This chapter is dedicated to Mara1313, who is my co-author/beta and puts up with my crazy ideas.

Disclaimer: I don't own Wicked. I don't own Harry Potter. End of story.

Chapter 3: Do You Love Me

"-and this will be your room for the duration of your stay with us," Dumbledore told Glinda as they walked down a passageway. They stopped in front of a portrait of a witch stirring a cauldron.

"Password, please." The witch looked up from her potion and demanded.

"Wickedness," Dumbledore said. The witch nodded and then, to Glinda's amazement, the portrait opened up to reveal a room inside it. Every time that she though there would be no more surprises, there was one more waiting for her.

She looked down the hallway and her eyes rested on an empty classroom just two portraits down from her own room. "What room is that, Albus?" she asked, curiously.

"Oh, that is the Dueling Classroom. Once school starts, I daresay our dueling professor, Fae, won't mind if you stop by and watch her classes," Albus replied cheerfully.

"Fae? Is that the same person that Harry was talking about earlier?" Glinda questioned, stepping into the room. The first thing that caught her eye was the color. The room was decorated with shades of blue and green, and the colors seemed to repeat everywhere she looked. Even the furniture seemed to center around these colors. The bedspread on the four-poster bed was light blue and the pillows were sea-green.

Glinda's eyes slowly wandered around the room, taking in the sofa and armchairs, writing desk, and kitchenette. She thought the color scheme was a good idea; the green especially reminded her of Elphaba, who was the reason she had decided to come in the first place.

"Yes, Fae," Dumbledore said. "You'll probably meet her later; she's a major Order member."

"How many people are in the Order?" Glinda wondered aloud.

"Oh, in total, around sixty or seventy. However, there is a small group within the larger Order that consists of twenty so-called 'major Order members,'" Dumbledore answered. "you'll most likely meet them first, before you meet the larger Order."

"What do people in the Order do? I mean, are there a variety of jobs?"

"Yes, actually. For example, Harry- you met him earlier- and Fae are both active fighters against Voldemort and his Death Easters while our Potions Professor, Severus Snape spies for us in Voldemort's ranks. Other people-" Dumbledore stopped speaking abruptly as he felt his Order necklace slightly warm, indicating that one of his members, most likely Fiyero, had returned from his mission.

"Ah, Glinda, please excuse me. I must go get a report from one of our Order members that has just returned." With a swish of his sky blue robes, he was gone, leaving Glinda alone with her thoughts.

After his long meeting with Dumbledore, Fiyero was relieved to get back to his rooms and to Elphaba. However, Elphaba had been rather…distant lately. It seemed that- although Fiyero hated to admit it- their spark of romance had disappeared.

He said the password to the portrait that guarded Elphaba's rooms and let himself in. "Elphaba, I'm home!" he called. There was a silence. He looked around; there seemed to be no one in the sitting room. "Elphaba?" he called again.

He was about to leave to his own rooms when he heard a faint thud followed by muffled cursing in Elphaba's bedroom. He moved to the slightly open bedroom door and leaned on it. "Hello, Elphaba. I'm ho-"

"Yes, I heard you the first time," Elphaba scowled. "And the last time I checked, we were in England, not home. I just managed to kick Harry and Snape out; what do you want?"

Fiyero blinked, suddenly taken aback. What had happened these past few months to make Elphaba so bitter? Well today was the five-year anniversary of their "death", but even Elphaba was never this moody in years past.

"Thanks for the warm and loving greeting," he said sarcastically. "It was even better than Dumbledore's customary Lemon Drops."

"That's great, Fiyero," Elphaba snapped, still not looking up from her attempts at writing lesson plans.

Now, perhaps on a normal day, Fiyero would have kept his temper in check. However, the stress of his mission added with the fatigue that had been threatening his consciousness caused him to snap back at his girlfriend. "What's with you today?" he asked, irritated. "I'm home after three months and all you can say is, 'What do you want?'"

"Fiyero! I thought you'd actually understand how I'm feeling," Elphaba growled, her eyes burning holes at the pieces of paper in front of her. "For your information, today's the fifth year since I had to leave everything behind."

Fiyero's mouth dropped open. "And what about me?" he cried. "I gave up everything just to help you. How do you think I feel?"

"Well, if you feel so bad about it, why don't you go back to Oz?" Elphaba said, hurt.

"I just might," Fiyero shot back. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were cheating on me. Come to think of it, Snape has been hanging out here a little too often for my liking."

Fiyero instantly knew he had crossed a line.

Elphaba whirled around so quickly that her chair fell over. "How dare you?" she asked, her voice tight with anger. "You know how I feel about Snape, yet you question my faithfulness to you?"

"Elphaba, I-" Fiyero said apologetically.

"Get out," Elphaba finished.

"Elphaba-" he half-pleaded.

"Get. Out. Of. My. Rooms," Elphaba said in a frigid tone. "I don't want to see you right now." There was a tense silence as the two occupants of the room stared at one another.

Finally, Fiyero relented. "Alright, Elphaba. I'll see you tomorrow, then. Goodnight." He left, closing the portrait hold softly behind him.

Elphaba sighed heavily and buried her face in her hands. Brilliant,she thought. Another thing that I managed to mess up on.

However, if she was to be brutally honest with herself, she did not really love Fiyero- or at least not anymore.

