AN: This is just a crazy, mass-crossover that I've been wanting to do for awhile now. It's a bit messy and plotless, but that's ok. In essence, it takes four fantasy libraries of various fandoms that I'm in and links them all up so characters from those four fandoms can meet. Chaos ensues. Now, I understand there are a lot more magical libraries out there, but I stuck with four because four was hard enough. They are, in order of appearance, Wicked, Harry Potter, Carmilla, and Devil's Carnival 2: Alleluia. Enjoy this fever-dream of a fanfic!
"Elphie?!" Glinda singsonged, leaning over to rest her gold curls upon her roommate's black-clad shoulder. She received no reply. "Elphie?" she repeated, still no reply. This little, one-sided exchange carried on four more times before Elphaba finally responded. "Elphie?!"
"What, Glinda?! What is it?" Glinda's roommate demanded, finally snapping in irritation. It had been her plan to come to the Shiz Master Library alone and study in peace and quiet, but of course Glinda just had to tag along despite her general loathing of all things bookish. Elphaba had been unable to deny the petite blond, however, and allowed Glinda to come along. Scarcely five minutes in, and Glinda was already complaining.
"I'm positutely bored to death!" Glinda replied dramatically.
"I told you not to come," Elphaba reminded crossly.
"Oh, but Elphie! You know I simply had to come along with you!" the blond countered, donning a sickeningly sweet smile. Her bright blue eyes widened into a puppyish expression and Elphaba exhaled heavily. She finally set her book down.
"Look, Glinda, I don't intend upon leaving this spot until after I'm done studying. If you want to hang out then, I'd be more than happy to, but for now, I'm not moving an inch. I'm trying to study. Do you understand?" her voice was soft and low, as always, but there was a note of severity in it that Glinda usually never heard. It stung her a bit now, but she conceded and agreed to Elphaba's terms.
"Fine," she grunted. She removed herself from Elphaba's arm.
"Thank you," Elphaba replied calmly, the sourness leaving her voice again. She turned back to her textbook without another word. Glinda grunted quietly in response, but Elphaba ignored it.
Glinda managed to survive another five minutes before she repeated her soft grunts, whines and complaints.
"Enough, Glinda!" Elphaba hissed, voice even sharper than the first time she had to rebuke her roommate. "If you really want something to do, why don't you just go explore the library? I know you don't read, but surely there must be something you can at least look at instead of bothering me! I'm trying to study!" the green girl glared at Glinda. Glinda glared back, unused to being treated so rudely, but when Elphaba's Formica-brown eyes, gold flecks swirling within, refused to yield, Glinda's own soft blue eyes looked away. A kind of sadness settled across her pale, pretty face.
"Ok, Elphie, I'm sorry," she said. Elphaba eyed her suspiciously, unused to her surrendering so quickly, but when Glinda did begin to stand in preparation to go exploring, Elphaba's face softened once more. She couldn't stay mad at that bubbly little blond who had changed her life for the better, no matter how many times that blond frustrated or annoyed her.
"Why don't you go over into the fantasy or adventure section, ok?" Elphaba suggested gently, pointing a green thumb in the right direction.
"Ok, Elphie," Glinda replied, heading in the direction. "I'll see you later."
"See you," Elphaba replied softly. Despite the studying Elphaba had to do, she found herself staring after Glinda as she moved away.
Glinda, meanwhile, had her blue eyes set forward, skimming the rows and rows of shelves idly. Nothing really interested her. She was just going through the motions because it would please Elphaba. They may have only just become friends roughly a month ago, but Glinda was certain that Elphaba meant so much more to her than just that and that their lives would be far more intertwined than simple college friendship.
"Ah, here we are," she whispered to herself as she reached the fantasy section. There was still nothing worth reading here, in Glinda's opinion, but at least some of the covers looked-
Rumble, rumble, rumble!... Glinda jerked her head up from a book about wizards and vampires. What was that? Rumble, rumble, rumble! There it was again! Glinda looked all around herself, yet there was no sign of anything that could be making such a- Rumble, rumble, rumble!
The noise was much louder the third time and Glinda instantly flattened herself against the nearest shelf she could. Although she thought Shiz Master Library was supposed to be one of the normal, non-magical places at Shiz, she wasn't 100% certain and, with the strange rumbling noises pervading the air, her certainty continued to fade. But while her certainty faded, the rumbling grew stronger until finally-
"Ohh, urrghh, mmhhh!" the sound of coughing replaced the rumbling as a young boy fell out from behind one of the many portraits lining the library. What in Oz? Glinda approached him warily. He had wild black hair and a black robe. Was he a Shiz student? The uniform didn't look quite right, but it was obvious he was from some school or another. Was this a prank one of the frat boys was playing again?
"Who are you?" the little blond asked as the boy slowly rose from his knees to his feet. He had captivating green eyes behind large round glasses. Most noticeable of all, however, was the bright red scar in the middle of his forehead. It was shaped like a lightning bolt.
"Who are you?" the boy echoed, voice heavy with an accent Glinda couldn't identify.
"I asked you first," she countered.
"How do I know I can trust you?" he challenged. She saw his hand move beneath his robe. Not a good sign. She took a step back.
"I'm not the one just falling out of paintings and into other people's libraries," she dared to say.
"What?" the boy removed his hand from his robe and turned around. "Merlin's beard!" he gasped, sounding awed and frustrated.
"Who?" Glinda asked. The boy turned to face her again, green eyes both wary and amused.
"No one someone like you would know," he said. Glinda, at once, felt a flash of indignation rise up in her heart.
"Excuse me, sir, but I have no idea who you are or why or how you are here, but what I do know is that you are very rude!" she cried. It was a rather foolish remark and the boy even laughed in response, but Glinda was mad enough at this point to not care. "You have a lot of nerve, just showing up out of thin air like that! And now you may think you are tough, mastering that teleportation spell or whatever, but you can just go back to where you came from and tell whatever stupid frat boy that sent you that I, Glinda Upland of the Upper Uplands, is far superior to him in all things magical!" the tiny blond finished with a little huff that would've made the normal person laugh but, instead, floored this new boy into silence. Serves him right! Glinda thought coldly. Maybe the others would think a bit before they tried messing with-
"Magic?" the boy asked, voice hushed. "Did you say magic?" why did he sound so surprised?
"Yes?" Glinda's pout faded and she uncrossed her arms. Did this boy not know she was training to be a sorceress? Or was he not familiar with the concept of magic as a whole?
"So you're a witch, then, right?" the boy continued.
"Yes?" Glinda replied again.
"What house are you from?" he was instantly on guard again, hand moving to his robe. Glinda realized he probably had a wand with him.
