A/N: Slightly depressive but couldn't get it out of my system. This is not my usual kind of story but of course it still has my favorite eye candy as an OC/ object of fantasy, borrowing his character's name from The Crossing.
Months after the Battle of Hogwarts she went to Australia where she tracked her parents to be in. Hermione Granger may have erased the memories of her parents and turned them into Monica and Wendell Wilkins, but what she didn't know about modifying memories is that while memories are stored in one's mind, the memories of the heart is something not easily erased, just as Amortentia cannot create true love.
They may not know their real names, but Monica and Wendell Wilkins knew that they have a daughter. For some reason they somehow agreed during one of their conversations that their daughter's name is Caroline. They believe that their daughter is intelligent but she had somehow joined a cult which explained why she was frequently away from them. They somehow put it into their heads that they moved to Australia to keep their Caroline away from that cult. But she ran away again.
It was an exclusive hospital that dealt with patients with mental problems. But it wasn't your usual mental asylum. It was more humane, more like a home than one of those restrictive places. There are no rigorous schedules to keep except they are encouraged to eat their meals on time, they are allowed to do their hobbies under supervision and if a patient is like Caroline who is not, they are given more freedom.
Dr. Zekun Yan is a cardiovascular surgeon. His friend, Dr. Leo Heinz is this girl's psychiatrist. Caroline Wilkins, 19 years old, is said to suffer from Schizophrenia. She really believes her stories, delusions she probably conceived from her time with a cult where she probably did drugs even if her blood tests got negative results. Dr. Heinz believes that there are more drugs out there that cannot be traced through a drug test in any case. Dr. Heinz noticed that Caroline has a heart murmur and thus, referred the case to him.
Caroline was said to have returned to her parents' home to tell them her wondrous stories, to convince them that she is Hermione Granger and that they were the Grangers, saying that she'd only "modified" their memories because she is a witch. But before she could even protest her case or, as her parents feared, became violent if they react adversely, Monica and Wendell Wilkins drugged their daughter and called an ambulance.
They've taken away her "wand" and her beaded purse with nothing in it. Afterwards, Monica and Wendell cried over their daughter, continued to cry whenever they visit on weekends. They really love their daughter but they of course do not believe her. They just tell her it's the drugs she must have taken with those red heads (Hermione wonders at that, seeing that they were not supposed to retain any memory of their "previous life" including having a daughter). Hermione saw all the things her parents did not express back home in England; they were resentful and jealous of how these red heads took up all of their time even when she is supposed to be home from boarding school. Hermione felt her mind slipping as they pumped her with anti-psychotic medications. She felt herself slipping as they tried to force "Caroline" into her mind.
He may not be a psychiatrist but he knew that a vast majority of people with Schizophrenia are not violent. He often wonders whether it was necessary to hospitalize Caroline after he met her, seeing as she is not harmful to herself and to others but when he met with Caroline's parents he realized that her hospitalization had nothing to do with her fantastic stories but her parents' inability to accept these. Every time he sees Monica Wilkins, she is crying over her daughter.
Without her iron will and mental defenses, Hermione's system took a turn for the worse. Her nightmares got worse; they resorted to giving her sleeping medication, which inadvertently increased her heart rate which aggravated a small heart condition they didn't know she had. Thus, when her psychiatrist recommended his friend to treat her, her parents agreed.
Caroline is the most intelligent, interesting and intellectually stimulating girl he'd ever met. Everything about her is interesting, even her stories of Hermione's adventures with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley gives him a sense of wonder and pun not intended, magic. He also noticed that she didn't tell her Hermione stories to anyone but after some weeks and later months of observing her condition, she opened up to him more than she ever did to anyone in that place.
He thought she was beautiful, even with her wearing a drab hospital gown and her hair alone seemed to be bursting with life as everyone around her seemed to have wilted with the dreariness of the place. He knew it was unprofessional of him to feel this way, but he is only a man, he can admire a pretty girl. But once he got to know her, he realized that she is an intelligent and sensitive young woman.
As months dragged on, he took to visiting her outside of her consultation, as a friend. He listened with rapt attention about Hogwarts, the Forbidden Forest, its witches and wizards and the world they live in. He told her that she would make a great author, if she wrote about this world. She smiled sadly as she in turn listened to his heart break, of how his ideal woman went on to marry her ideal man. As time went on, he stopped telling her about his ex-girlfriend and instead they talked about everything and anything under the sun. He can actually say with certainty that nobody paid him more attention than Caroline in those moments they've shared.
It was unprofessional, but he was falling in love with his patient. He was falling in love with his supposed to be schizophrenic patient whose only fault is to put color to her drab life by creating a story of a world with magic. He wished he'd met her somewhere else, a coffee shop, a restaurant, anywhere, rather than imprisoned here for the things she believes in and the sense of wonder she tries to bring into her life and now his.
He wrote what he remembered of the things she told him. He was pretty good at drawing, so he sketched Hogwarts, a centaur and even what she called a thestral from how she described them. He sketched Harry, Hermione and Ron. So even if she forgot, he could help her remember this world of magic. He took out his colored pencils and pens and started coloring them.