She had thought she did, five years ago. Now, though, she realized that it wasn't Fiyero she loved. The adage, 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder,' seemed especially true for her; she realized that it was Glinda she had originally fallen for and it was Glinda whom her heart belonged to right now. Fiyero was always just a way for her to hide feelings that she believed were wrong.

Who would have guessed, though, she thought with a wry smile. The green misfit and her popular roommate. The way that Elphaba and Glinda had behaved towards each other at Shiz would point to nothing but a long-lasting animosity towards each other. Then again, Elphaba had always heard that there was a fine line between love and hate.

Elphaba knew that her feelings for Glinda had crept upon her slowly and subtly, like a predator waiting to pounce in the darkness. They had first appeared sometime after she and Fiyero had run off together from the Wizard's throne room and had only developed from there. With Fiyero on 'missions' for months at a time here in England, those feelings basically ran rampant with no way for her to keep them in check.

She realized that she had to end this little charade of hers before anyone got hurt. Hell, Fiyero was going to get hurt, she supposed, but better now than later- or never. Tommorow, she decided. I'll tell him tomorrow. For now, all she wanted to do was to sleep off the headache that was currently plaguing her.

The next few days slipped by quickly, as the teachers enjoyed their last few days "without those dunderheads that we have to put up with every single, bloody year," as Snape had so eloquently put it about two years ago. Although Elphaba had planned to tell Fiyero the truth, she somehow managed to avoid Fiyero and therefore avoid the truth-telling session. Finally, it was the day before the students arrived back at Hogwarts, and Elphaba could not stall any longer.

She left her rooms quietly and made her way down the echoing halls of the castle. There was a slightly abandoned feel to Hogwarts, since most of the teachers were either making final touches to their lesson plans, out in Diagon Alley purchasing supplies, or enjoying their last free day until June of next year. Therefore, Elphaba had not expected to run into anyone; she was surprised when she saw Harry walking in the other direction.

"Hello, Fae," Harry said, wary of what mood Elphaba would be in.

"Harry," Elphaba nodded in greeting. "Listen Harry, about that night- I'm sorry about how I-"

Harry shook his head. "No, it's fine. Snape and I shouldn't have-well, anyways, how are you? Ready for your fifth year as a teacher, Professor Thropp?"

"Don't call me that," Elphaba replied. "But Harry, I need some advice." She figured that it would be helpful to talk this situation over with someone else before confronting Fiyero.

"Advice? With what? Dueling? Lessons? Voldemort?" Harry asked, curious.

"No, not that. I need some help with-with Fiyero," Elphaba answered, her cheeks turning a darker green.

"Are you two feuding?" Harry questioned. "When I saw him this morning, nothing seemed terribly amiss. He's gone, though. Left to Diagon Alley about an hour ago."

"Feuding? Well, yes. Or no," Elphaba said. "I really don't know. I screamed at him four nights ago and he left my rooms. I haven't seen him since. But…" she trailed off.

"But?" Harry prompted.

"This is-it's hard to explain, really. Harry, I…don't really love Fiyero anymore." There. She had actually said it aloud. As Harry opened his mouth to comment, Elphaba help up a hand, staying him. "Wait. Let me finish before you say anything." The two Order members began a slow walk down the length of the corridor.

"Okay, there's this…person that I've slowly been falling in love with since-well, since around the time Fiyero and I had began to…be together. I knew this person wouldn't have the same feelings for me, so I continued to date Fiyero, in hopes that these feelings would go away. However, since I've come here, those feelings have only strengthened, especially with Fiyero gone most of the time. I know that I'll never see this person again, but I feel as though these feelings are getting in the way of Fiyero and my relationship…did that make any sense at all?"

Harry looked pensive for a moment. "Is this person dead?" When Elphaba shook her head, Harry continued, "Then, how do you know you'll never see this person again?"

Elphaba shrugged, not wanting to explain the whole "Wicked Witch" issue. "I just know. It'd be impossible. Anyways, do you think I should tell Fiyero the truth or keep trying to make the relationship work?"

"Tell him the truth," Harry instantly replied. "If you keep avoiding this, Fiyero is just going to suspect something. Better to tell him now than try to preserve your relationship. Besides, as you said, these feelings have only grown stronger despite your dating Fiyero for five years. There's no reason to believe that they will go away after time if they still haven't disappeared yet."

"Since when have you become so philosophical?" Elphaba teased. On a more serious note, she said, "Alright. I'll tell him when I see him later. Come on, I remember you said you wanted to see my class plans earlier?" No sooner had the famous wizard and the green-skinned witch disappeared did Dumbledore and Glinda come walking around the corner. (Well, Dumbledore walked. Glinda had sprinted.)

Glinda looked around the hallway almost desperately. It was empty. When Dumbledore caught up to his frantic guest, he asked, "What? What happened?"

Glinda seemed distracted to Dumbledore. "I thought I heard…never mind." She shook her head to clear it of the thoughts of Elphaba and continued on with Dumbledore, disappointment nagging at her.

Coming up: A break-up and an unexpected guest at the Welcoming Feast.

If you haven't noticed, all my chapter titles (except for the first one) are song titles from musicals. I forgot to put this up in my last chapter, but if you can figure out which musical the title is from, you get the next chapter dedicated to you.

Good luck, and have fun!

-Wolfie