Author's Note: Keep in mind, that I'm only on chapter two… So a lot of this is probably wrong. Maybe best to think of it as an AU? In the End
Rapunzel wanted to befriend this girl, Seren—who was mysteriously looking for her own brother, while Rapunzel was doing the same thing—and who seemed like the strongest person to ever exist… but she wasn't sure how.
Seren just seemed so… intense. And she was so focused on finding her own sibling, that sometimes Rapunzel felt bad that there were times she herself cared more about the Vaults than Jake.
But even though Seren seemed so adamant about nothing but her quest… she had many friends: Something that Rapunzel didn't have at all, save her boy friend, Ronan…
So that sort of put Rapunzel off, too.
It probably wasn't very Ravenclaw of her—since with her intelligence, she should have believed she was worth something for that… if nothing else—but Rapunzel couldn't help feeling there was something wrong with her, for not having friends: That just something about her genetic makeup drove people away.
But if she was such a good friend with her cat Tree—who was such a good judge of character—maybe she could manage it with Seren, as well.
So getting over herself some—since wasn't self-consciousness selfishness in its own right?—Rapunzel went and knocked on the door to the Hufflepuff Common Room:
Something that was very Muggle of her to do, she knew—and she wasn't even sure it would work—but the blue-haired girl did so all the same.
Thankfully, it only took a few raps on the door for the Hufflepuffs to hear it and for Nymphadora Tonks to answer it with a smile on her face …
Which slightly disappeared when she saw it was Ravenclaw, their rival House that had come calling, but it quickly came back.
"Hi. What can I do for you?" Tonks asked with nothing but pep in her voice—which somehow made Rapunzel wonder if her and her friends had been doing something mischievous. If so, she wished them the best of luck with it.
"…I was wondering if I could talk to Seren Dwyn?"
Unlike Tonks' hair—that was a gorgeous baby pink and very welcoming right now—Rapunzel thought her blue locks were probably more sad looking than anything:
In fact, her hair surely looked as though it was getting whiter and whiter with her nervousness.
But it was what it was.
At the question, Tonks' eyebrows squeezed up in concentration—and it wasn't hard to guess that she was thinking about the Vaults, and that maybe Seren had asked another's help with them—but upon giving it a moment, Tonks replied: "Actually, conveniently, she's right behind the door here. And she seems ready to meet you, so I'll send her your way."
Which Tonks did:
She seemed to literally push Seren out the door—though the brunette seemed none the worse for wear for it—and then she and Rapunzel were heading away.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" Seren asked rather exuberantly. Seren had been wearing her robes when she'd joined Rapunzel. But maybe in realizing how hot it was on this floor, she quickly took it off—revealing a blue outfit underneath—when she began speaking.
"…That's, perhaps, something we should keep quiet. So, can we wait until we get to the Room of Requirement?" Rapunzel whispered into Seren's ear.
And when Seren nodded ever so slightly at the question, Rapunzel saw it as her cue to continue leading them away.
Rapunzel wasn't sure if Seren knew about the Room of Requirement or not—all she'd done was raise an eyebrow when it had been mentioned—so Rapunzel thought it best to take Seren there and unlock the room herself, just in case.
And just like that, they were getting close to the room that had magicked Rapunzel's homework for her when she'd lost it one time.
"Please… give us a room where we can confide in each other secretly," Rapunzel requested of the room, just as her feet touched where the door would be the moment it became corporeal.
A few beats passed—to which Rapunzel and Seren looked at each other meaningfully, wondering if something was wrong—but the door to the Room opened, and then Rapunzel and Seren were scampering into it.
And deciding not to make Seren wait any longer, when they were free of any eavesdropping ears—because she hadbrought her on a strange adventure—she took a deep breath, and laid her heart out on the line, digging her nails into her arm as she did so.
"This is going to sound… mad to you. And you may not even believe me… But I also have a brother named 'Jacob'—Jake, really—who went missing. And it had to do with the Cursed Vaults for him, too… Though I don't know if it was before or after 1984. I think something's wrong with me… making me not remember."
