Chapter 10: Rapunzel's POV

Sometimes there are things that are not as big as they seem, and sometimes first impressions aren't always the best ones.

A/N:

Once again, a big shout out to iamlongstockings on AO3 for her kind, sweet, and overall wonderful comments. They filled me with so much love and joy that it motivated me to write this chapter which has so far made me cry 3 times, once while writing it and twice while editing - not because the writing was difficult, but because the scene at the end keeps overwhelming me with sad feels every time I read it (is this what's going to happen every time I write a scene with people crying in it? Guess I'm going to be doing a lot of crying for book 2 then :/ )

Technically, I've had the Halloween chapter - which is chapter 12 - out on AO3 since last week, but it didn't feel right to post it here when chapter 11 refused to get done in a timely manner and instead spent a week and a half kicking my butt. It's in the editing stages right now and should be out in a day or two, and after that I can post the much happier Halloween chapter on here and feel momentarily satisfied.

Enjoy the chapter! Stay safe!

Rapunzel was a bundle of nerves on the way to her first detention.

Then again, that was usually the case for most new experiences involving her – and, well, that whole month was an experience in itself so one could imagine what her day-to-day emotional state had become by then. For the most part the nerves were all fun and dandy to deal with, made things exciting at least. Whether they were of the good or bad variety varied from situation to situation.

In this case, they were the bad ones. The cold sweating, teeth chattering, heart that threatened to climb into her throat and make a home there ones.

Pascal, whom she'd brought along for emotional support, wasn't really doing much to distract her from her impeding sense of doom, even with him patting her shoulder intermittently and making sympathetic noises. A part of it had to do with Rapunzel imagining that if Pascal could speak, he would've told her something along the lines of, "You did this to yourself. Now you have to deal with it."

But see. The problem here was that she just really couldn't help it.

She'd made a promise to herself after that hospital episode to at least try to keep up with her new responsibilities. She'd been making an honest effort to do better, to pay attention. But the more she paid attention, the more she saw. And what she saw she did not like.

Apparently, adults were very … particular about education. They wanted to provide it in specific, orderly sizes, and it had to be delivered in certain, specific ways. Rapunzel couldn't just go off learning things all willy-nilly, oh no. If she were to learn the Proper Way, then she had to listen to someone else tell her the Proper Things, and she had to write all of it down neatly in her neat little notes-books to be copied down again on neat little homework sheets and then handed in on time or else so that she could receive her neat little grades.

And she had to do all that while contending with an army of fussy little rules that didn't seem like they were supposed to hold any meaningful use to anyone who had to follow them: how to dress, how to speak, how to act, what to learn, what to read, what to do, what to think. It made her brain feel like a mushy little hamster being spoon-fed bland chunks of porridge.

This wasn't at all how she taught herself things. Back home, all Rapunzel had to do was bring her questions to her mother and her mother would get the books and tools needed for Rapunzel to figure out the answers herself and stop asking her so many things.

No one had ever told her there had to be some particular way of learning things, and her mother wasn't around often enough to bother about that. So for her, there was no difference between learning and play.

Baking and cooking had become lessons in Potions and Chemistry, gardening for Herbology. Anything on Engineering, Architecture, Physics, or the like that she could apply practically often became extensive crafting projects, from constructing miniature buildings to painting landscapes on her walls to making dresses and clothes. She'd been given books about different places in the world, and those books often held magic that would show her the dances, songs, and languages that came from there. She would learn them and make up stories all about what it was like to live there. And she was always, always making up stories because she never had enough of them in her life.

She could take the knowledge she found and dress it up however she wanted and no one could tell her no. Art, music, storytelling, crafting – every single outlet was a way for her to learn and create something lovely.

How could a place meant for learning take something that was supposed to be fun and made her so happy and turn it into something so … boring? Where was the art? Where was the joy, the wonder, the imagination? Where were the stories? Rapunzel was pretty sure she could've paid much better attention if there were more stories around.

But no. Instead of stories, she got rules. Rules, rules, rules. Rules everywhere. With so many rules spinning about her head, it was a genuine mystery how she hadn't gotten them mixed up sooner. And now she had.

Meanwhile, Nancy – who was also serving detention – skipped along beside her and chattered away like she hadn't a care in the world.