"House?" she demanded, taking another step back, just in case he did prove to be proficient in spell-casting. The boy nodded back fiercely, but Glinda continued to look at him in utter confusion.
"I came from the Arduenna House," she tried. "On my mum's side!" she added as an afterthought. For a moment, the boy only continued to glare at her, but then he began to laugh. It was a dry and morose sound.
"I have the feeling I'm not in Hogwarts anymore," he said, removing his hand from his robe yet again.
"Hogwarts?" Glinda echoed, nose wrinkling at such an ugly sounding name.
"My school," the boy replied with a nod.
"Well, this is Shiz University," Glinda said, puffing up her chest again. Whatever this Hogwarts school was, it certainly couldn't have been better than her Shiz! After all, what kind of respectable institution called itself Hogwarts?
"Shiz?" the boy echoed, then he began to cackle. "Shiz?! You can't be serious! Who names a school Shiz?!"
"Someone who is a far greater wizard than yourself!" Glinda shot back, anger flaring again. The boy's laughter died at once.
"And may I ask who that is?" he inquired seriously, green eyes narrowing. Glinda sensed at once that this boy had powerful enemies, given how quick he was to ask this question. That would be useful information to have.
"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," she answered clearly, even raising her chin as she spoke.
"Never heard of him," the boy replied, shoulders lowering. Meanwhile, Glinda's raised up. Never heard of the Wonderful Wizard? Where in the world was this boy from? It certainly couldn't have been from Oz! Everyone in Oz, from the lowest quadling to the highest Ozian lord/lady, knew who the Wizard was! It was utterly preposterous to think that there was someone out there who didn't! Surely this boy was a foreigner, but where from? Where exactly was this Hogwarts place and how had this boy gotten to Oz in the first place?
"Who are you?" Glinda asked again, but this time, her voice was much softer and gentler. This time, it was curiosity and not wariness that led her to ask the question. This change in tone finally got her an answer.
"My name is Harry Potter," the boy offered his hand to her. So handshakes were something they had in common.
"Glinda Upland," Glinda replied, even though she had already introduced herself. "May I ask why you've come here?"
"Ah, well, that's a bit of a trickier question," Harry Potter replied, looking away from Glinda. It was clear that he was starting to trust her, but this was a question even she wouldn't be allowed to hear the answer to.
"Never mind that, then," Glinda decided. "Is there any way we can send you back?"
"Not that I know of," Harry replied. He turned back to the portrait, it was of the missing Ozma Tipperatus, and tugged at it. It wouldn't budge from its spot on the wall. Harry cursed under his breath. "I really do need to get back," he said. "But I have no idea how."
"Me neither," Glinda replied, equally stumped. Clearly, whatever magical door Harry had opened to get into the Shiz Master Library was closed. But maybe there was someone who would know how to get it open again…
"Elphie? Elphie? Elphie?!" Glinda ran back through the library, Harry at her heels. She called out for her friend until they arrived at that little table where this whole adventure had kicked off. Glinda found it mildly amusing that, while she'd made a new friend, Elphaba hadn't even moved since last they were together. In fact, Glinda was certain that Elphaba had even been on that same exact page in her textbook!
"Glinda! We've already talked about this!" Elphaba replied, not bothering to look away from her notes.
"Wait, Elphie! This is serious!" Glinda pleaded. Elphaba exhaled slowly and turned around. When her face met Harry's, Harry shrieked.
"She's got green skin!" Harry declared.
"Really? I had no idea!" Elphaba replied mockingly. Harry instantly looked ashamed of himself and apologized profusely. Elphaba ignored him, however, in favor of interrogating Glinda. "You'd better have good reason for bringing another one of these brainless boys to me!" she growled.
"No, wait, Elphie, he's not from here," Glinda tried to explain. "He's a foreigner. He's not one of Fiyero's frat friends, I promise!"
"What?" Elphaba's eyes narrowed and turned to Harry. He grinned sheepishly at the green girl, still reeling from the surprise but trying not to be too obvious about it. Instead, he only let Glinda explain the situation.
"Impossible!" Elphaba declared as soon as the story was over.
"No, Elphie, please! I promise you it's all true!" Glinda begged as Elphaba stood up and brushed past her and Harry.
"Not that!" the green girl replied impatiently. "I want to see the place where he came from!" she turned to Harry and he nodded, quickly heading back the way he and Glinda had come. This was shaping up to be a very strange day, but then again, in his life, strange was normal.
"Fascinating," Elphaba muttered, running the tips of her green fingers over the portrait and its surrounding frame.
"What?" Glinda asked, watching Elphaba study the portrait.
"This is some high-level magic," she replied.
"No really?" Glinda replied sarcastically. Elphaba shot her a look before explaining.
"It is possible, both in the world of magic and science, to have parallel and alternate universes. It is also possible, in both fields, to have them crossover. It appears that we are seeing an example of this right now," she paused to look at Harry. "The only thing is, this is perhaps the highest level of magic or science in existence with time-travel and necromancy being up there right along with it. Learning it should be impossible. The few people who even have some level of knowledge with this practice are usually either really ancient, really crazy, or really evil…"
"I assure you that I am none of those things," Harry replied. "Except for maybe the second one," he added. Elphaba graced him with a laugh. Dry humor was something she adored. It did her heart well to see that this stranger had a sense of humor that wasn't strange to her.
"But the thing is, you have somehow done it," she said, talking to herself as much as she was to Glinda or Harry. "And all magic leaves behind a trace. So if you did it, I may be able to trace how and undo it…" Elphaba trailed off, a look entering her brown eyes. "I've got it!"
A few hours later, Elphaba had finally found a spellbook with something strong enough to send people to alternate dimensions.
"Are you sure this will work?" Harry asked.
"And will it send him back to the right world?" Glinda chimed in.
"No clue," Elphaba said in answer to both of their questions. "But according to the Alternate Universe Theory, this should work. Though it's only a theory..."
"How reassuring," Harry deadpanned. Elphaba chuckled again in spite of herself.
"Do you want to go through with it?" she asked him. Harry only nodded in reply. Even though he actually didn't want to, he didn't have much of a choice. Elphaba seemed to know this and she began to read the chant. It was in some strange, foreign tongue, but even Harry looked confused by it.
All of them were distracted from the language's strangeness, however, went a nearby storage closet door began to glow.
"There!" Glinda cried. Elphaba was still chanting but, with her head, she indicated that Harry had to go. He nodded, thanking them silently, and then turned to the door. After a few paces, he stood before its wooden frame, golden light seeping out from every crack in it, then he paused.
