Welcome to the latest collaboration from Hogwarts Online! This is a series of stories by different authors (loosely) based on fairytales and other tales from our childhoods. We hope you enjoy them. Please read and review!
Rapunzel
by
FredRocks29 (Priya - Ravenclaw)
Character - Andromeda Black
Fairytale - Rapunzel
'Cygnus... Cygnus, could you p-please bring me rapunzel?'
'But Druella, there is only one place where rapunzel grows – in the old hag's garden! I can't go in there!'
'It – it is the o-only thing that can cure me... I will d-die otherwise...'
His wife's life is slipping away as they speak, in soft voices so as not to wake little Bella. Her ghostly pale fingers grip his tightly, her eyes closed, and her breathing is laboured.
'Please, Cygnus... please?'
He knows what he has to do, what he has to do to save her. So he does it; he sneaks into the hag's garden to take the rapunzel. He gives it to his wife, and ever so slowly, she begins to get better. She has to have the rapunzel every day, though. She becomes addicted.
So every night, he is to be found creeping out of his stately home and into the overgrown, weed-ridden garden of the hag. One night, though, as he is about to leave, a hand grabs his upper arm in a viciously tight grip. It is more like a claw, and he knows instantly that he has been caught.
The hag allows him to escape, but on one condition: that he hands his next-born child over to her. Abandoning all his Slytherin cunning, he agrees recklessly. He will give anything to make sure Druella is safe. Maybe there is some Gryffindor in him after all.
...
When their second daughter is born, the hag appears outside his door. His wife screams and nearly drops the baby; he still hasn't told her about the deal that he made.
'The time has come for you told uphold your side of the deal, wizard.' she wheezes.
'Deal? I do not know what you are talking about, hag. Now stop dirtying my doorstep and go away.' He tries to say it coldly, but he is sure that she can hear the tremor of fear in his voice.
'Oh, I think you know which deal. Now hand the child over, or I will take her by force.'
'Take – take the baby? Cygnus, what is she talking about?'
Druella's eyes are large and frightened, and he has no idea what he should do. Before he can reach a decision, the hag has snapped her fingers. His daughter flies out of his wife's arms, through the air and towards the hag.
'Stop her, Cygnus!'
He lunges, misses the hag, and falls face-forward on the floor. By now, the hag has disappeared with the baby, and Druella is screaming.
...
'Andromeda, Andromeda, let down your long hair.'
The girl with the long, shining, chestnut brown hair leans out of the window towards the hag who named her.
She lives in a tower with no door or staircase; the only way for the hag to reach her is by climbing up her hair.
'Here is your food.'
The girl take the plate gratefully and lets her hair down for the hag to return to the outside world. It has been sixteen years since she has been out of the tower.
...
Andromeda is singing, watching birds fly past her window to pass the time. Normally, she is happy inside her room; but sometimes, she has sad days, when she wishes she could be outside in the with the wildlife.
On her sad days, she normally gets the memories too. Lying in the arms of a woman with dark hair and sparkling eyes, a small girl with a cruel smile poking her. And always, always , there is the odd feeling, like she is flying.
...
Ted Tonks is happy. Very happy. He has graduated from Hogwarts with good grades, his parents have given him a lot of money to spend, and he has a brand-new broomstick. As he glides smoothly through the woods on his Silver Arrow, he hears melodic singing, far off in the distance.
He flies towards the sound that is becoming louder, and it is the most beautiful singing he has ever heard. When it is so near that it seems to be coming from above his head, he sees it.
The enormous grey tower, so tall that he can only see the top if he cranes his neck. It is then that he realises that there is someone living here, because the singing is practically on top of him now.
Then he sees the hag. Hurrying towards the tower, straight at him. He dives behind a bush and watches in astonishment. The hag calls up to the top of the tower, and a long, gleaming plait winds its way down the bricks. As the hag disappears through a high window, he knows that he must meet this girl with the beautiful hair and the beautiful voice.
...
When she hears her name being called for the second time that day, she thinks that the hag must have forgotten something and is coming back. She lets down her hair, and nearly faints from shock when a man, a real living man climbs into her room.
'Who are you?' she asks rudely; the hag has taught her to fear strangers. She can't help noticing, however, that the man is very handsome. His blond hair flops into his baby blue eyes, as he holds his hand out for her to shake.
'I'm Ted Tonks. You?'
...
She is honestly the prettiest girl he has ever seen in his life. He introduces himself, and it strikes him that the situation is very odd; he is shaking hands with a girl who has several feet-long hair, lives in a tower and is visited by a hag. He doesn't think he's ever done anything like this.