"So right now we've got Ellie, Ella, Zellie, Stella, Goldie Gold Fish, Nemo's Cousin Twice Removed, Razzle My Dazzle, Funshine Bear – you told me about that Zelda one, didn't you?"

"Yeah." Rapunzel said absentmindedly.

"That's a good one, I like it. Hmm … what do you think of Azalea?"

If she remembered correctly, azaleas were pink and purple flowers and very fluffy. "I like them, they're pretty."

"What about Bohemian Rhapsody?"

"That's nice."

"Cool. So I can add those to the nickname roster." Nancy cast a sideways look at Rapunzel's pensive face. "What, no laughs? No smile? That usually works. You're really worried about this, aren't you? You shouldn't be. It's not a big deal, you know."

"But how do you know?" It sure felt like a big deal when their professor sentenced them to it. That seriousness had filtered into Rapunzel and now she didn't know how to get it out.

"Well, see – are you going to remember this next year? Five years from now? Ten years? Is it going to matter then? No it's not. Nobody here is going to stay mad with you. I know my parents don't care, I don't either. This detention's my second one so far and I'm sure there're gonna be at least a few more headed my way. So what? Let them happen. School isn't just about detentions or getting in trouble, there's always going to be other things happening. Soon enough today will be over and we can all get on with our lives. Hey, did I tell you about the kids we're going to see there? I made friends with some of them."

Had she? Rapunzel couldn't be sure. By then, Nancy had made a lot of friends, so her saying that didn't narrow things down.

As much as Rapunzel liked people, it was Nancy who had a talent for getting people to like her. When she wanted to be, she was outgoing, charming, and fun. She made being around her feel exciting. More than that, she had a natural confidence that drew other people to her and made them stay. It was really something to see her going at it – she made it look easy. Within the first half of the month Nancy had made herself rather popular, even branching out to other Houses.

They were nearing the end of the dungeon corridor. Before them stood the entrance to the Potions lab.

Nancy hopped ahead of Rapunzel, spinning on her heel and gesturing grandly to the doorway. "Welcome to the Detention Club!"

A cross between a chemistry lab and a cooking class, the room for their practical lessons was large enough to be more of a small hall than a classroom. To the left was a chalkboard that took up most of the wall space and neat rows of polished stone desks facing it, each desk having a shallow, rune-lined pit in its centre for lighting fires. Spheres of white light floated on the ceiling, bright enough to comfortably see under the desks and within the storage shelves that made up the walls directly facing the door and to the right. In between the lights were circular indents carved into the ceiling and scattered high along the walls. Painted around their inner edges were lightly glowing, pale green runes that filtered out fumes and made the room airy.

From the back of the room came a girl's voice. "Not quite. We're missing the other three."

There were already four students in the classroom. On the back desks were open wooden crates filled with odd, wrinkly tube-like things. The students had to remove the skin from them and toss them into a squat barrel. The girl who'd spoken had long black hair and thick gloves that reached her elbows. Working beside her was a boy with deeply tanned skin and wavy brown hair, while another boy had his back to them as he flitted around the shelves.

The fourth student was a girl who sat on a stool in the opposite corner. She was bent over scrubbing busily at a cauldron about the size of a head, with most of her frame hidden by the stacks of similarly shaped cauldrons surrounding her. Rapunzel noticed two things immediately: that the girl's uniform had Slytherin green accents, and that frizzing up all around her was a very distinct, very memorable cloud of brilliantly red hair.

Rapunzel did a double take. Before she could stare too much, she was distracted by a gasp that wasn't her own and a muffled 'ow!'.

When she looked back, the boy who stood next to the girl was shooting her an irritated look. The girl ignored him and continued with her work, blowing out whisps of hair that drifted near her face. Now that she was paying attention, Rapunzel noticed that the other girl also had Slytherin colours on her uniform, while the boy's uniform was lined with Gryffindor red.

A Slytherin and a Gryffindor, working together. Huh.

Nancy bounded back to where Rapunzel stood waving two pairs of gloves. She handed a pair to Rapunzel and donned her own. "Hello, everyone! Allow me introduce you to Rapunzel. Rapunzel, these are the members of the Detention Club, as they so call themselves."

