Hogwarts was fairly impressive, but it soon lost it's luster after about three or four days. Honestly, the place made him itch and he would be heartily glad once he was back in his own body again.
Circe had already called to complain about the state of his cabinets and fridge...namely the fact there was nothing to eat. He didn't mind that she called in her adopted father Chas to make an emergency food run, and knew she would likely leave several premade meals for him to heat up and eat for later when they swapped back.
He was also rather aware of the fact that Chas had likely laughed himself sick once he realized what happened.
It was beyond awkward, having to pretend to be Circe during the day and exploring the castle at night.
Breaking into the restricted section was a breeze for a master sorcerer like him. And honestly, he was curious as to what the school considered 'restricted'.
Most of it was low-level stuff. A few books he made a note to deal with before he left, but there were a handful of interesting tomes.
John was utterly disgusted by the fifth day. Hogwarts was impressive for the uninitiated, but for someone who dealt with the higher tier magics regularly, it was rather boring.
And he was very concerned about the wards. Sure, it had some ancient and powerful wards, but they were so weak that even a mid-level demon would have no problem breaking them. Even he could create a ward more effective than the ones around the castle now.
Which was why John had spent some of his nights looking for the ward stone. There was no way the castle didn't have one.
Each night, John would go out and take out more and more dementors. He couldn't stand the blighters, and the less of them around, the safer Circe would be when they switched back.
Though things would become more complicated once the ministry finally took note of the fact there were so few left around the school. He'd have to work a bit quicker to be rid of the things.
By the morning of the seventh day, John was tired. He would be glad once this spell wore off and he was back in his own body again. He'd never needed a cig more in his life.
So you could imagine his surprise and annoyance when Dumbledore, who rarely graced the breakfast tables, suddenly bound him in a somewhat respectable seal.
Needless to say the students all took notice of this with no small amount of alarm and concern.
"Albus! What is the meaning of this?!" demanded McGonagall.
"I'm afraid, Minerva, that this child is not Circe Potter," said Dumbledore gravely. "Did you really think I wouldn't notice such dark spells being cast in my school, Tom?"
'Circe' had a rather deadpan expression.
"I haven't the foggiest idea who 'Tom' is. And honestly, your wards are complete shit," said 'Circe'. "What the bloody hell were you thinking, lowering them to the point those demons were given almost free reign around a school of all things?"
Nearly every teacher there froze, because that was not Circe's usual tone. "She" was almost downright derisive around the headmaster, rather than respectful.
Only one teacher at the breakfast table retained his calm. Mostly because he recognized that tone of voice.
Remus sighed in exasperation.
"Really, John, how the bloody hell did you end up trapped in the body of a teenage girl?" said Remus.
That got everyone's attention, though you could imagine the alarm when 'Circe' easily broke the headmaster's bindings.
"Well love, you know my luck. Also, this was not my doing. Circe asked for help, and there was no way I was going to leave a bunch of bloody demons around my niece. Especially with how sensitive she is to this particular type."
Everyone looked between Remus and 'Circe' with confused gazes.
"Professor Lupin, you know this...wizard?" asked Minerva.
Remus just looked tired, and sighed.
"I had a feeling it was him after the third day, but I also know he'd never harm any of the children without proper provocation first. He's an ass, not a complete monster."
'Circe' had a devil may care smirk that was full of arrogance. It made Snape want to punch her very hard in the face, just looking at it...though for once it wasn't because she reminded him of James Potter.
"John Constantine, at your service," said 'Circe' with a derisive bow.
The reaction to that name was downright hilarious.
Snape had a pinched expression on his face, McGonagall looked like she had swallowed several lemons, and Dumbledore looked almost horrified. Remus just looked resigned.
Then what John said hit him like a brick.
"Wait...niece? Circe is your niece?"
John's smirk was a tad strained. Technically Circe was his third cousin, but he always preferred to call her his niece instead.
"What did you do to the dementors?" asked Remus.
"Sent those blighters right back to hell where they belong. Not my problem that you idiots employ actual demons for a prison," said John unconcerned.
"Where is Circe?" demanded Dumbledore.
"She'll be back by tonight. The spell she used to swap places only lasts a week a most, and it's been seven days," said John.
What John didn't say was that he was going to forcibly activate all the ancient wards that the headmaster had allowed to slip. Several of which had been inactive for decades, if not centuries. Like hell was he going to let this idiot allow anything else to happen to his niece.
Near dinner...
John felt it happening before the teachers did. Which was why he decided to activate his last 'surprise' to them.
Dumbledore stood up in alarm when he saw John casting, but John was faster.
One moment he was there, the next Circe slumped against the table out cold.
Outside, the few remaining dementors howled in absolute rage as the wards forced them to the boundary of the school. The residents of Hogsmeade shivered in terror and several doors began slamming shut in short order. The Three Broomsticks soon found themselves flooded with terrified wizards and witches barricading the doors as the dementors in the village began to howl in rage.
