Time Turned & Polyjuiced

Drynn Finestra had never thought about what would happen if he didn’t pass his wizard exams. It wasn’t something that was discussed much in the wizarding world. And as Drynn was from a lineage of skilled magic users, his family hadn’t discussed it at all. So it was with deep shame and regret that Drynn found out the hard way what happened when he bombed every exam during his seventh and final year at Hogwarts.

He learned the wizarding world really only offered two legal choices. He could live as a squib, allowed to perform minimalist magic. This would effectively crush his dream of ever opening his own potions shop. Or he could go to Mastiffus Dungus, a last resort two year wizarding school for overaged wizards who had washed out of their local magical schools.

Drynn had never heard of the place. It was just so unusual for someone to fail as spectacularly as he had. It had been his own fault. He had chased after a girl named Mara. They’d dated for two years. And then a week before the exams that would determine their magical careers, she’d dumped him. That hadn’t been the part that was his fault. He’d known it was probably coming. She’d been acting distant. Had said they wanted different things.

But even with these warning bells, when the hammer fell, Drynn had taken the break up hard. After wallowing in self pity for two days, he experimented with making a potion that would erase the memory of their relationship. He wanted the heartache to vanish, along with the memories of all their time spent together. He finished it the day before the exam, and downed it in one gulp.

He waited. And waited. But the memory of his ex girlfriend did not fade. It seemed that the potion had been a complete dud. But the next day, Drynn found that something from his memory had been erased. As he took each final, he found that almost the entirety of the lessons he’d learned that seventh year had vanished. Every spell, every fact, every new thing he’d learned over the past several months, it simply wasn’t there. The examiners were very disappointed that he couldn’t perform a single piece of advanced magic that he needed to pass. And he’d been too embarrassed to tell them, or his family, or anyone, why it had happened.

The effects of the potion were thankfully temporary. Drynn found the memories oozed into his brain slowly at first, and then as a flood, in the span of a few days. But the damage had been done. And now he had the choice of giving up on his dreams, or facing the shame of going to what was essentially a high school for over aged wizards where everyone is eighteen or older. Given those choices, there was really only one to make.

So that following September, an eighteen year old Drynn found himself taking a portkey to Mastiffus Dungus. He could apparate. He’d passed that exam halfway through his seventh year, but it had been revoked after failing. So he had to use a portkey to magically transport him to what turned out to be a very dilapidated looking castle.

He briefly wondered if he was in the right place, but there was a small sign, stuck in some mud and tilted at an angle, that let him know there was no mistake. As he walked through a silent and gloomy courtyard, he remembered years past, where he got to ride a train to school. And then cross a lake, or ride in a carriage. Those times had been so magical. As he walked up the dilapidated steps, that all felt like a distant dream.

He endured a brief orientation with twenty other fellow dropouts, most of whom he did not recognize. That wasn’t a surprise, as there were several other known magical schools. Good to know all their failures got shipped to the same place.

Amazingly, Drynn recognized one person right away. A former classmate by the name of Bastion Perch. Even thought they’d been in the same grade, Bastion was several inches taller. He had a massive frame, a chiseled jaw, and could probably benchpress the old gameskeeper. They hadn’t been close friends. They’d run in different houses. That being said, they’d shared a lot of joint classes together over the years. But the way that Bastion’s face lit up when he saw Drynn at orientation made it seem like they were long lost brothers reuniting after a long time apart.

Drynn hadn’t known Bastion had failed his exams, which gave him a little comfort that he hadn’t been the only one in his class that didn’t make it. And then he recognized two others, also from different houses. They were both girls. The cute red head was from Hufflepuff. He thought her name was Nitz. And he was pretty sure the stunning blonde was from Ravenclaw. They were supposed to be so clever, but she hadn’t graduated Hogwarts either.

Drynn and Bastion ended up with rooms across from each other in the boy’s dormitory, which solidified their friendship. They helped each other unpack and swapped stories of their old alma mater. As they headed off to the cafeteria, they complained at length at how demeaning it was that even though they were all now eighteen, the sleeping areas were still split up by gender.

There was no magical dining experience. No house elves that made meals magically appear at their table. They found they had to wait in line, with trays, for food to be slopped onto their plates. Like muggles.

They were contemplating where to take their unappetizing looking meal, when Bastion caught the eye of one of their other two former classmates. They had locked eyes for a second in recognition, and then the former Ravenclaw had looked away quickly. That was like an engraved invitation to Bastion, and he hustled over to their table, with Drynn in tow.

Bastion didn’t ask if the two empty seats were taken. He just sat down with his tray, mumbled a greeting, and then began shoveling food into his mouth. The Ravenclaw girl’s lip curled in disgust, but the other one gave a soft laugh and said, “Well, nice to see being in this dump hasn’t curbed your appetite Bastion.”

