Golden Hair || A Rapunzel and Harry Potter Crossover

two

"Pascal, where are you?" Zinnia called. "Mother is gone! We have the house to ourselves!" She found the cat licking his paws behind a sofa. "There you are." Zinnia scooped the cat up into her arms, cradling him gingerly. 

"What do you want to do?" Pascal jumped out of Zinnia's hands and ran to the partially open door. 

"No. I like it in here, and so do you."Zinnia booped the cat on the nose and carried him to the kitchen. She siat down on the counter with three books, and read, completely immersed, for 3 hours.

***

Zinnia had just started to doze off when she heard someone's footsteps downstairs. Setting her book aside, she grabbed a frying pan, which was the closest weapon within reaching distance. Zinnia slips down the hallway and to the staircase, where a boy with dark hair and blue eyes stands with a brown leather satchel in his hands and a smirk on his face. That's when Zinnia remembered:

I forgot to lock the door. 

The boy seemed to be talking to himself, still facing towards the open door as if waiting for someone to come after him. Zinnia took a deep breath and stepped down the staircase, tapping the boy on his shoulders. The moment he turns around, Zinnia struck his face with the frying pan, knocking him out. 

After the boy woke up, the first thing he noticed was that he was all tied up in rope. Then he noticed the mural of a huge castle. Finally, he noticed the cat. The orange cat that was positioned on one of the arms of the chair and licking his ear. 

"Gross! Get off!" The boy knocked the cat off the chair with his head, and it scrambled up the staircase to where Zinnia was standing, watching the boy struggle.

"Struggling-" She started.

"What?"

"Struggling is pointless." Zinnia ran down the stairs to point at the boy with her "deadly frying pan," as she had decided to call it. 

"Who are you, and how did you find me?" Zinnia asked, trying to sound as threatening as a ten-year-old could possibly sound. The boy just looked at her in shock.

"Who are you, and how did you find me?" Zinnia said louder, shoving the frying pan closer to him. The boy cleared his throat and closed his eyes, opening them again with a look of pure sincerity. 

"I know not who you are, nor how I came to find you, but may I just say..." He paused closing his eyes dramatically. A thousand thoughts for the ending of that sentence ran through Zinnia's head, but the one that came out of the boy's mouth was the least expected.

"Hey. My name's Nick Alby." Zinnia recoiled at the flirtatious smirk on his face, making a grossed-out expression and backing away from the chair.   

"Uh... Call this what you will-" Zinnia gestured at Nick and then at herself. "Fate, Destiny..."  

Nick rolled his eyes.

"A donkey."

Zinnia ignored that. 

"Wait- Where's my satchel?" 

"I've hidden it."

"What?"

"Somewhere that you'll never find it."

Nick looked around the room. 

"It's in that pot, isn't it?" He nodded at a decorative pot, which did indeed hold the satchel with the interesting sapphire headpiece inside. 

"Um-uh..." Zinnia struck Nick again with the frying pan, and he again woke up with a cat licking his ear.

"Now  I've hidden it where you'll never find it."

"What can I do to get it back?" 

Zinnia grabbed the corner of the chair and managed to pull it to face a wall, which was covered by a curtain. She pulled it aside, revealing a magnificent castle against a deep blue sky.

"Do you know what this is?"

"You mean the magic school?"

"Yeah, that."

"I mean, It's kinda famous in the Wizarding World... Why? Did you get a letter?"

"Yes. And once I find this letter, you will take me to this 'Magic School' and then and only then, will you get your satchel back." Rapunzel glared at Nick, daring him to contradict. 

"listen, Blondie-"

"Zinnia"

"I don't care."

"Go on."

"I don't take blackmail, I give blackmail. So, this is what's going to happen. You untie the ropes, I get the satchel, leave, and no one gets hurt. Or, I can get my brothers to come and kidnap you or something, using my walkie talkie... which is in my satchel."

"So, will you take me to the lights?"

"Fine!"

"Yay! Let me go find the letter."

Zinnia raced upstairs to her mother's room, leaving Nick alone with the cat, who was using his pants as a scratching post. Meanwhile, Zinnia was searching her mother's room for the letter. She finally found it tucked in the darkest corner of one of the closets, where some of Zinnia's oldest paintings lie, permanently embedded into the light wood. As Zinnia closed the closet, she couldn't help but cringe at the purple flowers all over the closet, wishing she could erase them with her mind. Shaking misshapen flowers from her mind, she ran back downstairs with the letter clasped in her hands, to see an annoyed Nick Alby with shreds all through his pants.  

"Um... found it."

"Please tell me that he's not coming with us."

"Of course he is."

"Great," Nick muttered under his breath. "Now can you untie me?"

"Oh, sorry." Zinnia rushed to free her hostage's hands and legs. "Now, are we gonna go?" 

"Sure." Nick stood up and walked out the front door, leaving Zinnia to pick up Pascal and lock the door. As she looked out on the world around her,  she paused, taking in the pond, the butterflies, and the luscious green grass. 

"You coming, Blondie?"

Zinnia looked at Nick as he walks towards the clearing in the forest, took a deep breath, and stepped out into the unknown.