Chapter 2
Materializing in the headquarters, the first thing Constantine noticed was high-pitched female shrieking. The next was the assortment of teens that were gathered around an ear attached to a spring. Hearing the sudden crack, they all turned their heads, frozen in being caught in the act.
Personally, Constantine didn’t understand why they needed the sound amplifying device, seeing as the Order members at the meeting were currently screaming at each other at the top of their lungs.
“He’s too young! He doesn’t know what’s good for him!”
“I am his godfather!”
“Great job you were doing with that, stuck in Azkaban!”
“You’re not his mother!”
“I’m the closest thing he’s got!”
Someone tried to mediate the two. “Molly, Sirius, you both have Harry’s best interest at heart but this will not help him. Please settle down.”
Constantine started grinning. Turning to Kingsley, he said “Well, this is just right entertaining. Hadn’t known I would get a free show.”
“No, you treat him like he’s James! He’s a child, not your best friend!”
“Molly, you're not the only person at this table who cares about Harry,” said Lupin sharply. “Sirius, sit down.”
Mrs Weasley's lower lip was trembling. Sirius sank slowly back into his chair, his face white.
“I think Harry ought to be allowed a say in this,” Lupin continued, “he's old enough to decide for himself”
“I want to know what's been going on,” Harry said.
Smirking and shoving his hands in his pockets, Constantine made his way towards the kitchen door. Kingsley rolled his eyes and followed. Before he opened the door, he winked at the frozen group of teens. Seeming to get shocked out of their stupor, they scattered like rats.
Kingsley got to the door first, and walked through. “I got Constantine. He’ll be teaching defense this year, and helping us in our fight.”
Leaning against the doorway, Constantine didn’t say anything, just smirking as he lit a cigarette.
“You can’t smoke in here.” Molly exclaimed.
Looking her straight in the eye, he said “I’ll smoke wherever I bloody want to, thanks. Unless you’re volunteering to stop me?”
Flicking her wand to put out the cigarette, she was surprised when nothing happened. She tried again, to no avail.
“What did you just do? You didn’t draw your wand, or say anything.”
“Magic.”
Glaring, she continued. “I meant how did you block my spell. And wandlessly?”
“A magician never reveals his tricks.”
“You’re a muggle?”
“If that’s what you want to call me.”
Standing from where he had risen in anger, Sirius looked shocked. John noted that he also looked quite sickly, and felt a stab of guilt.
Remus, on the other hand, first showed joy at hearing his name, which quickly turned into a scowl, probably having realized that he had abandoned his gryffindor friends to face the war alone.
“Well at least get rid of the smoke.” said Molly.
Constantine flicked his hand and the smoke dispersed. Lupin didn’t cease his glaring, but Constantine’s poker face never wavered.
“Well, don’t stop on my account, that was bloody entertaining! Go on, then.”
Sirius was the first to speak up. “John? Is that really you?”
“Yeah, mate. It’s been awhile.”
Sirius’s face lit up and he made his way over to where Constantine was standing. Suddenly he was being bear-hugged. Not entirely sure how to handle the situation, he awkwardly patted Sirius’s back.
“It’s been over a decade, you got so big!”
“Ease up a bit mate, crushing my ribs–” Constantine complained, unsuccessfully fighting a real grin.
“How have you been! Hell, where have you been all these years?”
“Oh, you know, around.”
Sirius quirked a grin. “Still secretive as always.”
Lupin, looking at the interaction, said nothing. Tonks was grinning, finally seeing Sirius happy at something not related to his godson. Molly and the other order members watched, puzzled. Constantine made eye contact with Severus, and raised an eyebrow. The other man quickly looked down at his plate.
Moody was glaring at Constantine, and finally spoke up. “Who the hell are you, and why should we trust you?”
“Me? Just a bloke trying to make a couple quid. Wouldn’t recommend trusting me too much.”
Suddenly the former auror was on his feet with his wand drawn, firing a blue spell. Quite quick reflexes for a wizard, Constantine was almost impressed. Unfortunately for him, Constantine had come prepared, and without even moving his hands, rebounded the spell.