Nancy sidled up to the Slytherin girl and held out an imaginary mike. "Would you like to do the honours, my good lady?"

Said girl rolled her eyes and batted the hand away. "I'm Jane Clark. The one over here is Sanjay Sharma, and over there," she waved behind them, "is Russel Song, who, I repeat, is not serving detention." Jane twisted around to shoot the other boy a look. "Speaking of, why are you here? I don't think I asked yet."

On hearing his name, Russel had turned to face them. "I'm volunteering to help out Professor Fredricksen." He held out a hand to the two girls, his smile bright as his Hufflepuff robes. "It's nice to meet you both."

While Rapunzel and Nancy took turns shaking his hand, Jane tsked. "I don't know why you bother. He's kind of a grouch, isn't he?"

Russel shrugged. "I think he's nice."

From next to Jane, Sanjay leaned back and sent the two girls a smile and a wave. "It's nice to finally meet you, Rapunzel. Hi, Nancy. What are you two in for?"

Rapunzel blinked at him. "Um … do I know you?"

Before he could speak up, Jane beat him to it. "It's the hair. And the name. Word tends to get around."

"Oh, right. There is that old story, isn't there?" Rapunzel giggled. "Well, there are … things about my hair that means I can't cut it, and it just kept growing so that's the name that stuck. I guess it fits."

"As for why we're here." Nancy clapped her gloved hands together. "So! Last week we were making potions in Potions, as you do, and the textbook was there to show the steps, but stirring up what's basically going to end up chamomile paste gets old pretty quick. And seeing as we had some other ingredients there, I thought I might do a bit of … self-learning – because, let's be real, Potions for first years is just kitchen medicine but with funky ingredients. And who knows, maybe someone in the world wanted a new invention happening. So there we were, trying out new stuff, teaching ourselves things, having fun, all that good stuff. And then suddenly there's the professor. And he was like, 'I say, what are you two doing?' And I was busy trying to corner a beetle and Rapunzel here was stirring the bubbling thing as fast as she could go, so I shrugged, and he went, 'You do realise that doing such things could very well result in an explosion?' And then – Rapunzel, what was it you said?"

"That would be interesting." Rapunzel repeated, getting her gloved hands into the nearest crate. The tube-like things squished between her fingers, oozing out something translucent and oil-like.

"So apparently that was the wrong answer. And now here we are!" Nancy finished with a flourish. "What about you two? And what are we doing here?"

Jane held up one of the thin tubes. "This is a kind of root. We're supposed to peel its outer skin and toss the inner bit into the barrel, that way it can be ready for use in our next lesson. They've already been fermented so it's supposed to be easier. Observe." She pinched one end and slid her fingers down the length. The outer skin wrinkled up and was pushed along by the course glove material, ending with it scrunching off into the designated 'discard' crate she held it over. "As for why we're here, some Gryffindor I know was being a prat in class, so I jinxed his shoelaces."

"And what about you?" Nancy asked Sanjay, picking out a root from the same crate as Rapunzel had.

"I pranked her back. If I'm going down, so are you." He nudged an elbow at Jane. She flicked a root at him, watching dispassionately as some goop hit his nose and made him squawk.

A loud clang came from where the unknown Slytherin girl was, followed by a low mrrow. Rapunzel's head immediately shot up. She had to bite her lip not to squeal at the cat perched on a shelf above the girl. It was black, scrawny, and mean-looking, not at all like the cat Rapunzel had seen on her first morning up in the tower. It seemed to be glaring down at the girl like it didn't want her misbehaving. Rapunzel looked between the two.

She leaned around Nancy and lowered her voice. "… Do you know why that girl is here?"

Jane frowned, glancing at the girl in question. Then she sighed. "That's Merida DunBroch. She's here for a different detention. I don't know much, but … there've been some rumors going around about her. Most of them are … well, shallow, and a bit nasty, and the girl who's been telling them is like that, too, from what I can tell – her name's Jenny, by the way. Jenny Simple. I'm telling you this so that you know and you're warned. By now, Merida's gotten in trouble three times."

"The first time was cool, though, you've got to admit." Sanjay whispered. "It was during flying class. I saw it."