It would take the Ministry nearly two days to corral the enraged demons, and by that point a new headache would arise in the form of an illegal animagus found among the students of the school.
Ron was devastated and Percy was downright sickened learning an adult wizard had been sleeping in their rooms for years unnoticed.
The article in the newspaper the morning after things began to settle down read: Sirius Black, as black as he's painted or unlucky victim?
Dumbledore was not pleased, at all.
Some days later...
Amelia Bones couldn't help but feel this was a Merlin-damned mess. First had been the revelation that nearly every dementor sent to Hogwarts was gone. There were barely twenty-five out of the hundred sent to guard the school left, and they were all quite enraged. It had taken several aurors and a few near-misses before they could corral the beasts and lock them back inside the wards of Azkaban.
Finding that illegal animagus among the Gryffindor boys had been a nasty shock, and worse they had Constantine of all people to thank for it. She didn't know how the smarmy bastard had done it, but he had forcibly reactivated a lot of old wards that had been sleeping.
One of which detected and detained illegal animagi, apparently.
Circe Potter was less than helpful, outside of confirming her relationship to the damned sorcerer. Learning she was almost directly related to the man had come as a nasty shock to everyone, and she held great pride in the fact her uncle was a general menace to the magical community.
It didn't surprise her in the least that Circe had been named by magic as the man's heir should he finally end up in hell where he belonged. John could swindle his way through the demonic ranks all he wanted, he was bound for hell long ago.
Finding out that Sirius Black might actually be innocent had been bad enough. Learning that he had never been given even a joke of a trial had been worse.
It was one thing to presume Black was just like his family. It was another to lock up the heir presumptive of an ancient and noble family without even a trial. At the very least he should have been interrogated over his "associates" to bring more Death Eaters to justice, as everyone assumed he was the Dark Lord's right hand man.
Amelia was seething at the unspeakable miscarriage of justice.
Now they just had to find Black to clear matters up. She swore she would personally shove the veritaserum down his throat to get answers, once and for all.
Circe was downright smug, hearing her uncle John complain about having to find where she hid certain items of his. However he was openly thankful she had left several ready-made meals for him to heat and eat in the fridge. Most of which were under stasis seals, so he just had to break them and heat up his meals. She had made enough that he would have plenty to eat (with a rather decent variety to avoid burnout) until she left school for the year.
The day she got her first wand, her uncle John had given her full permission to spend her summers living with him learning magic. Not only was it fully warded, but there was no way for the Ministry to track any magic use over the summer.
Besides, it gave her a chance to get a mass brewing session for healing potions, which John was utter pants at. He could make a quick and dirty banishment potion or a half-assed healing potion...but the higher tier ones were firmly outside his skill level as it took too much time to learn how to do them correctly. Even he knew a badly brewed potion could prove useless or worse, have some nasty side effects.
The teachers (outside Professor Lupin) kept trying to find out the extent of her relationship with Jonn Constantine. She remained tight lipped and was less than pleased that the amulet John had given her after her first year kept warming up, warning her of an attempted intrusion.
It took her all of three days to narrow down the culprits, and to publicly call out the headmaster and Professor Snape for attempted use of Legilmency on a minor. The pure bloods had swiftly closed ranks against them, even the Slytherins once someone explained what Legilmency was in the first place.
It would be a massive relief to leave for the year, as battle lines were being drawn (unofficially anyway) over the entire mess.
About the only good thing was that Sirius Black had been cleared before the final exams of his supposed 'crimes', and the real culprit was now firmly in Azkaban and slapped with anti-magic cuffs. His form was too small and common for them to risk him getting out and embarrassing them further, not that Madam Bones would allow it.
The responsible parties were already feeling the pain in their vaults as Madam Bones hadn't held back on getting Sirius Black restitution for the massive miscarriage of justice against him. Fudge had only gone along with it for two major reasons. One, he was not party to what happened to Black in the slightest and had been a minor Ministry official who had no say in the matter at the time it happened. And two, Madam Bones had pointed out that if they didn't dole out some major punishment against an Ancient and Noble house being wrongfully imprisoned for well over a decade without even a mockery of a trial, then it might send some rather unpleasant messages to the other remaining Ancient and Noble bloodlines. Especially the house of Black, who had married into the family of one of his biggest financial contributors and were well known for being vindictive bastards who could hold a generational long grudge if they felt slighted.
Lucius could care less about what happened to Sirius personally, but even he would admit that it sent a message the other houses could not afford to ignore. Particularly since Sirius had been the heir at the time of his arrest. If it could happen to him, it could happen to any of them.
Better to nip that potential line of thinking in the bud.
Either way, Circe was downright cackling at the chaos she had sewn just by calling in reinforcements.