'I'm Andromeda. Just Andromeda.'
He can't help it anymore, he just has to ask.
'Why do you live in this tower?'
'So that my mind won't be infected by strangers. Especially wizards.'
This sounds rehearsed, and he wonders if the hag has told her to say this.
'Is that what you really think?' he asks. She looks up at him, brown eyes locking on blue, and he sees the truth.
'No. It's not what I think. I want to meet wizards, and I want to learn magic, and I want to escape from this tower. But the hag won't let me.'
'I'm a wizard. I – I can teach you magic, if you want.'
...
'Andromeda... I've brought you something.'
She looks up from the spellbook. He has been teaching her magic, bringing her school textbooks and lending his wand to her. The past few weeks have been the happiest in her life, passing in a blur of charms and transfiguration and Ted, and she dreads the times when he isn't there.
He is holding out a long, thin box, with a purple ribbon tied around it. She takes it, curious, and gasps in surprise as she realises what it is. She draws out the wand, her hands shaking, and feels a sudden warmth spread through her, from her fingertips outwards.
'Where did you get it?' she breathes.
'I went to Diagon Alley, pretended I'd broken my wand. It just... seemed like the right one for you.'
'It's... it's beautiful, Ted. Thank you so much.'
He blushes, and then she hugs him tightly. She tries to tell him how grateful she is without words, because she's not exactly sure how to say what's she's feeling.
...
One day, they are sitting together in her room, and he is helping her to learn Wingardium Leviosa.
'Andromeda, Andromeda, let down your long hair.'
She looks at him fearfully, her eyes wide, and he doesn't even want to think about what will happen if the hag finds them together.
'What are we going to do?' he whispers.
'Here... in here!'
She pulls open the door to her wardrobe, and he squeezes inside. He finds himself right next to a beautiful, sky-blue gown. It smells just like her.
He's not sure exactly when it was that he stopped admiring her beauty and started loving her with all his heart. Maybe he always has; whatever it is, he still hasn't done anything about it. He wonders now if he will ever get the chance to.
His heart is beating so loudly that he wonders how on earth the hag can't hear him, from where she is standing right outside the cupboard. Suddenly, he hears a shriek.
'What is this? Where did you get this from?'
The hag has found the wand he bought her. He desperately wants to jump out of the wardrobe and curse the hag, or at least do something to help Andromeda.
'I – I just f-found it... p-please... I'm sorry!'
'You're lying! Don't lie to me, Andromeda! Tell the truth!'
He hears the most terrible scream of his life, and he knows instantly that the hag has used the Cruciatus Curse. He just can't bear it anymore, so he takes a deep breath and opens the door of the cupboard.
...
'Ted! No!'
She can't help the words that escape from her mouth; the hag can't find out about Ted, she just can't. She will willingly take the Cruciatus Curse for him, to save him. If Ted goes, she doesn't know what she'll do. She can't even remember what life was like without him.
'A wizard? You have been meeting with a wizard, after all I have taught you? Stupid, disgusting girl!'
Another spasm of pain shoots through her body, and even as she screams, she sees Ted pointing his wand at the hag, muttering a spell that she can't hear. The hag is thrown backwards, and he picks her up effortlessly.
'We need to get out of here.'
They are almost at the window when a voice cackles from behind them.
'Not so fast, my pretties!'
The hag, lying on the floor, snaps her fingers, and she suddenly feels very light-headed. The hag collapses, and she's not sure if her tormenter is dead or unconscious. And then, she catches sight of herself in the mirror, and gasps. Her hair, her long hair which she has been growing as far back as she can remember, it is gone. All that is left is a short, ugly mess that comes down to her ears.
Ted raises his wand again, this time pointing it at her.
'I'm going to levitate you out.'
...
He sinks down onto the ground next to her, and she rests her head on his shoulder. He doesn't want her to know the effect such a simple thing as this has on him, so he asks something stupid.
'Are you all right?'
She gives him a tired smile, and he can't stop gazing at her.
'Why did you do that? You could have just stayed in my wardrobe and waited.'
'What? How could I do that? She was torturing you, for Merlin's sake! I couldn't just stand there and listen!'
'Yes, but you could have died! I'm not that important.'
He looks at her, and he knows that he has to tell her now, or go on living with the knowledge that he'd missed his chance with her. He takes one last look at her beautiful face before he changes everything.
'Andromeda... I love you.'