"You can do it!" Glinda encouraged, speaking for both herself and Elphaba, who was still chanting. Harry turned back to them once last time and fought to give them a confident smile. Glinda returned the expression and it gave Harry the strength to reach out and touch the door knob. The moment he opened the door, however, he was yanked inside by an invisible force and Elphaba suddenly slipped and was being dragged along by that same force. Glinda cried out for her friend, but the moment she made a grab for Elphaba, the force took hold of her too and then she, along with Elphaba and Harry, was dragged inside the little supply closet.
"Waaaaahhhh!" Glinda howled as she found herself plummeting through open air. Just a few feet below her, Harry was making a similar noise while Elphaba, though silent, was busy thumbing through the spellbook. It was clear from the panic in her eyes that she was trying to figure out what had gone wrong, but nothing was coming up.
"I don't know what happened!" she shouted as she and the other two continued to fall through a hail of colors. "And I can't find a spell to undo it!"
"Wonderful!" Harry bellowed up at them, but he wasn't mad at them, just at their circumstance. Being dragged into a library supply closet only to find himself free-falling through what looked like splatter-paint art was hardly a comforting scenario to be in.
"Well, is there anything that can at least protect us if we land hard?" Glinda asked, voice even higher than normal.
"I'm looking!" Elphaba shouted back, and she continued to thumb furiously through the old book.
In the end, though, Elphaba didn't need to find a spell because, without even meaning to, she and Harry and Glinda began to slow down until they were floating gently through the air.
"Are we there yet?" Glinda asked, partly ironic and partly serious. No sooner had those words left her mouth, though, when she, Elphaba and Harry all felt their feet hit solid ground. Slowly, the shifting colors began to take on solid and visible shapes. They were in what looked like a mix between a bathroom and a section of a garden that had a little fountain in the center of it. The three exchanged confused looks before taking in their surroundings. There weren't any doors or windows, so it didn't appear that there was any way to leave…
Knock… knock, knock…knock. After a very precise pattern of knocking, a door had etched itself into the wall a few feet away from the edge of the fountain. The door swung open.
"What in the frilly Hell?!"
"Sweet Oz, could this day get any weirder?" Elphaba muttered under her breath. She was currently part of a circle consisting of herself, Glinda, Harry Potter, and three new strangers. One was a tiny girl named Laura Hollis. She insisted that she was 100% human and non-magical, a suspicious thing to say to say the least. Beside her on the left was a person with short, spiky orange hair. They wore a denim jacket and a sour, serious expression. Their name was Lafontaine and, like Laura, they promised that they were entirely human. But as for the third new person? Her name was Carmilla Karnstein, and she was a vampire.
"A vampire?" Harry scooted away from Carmilla warily.
"You don't do well with people who aren't like you, do you, Harry?" Elphaba asked him with a dry smirk. Although Laura, Lafontaine and Carmilla had all stared at Elphaba's verdigris, none of them seemed too put off by it like Harry had been. On the contrary, judging from Carmilla's almost tired sigh upon meeting Elphaba, it seemed that green skin was one of the least weird things she and the others had seen. It was both refreshing and alarming to think that this was a place that wouldn't find her green skin to be weird or worth staring at. Laura had asked if she was the Wicked Witch of the West, but then insisted that she was joking before Elphaba could even explain that she'd never heard of such a sorceress before. Elphaba had come from the east, not the west.
"But she's a vampire!" Harry repeated, turning to Elphaba in disbelief. "You think we can trust her?"
"Uhhhh, hey, yeah? Sitting right here," Carmilla deadpanned, eyes half shut and voice as low and raspy as Elphaba's.
"Don't worry, we can trust her, she's a… a fr-… a friend," Laura promised, stuttering on the last word and throwing Carmilla an awkward glance as she did so. Carmilla made sure to be looking at the ceiling as it happened.
"Look, regardless of who we can or can't trust," Lafontaine interrupted. "Would anyone care to explain why, in the name of all that is scientific and weird, you guys were in our bathroom?"
"It wasn't our fault!" Glinda insisted at once. Carmilla, Laura and Lafontaine all shot her a disbelieving look. "Ok, so maybe it sort of was!" she admitted next. Carmilla gave a dry huff of laughter. Just for a moment, Glinda thought she was looking at what a non-green Elphaba might've looked like. "It was a total accident. A magical mishap!" she continued to insist. "And it all started with that horrendious spellbook!"
"Spellbook?" Carmilla frowned, alert at once. She leaned forward as Elphaba showed her the tome.
"Oh, Hell…" the vampire's dark eyes narrowed as she reached for the book.
"Do you know what it is?" Elphaba asked.
"It's one of Enki's," Carmilla replied, skimming through the ancient pages.
"Who's Enki?" Elphaba asked.
"A Sumerian God," Carmilla muttered, still frowning at the book.
"A Sumerian God? You're kidding, right?" Harry, Elphaba and Glinda all asked in unison.
"Afraid not," Carmilla muttered darkly, raising her eyebrows as she said this.
"You don't think it's one of the talismans, do you?" Lafontaine interrupted, leaning over Laura to see the spellbook.
"I don't know," Carmilla replied.
"Well, you're fluent in Sumerian, right?" Lafontaine demanded.
"Yeah, but you're going to have to give me more than five seconds to read this thing," Carmilla grunted, looking up to frown at the ginger.
"So, do you know magic?" Harry asked Carmilla.
"Eh, in a sense," Carmilla replied. "I mean, it's not like I ever went to Hogwarts, but you know."
"Wait, so you know about Hogwarts?" Harry interrupted hopefully.
"Uhh, yeah? But who hasn't?" Carmilla scoffed.
"They haven't," Harry replied, pointing to Glinda and Elphaba.
"Well, they're in the minority," Carmilla scoffed again.
"No we're not! No one from Shiz, the school we came from, had ever heard of the place!" Glinda protested with a frown.
"And we keep Hogwarts secret from muggles," Harry agreed. "So most people shouldn't know."
"Why are you talking like it's a real place," Carmilla asked with yet another scoff.
"Because it is real! I'm from there! I'm Harry Potter!"
Following another mini riot, Harry suddenly found himself with Laura practically on his lap, interrogating him about every little detail about Hogwarts and insisting that she'd be a Hufflepuff, as per Pottermore quiz (whatever that was). She even began brushing his bangs out of his forehead ("I hadn't seen the scar before! I guess I just wasn't looking hard enough! And your wild hair does cover is up, doesn't it Harry?"). In the back of his mind, Harry realized that talking with Laura was like talking with Colin Creevey, who was another wizard Laura had somehow known.
