Chapter 10

"Oh God, I'm so sorry, is this your bathroom? I didn't mean to intrude, I just-this girl-and then the purple got all over-" Rapunzel jumped to her feet, and was about to start cleaning things up and possibly dodging hexes when she saw who had awoken her. "Oh."

"That's it? I get an 'Oh'?" Jack leaned against the door, smirking. "Not even a nice blow to the head with a frying pan like last time?"

Rapunzel blushed, and continued to clean up. Her brain started calculating escape routes, but the only ones that popped up were the door behind Jack, or breaking the stained glass window and jumping out. Neither sounded that appealing at the moment, given that her hair still had purple dye stuck in it.

"I didn't mean to hit you that hard."

"You sure have an arm on you." Jack continued to lean against the door, not moving to help Rapunzel clean up. He just stared at her as she placed different shampoos and conditioners next to each other along the bathtub.

"What are you even doing in here?" Rapunzel huffed, turning towards him with her hand on her hip.

"I could ask you the same question." Could he be any more obnoxious?

"Nothing." She quickly sat down, and turned to face the vanity mirror. Maybe if I don't say anything he'll leave.

"Did someone do that to your hair?" Rapunzel didn't answer. "Rapunzel, answer me."

"Do you want to get hit with a frying pan, because that's kind of the vibe I'm feeling here." Rapunzel glanced at his reflection in the mirror. He was smirking, but moved forward to look closer at her purple hair. The doorway was open.

Bolting upwards, her blonde and purple hair wrapped itself around Jack, preventing him from moving as Rapunzel ran to the doorway.

"WAIT! Rapunzel, I can help you!" Jack struggled in her hair cocoon. She paused, hand on the doorknob. "It's one of the Everlasting Hexes."

"Everlasting…Hexes? But we don't learn about those until next year….how did a first year know it?" She muttered, but turned around slowly to look at Jack.

"I can fix it, I swear. Can you just loosen your hair a little bit? I just need my staff." Jack pleaded at her, and Rapunzel felt that he was genuine about helping her.

"Staff? You don't have a staff…" Rapunzel's hair loosened itself at Jack's request, and Jack managed to tap his wand against his knee, transforming it into a crooked, frozen staff.

He pounded the ground with it, and ice began to crawl across the ground, freezing her hair while it did. It traveled all the way up to her scalp, turning her hair white as snow, and flooded over her. Once it had covered her entirely, the ice began to melt, drenching her in water.

"Thanks, now I'm wet." She growled, rinsing out her Ravenclaw sweater. Jack laughed, as Rapunzel's hair gradually drooped, allowing him to step out of its grasp.

"I fixed your hair though."

Rapunzel glanced into the mirror, and her eyes started to well up. The purple paint had completely vanished, leaving her hair more golden than before. There was a tiny white tendril left from Jack's magic, but Rapunzel pushed it behind her ear, hiding it from view. "How did you-? I mean, it's gone. I washed my hair for hours trying to get it out."

Jack tapped his staff, transforming it back into his crooked wand. He sat on the corner of the bathtub, and stared out the window. "I've uh…I've been meaning to tell you for a while…"

"Tell me what?" Rapunzel moved to sit next to him, but chose to sit on the other side of the bathtub, as far away as she could get without seeming too scared of his potential energy.

"I didn't lie last time when I said that I understood what you were, are, feeling." He kept playing with his wand, and although Rapunzel felt like she could trust him, she couldn't help but feel on edge that something was about to happen, and not something good, either.

"Uh…you see…damn why is this so hard to say…" Jack ran his fingers through his hair, and it started snowing.

Rapunzel started shivering as the temperature of the room started to drop rapidly. "Maybe you could start with a warm spell?"

"Oh." Is he…blushing? "I uh, crap, no I didn't mean to…shit."

"Can't you stop it? I think I'm getting hypothermia." Rapunzel was shaking violently from the probably negative degree Celsius weather, yet Jack looked as comfortable as ever. He shook his head.

"I can't stop it."

"What do you mean you can't stop it? Fuck this." Rapunzel waved her wand, and created her own personal bubble of heat.

Jack mumbled something, but Rapunzel couldn't hear it. "What'd you say? I was busy saving myself from pneumonia."

"I was born with the Lumi Curse."

Rapunzel started to shake again, her smug demeanor abandoning her even with the warmth that now surrounded her. "Th-the Lumi Curse?" She ran to the vanity, brandishing the hairbrush there as a sword.

"No, no please, I don't want to hurt you-" He started to walk towards her.

"Please." Rapunzel's body was quivering, but she managed to keep her voice strong. "Don't come any closer."

"Rapunzel, I haven't killed anyone in decades-"

"But I could be the first. And who would miss the poor, mutant girl, alone in the world. Who would miss me, Jack? You've probably hypnotized the whole school to love you, but what can I do?" Jack took a step closer, and Rapunzel pulled her wand out alongside the hairbrush. "Please, Jack. I don't know what you're going to do, but you're not going to do it with me." Rapunzel could feel her eyes welling up. Stop! God, Rapunzel, stop!

"Rapunzel, I've told you, I'm not going to hurt you." He continued to step closer, and for once, Rapunzel willed her hair to trap him so she could run.

Surprise, surprise, nothing happened.

"Jack, don't, I don't want to hurt you-"Her voice broke, and she silently ridiculed herself, as now Jack was within a foot of her, touching the tip of her wand and the hairbrush.

Before she could even react, he had disarmed her, and gently holding her wrists. Rapunzel opened her mouth to call her wand back to her, but Jack stopped her, pulling her to him, and kissing her.

It only lasted a second or so, but the millisecond he let go of her lips, she froze him, and ran out the door, running for her life to the Ravenclaw Common Room.

She wanted to go back to the taunts and the ridicule. It was all she had ever known, and right now, it was all she wanted to know.