The students all took their seats for their next class as Constantine asked. "So are your flasks ready, kids?"
The students raised their flasks which had the symbols of the Ring of Solomon carved into all of them as well.
"Well then, we can start, you first", Constantine pointed at Ron, who was a little nervous.
"Me?"
"Yes you, freckle-face, come on."
Ron walked to the front with his flask, holding it up, while Constantine had a hand on his own just in case.
He snapped his fingers and the chest opened, a Boggart coming out as Ron's eyes were wide at whatever he was seeing.
"Go on, mate, don't stare, exorcise!"
Ron nodded and holding up the flask, chanted. "Deret Elorim. B'sh'kha elotit zah, kook Slomo dokek bekar. Sma na, yesut tme'a, galë nah et shimla. Magik taba'at Slomo, ru'akh Slomo poket akela! Elohim haborë vehayotser poket akela!"
Constantine sighed as the Boggart got closer to Ron, who had gotten the chant all wrong, and chanted. "Pone boggart tergum in arca."
The Boggart was back in the chest as Constantine scolded Ron. "Every single bloody word was wrong!" He took Ron's flask and looked at it. "The symbol is right, you had intent, but all words were wrong, and in the real world, that would get you murdered or possessed." Ron looked terrified at the thought as Constantine handed the flask back to him. "Next!"
Hermione raised her hand while Ron went back as Constantine shrugged and Hermione came to do it.
The chest opened again as Hermione held up her own flask and chanted.
"Derech Elohim. B'sh'khina elohit zoh, koakh Shlomoh dokhek bekha. Shma nah, yeshut tme'a, galë nah et shimkha. Makhzik taba'at Shlomoh, ru'akh Shlomoh poked alekha! Elohim haborë vehayotser poked alekha!"
It didn't stop as Constantine rolled his eyes and said again. "Pone boggart tergum in arca."
And back in the chest as Hermione was shocked. "But I said it all right, how could-"
Constantine took the flask from her and noted she had carved a different symbol. "Trying to be too smart, are we?"
Hermione looked at him and opened her mouth to speak but he cut her off. "I do not teach you to get bloody marks. I teach you so that you know what to do in times like this. The symbol you drew is only for specific ghosts, while the Ring of Solomon is for all. Knowledge doesn't impress me, the way of using it might. Besides, you did not have intent."
Hermione tried to talk again but he was having none of it. "Your intent wasn't to trap the bloody Boggart but to pass the practical, wrong intent. Next!"
Hermione went off as more students came to try but all of them got something or the other wrong, and Constantine groaned. "Is there anyone who can do it?"
He realized Harry was left and he came now, holding up his own flask.
They shared a look as Constantine opened the chest with a snap and the Boggart rose once more, gliding towards the Boy Who Lived in the form of Cedric's ghost.
Harry shook a little but controlled himself and chanted.
"Derech Elohim. B'sh'khina elohit zoh, koakh Shlomoh dokhek bekha. Shma nah, yeshut tme'a, galë nah et shimkha. Makhzik taba'at Shlomoh, ru'akh Shlomoh poked alekha! Elohim haborë vehayotser poked alekha!"
This time, the Boggart was sucked into the flask and trapped there as well, with Harry holding up the flask to Constantine.
He smirked and taking it from Harry, held it up for the rest of the class to see. "Now this here is a kid who takes the threat of ghosts and pishachas very seriously. You all might as well bloody well learn something from him."
The students all clapped for Harry with Ron, Hermione and Neville being the loudest. The only ones not clapping were Draco, Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy.
"Anyways, you better do it right next time, and we've got a lot more to do, a lot more dark stuff to take a look at", Constantine winked and walked off while swaying his trench coat.
Next morning, Constantine woke up on his bed and made the Daily Prophet newspaper appear to him, and first thing he saw was Umbridge was now High Inquisitor.
"Really? What has she done?" Constantine muttered sleepily before realizing. "Goddamn politics and power plays! Even in the school of warts! Can't live a simple life nowadays."
Sighing, he put the newspaper away and stood up, stretching, wondering what the toad would try to pull with her new power, as it also said she was inspecting classes.
Well, good luck trying to inspect his class once the time came for that.
In his next class, which fortunately the toad wasn't inspecting yet, Constantine handed out some more books on religions to the children, these ones talking about deities of all the various religions that existed.
He then walked to his desk, deciding to drop more bombshells, like usual.
"Another reason why I wanted you to read those religions is so you would understand the beings people worshipped, and there's a reason for that. They are all real."
The students all reacted at that fact.
Some had wide eyes, other had dropped jaws, others just had expressions of disbelief.