"Look, Laura, I have no idea what's going on," Harry muttered uncomfortably as Laura continued to mention Hermione, Snape, Ron, Luna, Neville, Dumbledore, Hedwig, Draco and Ginny. It unnerved him that this girl was able to list off so many private facts about him and the fact that she made it sound like these facts were common knowledge was even creepier. "I have no idea what's going on," he repeated. "The last thing I remember is Hermione lecturing me in the library and me trying to escape only to fall through some picture, or something and then… poof!"
"Poof," Glinda agreed darkly, but Laura only continued to talk at 100 mph with the famous Boy Who Lived.
Carmilla finally intervened, however, and put an end to Laura's fangirling.
"Alright, Creampuff, let's not kill him," she deadpanned as she easily picked Laura up with one arm and set her a foot away from Harry.
"Thanks," he sighed in relief. Carmilla gave him a satirical salute before he turned back to Laura. "How is it that you know so much about me?"
"I've read all your books!" Laura replied.
"Books?" Harry echoed, eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
"Yeah, in our world, you're a hit series," the young woman quickly jumped up, running to the back and left of the library.
For a moment, there was only silence, but then there was a few crashing sounds and a cat yowl.
"I'm ok!" Laura shouted. Carmilla couldn't suppress a laugh. A moment later, though, Laura was back. In her arms were five large books, each with Harry's name printed on the front cover in bold, gold lettering with the "P" of "Potter" trailing off into a lightning bolt…
"Bizarre!" Harry muttered, thumbing through the books, entirely disturbed at how much detail each one had about him, starting from his first year at Hogwarts and ending at the end of his fifth. The sixth, his current year, hadn't been written yet. It was really creepy.
"You don't have any stories about us, do you?" Glinda asked.
"You aren't from Oz, are you?" Lafontaine finally spoke up. For the first time since Glinda had seen them, something other than apathy or anger flickered across their face. Instead, they almost looked… excited. As bitter as they had been over the past couple weeks, when the visitors came in, Lafontaine had been paying attention. Here, they had a bubbly girl named Glinda and a green-skinned, black-robed witch. Logic said that they were from Oz, and if Harry Potter was real, who was to say Dorothy Gale wasn't as well?
"I am," Glinda replied. It occurred to her that neither she nor Elphaba had mentioned that fact.
"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz!" Lafontaine and Laura both exclaimed in unison, grinning like idiots now.
"You know him?" Glinda and Elphaba asked in reply.
Suddenly, Laura was off running again. When she returned this time, she held one book in her hand. On the cover was a little girl, scarecrow, tin man, lion, and little black dog skipping merrily along a road of yellow brick.
"I don't know any of those people," Glinda muttered, but Laura ignored her, flipping through the book until she found a part with Glinda in it.
"Look!" Laura exclaimed. Glinda read a few pages before handing the book over to Elphaba, awe on her face and in her eyes.
"Am I in here?" she asked. For a moment, Laura looked like she was about to answer, but then the realization of who and what she was looking at sank in and she pretended to be unsure.
"I haven't read the book since I was a kid. I just remember Glinda's part because I loved how she traveled by bubble!" she lied.
"Is is a very Glinda thing to do," Elphaba agreed with a chuckle, missing the fact that Laura hadn't answered her question.
Carmilla, however, did notice, and she even raised her eyebrows questioningly, but when Laura wouldn't meet her eyes, she chuckled darkly and looked away to Harry who was still looking through his own books in total disbelief, muttering how impossible it was that this Alternate Universe Theory had generated a reality that considered him a work of fiction while this world was something he was certain he'd never read of before. Silas University? Not a name he could remember! Nor could he remember the names Laura, Carmilla, or Lafontaine. Merlin's beard, this was shaping up to be some day! But the longer he thought about it, the more he realized that he had heard about Oz after all. It had just taken him so long to remember because, in his world, Oz stories were children's books about magic and, as Laura knew well, the people he was raised with were the biggest "magi-phobes" in his world and, as he was willing to bet, any other world, including Silas and Oz itself.
So while Harry, Elphaba and Glinda continued to read their stories, Laura and Lafontaine danced between them, asking a slew of questions about Hogwarts and Oz both. Carmilla, meanwhile, decided just to sit back and watch as everyone tried to figure out what in Merlin's frilly Hell of sweet Oz was going on. Was Silas supposed to be this weird? She didn't think so, but at this point, she had no clue or care either way.
In time, however, the Oz and Harry Potter books were put away and all eyes went back to the Shiz-Silas spellbook thingy. All of them pouring over the spellbook in attempt to find some clue as to why it had been in the Shiz Master Library instead of here at the Silas U Library.
"Oh! Look! Here's something!" Lafontaine muttered. They may not have ever studied Sumerian, but being forced to spend days on end within close proximity to Carmilla while studying Sumerian gods meant that you would pick at least something up.
"What is it?" Laura asked. She and the others, and even Elphaba and Carmilla, leaned in to see: PETA BABKAMA LURUBA ANAKU, ERIDU!
"What does it mean?" Harry asked.
"It means, 'open the gate for me so that I can enter here, home," Carmilla read with a frown.
"That's the spell I used!" Elphaba got off her seat to kneel beside the others.
"Then why did it take us here?" Glinda asked. "If it's a spell demanding entrance into one's home, it should've either taken us back to our Shiz dorm room or it should've taken Harry back to Hogwarts."
"Probably, the book thought it meant you meant its home, here in Silas," Lafontaine suggested.
"But then, how did it get out of Silas in the first place?" Elphaba wondered.
"Well, in our world, the Sumerian gods are kind of at war with each other right now," Laura said. "Enki probably hid the spellbook with the Alternate Universe Theory
"Fat lot of good that did!" Lafontaine deadpanned. Elphaba chuckled while Carmilla agreed darkly.
"But is there a spell that send us home?" Harry asked.
No sooner had this request left his lips, however, when the library began to shake and moan.
"What was that?!" Elphaba, Glinda and Harry all demanded.
"The library," Laura replied with a gasp, rising to her feet.
"The library?!" the first three echoed.
"It's kind of, sort of sentient," Laura explained, still looking up as the lights began to flicker faster and faster.
"What's happening?!" Glinda shrilled again.
"I don't know!" Laura shouted back. Suddenly, then, a nearby computer flickered to life.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't my darling, treacherous daughter and her Little Ingénue Who Could?" a voice from the computer purred.
"Mother…" Carmilla hissed at the screen, pushing Laura back as she took a step towards the monitor.
"Perry," Lafontaine's voice cracked as they, like Carmilla, took a step forward, but unlike Carmilla, their eyes were full of longing. Carmilla's were full of unadulterated loathing.
"Mother?" Harry echoed, but Elphaba hushed him as Carmilla began to bear her fangs at the screen.
"I sense that Granduncle, Enki, has become desperate enough to call one of his dear spellbooks home, is that correct?" Carmilla's mother asked. Her gray eyes seemed to pierce their very souls and her hair, bright orange, glimmered like Hellfire.