"Well, that was the first one. This one isn't for that." Jane shook her head. "I don't know what she did to that girl, but whatever it is has gotten people in our year avoiding her. Not because they believe it – well, mostly, unless you're one of her "friends" or you're stupid enough to actually listen Jenny – but probably more because Jenny is targeting Merida and people don't want to get caught up in that."

Rapunzel heard a sniffle, like someone had tried to muffle it. She glanced back at the girl – Merida. Her name was Merida. If she looked closely, she was half sure she saw Merida's shoulders tremble.

"… I think she might've heard us." In a louder voice, Rapunzel said. "I'm guessing all of you met in detention, right?"

"Herbology. All of us were there for that one." Sanjay tossed a skinless root over his shoulder. It fell into the barrel and he fist pumped the air.

"Not for the same reasons, though. Nancy was the one who got us caught." Jane said.

"Hey! I didn't know! I didn't even see any of you there."

"Right. And you had perfectly innocent reasons for being in Greenhouse 2."

"As a matter of fact, I did." Nancy sniffed haughtily. "A professor had asked me to fetch another professor from there. I went in there and then I heard some kind of screaming in one of the pots. I thought some small creature was trapped in there! How was I supposed to know it was a mandrake?"

"'Least none of you got concussed." Russel came up beside Sanjay wearing his own pair of gloves.

Sanjay shuffled aside. "The look on the professor's face was worth it. I'm not forgetting that in a hurry."

Jane just barely managed to avoid getting her feet stepped on. She sent a scowl that neither boy caught. "I still call it snitching."

"Oh, leave it alone. I'd rather get along with you. Asian kids gotta stick together, right?" Nancy nudged Jane's shoulder with her own. The friendly nudge turned out to be strong enough to unbalance both of them. Nancy teetered on her feet, while Jane bumped into Sanjay and he just barely caught her.

"Asian?" Rapunzel asks. At that, all four children looked at her. Rapunzel immediately back-peddled. "Sorry, sorry! I'm sorry if that was rude, I don't know, I only grew up in one place. I didn't want to just assume, and, well, I'm – a bit sheltered – a lot, actually, and … um …"

"You're asking about the surname, right?" Jane said, straightening up. "It's fine. I get that a lot. Apparently it isn't obvious unless you're looking for it. I'm half-and-half, ish. Chinese on my mother's side, Indonesian/European on my father's. Hence the last name." She waved away the hair that had gotten into her face, grimacing when a few stuck to her glove. "Actually, you know what? Screw this. Next year I'm getting bangs and bob cut. This is ridiculous."

"Waitwaitwait – I didn't hear that part. You're Chinese too? Samesies!" Nancy held her hand up for a high five. Jane blinked at her.

"That glove," she stated, "is covered in plant guts. How about no."

"Oh, it's not that bad, not even that slimy. We're both wearing gloves, right? And look, it's stretchy!" Nancy demonstrated by stretching one of the roots, which did, indeed, have considerable stretch.

Jane gave her a blank look. Behind them, Sanjay ducked his head and sniggered.

"Actually, now that I think about it, this looks pretty durable." Nancy started wrapping the root around her wrist. "Say, do you think we could-?"

"MROW."

At once, all noise stopped. The cat on the shelf sat back on its hind legs, eyes narrowed into menacing, yellow slits.

"… or maybe I won't." Nancy lowered her hands.

The work continued quietly for a while after that, with small bits of conversation picking up in between.

Detention wasn't the last time she saw the cat. She met it again in the library.

Sprawled behind the desk over a pile of returned books, the cat dozed away while Madam Coraline Jones, the librarian, puttered around.

"Oh, him? He's the library cat. Sometimes he's there when kids get detentions, too. I don't know where he came from, he was here before me, but he's made a home here. The professors like him, the castle cats seem to like him too, so he stays."

"What's his name?" Rapunzel asked, perched on her tip-toes to see him better.

"I just call him Cat." Madam Jones scratched his ears, chuckling when he started purring in his sleep. "Don't be fooled by the act, he's got his eyes and ears everywhere. All the castle cats do. It's why the Prefects don't bother with that. What are you in for today?"