"Perun, Freya, Shiva, Vishnu, Odin, Mictlantecuhtli, all real, despite what those blowhard ponce's from the dark ages liked to believe. Don't get me wrong though, that whole Christian group with God, the Devil, and the Angels all exist too, but I got a bit of grudge against that lot, mostly the Angels and Demons. If you know how to call upon them, then you may even be able to use their power. Mind you, this is a dangerous type of magic, some fail to invoke the deities' power, that's why artefacts," John reached a hand inside his pocket and pulled out the out the Icon of Pazuzu, "like this are used. It's the Icon of Pazuzu. This lovely gent was an Assyrian God once upon a time, however, he eventually aligned himself the darkness of Satan and became a Demon King. The Icon can be used to summon Pazuzu's power, as if the Demon itself was right there. You can even let the guy into your body and possess you, like I did."
Students reacted once more. Pretty much all of them gasped in horror with their eyes wide and if this was a cartoon, their eyes would have bulged out.
"You let a Demon enter your body?"
"Sounds a bit dirty when you put it like that, and careful, missy, you only get two questions left."
Hermione flushed a bit as Harry and Ron shared a chuckle at her reaction.
"Anyway, to make a long story short, I was in a bind against a demon I thought was extinct, so I lowered my spiritual protections and branded myself. Eventually, after a stint in a Mexican prison where I am now revered as "El Diablo", my team managed to exorcise Pazuzu, and here I am."
Malfoy then ended up asking out of curiosity as he loved power too much. "What was it like? To have that power."
John shrugged. "Sure enough, felt pretty good for awhile, but then again I was just healed from being shot by a nun, another long story," he said to his bewildered class who were sharing looks of shock and murmuring amongst themselves at the bombshells their Professor kept dropping on them class after class, "before long, felt like I had a marching band in my skull as my insides were being squeezed, but I didn't have power, it was Pazuzu's, he was gaining control of my body while I was sitting in the backseat. Almost had to do an exorcism on myself, luckily it didn't come for that."
"If it was so dangerous, why did you do it?" Ron asked now, really wanting to know.
"Sometimes you won't have a choice but to use whatever you can to win or survive, no matter how vile or desperate the act may be. You deal with the consequences later, even if it means killing yourself to stave off something worse." At this point Constantine didn't even need to see their faces to know their reaction to that.
They were all blanching or gasping, and their faces were frozen in those positions as if they were pictures rather than actual moving faces of real people.
"World isn't just light and dark, nor is it full of sunshine and rainbows. Better you learn that lesson now, I did the moment I was born."
All of them took a moment to absorb that.
"On a side note, don't let Demons into your body."
They chuckled nervously at Constantine's expression.
"Anyways, we will do the Boggart test again-"
This time, due to his instructions, all students managed to do it, trapping the Boggart every time. The last one to get it was Neville.
"And that's a job well done, this is why they say knowledge and how to use it works wonders on this lot", Constantine said with a shrug while cracking his neck. "But this was just the start. It is going to get much worse and much more intense very soon. Bloody well be prepared for what more there is to face."
He left again as the students filed out, Ron telling the rest. "He is mental!"
"Ron-"
"In a brilliant way!" Ron finished happily, clearly awed by Constantine.
"I have to admit now, this new knowledge is quite enlightening", Hermione commented.
"And I have a feeling he will tell us how to use our own magic here too so we can get better", Harry said with a smile, now looking forward to more of these lectures.
At least he had something good here.
Harry, Ron and Hermione were in the library together as Hermione found something interesting. "Here."
"What?" Harry asked as Hermione held out the book to them.
"There are Muggle Sorcerers too, most of them are just cheap tricksters who only show some tricks", Hermione told both of them, explaining it all.
"I know about those", Harry shrugged.
"But some are very powerful, like this- Giovanni 'John' Zatarra, he was the greatest stage magician to have ever lived, and sources say he practised true magic, and was one of the greatest of all time."
"Blimey! Looks like Muggles are not to be underestimated if they can be this great at magic in spite of not being born with it", Ron commented, surprised by this new information.
Unlike the Malfoy clan, he and the rest of the Weasleys never thought Muggles were inferior to the Wizarding Community, but he never thought they were this good either.
Harry then noted a golden helmet on one of the pages and following his gaze, Ron and Hermione read it too, Hermione reading it out loud for both of them.
"This helmet belongs to Nabu the Wise of Mesopotamia, and he gave it to a man who opened his tomb accidentally after training him in sorcery for years. The wearer of this helmet is called Doctor Fate and is the most powerful Sorcerer in any plane of existence."
The three exchanged shocked looks as Harry realized. "So that means this Doctor Fate, whoever he is-"
"-Is more powerful than our whole community. Looks like Professor Dumbledore and You-Know-Who were never at the top", Ron noted, and the three just kept realizing that their kind of Wizards weren't that high in terms of power if it really came down to it.
"Well, I don't know how I can tell, but I have a feeling Constantine is on our side", Harry told both friends of his firmly. "I can feel it."