"No. He wouldn't be stupid enough to do that!" Carmilla hissed back, trying to deny an obvious truth. Carmilla's mother already knew the truth, however, and laughed condescendingly at her daughter's pathetic attempt to lie.
"Dearest Carmilla, whatever has happened to your charm? You used to know how to lie the panties off of all of your victims, but now, you can't even lie to yourself…" the wicked woman trailed off with a smile that meant so much more than what it offered. "Besides, my glittering girl, you of all people should know that you cannot hide from me!"
"Tell that to the library," Carmilla growled, stinging from her mother's low blow about lies.
Her voice still hadn't risen above a whisper, but the anger was so palpable that everyone else began to eye her warily. Harry had already returned his hand to his robe where his wand was stashed. He didn't know if his magic would even work in this world, but he figured that if this Carmilla girl decided to go full vampire on any of them in her frustrations, it was better to be safe than sorry.
"Oh, that trifle old thing!" Carmilla's mother gave another disdainful cackle. "Do not worry, child. As soon as my minions have broken down enough of its magical traps and tricks, it will only be a matter of time. You cannot hide from death forever."
"I haven't," Carmilla replied coldly. "But you have!"
Carmilla's mother suddenly looked outraged and that sickly calm look turned into a surge of pure hatred and fury. Suddenly, everyone could feel millennia of pain and suffering. Suddenly, the face Carmilla's mother wore became nothing but a mask and, just for a moment, everyone thought they could see a vastly different face rippling just below the surface of the face she wore now. Serenity became agony.
"I HAVE-" Carmilla's mother cut herself off as soon as she had begun, going from borderline psycho to calm and collected once more in just the blink of an eye. "I have suffered, dearest Carmilla, more than you could ever know. But we will get to that another time. As for right now, I insist that you hand over the book and-"
Carmilla's mother was cut off again, but this time, it was by the library itself. It began to shake and moan again.
"What? What the?! What?!" all the lights began to flicker, including what came from the computer screen. "I'm breaking up! We're losing connection!" Carmilla's mother howled in anger. Suddenly, a loud pounding began from above everyone's head.
"They're coming!" Carmilla shouted above the din of her mother, the library and the invaders pounding away from above.
"What do we do?!" Lafontaine cried. They were already grabbing what looked like a flamethrower mixed with a pulse-rifle and they took careful aim at the ceiling. With every passing second, the pounding and shouting got louder and louder. They were literally under attack.
"Elphaba, the spellbook!" Carmilla replied, throwing the green girl the book. Elphaba understood the orders at once and began to read.
"Do you even know what in Oz you're doing?!" Glinda demanded in a panic. None of this would've happened if it hadn't been for that book! "What if you send us right to Carmilla's mother?!" she continued, but Elphaba only ignored her, chanting hard as everything got louder and louder.
Suddenly, then, everything was quiet.
Elphaba, Glinda, Carmilla and Laura woke up to find themselves in a large, cluttered library. All at once, the four felt the deepest of urges to be as quiet as they could even though, so far, nothing had presented itself to them, whether friendly or hostile.
"Where are we?" Glinda mouthed. Elphaba only shrugged. The spell she'd read this time was simply one about getting them to a place of peace and quiet, of safety and protection. Of course, though, the book would've tried to send them to another library in what could've possibly been another universe. Wonderful.
The four got to their feet quietly. As they did so, a lanky young man with a face full of makeup and a little black skirt passed by the shelf behind them. As odd as the sight might've been to some, seeing men in skirts and makeup was nothing new to the Shiz or Silas students. Both schools were used to feminine men (and masculine women, for that matter). Besides, at Shiz, skirts were sometimes part of the male dress code and, at Silas, cross-dressing was a very common occurrence because of how much the school prided itself upon its liberal and progressive attitudes, especially towards LGBTQ+ members.
"Do you think he's friendly?" Glinda mouthed again. Elphaba only shrugged. Carmilla was sniffing the air softly.
"No threat," she mouthed, but she continued to hold fast to Laura. It was something Laura didn't miss and she looked both uncomfortable and a little too happy with that setup of Carmilla holding her hand so tightly.
"Shall we proceed, then?" Elphaba mouthed. Carmilla nodded. With one accord, the four chased after the young man.
"Sir? Sir? Sir?!" Carmilla called out to him, voice still barely above a whisper.
"Shhhhh!" a gruff and sudden voice hissed right in her ear. Carmilla jumped straight up in the air out of pure shock and whipped around to see a large face inches from hers. Where had this guy come from?
This new man was very tall and muscled, large and intimidating. He wore a crisp gray suit and round glasses that looked kind of like Harry's, except that Harry's glasses were black and this man's were gold. In addition, his gray beard, which was cut into an even rectangle hanging off his chin, had strands of gold weaved into it and he held a long gold rod that had a continuous stream of what was either fire or stars coming out of the tip. Was it a wand? Carmilla and Laura couldn't tell, but Elphaba and Glinda thought it might be and, as silly as it was, Glinda almost wanted it. It was a very beautiful, glowy, shiny thing. Glinda liked beautiful, glowy, shiny things.
"Sorry, sir, but we were just lost and we were hoping-" Laura was the first to come to her senses and try to explain the situation, but, before she could even finish, the fearsome man silenced her.
"Shhhh," he repeated. Laura looked offended but, for once, she held her tongue. Then Elphaba tried ask the man for help, doing it all in pantomime. The man only sneered down at her, scowling viciously and looking at every inch of her in disapproval.
"Where are your uniforms? Who are you? Where are you going? Don't you know this is the Banned Books section of Heavenly Productions Inc. Library? State your purpose, reason and the one who gave you permission, or get out and get back to where you're supposed to be!" the man demanded. His voice was low and soft and it was somehow smooth and rough at the same time. Wait a minute. Did he just say Heaven? Carmilla and Laura exchanged looks but Elphaba and Glinda, who did not have a concept of Heaven/Hell in such exactness, continued to stare up wordlessly at the large man who couldn't have been anyone other than the Librarian himself.
CRASH! before any of the four could even come up with an answer that wouldn't somehow get them killed, the sound of a large stack of books falling off of multiple shelves disturbed the library's peace. Librarian whipped around at once with unbelievable speed. His wand began to eject those little beams of light and stars even faster than before as he moved quickly towards the sound. His movements were so eerie because he was not moving any faster than a casual walk, yet it only took him a second to cross half of the library and the library was incredibly large. In addition, the four had seen his face before he turned away and nothing short of a wrath rested upon the lines of his cheeks. Anger and fury weren't the right words, but wrath was, and the girls all felt sorry for whoever was going to be on the receiving end of that wrath…
"Come on! This way! Let's blouse!" a new voice cried out to the four, but the voice was so soft that only vampire Carmilla was able to hear it. She turned around to see another blond and brunette pair. The blond was waving them on frantically while the brunette was busy looking around, blue eyes darting all over the library in a panic.
