This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Word Count: 1892

Title: Tangled

Note:

Warnings:

Beta: Aya Diefair

Quidditch League:

[Team]: Pride Of Portree

[Position] Captain

[Theme]: Procrastination Thread

[Prompts]: [creature] Cat

Hogwarts

Assignment 8: Herbology: Spring Herbs: Task #1 - Rosemary: Write about someone not wanting to cut their hair.

Celia was sitting outside with a stick in the lawn of number Four Privet drive, and her young grey kitten Clarence was pawing at it playfully. Lisa, her younger sister, was sitting inside, but looking at them through the window.

Celia loved playing outside. She and Clarence were out on most days, despite the issue it caused with curious neighbours watching the strange timid girl play. She had very long, curly blonde hair and pastel blue eyes. Sometimes her father commented that she looked like she was made of porcelain and that she might break if he handled her.

Her father, Dudley Dursley, ran a drill company that used to belong to her grandfather Vernon Dursley. He had the look of someone who lost a large amount of weight in a small amount of time. Her mother, Alice, had her same features, and she worked as a nurse.

Celia smiled at Clarence, rubbing his tummy when he rolled onto his back in the grass, and she giggled. "Silly Clarence, are you excited for school this summer?" She saw the next door neighbour look at her and lowered her voice slightly. "Cousin Harry said it was the best years of his life, you know, I am worried I will miss Mum and Dad, and Lisa. But at least she has Hermes."

Hermes was her younger sister's pet owl. Upon the day that Celia had gotten her Hogwarts letter, Harry and Draco had bought both sisters a pet. There had been a bet that Celia would want the owl, but Harry insisted he knew his young cousin better. In the end, Lisa was happy as well, even though the giant owl had been larger than her when she just got him. She loved Hermes, and Celia loved Clarence.

Celia kept her Hogwarts letter in a drawer in her bedroom. As much as she and her mum wanted to put it up against the fridge, they had known that Granny Peturnia wouldn't like it at all. Celia didn't like her gran much; her gran was always pinching her cheeks and saying she looked like her mother didn't feed her enough. It did make more sense when she saw photographs of what her grandfather Vernie and her dad used to look like. She liked grandpa Vernie. He often just smiled and didn't say much. She found it hard to believe he had been so mean to her cousin Harry so many years ago.

Celia loved a good many things, Clarence, a good book, secretly doing small spells without her parents knowledge, but most of all, she loved her long, golden blonde curls. Lisa had always been jealous of them as well. It was the next day, and Celia was sitting in front of the pink plastic vanity she had in her room brushing her long hair. Lisa was sitting on Celia's bed, babbling excitedly about having sent Hermes with a picture for cousin Harry. Celia's hair was reaching the small of her back, and she smiled happily. That was, until her mum walked in with the worst news Celia could imagine.

"Honey," Alice said softly. "I see your hair is getting way too long again, we need to get it cut before you start school."

Celia's face went white as chalk. "But, Mum," she tried to argue. Celia wasn't one for temper tantrums, and was usually quite well behaved. "It isn't that long," she attempted instead.

"Celia, it's almost reaching your bottom," Alice said sternly. Lisa giggled at the use of the word bottom, which Celia would also have found funny under normal circumstances if her beautiful hair wasn't under the threat of being cut off. "Don't be so stubborn."

"I don't think I need it though, Mum, honestly," she tried again. She was putting on her most "I am almost a grown up, and I wash it and brush it myself" tone, but her mother's word was final.

"Daddy!" Celia cried on the stairs.

"Listen to your mother, Celia," Dudley barked shortly. He was watching his favourite television program and he knew that this had been a long time overdue.

"What about Lisa?" Celia said instead.

"Your sister's hair was cut less than a month ago, dear," Alice said.

"Oh," she muttered sulkily.

"I remember, cousin Harry was here," Lisa supplied helpfully. The eleven-year-old Celia knew there was no use taking this out on her sibling, but she had no more say against her mother.

"Oh Lisa, mind your own business," she said with a glare, but instantly regretted it when she saw Lisa starting to tear up and clamber off her bed.

"Go—" Alice was saying, but Celia had already dropped her My Little Pony brush and went after her sister. She really didn't like fighting, the two of them might be very different, but she loved Lisa so much.

Lisa's door was quite decorated, whereas Celia liked things clean and organized. There were pictures on both the outside and inside of the room, there was a no-entry sign, which she usually hung over the doorknob when she was angry at her sister, but Celia noticed its absence.

"Lisa," she knocked three times before swinging the door open. Lisa was lying on her bed, face down, crying miserably.

"Go away," she mumbled through her tears.

"Lisa, I'm sorry," Celia said. "You know I hate when mum makes me cut my hair."

