"Wind- wing- winguardiam… leviosa…!" Galinda waved her hands, albeit less dramatically than she usually would. But only 'cause you asked me so nicely, Elphie! the first-year Slytherin thought with a small huff. The pillow before them rose slowly from the stone floor…
"Better." Elphaba's eyes drifted half shut. Her voice was low and languid. "You're getting better."
Galinda puffed up her chest, grinning, golden locks flashing in the firelight of the hearth several feet away. Never in a thousand years would she have imagined herself best friends with a green-skinned Gryffindor (or a green-skinned anything, to be perfectly frank), but life sure had a way of changing while she was flying through. It started with a dare, a bet in class, and they both met up in the corridors at night. But one wrong turn nearly took them into the mouth—or mouths—of a three-headed devil, a Cerberus!
But Elphaba rescued them, first from the dog, then the professors patrolling the hallways in response to the noise. It was quite the unique way to start a friendship, but it was solidified not long after when, in one of their classes, Galinda offered to work with her on a project, and she refused to rescind her offer even when her fellow Slytherins tried to talk her out of it. Impressed by the display of courage, the green lion cub accepted her metaphorical olive branch and green and red, pink and green, became BFFs. Now they sat in a little room all their own, the only place they could rest together without the quarrels of their houses getting in the way.
"It's like… Romeo and Juliette." Elphaba crinkled her emerald nose as they reclined on the pillows that littered the stone floor, Galinda's levitating one slowly lowering itself back down onto the rest of the pile. Neither of them knew where the pillows came from, or where they went when they left the room and it once again vanished from reality, but whenever they needed it, it would always come back.
"Who are they?" The pureblooded Arduenna-Upland tilted her head, gold curls shaking slightly.
Ah, right. Elphaba had to bite back to grin. Mustn't call her stupid. She was just… raised different. Couldn't Elphaba relate? "Famous muggle play," she muttered. "Written by some old dead guy named William Shakespeare." He's pretty famous around Britian. I would've thought you would've at least recognized him because of THAT. But I guess some purebloods are REALLY sheltered…
"What's it about?" Galinda scooted closer to the other witch. Just weeks ago, she would've turned up her nose at the thought of muggle studies, but if it was something Elphaba had enjoyed enough to remember and talk about, then Galinda was curious. Before Elphaba could answer her, though, the hearth bellowed, turning silver and green.
"Merlin's beard!" Galinda jumped back with a shriek while Elphaba jumped forward to step in front of her, drawing her wand. "Wait. Elphie?!" Without thinking, Galinda moved forward again, drawing her wand as well.
"What are our chances that it's a robber… or that it's Santa Clause?" Elphaba asked sarcastically to steel her and Galinda's nerves.
"Who?" Well, maybe she hadn't steeled Galinda's nerves, but she distracted the daft blonde long enough to surprise her out of her alarm. A second later, though, both of their attentions were drawn back to the fireplace. Stumbling out of it were two… boys?!
"Fiyero!" Galinda exclaimed as the first boy rose up. He had dark skin, blue diamond tattoos running from his cheek down his jaw into his dark robes, tinged with yellow. He coughed, shaking silvery ash from his short, dark hair.
Tucked under his arm was a much smaller boy, his robes tinged with blue. "No, definitely not Santa Clause," Elphaba deadpanned, smirking, but she didn't lower her wand.
"Fabala!" Boq pleaded, hoping the use of her childhood nickname would placate her. "We come in peace!"
"You do?" Her brow quirked as she glanced at Fiyero.
"Hey, I wasn't trying to prank you guys this time. Fred gave me some of this Floo powder to help him prank George and I think I got lost in the wrong fireplace! Either that or… I'm the victim of the prank…" The thought only just seemed to occur to him.
"And that prank involved kidnapping Boq?" Elphaba tilted her head.
"I needed his brains to help me sneak into the Gryffin-dorm so I can actually prank George!"
"You idiot." Elphaba sighed, then finally lowered her wand. "What is floo powder anyway?" she asked curiously, taking a step forward.
"Oh, every household has that!" Galinda beamed proudly.
Gee. Thanks. Real helpful.
"It transports people from chimney to chimney using a magical network," said Boq gently. Though he was more of a muggleborn than Elphaba—they were all certain she was some sort of half-blood, although her father was in denial—he'd happened to stumble upon floo powder in a textbook earlier, so he already knew what it was.
What a wild ride though! He cast a resentful glance at the larger boy still holding him under his arm. I should've NEVER agreed to help him "study". Everyone knows he's a slacker! How couldn't I have seen it sooner? The only thing that made it even slightly worth it was the cute Slytherin standing slightly behind his childhood friend.