"Transfiguration homework." Rapunzel sulked. She dropped her heels on the ground and pulled out a crumpled chit of paper.

Madam Jones barely glanced at it. "Basics on molecular theory and the nature of materials? Right this way."

Rapunzel dutifully trotted behind her as the librarian glided amongst the shelves. The section was, predictably, right near the front, as were many other books related to first year subjects. She thanked Madam Jones and watched her go.

When Rapunzel turned back to the shelves, the books loomed before her, tall and thick and lined with age. She sighed deeply.

Rapunzel wandered down the row and pulled out books at random, flipping through the pages before she grew bored and put them back. She ended up finding three books that seemed to fit her needs and tried stuffing them into her bulging bag. Then she sat on the floor and carefully unloaded and reloaded the contents when the books refused to go in. How she'd dig them out again to give at the check out counter was a problem she decided to figure out later.

Really, she should've organized her bag ages ago. She didn't know half of the things in it and she was pretty sure she'd lost a perfectly nice biscuit down there at some point.

Bag repacked and errand done, Rapunzel made to stand when an item popped out of one of the pockets. It was a wrinkled blueberry. As she watched, Pascal jumped out of her hair and went scuttling after it.

"No! Pascal! That's stale! You don't even like blueberries!" She hissed, scrambling after him.

For a most-likely-smarter-than-average chameleon, he moved fast. He was down the end of the row before Rapunzel caught up. She rounded the corner and heard a shriek.

A student was sprawled on the ground, clawing at her face. Meanwhile, Pascal desperately jumped off of her in his surprise and panic. Ignoring the student on the ground, Rapunzel ran past and finally, finally snatched him up in her fist.

"That … was very … very naughty of you." Rapunzel wheezed. "You know better, Pascal. Don't scare me like that!"

She tried to glare at him. The glare melted when she saw how spooked he looked. "I forgive you. Let's just say we're sorry and leave."

Holding him in her hands, Rapunzel turned around. And saw none other than Merida.

Merida, who stood red faced and bristling enraged.

"… So this is what they're doing now, is it?" Merida snarled. "Just gossiping about me isn't enough for her, oh no, now she wants to try shoving me around? What are you here for? To laugh at me? Hurt me? See me cry?"

Rapunzel's eyes widened. She started shaking her head. "That's not- I didn't-!"

"Oh, don't you start!" Merida snapped. "I've seen people talking! Bet they think I'm horrible, bet they say all sorts of nasty things about me. Well, no one ever asked me about anything! They just go to her and think she's so popular and so fantastic and I have to sit there and be the one they laugh at like I'm the one who's wrong for existing! I've had it!"

Merida stalked towards her, even as Rapunzel backed away.

"Listen, I – I've heard of that girl who's being mean to you, but I swear I'm not-"

"Yeah, you've heard of her. Bet you've talked to her, too. When you see her again you, can tell her to shove off!" Merida poked a finger at Rapunzel's chest. Rapunzel jerked back.

"I don't know her! I've never talked to her! Please!" Pascal had disappeared into Rapunzel's hair. Rapunzel clasped her hands, trembling. "I saw you at the Sorting Ceremony and I thought – I thought – I, I wanted to be friends, I-"

"Don't lie to me! Don't you dare! You're just like everyone else!" Merida's eyes were shining. She was shaking all over, from her fists to her hair. "No one cares about me in this school. All they do is avoid me or hurt me. You all listen to her and no one listens to me and I've had it! I hate this place!"

Rapunzel stood open-mouthed. No one had ever called her a liar.

A flood of anger, like she'd never felt, burst into her. It burned through her lungs, up her throat, pouring into her brain and making it all red.

"I wasn't lying to you. You're the one being mean to me. You're not even listening!" Her voice wobbled, hot tears falling down her cheeks.

"I don't care! I bet I'll hate everything you say!"

"Well – I don't like you! I think you're just a mean, rude, awful Slytherin girl and I don't like you at all!"

"I don't like you either!"

"Girls! What's happening here?"

Rapunzel startled. At the end of the row stood Madam Jones. The sight of her brought shock, then shame. It all came crashing down on her. Without meaning to, they'd raised their voices. The whole library must've heard them.

She didn't know what to do. So she ran.