"Come on, come on, come on!" Carmilla heard her mutter desperately. "Before we get caught!" the vampire turned to her three companions and they, having since noticed the two new girls waving them on, all nodded. That was the only signal Carmilla needed before she ran towards the two new girls, the other three running right after.
After a few moments of running, the group of six stopped under a large staircase on a lower floor of the building the library had resided in.
"Well, that was close!" the new blond was the first to declare. She grinned at her visitors, taking each of them in stride despite how outlandish they must've looked. Carmilla was wearing leather and silver spikes, Laura was in a flannel, Glinda was in a bright pink dress covered in lace and ruffles and Elphaba, well, Elphaba had green skin. This new girl, however, seemed more delighted and curious than anything.
"Who even are you?" Carmilla asked first. She was the only one not panting after that run down about seven flights of stairs.
"June Freeman!" the blond replied, then she gestured to her shaking companion. She, unlike June, looked terrified of the four visitors. She was eyeing Elphaba up with fear and it was evident that she was fighting hard not to ask why on earth she had green skin. "And this doll, this choice bit of calico, here is Cora Stein!" June introduced. Cora could only nod once.
"Hello," Laura tried to put the brunette, Cora, at ease with a friendly wave. It only seemed to make Cora more afraid.
"Thanks for saving us," Laura tried again, but June answered before Cora could.
"No problem. We saw Librarian harassing you and we weren't going to stand for that!" she bragged, but then her face darkened and her voice softened, but it didn't lose intensity. "I swear, that man will be the death of me! He's so terribly cruel and such a bluenose! I was glad for an excuse to punk him. I just wish the book cart I'd pushed into the shelf had done a bit more damage than just knocking a few books over…" she laughed.
"June!" Cora snapped out of her worry long enough to frown at the blond. "He's a brilliant man! You were the one breaking the rules!"
"Bushwa!" June defended. "He was harassing these guys when it was clear they were lost! Besides, like I said, only a few books actually fell off the shelf. The shelf and cart themselves stayed in one piece!"
"But he was right!" Cora seemed to have regained enough confidence to face Elphaba, Glinda, Carmilla and Laura all at once. "Who even are you?! And what were you doing in there?!" she demanded, crossing her arms and staring intently at the four.
"Oh, here we go again," Carmilla sighed with a roll of her eyes, but she, like the other three, introduced herself yet again.
"Wow…" June and Cora murmured in unison when the four visitors finished telling their stories. The only difference was, while June spoke in a hushed and awed tone, Cora just sounded so done with everything.
"Now tell us, where are we?" Carmilla asked, turning the introduction over to June and Cora. June was more than happy to oblige with the explanation while Cora continued to keep lookout in case someone came for them.
"You're in Heaven," June began.
"You mean like the, 'I died and saw a bright light' Heaven?" Carmilla interrupted.
"Yup," June replied. "And I guess the library was where you ended up. Normally, every new soul that gets into Heaven winds up here on this floor, but I guess the system just went whack for a moment," June paused to laugh. "Anyway, I'm sure they'll get it sorted out soon and all will be jake after that. They'll get you your applicant outfit and everything and you'll go on your first tour of Heaven!" June cried with a dreamy sigh.
"Wait, applicant?" Elphaba almost scoffed. "You have to apply to be dead?!"
"Not to be dead, to become an angel," Cora finally spoke up, voice hushed and low. It was clear she was a very tentative person, hesitant to do anything too quickly in case it was dangerous.
"And you think we're dead?" Glinda asked.
"Now you're on the trolley! How else would you end up here?" June asked, gesturing all around them.
"But we didn't-" Laura tried to explain.
"Oh, don't worry, the denial won't last forever," Cora gave her a sympathetic look. Laura closed her mouth after that, feeling awkward. It was strange for her to think that she was talking to two dead girls right now. They were humans who'd had their lives ripped away and were now dead and gone, but somehow in some dimension where they were all interacting with each other and four living souls who'd accidently stumbled in.
"Is there any way we can get out?" Carmilla was the first to ask.
"No, silly!" June laughed. "Didn't I just tell you? You four died somehow. You're in Heaven. And if you don't remember it now, it'll come back to you eventually. Don't you worry. Just sit back and relax. We've got some great giggle juice to take your mind off of your sorrows!"
"No, there has to be a way," Laura insisted. "Haven't you heard of Oz? Or Silas?"
"Not at all!" June replied cheerfully.
"You've never read the Wizard of Oz?" Laura pressed. June shook her head.
"Oh, I have!" Cora spoke up with the smallest of smiles. "It's a sweet story."
"And maybe you've heard of Carmilla?" Laura asked next. For a moment, Cora didn't respond, but then she nodded solemnly.
"That was that old vampire book from the 1870s," she said. "Strange, sad tale."
"Yes, exactly!" Laura continued to encourage the shy brunette. "We are actually those people. I'm Laura and that's Carmilla and the other two with us are… well, from Oz!" Laura trailed off, having nearly called Elphaba the Witch of the West again.
"I say, Cora, I think they've already gotten into the giggle juice!" June chuckled and even Cora began to laugh a little.
"No, really, we are! And we have a spellbook that got us here. Can't either of you think of anyone who can help us get out?" Laura pleaded.
"Just let it go," Carmilla advised, touching Laura's shoulder.
"But we need to go!" Laura cried. She turned back to June and Cora, then. "Do you think you could sneak us back into that Banned Book area?"
"Are you insane?!" everyone except June demanded.
"Sure!" June replied. "Ankle this way!" she gestured for Laura to follow her back up the stairs. Laura did so at once, leaving the others to exchange confused glances before jogging up after her.
"Are you insane?" Carmilla repeated, whispering as they moved back up to the library.
"No, but we need to go back there," Laura whispered back. "I know it sounds crazy, but I'm 100% certain that if we can get back there, we may find another spell home!" Camilla gave her an admonishing shake of the head, but before she could speak, Laura interrupted. "We left Lafontaine and Harry alone back there. Who knows what could happen to them if we don't try this?" the blond looked at the brunette pleadingly and, slowly, the brunette yielded. It was clear Carmilla was still against going into such blatant danger, but Laura had a point. There was seemingly no other way out of this place, so onward they would have to go.
In front of them, June and Cora were having a heated debate of their own.
"Are you insane?" Cora asked. "This is going to get you expelled!"