“Uh, hey,” Drynn said. “I’m-”

“Drynn Finestra,” the Ravenclaw girl said sharply. “We went to the same school for seven years. It would be stupid if we didn’t know each other’s names by now.”

“Y-yeah, right,” Drynn said as he suddenly became very interested in his food.

The Ravenclaw girl’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those idiots who only ever bothered to know the people in your own house.”

“Give him a break, Persephone,” the other girl said with an eye roll. “He only had eyes for his girlfriend all last year, remember? It’s understandable that he forgot about the rest of us.” As she stabbed something that resembled a potato on her tray, she asked, “Whatever happened to you and Mara? She was such a pretty girl, Drynn. Are the two of you getting married after you get out of this place of lower learning?”

As Drynn’s face fell even further down, Persephone sneered. “I take it you didn’t hear, Nitz. Our boy got dumped a few days before finals. Is that why you’re here? A broken heart made you go stupid?”

Drynn’s head snapped up to glare at Persephone. The problem was, he didn’t have anything to say. That’s exactly what had happened.

Bastion interjected with a mouth half full of food. “Hey, leave my guy alone. We’re all here because we fucked up in some form or another. Everyone knows I partied a little too hard seventh year, and my exams showed it. Nitz, I know that…”

“I’ll answer for myself, dear Bastion,” the red haired girl said sweetly. “My written exams were fine, but I, well, I overcompensated on three of the practical exams.”

“Which ones?” Drynn asked.

“Defense against the dark arts, Charms, and Potions. I knew what I needed to know. Had the wand work down cold, knew the words to say, and had memorized as much of the potions book that I could. But then I choked when I had my dark arts duel.”

“I heard that guy spent a week in the hospital,” Bastion laughed.

“It wasn’t funny,” Persephone argued.

“Then I went and got my wand signs mixed up during Charms and my partner, well…”

“I heard that girl spent a week in the hospital,” Bastion said as seriously as he could, but a smile cracked his mouth at the end.

“And then my potion-”

“Thank goodness the professor had an antidote handy,” Persephone interrupted.

“Wouldn’t have needed a hospital,” Bastion nodded. “Would have needed an auror, because that would have been .”

Nitz slapped Bastion’s arm playfully. “Oh, shut up. Everyone lived. The only downside is that, well, I’m here now.”

“So, why are you here?” Drynn asked Persephone coldly. “I thought all you Ravenclaw bunch were supposed to be smart?” The pretty blonde leaned towards Drynn with a scowl, and he tried not to stare at her exposed cleavage.

“Well sorry to disappoint you.”

“So what happened?” Drynn pressed.

“How about we just leave it at none of your business.”

They both stared at each other, as both decided they didn’t care for the other very much.

Then Bastion blurted out, “She got caught cheating.”

Now it was Persephone’s turn to go red. “That’s not true!”

“That’s not what I heard,” Bastion said in a sing song voice.

“Fuck you!”

“Hey, hey,” Nitz said holding up a hand to both of them. “It doesn’t matter. We’re all here now. Wouldn’t it be better if we got through the next two years as friends?”

Persephone looked at Bastion like she wanted to shoot a killing curse right between his eyes. Then she glanced at Drynn, and her eyes did not soften. Then she looked at Nitz, and then exhaled sharply from her nose. “I…I suppose you’re right. It would be good to have allies in this hellhole. Especially to ensure we all pass our exams at the end of this.”

“Allies, sure,” Drynn nodded and held out a hand to Persephone. “But not friends.”

For the first time, the hint of a smile appeared at the corners of Persephone’s mouth. She accepted his hand and shook it, then did the same with Bastion’s outstretched hand. “But not friends,” she agreed.

By the end of the week, they were thick as thieves. And by the end of a month, Drynn didn’t know how he’d ever gotten by without them. It was good they had each other, because their comradery helped them through what turned about to be immensely frustrating classes. For the most part, they weren’t difficult. That was part of why they were so frustrating. They were often treated like second or third years, going over subjects that they had learned as children. But here it was again, being taught to them like they were simpletons. Drynn at first thought his intellect had advanced significantly during their first few homework assignments and quizzes. Then he realized the subject matter was just stuff he’d learned forever ago.

Most of the teachers were dull and acted like they wanted to be there less than the students. But not all of them. There were a couple of standouts that made for an enjoyable class. There was Professor Galstik who was charismatic and very handsome. And he really seemed to enjoy teaching at Dungus. He was also just a few years older than they were, and seemed to easily connect with his students. All of this caused him to be very popular among the ladies of the school.

An equally popular teacher, especially the young men, was Professor Sindla. She was a very curvy, formerly famous witch, who had modeled in her early twenties for various advertisements in the Daily Prophet. Many a young wizard had clipped her out of the paper and stuck her to their walls to watch her sell some product or another in a tight, revealing outfit that accentuated her bust line.