Well, there goes MY peaceful night, Elphaba sighed and shook her head.
ooo
Years later, Elphaba hunched beside a fireplace, but unlike the one in the Room of Requirement, it was cold and dark and empty. Even when she lit it with her magic, the flames were sickly green and dark.
Like my soul… she thought with a dour smile. In the years since the creation of the Charmed Circle, evil was on the rise as well. Their school years progressed, and so did the darkness. Voldemort had come again, his followers stronger and fiercer than ever. It was a war of the past fought with modern soldiers and weapons. The warfare was far deadlier, and yet the pain was just as grievous. How could it have come to this…? Weren't they supposed to have been better…? The Time Dragon clicked ever onward, and yet it was as if the world—in its desperate attempt to defy its fate and evade death—was trying to go back.
Elphaba's power as a Thropp couldn't save her. What did the new Ministry of Magic care for muggles, after all? She wasn't willing to stay silent, so instead, she went into hiding, striking from the shadows. But even her power as a half-blood couldn't save her. In fact, if anything, it was her inherent tie to this world of magic that led to her involvement in their war to begin with. Likewise, the realization that she shared the blood of a conman was hardly an encouraging revelation. He was a real wizard, yes, but barely, and much of his work was propped up by mechanics and deceit.
And Voldemort's conquest, she knew, was like a virus, and would spread from place to place until, one by one, everyone was snuffed out, until there wasn't enough people left to speak or stand for anyone. First it was the little things. Animals were deemed beneath humans. Then even humans were divided. Those of purer blood were elevated, slowly at first, then faster and faster.
But there was something beneath pureblood humans. Even beneath muggleborn humans. Those who were entirely muggle. It was only a matter of time before the trials, troubles, and tribulations reached Elphaba's hometown. Even if she had indeed been just like one of all the other, normal, little village children, the pureblood supremacists would've come for them eventually as well.
And here I am, cowering like a lion cub in a cage! She shivered before the sickly flames of her new hearth. Kiamo Ko was a dark castle where the Room of Requirement was a warm, clean common room. As if reading her mind, the flames suddenly hissed towards her hands and became impossibly pale, almost white, but she thought she could see shades of pink, blue, and even a little yellow…
She squinted into the dancing tongues at first, then her eyes widened and she stepped back with a muted gasp as hands jutted from the flames. Without thinking, she reached for the hands and pulled, even though the flames began to lick at her dark robes. To protect herself, the red and gold had been stripped off…
"Woah! Jeez! Talk about a rocky landing!" A high-pitched voice complained as Elphaba continued to pull, dragging the person along with their face only inches away from the castle floor.
"Glinda?!" Elphaba finally dropped the other person in surprise as she gasped.
"Woah!" Glinda shrieked again, then she yelped as her face made contact with the stone floor. "Elphie!" she complained from the floor.
"Ooops, sorry…" Elphaba finally hunched over and held out a bony, green hand to pull the other witch up.
Glinda gave her a lopsided smile. "Floo powder!"
"H-how… why…?" Elphaba could only shake her head, as if suddenly fearing Glinda was but a phantom who would vanish if she touched it, even though she'd just pulled the girl through fire.
"I… I have to warn you! I think the Ministry is sending an assassin after you. Or at least, trying to…"
"Pfft. Didn't realize I was so precious to moldy voldy," Elphaba scoffed balefully, and Glinda flinched as if Elphaba had hexed her.
"W-well… It's not… him… personally… But they do know you were in the Order of the Phoenix, and Dumbledore's Army. You guys did a good job scrubbing me from the records, but by drawing more of that attention to yourself, you should've known it would come back to haunt you eventually!" Glinda shook her head, expression haunted by guilt. "That's why I tried to trick them, had them send the weakest assassin I could find."
A muggle girl, a child, named Dorothy Gale. But because she'd come over by way of a magical tornado—that Glinda may or may not have had a hand in—she was able to convince those who weren't so far in the inner circle that although Dorothy was a muggle child, she could be tasked with disposing of an enemy. If she failed, she died. There was no loss either way. Or at least, that was how Glinda spun it.
"I didn't come here to ask you not to hurt her, because I know you probably already won't—"
"Probably?" Elphaba snorted.
"—but I've come here to warn you that they're sending people after you." Maybe this time, Glinda managed to buy her some time and send a "bumbling" assassin after her, but could it last forever…?
Despite her bitterness, resentment, and reservation, Elphaba managed to see the great risk Glinda took in orchestrating such a convoluted scheme. The Gryffindor could respect the Slytherin for that.