"Oh, don't be such a wet blanket! This adventure could be the cat's meow!" June replied.
"June, this isn't safe!" Cora insisted. June continued to move up the stairs, but she slowed her pace to meet Cora's eyes intently.
"Please, Cora?" she tilted her head and allowed her green eyes to glitter in just the right way.
"Oh, fine!" Cora jerked her head away from June with a pout. "I wish I didn't carry a torch for you!" she grumbled, but June only leaned over to peck Cora's cheek once and laugh and Cora felt her face burn where June had kissed her.
At last, the six returned to the library.
"You sure you want to do this?" Carmilla asked. Laura nodded and that was all Carmilla needed.
"We're sitting pretty if you want to go right now," Cora murmured, peeking through a gap in one of the shelves.
"The old sap isn't even looking!" June agreed with a triumphant smirk.
"So we just run?" Carmilla asked.
"I wouldn't advise running, but if you get a wiggle on, I think you'll make it," Cora said and no one needed further incentive to move.
It only took about one minute to get from the library entrance to the Banned Book Section, but it felt so much longer because, while June angled herself in such a way that Librarian would be more focused on her than anything else in the library, Cora had to help the others sneak through the library unnoticed. It was hard to do when two of the girls looked outlandish, one was wearing a really bright pink dress and the fourth, well, had green skin! But Cora was able to get them all over to the far back of the library while June continued to toy with Librarian, pretending to almost break a rule only to stop at the last second. It may have been risky, but it kept Librarian's attention on her.
"I'm in!" Laura whispered, creeping through the Banned Book Section. She accidently bumped into one of the books, though, and the entirely library suddenly went on lockdown. The power went out completely, save for the flashing red alarm lights and a siren bellowed throughout the entire library. Through the dim, flashing light, Laura could see Elphaba, Glinda and Carmilla looking at her in horror. Suddenly, Librarian had materialized behind them. He picked Elphaba and Glinda up by their scruffs and Elphaba, who still was holding Enki's spellbook, tried to find the page that had gotten them sent to Silas from Hogwarts. In the background, Laura could see June and Cora watching with horrified expressions, but their faces weren't pointed at her. They were pointed at something just behind her…Suddenly, Laura felt like she was being dragged down a tunnel. She heard Carmilla scream her name once and she thought she saw a blurry shade of pink and green rushing alongside her, but she couldn't be sure.
Laura landed hard to find herself in what looked like a library, but all the books and shelves were moving in a circular blur. In fact, everything was moving except for the ground and eight other people standing on that ground with her. Elphaba, Glinda, Carmilla and Laura herself were four of the eight. Harry and Lafontaine were two others, and then people who could've only been Hermione and Ron made up the last two.
"Whoa!" she gasped, staring up at the tall redheaded boy and the girl who stood beside him, her wild brown curls whipping around her face.
"What's going on!?" Carmilla demanded.
"We're trying to send everyone home!" Hermione bellowed over the wind.
"By creating a tornado?!" Carmilla scoffed. Laura noted the painful irony of that fact when she saw Elphaba and Glinda looking at the shifting walls in confusion and terror.
"It's not a tornado!" Hermione yelled. "It's what happens when a person tries to hold various doors of the universe open all at once!"
"Leave it to you to figure it out!" Laura screamed back.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Hermione demanded.
"Harry told me you're really, really, really, really, really, really, really, smart!" Laura replied. Hermione grinned at that, then, over the din of the wind, she explained how it had happened…
Like Harry said, she and Ron had been with him at the Hogwarts library, switching between studying and planning. Hermione had been lecturing Harry on his dangerous obsession with watching Draco all the time when Harry finally got so fed up that he excused himself from Hermione's presence and decided to take a quick walk through the stacks to calm himself down. It worked for the most part until he made the error of leaning up against a statue of one of the previous headmasters. The statute had suddenly crumbled into dust, sending Harry to the floor, but then the floor crumbled to dust too and Harry began to fall and fall and fall and fall…
While Harry was off making friends with the Oz and Silas crew, Hermione and Ron had grown increasingly anxious when Harry never returned to them. That was when Hermione went looking for him and found the crumbled remains of the statute and floor.
"How much you wanna bet that was Harry?" Ron asked with a dark smile. Hermione didn't reply, but she nodded.
"I'm going to go get the books," she said.
"The books?" Ron echoed. "Hermione, Harry just fell down a rabbit hole and you want to read?"
"To figure out what he's fallen into!" Hermione defended. "You can't honestly think this was just bad luck?"
"Well, with Harry…" Ron began.
"Ok, you do have a point," Hermione admitted. "But I think this might be something a bit more… magical."
"And when there's magic, there's Hermione reading books, right?" Ron asked and Hermione nodded. Ron groaned but Hermione ignored him, instead kneeling over to state and floor's remains before heading back to the Curses and Hexes section of the library.
After awhile, Hermione made the same discovery Elphaba had about the Alternate Universe Theory thing and, using that book, along with several others and some cryptically good advice from Dumbledore, Hermione managed to create a mini rift right there in the Hogwarts library that would allow her to skim through every universe possible until she found Harry. That's where they stood now, Hermione and Ron holding open a gateway between universes. Leave it to Hermione to figure out how to do something like that and then do it, all to save Harry's sorry behind. Hermione just hadn't realized how windy the gateway would be, nor how hard it would be to keep it open for so long. There were more universes out there than expected. But at least she'd found Harry. Ron was using all his concentration on helping Hermione keep all the doors open.
"Wait! Have you opened any doors yet?!" Elphaba asked, standing up slowly. Even though the ground beneath her feet was solid, watching the books shifting around so violently made her feel very unbalanced. Glinda wasn't even trying to stand, sitting firmly on the floor.
"Almost! I'm waiting for mathematical probability to pull up the right door!" Hermione screamed.
"But that could take ages!" Elphaba shouted back.
"What other choice do we have?!" Hermione hollered. Elphaba only held up Enki's book.
"I don't think that's such a good idea!" Carmilla cautioned.
"I second that!" Glinda bellowed, but Elphaba only ignored them and began to chant. Suddenly, a simple wooden door with four panels appeared.
"That's us!" Lafontaine shouted. They sprinted over to the door and knocked a very precise pattern onto the panels. The door swung open. "Come on Laura! Carmilla!" they bellowed. Carmilla got to her feet and sprinted over to Laura, picking her up easily and launching them both to the door faster than an eye could blink.
"Wait! You mean 'Carmilla' like that vampire?!" Hermione shouted right before Carmilla crossed the threshold back into Silas. Carmilla nodded.
"Vampire?!" Ron shouted, looking at Carmilla with disgust. Carmilla flashed her fangs at him once before slamming the door behind her.
