever-present smirk.
Whenever the owls brought letters, mentioning Darcie and her papers, his chin pointed itself up as if it was alive.
Before, Narcissa had kept chiding Darcie to attend her parties.
But, in the last few months, she had begun taking pleasure in mentioning Darcie's lack of indulgence in ordinary meetings, taking an amusing pride.
Dobby had also been ordered to keep a copy of the Daily Prophet, with Darcie on the front cover, on the table in the Main Hall of the Malfoy Manor.
Obviously, it was the one thing that the house-elf did with a wide grin on his face.
And such copies of the Daily Prophet were growing week after week, with columns of praises and criticisms appearing now and then.
Of course, the copies with criticisms got burned by the combined wrath of Narcissa and Dobby.
In these endless familial bondings, reading and learning, and her Page duties in the Flourish and Blotts Booksellers, even the month of May almost ended.
But there was one special day in May that forced Darcie to break her over four-month-long routine.
A planned visit to the Weasleys!
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