Somehow in her mad dash, the rows of books spat her out. Rapunzel ran past the entrance and kept on running. She didn't know where she was headed, everything around her blurred through her tears, but it didn't matter.

Her day was ruined and nothing would change that. Nothing would change that someone she'd wanted to be her friend had called her a liar and yelled at her. That someone hated her for something she didn't do.

She no longer cared to know about Merida DunBroch.

She hated her!

She'd hate her forever!

Spoiler alert: No she won't.

Cast List:

Nancy Chen (Ravenclaw): my OC

Jane Clark (Slytherin): The Book of Life

Sanjay Sharma (Gryffindor): The Book of Life

Russel Song (Hufflepuff): Up

Madam Coraline Jones (Librarian): Coraline

A/N:

*dodges tomatoes* For the record I did warn about consequences! Here they here!

I know it looks bad right now but please believe in Merida and don't be too upset with her.

- Just to make it clear, this Hogwarts isn't an especially strict school. The structuring is actually more flexible: they're more lenient and inclusive when it comes to teaching children with different needs and capabilities, the teachers and staff are more informed about these things, and there are several facilities and alterations here compared to most other private schools that make it a healthier environment for students. Rapunzel here is simply a kid who's used to free-range homeschooling that's now being subjected to a modicum of structure and she's being dramatic about it.

- Wow, I'm really coming through with the Asian rep here. Four Asian kids in one scene? With speaking lines? Who aren't all cast in unfavourable lighting? Unheard of. Hot damn, I'm on a roll.

- There were two instances where Rapunzel made subtle observations about Slytherins, if you caught them. Remember, she's spent her life isolated. The only connection she had to the outside world was through books, so when she's gone through the equivalent of being dropped into the ocean with nothing more than a pool noodle to cling to, take a wild guess what's acting as her pool noodle. The HP book series, which exists in this world and which is wildly dramatized for the sake of entertainment and inaccurate to the society she's in. On some level she's aware of this, since even she knows that there's been no magical war, blood prejudice, etc., but on another she hasn't paid it as much attention as she should. She'll get around to it, that's inevitable, but for the past month she'd been dealing with the rest of the information overflow that is her current life and she's still somewhat overwhelmed by it all. The noticing, asking questions, coming to realisations - that's happening, but slowly; she's picking up on it in hindsight and it's filtering into her brain. Right now she's a sponge, and when she gets specifically curious about it she'll focus on it.

- As you can see, the pent-up emotions Merida had been holding in couldn't take it anymore. She got a scare, then she jumped to the worst conclusions, and then all that she'd been feeling and hadn't shared with anyone since the start of the school year exploded out and unleashed itself on poor Rapunzel. I've been the recipient of that kind of outburst on multiple occasions, and I can tell you that those things hurt the other person too, especially when the person they hurt responds in kind, even if it might not look like it on the surface. The regret and realisation often comes later, when the feelings that had been crowding everything else are finally out of the way.

That doesn't excuse the action itself or the need to make amends - this is just to provide an explanation. Next chapter we'll see the aftermath in Merida's POV.

- I'm going to come clean here. When I was very young and new to this fandom, there was a large part of me that couldn't see Rapunzel and Merida getting along initially. Sure they might build up trust and friendship over time but I couldn't picture how that would work without a rocky start, especially when these two have such strong personalities and seem so different from each other.

That was a decade ago. I've since grown as a person and now I can see how such a friendship would work out. Also, I've gotten a liking for slow burn friendships - rather than a friendship that's instantaneous, I find that friendships that take a while to develop and grow through hardships feel more satisfying and well-earned. That scene above is me hearing out my younger self and what she'd thought up for this AU all those years ago. I hope she appreciates it, because I've finally done the deed and shed tears onto my keyboard while writing. Yeehaw

Of course, this scene has undergone drastic changes since then, and these two are much richer in their characterisations and their reasons for such an unpleasant first meeting. When you really look at it, it's ... a bit silly. Still hurtful, but not the worst thing in the world. Not unfixable, either. Sure, emotions were running high and neither of them explained themselves or listened to each other properly. But they're kids, and all they really want is someone to get along with and like them. Just say you're sorry and hug it out, you two. It's that simple.