"How did you even know her?!" Harry shouted.
"It was in one of our DADA textbooks!" Hermione replied. "I wrote a nine-page essay over her for Lupin!"
"Of course she did," Ron grumbled, but no one heard him over the screaming wind around them.
"So who goes next?!" Elphaba shouted once Laura, Carmilla and Lafontaine were gone.
"It has to be you!" Hermione replied. "If I close this portal, it'll collapse and who knows where you'll end up, if you end up anywhere at all?!
"I think we should go," Glinda laughed nervously at that. Elphaba threw her a consoling look. The poor blond hadn't intended for this much adventure. Elphaba could already foresee Glinda needing a lot of therapy after all this, but Elphaba could hardly blame her. Elphaba turned to her spellbook and, after a few seconds of rummaging around, found a spell that she hoped would get them back to Oz and not Silas or Heaven.
"There!" Glinda shrieked with delight as the Shiz iron gates appeared from the swarm of books.
"Are you sure?!" Elphaba shouted at Hermione. She nodded. "How will you get home?!"
"Probability!" Hermione replied.
"And what are your odds?!" Elphaba asked.
"Better than you might think, given that Harry, Ron and I all belong back at Hogwarts and the universe is always trying to right itself!" Hermione answered and Elphaba had to admit that she was right. The universe did always seem to have a knack for fixing itself no matter what damage someone did to it, so maybe Harry and his friends wouldn't have to wait too long to get back home. Elphaba could only give them one hopeful salute before jumping back into Shiz, Glinda holding tight to her arm.
A week later, Elphaba and Glinda were back at the Shiz Master Library, but this time, both girls were studying. Glinda had sworn off ever exploring Shiz's mysterious and magical library ever again and Elphaba was busy reading up on multiverses and parallel-verses and alternate universes and whatever else fell into the Alternate Universe Theory that said that one's current reality might not be the only one out there. Elphaba had since figured out a way to send Enki's spellbook back to Silas, using that Silas spell but making sure that only the book would be sucked back in. She had no idea if it was a wise move or not, but she trusted that Carmilla or one of her friends would be the one to find the book and if it really was that dangerous, they or Enki would send the book back.
"So, how are you getting along with your homework?" Elphaba asked.
"Shhhh, don't distract me! I'm trying to study!" Glinda replied, not even bothering to look up from her notes. Elphaba only let out a soft chuckle before falling silent again and diving back into her own textbook.
Back at Hogwarts, Harry, Ron and Hermione were already thinking up ways that the Alternate Universe Theory could be used to either hide Harry, or find a tool that could help stop Voldemort. Or rather, Hermione was busy theorizing. Harry was trying to rewrite his own stories that Laura had shown him in her world of Silas while Ron was busy reading up on the muggle stories of Carmilla and Oz.
"This is all a load of nonsense!" he declared as he stared a picture of Dorothy's ruby slippers. "Are they portkey shoes, or what? And who ever heard of a witch melting because of some water?!"
"Ron, it's muggle magic, it doesn't work exactly the way ours does," Hermione reminded him gently.
"But it makes no sense!" Ron repeated angrily. "I swear, the author was the one without a brain, not the scarecrow!" Hermione only laughed before sketching up more maps on where certain universes might lie and what help could be found in them.
In Heaven, God's angels were busy chasing their tails trying to figure out who those four visitors were and where they had gotten off to.
"Sorry, milord, but they seem to have vanished!" one angel reported to God. That wasn't exactly the best thing to tell the master of all of creation, but that angel would learn that lesson soon enough. June and Cora, meanwhile, got off scot free. Even though they had been the ones to help the four strangers, no angel had caught all six of them together, so as far as anyone was concerned, June and Cora were just bystanders.
"Wasn't that just the bee's knees?!" June asked.
"I'm just glad we didn't get pinched!" Cora replied, more relaxed now that the danger was over. June laughed at her and nudged her arm.
"You know you had fun!" she said and whenever Cora would try to deny it, June would only insist all the more. Cora finally decided to let it go. In all honesty, as nice as the strangers had been, she wasn't exactly used to seeing women in leather or black cloaks or with blindly green skin.
The one thing Cora wished could've stayed wasn't the four strangers themselves, but the bond between them. Cora may not have been smart, but she wasn't dumb. She could sense romantic inclination between the green and pink girls and then the leather girl and flannel girl. It was something Cora wished desperately that she was allowed to have with June and she was almost envious of the four visitors. Whatever world they came from, whether it was actually Victorian era Styria or Oz or whatever, it seemed to be a place far more accepting than here.
"Anyway, what say you and me go to a rub later and zozzled?!" June asked, breaking Cora's train of thought.
"Huh?" the brunette asked. June only laughed.
"It must be pretty empty up there," she said, tapping Cora's skull, but before Cora could protest, June had kissed her cheek again. Hmm, maybe Cora wouldn't have to wait for a more accepting world in order to get with June. June certainly didn't seem to mind and if Cora could just get over her shyness maybe, just maybe, she and June could create a third blond-brunette college-age couple. That would be nice…
Things at Silas weren't nearly as relaxed as they were at Shiz, Hogwarts of Heaven. Lafontaine and Harry had managed to hold off the invaders, magic and science combining to not only drive the invaders off, but to reinforce the Silas library, but the reinforcements wouldn't last forever. In addition, even though Laura and Carmilla had gotten Enki's other spellbook back, they were still at a loss at what to do.
"Have we found any clues as to what the next talisman might be?" Lafontaine asked, their excitement at getting to use their flamethrower pulse-rifle long over. Carmilla didn't even bother answering, too busy trying to crack the code on Enki's first book, but Laura did make a suggestion.
"If Enki sent his book over to Oz, maybe there's a way we can ask him to open up communications with them again," she said.
"But what good will that do for us?" Lafontaine pressed.
"I think you just want to go to Hogwarts," Carmilla agreed with a chuckle.
"Perhaps," Laura allowed. "But think. If we could open up portals to alternate universes, there are probably portals that exist to other dimensions or realms that exist in this universe."
"What are you saying, Laura?" Lafontaine asked.
"I'm saying that, in order to find the next talisman, we may not necessarily need to get a portal to another universe, just to another place in our universe. What if there was a portal that took us straight to the gods themselves?" the moment Laura said this, the library began to rumble and shake and Laura, Carmilla and Lafontaine all felt a breeze stir up all around them…
AN: So, if you made it this far, congrats! I hope you liked it and that it wasn't too weird, crazy or confusing. I understand that some things are misaligned or non-canon, but it's fanfic, I had to take some liberties. If you have any questions about any aspect of the story, please tell me in a review or PM. I'd love to talk!