"Alright. I promise I won't let your sacrifice go to waste…"
ooo
ELPHABA THROPP! YOU BROKE YOUR PROMISE TO ME! It took everything in Glinda not to hex everything in sight and destroy her surroundings. Maybe the war was over and Voldemort was dead, but how was Glinda supposed to care when Elphaba was dead too?! OBVIOUSLY I'm not an idiot. I know war comes with sacrifices. But WHY did it have to be HER?!
It was a truth she'd never tell, but she seethed when she saw some of her peers still with their loved ones. She was friends with Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny through Elphaba. The four of them all made it out alive. So why hadn't Elphaba…? Even Fiyero and Boq managed to survive, even if in… altered forms. And that Dorothy girl was sent back somewhere over the rainbow. Nessa, though, had died as well. It seemed a curse was upon the Thropp family. And if Glinda dared count herself one of them, then yes, the curse extended even to those who "married in".
In fact, as Elphaba herself once noted before, her blood seemed a curse on both sides of her family. She was the child of a lowly, lowlife wizard, and a decently powerful—but equally infamous—muggle family of some moderate political status. That muggle side forced her to hide her magic while the wizarding side considered it a shameful secret that she had any muggle blood. There was no winning for Elphaba. It was why she never understood the blood purity wars. In everyone's eyes, someone else's blood was always the dirtiest while theirs was the cleanest.
But all of them—Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fiyero, Boq, and Glinda herself—survived the war, even though Elphaba and Nessa did not. They had also long since graduated, only Hermione returning for a final year. But Glinda managed an excuse to visit her old stomping ground and alma mater, now hailed as a heroic Slytherin who dared to risk everything in the cause against Voldemort. Her past work alongside Dumbledore's Army and the Order of the Phoenix came to light, and she was there to give inspiring speeches to the student body.
Meanwhile, somehow, the truth around Elphaba's death—and life—became so twisted that some claimed she tried to murder Dorothy because she was a pureblood supremacist despite only being a "half-breed". It was envy, they said, her stubborn attempt at dissociating herself from her muggle roots. But other theories declared that she stood staunchly against Voldemort, she just wasn't any better than he was. Perhaps she tried to kill Dorothy because she resented the thought of a muggle child acquiring magic and betraying their muggle heritage.
But no matter the story, Elphaba was the disgraced Gryffindor. The only one to fail to show true courage and chivalry. Glinda always had to bite her silver tongue with her fangs to keep silent. The Room of Requirement was her last refuge. She slung spells around the room, or conjured objects to shatter them. She told the walls all the secrets she couldn't tell anybody else, pretending they were Elphaba. And she cursed everything that tore them apart. It wasn't just the stupid blood feud. She even blamed Harry and his idiotic friends for discovering the Room of Requirement, taking it away from Elphaba, Glinda, and the rest of the Charmed Circle.
All of them had been friends long before fifth year, but the moment the two friend groups combined, they all became one. It was fun at the time, especially since Glinda fancied herself near the top of the large pecking order, but now it meant all of her secrets with Elphaba no longer felt like solely her own. Elphaba gave her life—and death—to the cause, and so had the Room of Requirement, even though it was never truly Glinda's—or any one, specific student's—to begin with.
Thud. Thud. Thudthudthud. THUD. Glinda whipped around and flinched, instinctively drawing her wand as one of the walls suddenly began to cave in from the outside, but it was opposite the door. She even hazarded a brief glance over her shoulder. Had the room perhaps turned around on her while she wasn't looking? But no, the door was still behind her. So what was opening up in front…?
The wall finally, completely caved in with a flurry of dust. No, not dust. Ash. And then… A flurry of coughing, the flurry of a long, dark cloak… Then a sharp, bony, emerald face with a worn, weary, weathered smile…
"Heh… Hello, my sweet."
"Elphie?" H-how…?" Glinda thought she might faint, but she was scared that if she did, when she woke up again, the dream would be over.
Elphaba chuckled lowly, reaching out to the other witch. "Floo powder."
AN: WOW this became longer and deeper than I expected LOL! But I basically wound up tying in my headcanon for how the Wicked plot ties into Harry Potter. In my very first "iteration" Wicked actually fits perfectly as a "sequel series" to Harry Potter since it's college while Harry Potter was essentially middle school through high school. This story, though, kind of condenses the timeline and puts Wicked in parallel with Harry Potter's war with Voldemort, and not the aftermath.
Also yes I'm aware Galinda would likely know Santa and William Shakespeare but it was funnier to write that she doesn't.