But it seems as with the only romantic experience he have had, all good things with Caroline must come to an end as she is approaching the state of being "cured". She started losing her memories, even her short term ones. Slowly, she is losing her identity.
It was movie night at the hospital for the mental ward patients. He was only waiting for the movie to end when an explosion was reverberated inside the auditorium. "Hermione! Where are you?" shouted a young man wearing glasses with a pale but still distinct scar on his head. "Harry! There she is!" said a red haired companion of his, with them are several men and women with sticks on their hands. Zekun's eyes grew at the implication. She really is Hermione, a witch who've modified her parents' memories and she isn't crazy. Magic is real!
Her eyes are becoming more vacant as time went by, similar to the other long term patients. Even her hair is starting to lose its luster. She says that he is the only light in the darkness that is that hospital, but as time passed, he could barely see it himself. He felt his heart breaking every time he visited or see her for her consultation.
They approached Caroline who looked at them in confusion. "Mione, there's a healer who's taking care of the memory modification you've done on your parents. I'm sorry we took so long to find you. We couldn't find you since we couldn't trace your wand as you've not done…" Said the red haired guy whom Zekun knows can be no one else but Ron. The other guy who could only be Harry shook his head. "Ron, this is a mental hospital. They probably sent her here because they don't believe she's a witch." Harry explained. Zekun also realized that the people they brought in uniform can only be Aurors, as Hermione called the wizardry police force.
She was forgetting Hermione. He knew it was wrong, but he begged her, crying, not to forget about Hermione. She only looked at him with vacant eyes as if she didn't know what he's talking about. He couldn't take it. He drank several shots of whiskey when he got home. It felt as if Hermione died. He kept on returning, like some sort of masochist, watching her descend into the idea of sanity when she's losing who she really is.
Harry muttered something Zekun couldn't hear from where he stood but this had Ron in shock. Harry gently tried snapping Hermione out of her blank look but couldn't. She didn't even respond. Ron was aghast and despite being 18 years of age, he is still prone to accidental magic given how his second wand is not really one that chose him. His wand accidentally blasted a piece of the ceiling which almost crushed a man to death. "Wingardium leviosa!" Ron said as he pointed his wand at the large solid cement piece, only for the previously unaware Hermione to criticize him. "You're saying it wrong," Harry heard Hermione snap. "It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."
Harry and Ron hugged Hermione who stood up. Harry handed her what appeared to be her wand which they've recovered from her parents' home. He walked towards her, in daze. Hermione gave him a small smile before she lifted her wand and cried out. "Reparo!" She said as the ceiling and the walls that Harry, Ron and the Auror destroyed seemed to have repaired itself. Her eyes narrowed at Ron and Harry. "Why did you take so long? You could have stilled tracked my wand even if I had not cast a spell on it for a long time by just tracking it. Did you know how many drugs they've injected in me?" Hermione asked peevishly.
The boys apologized before they started arguing between them and Hermione just shook her head in exasperation. The Aurors moved in to modify the memories of the Muggles in the auditorium. But before any of them got close to Zekun, Hermione grabbed him and told them he's family. He remembered that in her stories that's how one gets out of the International Statute of Secrecy. They all looked at her in puzzlement, seeing that she is of course Caucasian while he is obviously of Chinese descent but they did not say a word as she grabbed him out of the room.
"Thank you." Hermione told him. "Will they have to erase my memory?" Zekun asked. Hermione shook her head. "No. I'll ask them not to. I don't want you to forget me." Hermione told him. Zekun nodded, tearing up. "Will you have to go?" He asked. Hermione nodded. She stood on tiptoes and gave him a kiss on his cheek. He heard several popping noises inside the auditorium while Harry and Ron approached Hermione who only waved good bye at him before disappearing in three distinct popping noise.
It has been several weeks since Hermione left. It turns out, she really left. There were no traces of her on neither the hospital records, his own records in his clinic, nor her psychiatrist's records or in any of the pictures in the files. It was as if Caroline or Hermione did not exist. Strangely, Monica and Wendell Wilkins remained. He drove in front of their house. Of course, he did not ask them about their daughter, if they remember having one. He can certainly understand it if Hermione wanted to stay away from her parents since they've sent her away to a mental institution.
He still had his sketches and notes, his addendum on what happened during that evening when Harry and Ron took their faithful friend away. But it didn't alleviate that empty feeling in his chest. He stood in line, waiting for the barista to take his order when somebody tapped his back. "Zekun…" Said a voice he had not heard in weeks. He turned to see Hermione smiling brightly behind him.
"Hermione…" He gasped. "It's Caroline. I've come back to stay here with my parents. It's safer, for them and for me." She told him. He was speechless as he watched her in all her glory, it seemed as if she's shining, more beautiful than he remembered her to be. Zekun smiled, his first real smile in weeks. "I've missed you." He told her, forgetting all propriety and hugged her. "I've missed you, too." Hermione said as she returned his hug. He then kissed her, which she returned after a surprised gasp. Maybe fairy tales aren't just in stories, after all.