Once again, Moody’s quick reflexes came into play and he ducked. The cutting spell split the chair he had previously been sitting in two.
“What are you?”
“This a common occurrence around here? Can’t be good for the furniture.”
“Answer me.” Moody growled, shoving his wand in Constantine’s face.
“Someone who’s getting paid to take care of your little Death Eater problem. Put that away, won’t do you much good.”
Not letting his guard down, Moody kept his wand out. “How did you do that?”
“Do what, love?”
“You’re using unheard of levels of wandless magic. Are you even human?”
“Why, that’s not a very nice question. What if I wasn’t human? You could have offended my dear sensibilities.”
The other Order members finally caught up and started to react to the situation. Sirius suddenly stood between the two. “What the hell, Moody? Quit it!”
It was McGonagall, of all people, who ended up deescalating the conflict. “Sit down, Moody, Sirius. John Constantine is a second-year Hogwarts dropout. It seems that he has studied different avenues of magic than we’re accustomed to dealing with.”
Addressing John, she asked “Why did you leave Hogwarts at twelve? Slughorn mentioned once that your home-life didn’t seem too good. Why go back to that?”
Suddenly, Constantine was no longer smirking. “Well, love, who says I went back?”
The look on her face didn’t leave much room for his bullshite. Sighing, and not wanting to deal with an irate Minerva McGonagall, he started explaining. “My piece of shite father didn’t have access to unforgivable curses, unlike Death-Eater sympathizers in the dorm.”
McGonagall’s face fell. An awkward silence fell over the table. Harry, the only kid at the table, looked horrified.
Looking at the kid, Constantine softened a bit. “Harry. You’re James’s son, then?”
“Yeah.”
“Great man.”
“Thank you.”
Kingsley cleared his throat. “If we could return to the topic of the meeting.”
Sirius took his seat, and surprisingly, Severus was the one who spoke up next. “There have been rumors that the Dark Lord is searching for a weapon. A great one, which could turn the tides of the war.”
“What kind of weapon are we talking here? Something with nuclear level power, or the more demonic sort?” Constantine said.
“We are unsure.”
“C’mon, you have to have some clue. Has he been searching for books or artifacts related to particular branches of magic? What have the missions you’ve been assigned been related to?”
“I am unsure. With my status as a double agent, he mostly doesn’t share such information with me, as he doesn’t fully trust me.”
“You are so helpful. Extraordinarily so.”
“Oh, more helpful than you. Being absent for over a decade really helped your friends out, didn’t it?” Snape scathingly replied.
Constantine chuckled lowly. “Feisty.”
“Why you’re sharing vital Order information with an unknown, I can’t understand, so before you fly off the mouth anymore I’m ending this meeting.” Moody interrupted.
“Moody, you can’t just end–” started Arthur Weasley.
“Actually, that was all we really had to cover in this meeting.” Lupin said. “Along with John’s assignment as the new DA professor, and the ministry plant, which we’ve already covered. So we can all take our leave now.”
Sirius and Harry left together first, with Harry making eye contact with Constantine on the way out. The rest of the Order members slowly trickled out in a stream, until only Tonks was left.
“You’re interesting. Good luck with the curse.” she said before going for a cookie tin.
“Ah. Wonderful to hear. Ta.” Constantine responded, and made his way to the living room. A painting started screaming obscenities at him, and he set it on fire. He needed to release a bit of aggression, sue him.
Making his way towards one of the empty rooms to stake a claim, he found a room covered in dust, with cloth covering all of the furniture. Rubbing his hands together and smirking, he made his way into it with a bounce in his step. A quick attention-based spell on the house elf, and a certain piece of cutlery had a stain which required all of Kreacher’s attention.
He had just been left unsupervised in a property owned by one of the darkest families in Britain. Who was he to look a gift horse in the mouth? And thus began his search for Black family heirlooms dangerous dark artifacts.