As a teacher in her mid forties, she no longer wore such scandalous clothing, at least not in front of her students. But she still had an amazing figure. Young men were always asking her for extra tutoring or volunteering to help her clean up after a spell went awry. A brave few even asked her out, but to Drynn’s knowledge, any and all advances had been firmly declined.

Drynn got to know several other students, but not as many as Bastion. He seemed to want to get to know everyone, especially the women. He thoroughly enjoyed chatting up the witches from other countries. Nothing got lost in translation because Persephone bewitched a bracelet for him so he could understand and be understood by every foreign language spoken at Dungus. He used it to great effect. By the second month, he had slept with at several of the prettiest students. His real quarry, Professor Sindla, seemed out of his reach though, at least until he found out about Drynn’s proficiency in potion making.

“What!” he exclaimed as he was sitting on Drynn’s bed. He had been trying to transfigure Drynn’s pillow into an iguana, but could only manage turning it into a salamander. “You can make any potion?”

Drynn smiled at his friend. “I didn’t say any potion. I said I could make a lot of them.”

As Drynn’s pillow turned salamander crawled onto Bastion’s leg, he asked excitedly, “Can you…can you make polyjuice potion?”

Drynn laughed. “I can, yes. I did it once before in my sixth year. But it is difficult. And I’m not just talking about getting all the ingredients. It’s also something you have to get special permission for after what happened at Hogwarts.”

“Are you talking about when the guy spent that year as another guy before trying to kill the chosen guy?”

“Yeah, that’d be what I’m talking about. It can still be made, but in limited quantities, and only for household use.”

Bastion smirked. “What kind of household use?”

Drynn flushed. “I mean, probably like, you know, bedroom stuff.”

“Bedroom stuff! Ha! Look at you man! You’re too embarrassed to even say it. People use it to fuck their partners while looking like other people they want to fuck.”

“I’m, yeah, I’m sure that’s probably it.”

“So you can make it, but you never used it like that?”

“You mean for sex?”

Bastion looked at him in disbelief. “Yeah, for sex. You…you have had sex before, right?”

Before he could say a lie, Drynn’s hesitation gave him away, and Bastion’s eyes went wide.

“You mean to tell me you’re a virgin! I thought you and Mara were all hot and heavy?”

“We did stuff, sure. But, well, she never let me go all the way. Look, can we not make a big deal out of this?”

“You’re right, you’re right,” Bastion said nodding enthusiastically. “But do you know how many of the chicks here would bang you if they knew that you’ve never popped your cherry? So many. I could set it up tonight. Just say the word and-”

“I’m good. Thanks.”

Bastion went still, and looked like he was thinking harder than usual. “So, could I ask you a favor though?”

“What’s that?”

“Could you like, make me some polyjuice potion?”

“It could get us kicked out of here, Bastion.”

“No one’s going to know, man. I’ll get you everything you need. You just have to make it, and that’ll be that.”

Even though Bastion cajoled and begged, Drynn still refused. The next day however, the conversation got brought to their lunch table.

“Hey Persephone, if you could fuck anyone you wanted, who would it be?” Bastion asked.

“I can fuck anyone I want, meathead,” Persephone smirked. “Look at me. I’m hot as fuck. My brains are just the icing on the cake.”

“Not everyone,” Bastion said, pointing towards Professor Gastlik who was chatting up a table of girls nearby. They were hanging on every word he said.

Persephone gave a wistful sigh. “Only because he’s decent enough to not fuck his students.”

“But what if you could anyway.”

“Oh I’d definitely take him for a whirl. I bet he’s got monster under those robes.”

Nitz giggled. “Like a basilisk?”

“Or maybe a phoenix.”

Drynn looked confused. “A phoenix?”

Persephone winked at him. “Yeah. You think he’s done for, but then he’s able to go another round.”

“That’s the dream,” Nitz sighed.

“They make spells for that, don’t they?” Bastion asked.

“They make lots of stuff for that, Bastion,” Nitz said helpfully. “Potions mostly. But what brought on this whole sexually charged line of conversation. Are you hitting a slump with the ladies?”

Bastion looked offended by the very idea. “Absolutely not. I just wanted to know what you thought. The both of you. Just what you would do if you could have sex with someone that seemed out of your reach?”

Drynn found he was having trouble looking at Nitz or Perspephone in the eyes during this whole conversation. But when Bastion finally posed the question to them, he looked up for a moment to see what Nitz would say. To his surprise, she was looking right at him. The second their eyes met, she glanced away and met Bastion’s gaze.

“Haven’t given it much thought,” she answered.

“But there is someone you’d let under those short skirts you wear all the time?”

Nitz rolled her eyes. “Get to whatever point you’re trying to make right now, Bastion.”

Bastion looked back and forth between the girls a few times, letting the suspense build. Then he leaned forward, and motioned for them to do the same. Their faces were very close to the middle of the table when Bastion whispered, “Our boy here can make polyjuice potion.”