Chapter 4

Beginning of Second Year

"Hurry up, Goldie!" Rose yelled up through the spiral staircase leading to the room her, Rapunzel, and Belle shared. Due to the lack of girls sorted into Ravenclaw, they were allowed to have a room of three.

"I'm here! I'm here!" Rapunzel came running down the stairs, bag in hand, tripping over the carpet and landing on a pile of pillows meant for reading. Belle started laughing.

"Get up, you clutz!" She helped her up, and Rapunzel checked to make sure her high ponytail was still tight. Her hair had grown three feet over summer, and puberty was beginning to hit her, as well as the rest of the second-years. While the others covered their newly-found acne with foundation and craploads of mascara, Rapunzel found that she wasn't getting any of the pesky bumps. She chalked it up to the curse, but the other girls thought she was a goddess because of it.

"I'm ready, I'm ready." She said, heading towards the door. Rose rolled her eyes.

"Great, because I'm starving." She led the other two to the dining room, and as they sat down, Rapunzel could feel the eyes of not only the new first years, but also the eyes of everyone else on her.

"Just ignore them Rapunzel." Belle whispered as she passed her some syrup for the pancakes in front of her.

"What if I just stood up, and made everyone's hair grow as long as mine is? Wouldn't that be wonderful?" She sighed as she picked at her pancakes. Belle laughed.

"That would be a pain in the ass, Punzie."

"For you. I've lived with it my whole life. You ever tried untangling a knot that's three inches wide?"

"No, and for my own sake, I hope I never have to."

"It's not a pretty picture." The two laughed, not realizing that the attention had drifted off of Rapunzel for the moment.

"Look! Look! It's Jack Frost and Scorpius Malfoy!" A girl from the Hufflepuff table whispered excitedly to her friend. Rapunzel looked up. Sure enough, Jack, Scorpius, Albus, and Beckett had all sauntered into the dining hall.

There were many at Hogwarts in the second year that you could look at, and know that they were suffering through the slow process of puberty.

These four were not part of that number.

They looked perfect. No skin flaws, muscular, proportioned correctly. It was all Rapunzel could do to keep from gagging. Rose pretended to vomit in her food.

"Good morning, Rose. You're looking lovely today." Scorpius bent over Rose, giving her a wink. Rose wrinkled her nose at Rapunzel, then turned to Scorpius with a sweet smile.

"I hope your rash is doing okay, Scorpius. Albus was talking about it to my father a couple nights ago. Do you need more wart cream? I'm sure Albus would be happy to lend you some."

Belle swallowed a piece of pancake to keep herself from laughing, while Rapunzel started gulping down water like there was no tomorrow.

"It's fine, sweetheart. Thanks for asking. Maybe one day, you'll be able to see it." Scorpius winked at Rose without missing a beat, and walked away. Belle and Rapunzel burst out laughing, while Rose glared at the two, red in the face.

"Shut up!"
"I'm sorry! We're sorry! It's just‒oh my God, you guys are so perfect for each other." Belle stammered out as she tried to stop.

"We are not perfect for each other." Rose hissed.

Rapunzel snorted. "Maybe you should join one of his fan clubs. I heard there's one with only red heads in it. Apparently, that's his favorite hair color."

"You guys are insufferable." She stabbed a piece of waffle with her fork.

"Hey. He's the only one who ever has a comeback for your comebacks. I like the guy, despite his manwhoreness." Belle said.

"Jack's more attractive than he is." Rose said. "If I had to pick a manwhore, it'd be Jack."

"Just because they've dated a lot of girls does not make them manwhores." Rapunzel muttered.

"Not true. Jack's slept with Millie Tangrove and Sasha Reynolds."

"Yeah, and Scorpius' slept with Gigi Howe, Rena Chang, and Vicky Stannon."

"How do you guys know this?" Rapunzel asked, laughing as they recited the many girls.

"Don't you hear the students speaking about it when you walk by?" As soon as she had said it, Rapunzel knew that Rose immediately regretted it.