Lisa sniffed and turned onto her side. "You know, the hairdresser says it makes it grow better," she said before wiping her nose with her sleeve.

"I know." Celia sighed. "It doesn't work on mine though."

"You have the prettiest hair. When you are a grownup you will never have to cut it again and you can be like Tangled," Lisa suggested, clearly over her sadness.

"You mean Rapunzel?" Celia asked curiously. Lisa nodded vigorously.

"Yes, that's what I said," she insisted. Celia accepted this, although she struggled to not correct her. They had just gotten better again, she wasn't going to tell her sister that the girl wasn't called Tangled.

She crept onto the landing, hearing her parents talking below.

"Don't you think your cousin could help?" Alice asked.

"I think Harry has a bit more pressing matters than helping his cousin get a haircut," Dudley replied. At the sound of Harry's name, Celia pressed her ears to the banister to hear better. She wished he would give her some of those Extendable Ears he spoke off, those would be very effective in her reconnaissance missions.

"Perhaps, but he did offer to help us take her for her school things," Alice added.

"Such a clever woman," Dudley said with a light-hearted chuckle. Celia wasn't sure what the connection was, but on the whole, it didn't matter very much if she got to see Harry and Draco again.

The next day the doorbell rang and Celia knew it was either her grandmother Petunia, or Harry. She was hoping for the latter.

"Harry, cousin, thank you," she heard her father say, and she and Lisa were downstairs in a flash.

"Harry!" Celia cried.

"My darling Celia." Harry grinned, hugging her. She peered around him, searching for the ever present addition of his boyfriend, Draco, but he wasn't there.

"Cousin Harry." Lisa smiled as well, and he leant down to kiss the younger girl's cheek.

"Where is Draco?" Dudley asked before Celia could interject.

"Didn't your mother used to say to not ask questions?" Harry said, but it held a joking manner.

"Of course, sorry," Dudley said abashedly.

"It's fine, he just couldn't make it today. He had work stuff," he told Dudley.

"So, I hear someone doesn't want her hair cut," Harry said, eyeing the older girl curiously.

She shook her head. Surely, he wasn't going to be on her parents side, was he?

"Let me tell you a story," he said, walking towards the lounge.

She often forgot he lived here as well for a long time in the dirty cupboard under the stairs where she kept spare books and clothes that had become too small for her.

She followed him curiously and he sat down on the couch, patting both sides with his hands, and the girls sat down next to him on various sides.

"So, once upon a time," he started.

"Cousin, is this a true story?" Celia interrupted. She wasn't one for fantasy much, but her cousin usually entertained her with fictionalised versions of his own accounts of living with her grandmother, or stories about Hogwarts.

Once upon a time, there was a young boy; his hair was black and constantly messy. He was scrawny, and lived in a cupboard under the stairs, in this very house. He wasn't very well treated, and he used to wear his cousin's clothes that were always way too big for him and they made it look like he was wearing a dress instead of a shirt.

But, that wasn't too bad, for it covered his scrawny frame, although it somehow made him look even smaller, and even more malnourished. His long black hair covered a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. His aunt, Petunia Dursley, had become tired of him returning from the hairdressers looking like he had never been, and had decided to use the kitchen scissors to cut off long chunks of his hair, leaving only a fringe to cover the horrible scar on his head.

That night, the little boy, Harry Potter, tossed and turned, having nightmares about school the next day. He had already been teased because of his broken glasses, his hand me down clothes, and now this. Harry didn't even want to imagine what would happen.

He woke up that morning, having gotten no sleep, and pulled on his clothes in the small cupboard before going to the bathroom to splash water on his face. He had almost managed to put it entirely out of his head, but then his aunt screamed.

"What?" Harry asked, and he had dropped his piece of toast on the floor in shock.

"It can't be," Aunt Petunia had insisted, but it was, no matter that Harry had no idea how he did it, his hair had grown back overnight.

"I liked this story," Lisa said. "Cousin Harry is like Tangled as well."

Harry looked puzzled, but Celia mouthed the word. "Rapunzel" and he nodded; she knew he was thankful for the translation.

"So, I can make it grow back?" Celia asked.

"I don't know how it happened," Harry chuckled. "But I am sure your mum would never do anything like that to you, I bet it won't look so bad."

"Oh," she said, her face sinking.

"Celia, it's just hair, it grows back," Harry assured. "And also, if you do this like a big girl, I will take you to get your school things, how's that?"

She wasn't happy, but she nodded. It sounded fair.

"Deal. Can Lisa come?"

"I wouldn't dream of leaving her home," Harry insisted.

"Okay." Celia sighed. "I'll do it."

She sounded more like a girl saying she would lay down her life than someone agreeing to cut her hair, but that's how it should be, and an eleven year olds view of the world should be that narrow, and Harry would do all he could to keep them being children for as long as they could.