Thankfully, Rapunzel didn't get the suspicious or disbelieving look that she had thought she would here—that she maybe deserved—but instead, Seren had put a hand under her own chin and was "hmm"ing.
It was very Ravenclaw of her, if Rapunzel said so herself.
"That's really sad, that you don't remember when your brother was taken. I'm sorry! I can't even imagine how much pain I would be in, if I didn't even know when my Jacob disappeared… It makes me think a memory charmmust be in play here. Have you thought about having someone like Madame Pomphrey take a look at you?"
Sighing, as she sat down in front of a table—that had a newspaper about how to locate missing siblings on it?!—Rapunzel ran a hand down her face, before she decided to go full-on Muggle and maybe (unfortunately) lose Seren along the way.
"I have considered it… Except that there are ways to have your memory tampered with in the Muggle world, too—I know this stuff because I'm Half-Blood—and my family fears non-witches and wizardsmight have done something to us… And ironically, if Muggles have messed with your memories… you don't want to make it seem like you're noticing it to them."
Even with the Vaults, Rapunzel was concerned that this was mostly some sort of government conspiracy—had they learned of Hogwarts?—that would end with her and her family at the bottom of a sea, with cement tied to their feet… Not that they wouldn't have been able to escape that, but still.
At that, Seren's heart seemed to go out to Rapunzel even more, if that was possible (with something in her eyes that seemed to hint that she knew a few too power-hungry world leaders herself).
She put a reassuring hand on Rapunzel's shoulder—that she was only too greedy to lean into—and said, "Oh, man. That's horrible if it's true. And you can really bet that I'll help you now…
"But I also feel like—if that's the case, and you're not letting the 'government' see your emotions—you've been keeping too much bottled up about your brother and need to cry. So why don't you go ahead and do so now?"
In the back of her mind—while she appreciated Seren's sentiment—she found the notion that she could just magically turn on the emotions she had turned off (for anyone but Ronan) kind of ridiculous… And yet that was exactly what happened.
Rapunzel ugly cried—sounding like a screaming flamingo here and there as she did, she was sure—as tears stained her face… but finally she got it all out, and did feel better for it.
She'd been ignoring just what she'd lost with her brother too long now, and she wouldn't do it anymore.
"Remember that anything's possible, Rapunzel. Especially at Hogwarts, where there are hidden rooms and staircases move. Maybe it isn't even connected to America, where you live… If you're missing your sibling, I wanna help. And maybe by doing so, it'll help me find my best friend, too."
Rapunzel, through her tears, saw Seren reach her hand out to her in a pinky swear.
And Rapunzel readily took it for what it was: a sign of companionship for them, too:
And to show that this friendship wasn't one-sided, Rapunzel handed Seren some Wizard Card misprints, that we're all dated with the year Jacob disappeared and the ones that Jake could've.
She also promised Seren that she'd enlist the genius Ronan's help, to which Seren answered she'd do the same with her own friends.
Seren smirked at her, and Rapunzel had never felt safer.
They were going to do this.
Author's Note: So, I sort of had to tone Rapunzel down for this–because otherwise the two girls would essentially have the same story, doing the same stuff (I also had to make crap up, like Rapunzel thinking Muggles are involved in her case, to keep that from being true). But oh well Liz, you sort of did that with Sanya in the Kingdom Hearts X comics you did with our characters for me, so it's totally fine that I'm doing the same for you here. And it is sort of fitting, that Rapunzel is just starting out exploring the Vaults in this–and Seren is the seasoned veteran with it–since you started this game before me (and are ahead of me), and got me into it Also, "Ronan" in this is the boy version of Rowan. Since you have the girl version of her. And I made the name Ronan, since… once again, we're not supposed to be the same characters with the same story here. So even though that's clearly who my Ronan's based on, I'm saying my Ronan and your Rowan aren't the same character