She smiled sadly at her. "When I walk by, the only thing I can hear is word 'mutant' along with other colorful words. It's rather pathetic, really. Most of them can't insult a girl for their life."

"I'm sorry, Goldie. I didn't mean to‒"

"It's fine, Rose. I know how hard it is to be my friend. How much both of you guys are sacrificing for it." Rapunzel smiled gratefully at the two. She knew as well as anyone that being friends with her was committing social suicide. It was likely that neither Belle nor Rose would get asked on a date, much less get a boyfriend, while she was around. "I'm going to go get my things for Transfiguration. See you guys later." She waved at the two, leaving them so they wouldn't feel guilty.

She sighed as she walked up the stairs towards the Ravenclaw Common Room. No student passed her, as they were all in the dining hall, something she was grateful for. She'd only been here for a year, and already she'd been tripped going up and down these stairs so many times, it hurt her ankles just thinking about it.

"You okay?" She turned, and saw Jack Frost waiting at the bottom of the steps. He was leaning up against the wall, looking at her.

"Um, yeah. Thanks." She gave him a confused look, and kept walking towards the Common Room. Why is he here?

"Uh, Rapunzel, I, uh, I wanted to ask you about the Potions homework." He ran up to her, and started walking with her to the Ravenclaw Common Room.

"You know, I understand that I'm a maggot compared to all of you 'pure and untainted' people, but just because I'm cursed doesn't mean that I don't have feelings, Jack." She stopped and looked at him.

"I know you have feelings, I was just‒"

"Then why don't you ask me when there are people around?" She didn't say it meanly, merely a question. Trying to prove what she knew was true, but didn't want to accept.

Jack stared at the floor.

"You put the milkworm in before the salamander tails. Stir it, let it simmer for 12 minutes, then take it off the heat and put it in the sun." She sighed, and walked to the Ravenclaw Common Room door. The raven came to life, and asked her the question:

"What is bitter and frozen, but brings joy where it goes?"

It wasn't hard. Anyone would know it. She could feel Jack trying to figure out what is was as she waved her wand in the air, causing it to snow.

"Snowflakes." She answered.

"Correct." Squawked the bird, and the elaborately carved door opened with a swoosh. She entered, allowing the door to shut behind her.

"Long semester of classes?" Gothel set a cup of tea down in front of Rapunzel. It was now winter break, and finals were over, as well as the first half of the school year. She was grateful for it, as now she could hole herself away in her tower and paint as much as she wanted while Mother was away all break.

"Yeah, you could say that." Rapunzel smiled at her mother, and sipped at the steaming tea.

"Tomorrow I leave for France, so could you sing for me, my dear?" Rapunzel nodded as her mother sat down across from her. She began to sing, causing her curse to be put in effect.

Flower, gleam and glow

Make your power shine

Make the clock reverse

Bring back what once was mine

As Rapunzel sang, Gothel appeared to be getting younger by the second. Not only that, but Rapunzel's hair grew a couple more inches, and she herself could feel another part of her brain opening up. It'd been happening lately. The more she sang for Mother, the more she could feel as though the 10% of her brain that she was supposed to be using becoming 12%, 14%, 15%, and so on.

She knew it was what the Sorting Hat had told her about when she was a first-year. She just didn't know what to do with it.

The next day, Mother Gothel left, and Rapunzel was locked in her tower, waving goodbye to her as she left the secret glen where Rapunzel lived when Gothel was gone. Rapunzel busied herself by painting a new mural across the stretch of blank wall in her bedroom. She was 1/3 of the way done with sketching out the drawing, when she heard someone call her name.

Mother can't be back so soon. Maybe she forgot something. I bet she forgot her coat again.

Rapunzel sighed, a smile on her face. Mother often forgot her coat, as she was rarely ever cold. But it being winter, she was sure to have realized it, and come home to get it.

Rapunzel walked to the shut window, and opened it up, ready to tease her mother about forgetting her coat.

It wasn't her mother.