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.

…