Chapter Ten: In Which Parents Are Charmed
"I've also modified my parents' memories so that they're convinced they're really called Wendell and Monica Wilkins, and that their life's ambition is to move to Australia, which they have now done. That's to make it more difficult for Voldemort to track them down and interrogate them about me — or you, because unfortunately, I've told them quite a bit about you.
"Assuming I survive our hunt for the Horcruxes, I'll find Mum and Dad and lift the enchantment. If I don't — well, I think I've cast a good enough charm to keep them safe and happy. Wendell and Monica Wilkins don't know that they've got a daughter, you see."
"Hermione?" said Harry tentatively.
"Y-yes?" said Hermione, tears threatening to burst out any moment.
"Did they like, actually agree to this?"
"N-no."
There was a tremendously long pause.
"So what you are basically saying," said Harry in a very small voice, "is that you erased their whole identities without even asking them? "
"Well. . . . It is supposed to be reversible —"
"Sweet Merlin!"
"I've also modified my parents' memories so that they're convinced they're really called Wendell and Monica Wilkins, and that their life's ambition is to move to Australia, which they have now done. That's to make it more difficult for Voldemort to track them down and interrogate them about me — or you, because unfortunately, I've told them quite a bit about you.
"Assuming I survive our hunt for the Horcruxes, I'll find Mum and Dad and lift the enchantment. If I don't — well, I think I've cast a good enough charm to keep them safe and happy. Wendell and Monica Wilkins don't know that they've got a daughter, you see."
"Uh — why in the world would you do that?" said Harry incredulously.
"They wouldn't understand, Harry!" defended Hermione. "They would have stopped me from going with you both on the Horcrux Hunt!
"Mrs Weasley wants to do that, too! We're still going, aren't we? I'm sure it would be a whole different story if your parents weren't Muggles."
There was a pause.
"That's crossing the line," said Ron. "Hermione would never —"
"Treat her own parents like her property just because she's magical and they're not? Except she did. The Order could have kept them safe! They could have been relocated with their consent! Memory Charming them is just cold, Hermione. Remember how we spent six bloody years clamouring to be believed in? To feel like our opinions actually mattered? To feel like we were actually people and not just 'kids' making up stories? Your parents are people too! They deserved an explanation at the very least!"
AN: Am I the only one in this whole wide fandom that thinks that the Wendell and Monica thing was an absolute fiasco? It was completely unnecessary and it shows how even Muggleborns like Hermione abuse their magic! There is this absolutely amazing fanfiction about how her parents stop trusting her altogether when she lifts the enchantment after the war. They live in fear of her powers and are afraid of displeasing her in the slightest, thinking that she might Memory Charm them again. Although we all know Hermione wouldn't do it again (most probably), they don't know that! They aren't able to reconcile their lives as the Wilkins with their lives as the Grangers and end up killing themselves (According to what I remember, because it was a pretty long time ago).
Well. . . . That was depressing. Anyway, you guys might have noticed the summary of the story is different, along with some major revisions to all of my seven stories. The Plothole Model (as I call it) just doesn't accurately describe my stories. Some of them are plotholes, sure, but others? Not so much. They are what-if situations, where there are usually some positive changes to the original story.
I realised it might be a little confusing to figure out what the story's about as evidenced by HeartsGlow who reviewed the sixth part of series thinking two separate chapters were actually linked to each other. To literally everyone reading this: All the chapters are INDEPENDENT, ok? They are separate little AU's that have no relation to each other!