A/N: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. This is an idea that I've always loved and people have been bugging me to pursue it, so here it is. I imagine this will be a pretty long story, so bare with me, please!


They thought I died.

They actually believe that silly little girl killed me with that bucket of water, that I had melted. Honestly, as if I wouldn't take precautions against water, knowing what it does to me. Knowing what harm it could do to me. Why would I even have a random bucket of water near me on the floor anyway? Clearly Dorothy doesn't like to use her brain, if she even has one to begin with. Only a bit smarter than Boq, if you ask me, and he's made of hollow metal!

That's not to say I didn't emerge unscathed, oh no. Just because I took precautions doesn't mean it didn't affect me. Sweet Oz, it hurt. I thought I was going to die regardless, but I woke eventually.

"The Witch of the West is Dead!" They say. I can hear their cheers from the castle.

"No one mourns the Wicked!"

I almost laugh, hearing that line. Like I was ever wicked to begin with. The idiots couldn't even see the deception directly in front of them, that the Wonderful Wizard of Oz wasn't all that wonderful after all. They couldn't see that he was nothing but a fake, that he couldn't really do anything. Well, except make a mess of things. He's apparently quite good at that. And that little girlstill has my sister's shoes. She straight out steals from me and raids the body of my sister who she dropped a house on and I'm the wicked one! I'm the wicked one.

I sigh. What am I going to do now? Fiyero is dead; Glinda's playing her part as the "Good Witch". I suppose I should just flee from Oz now that no one is after me, but I can't. Not yet. I want those shoes.

I realize, of course, that they're just shoes, and shouldn't be so important, but they are. Which no one-save Glinda- understands.

It shouldn't be too hard to call the Grimmerie back to me and use a concealing spell to get in, nothing special. Part of me wants to continue frightening them into submission and make them listen to me, but I've tried that before and it never ends well. Yes, it's better to sneak in. Remembering one of the basic invisibility spells from the Grimmerie, I use it on myself before daring to step out of the castle. The streets of the Emerald City are overflowing with people all celebrating. In spite of myself, I find that I'm actually rather hurt by their happiness. I know I shouldn't be, since none of them know the truth, but I can't seem to push it away.

Suddenly I hear a new, different voice joining the singing crowd, one I know all too well, and I find this voice stings more than everyone else's.

Glinda's. She's singing, celebrating right along with everyone else. I stop in my quest to reach the palace, staring at where Glinda is, in that stupid bubble above the people. Why is she celebrating? Is she happy because she thinks I'm dead, too? How could she be? She was there, she knows I'm not evil; she knows what the Wizard is. She knows the truth! She's my best friend, why would she be happy that I'm dead? This doesn't make sense, but as she sings every syllable makes me flinch as she raises her voice high above the others.

"No One Mourns the Wicked!"

"Wicked!"

"Wicked!'

With her performance over, she leaves, and I see her making her way back to the Wizard's castle with Madame Morrible and the Dorothy girl and her companions. I regain my senses then, resuming my journey into the castle, leaving behind the people of Oz, still screaming with happiness.

Once inside, I stand among every citizen of Oz that managed to force their way inside the palace to dote over the stupid child and Glinda. Everyone congratulates Dorothy, thanking her for the deed she did for Oz, ridding them of the Wicked Witch. I have to force myself not to growl at their praise. If they only knew I was still very much alive, standing among them. They will, soon enough. Although my only wish is to have them finally see reason, I can't stop myself from smiling wickedly at the thought of their terrified reactions.

Dorothy finally quiets the crowd down when she speaks to Glinda.

"Oh, thank you so much for all of your help! After that terrible windstorm landed me here I never thought I'd be able to return home. Everyone's been so kind to me… well except for her, of course, but my house did accidentally land on her sister…"

My eyes narrow when I hear her words. All of your help? Glinda helped the little wench? What- wait, did she say windstorm? At that, my eyes find Madame Morrible, whose eyes seem to show some indistinguishable emotion, but only for a moment. It's enough for me to realize that Morrible's responsible for Nessa Rose's death, that she created the windstorm that transported the house to Oz. The girl almost sounds regretful that her house fell on her, but why would she? She came to the castle to kill me, why would she care about Nessa?

"But Glinda, however will I get back to Kansas? Where's the Wizard? He said that if-"

"Nevermind about the Wizard, dear." Glinda tells her. "Just click your heels together, three times, and say, "there's no place like home". Those shoes I gave you when you arrived will take you back home."

Shoes? No, it can't be.

My eyes dart to the girl's feet, which are still wearing my sister's ruby red slippers. Glinda gave that imbecile my shoes! No, this has to be wrong. Glinda wouldn't do that to me, no matter how angry she is. She knows what those shoes meant to me, she wouldn't give them to some interloper! The child must have stolen them!

Yet, as soon as the thought enters my head, I know it isn't true. I could always tell when Glinda was lying, and she's definitely not doing so now.

Unbelievable. Everything, everything I thought I knew about this, which admittedly wasn't much, was all a lie. Dorothy didn't steal the shoes, nor did she intentionally mean to kill my sister. She probably only tried to kill me because the wonderful wizard told her he would return her home once she did so. The coward, sending a child to fight for him.

But Glinda… I stare at her, but she's only smiling at Dorothy, not the least bit of denial, grief or regret in her eyes. My best friend!

"Go on, sweetheart. Click your heels."

My eyes narrow. No, absolutely not! She's not going to get away with this! Dorothy may be innocent, but she still has something that belongs to me.

I walk to the middle of the room, where they're standing, staring down Glinda as I release the invisibility spell around myself.

The reaction is instantaneous. Gasps and screams are heard throughout the room, but I pay no attention, and continue starting at the "witch" in front of me. She looks shocked, and I feel myself smirk at her.

"Well, hello. Surprised, dearie?"

Glinda's eyes are wider than I've ever seen them, and when she tries to speak, she stutters.

"I- what- you- you're alive?!"

"Why, of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

Dorothy seems to have recovered from my sudden appearance. "But… the water! I heard you screaming, it sounded like you were..."

"Dying?" I finish the sentence for her, and she flinches. "Well, it seems it didn't stick as well as it should have, much to everyone's horror." I say, turning my gaze back to my once-friend. Her eyes drop from mine, but only for a moment.

"You're not welcome here!" She yells, her blue eyes icy.

I flinch slightly, but only enough for it to be noticed by her and Dorothy. Immediately though, my expression changes back to its blank indifference, but I make sure she can still see the anger in my eyes.

"I have a name, Glinda. You can't even say it, can you? My name is Elphaba, not Wicked Witch. Why wouldn't I be welcome, Glinda? Tell me, is it because of the lies the wonderful Wizard has spread? You of all people should know they aren't true. And yet, you seem to be just as disgusted as everyone else in the room to discover I'm still alive. I never would've believed it."

I point at the shoes. "How could you give away those shoes? They were not yours to give away! You know what they mean to me. They were my sister's, a gift from my father, and you gave them to a child!"

She makes no move to speak, so I continue. "It was all an act, wasn't it? How could you be so cold, so cruel, to someone who trusted you? You were with me when I met the Wizard, Glinda. You saw what happened, what he was! But you bought right into his lies. You let him and Morrible spread horrible lies about me, poisoning these people against me, when all I wanted to do was protect them from a tyrant! Why, how, could you do that to another person, let alone your best friend!"

I hear the people around us gasp, but I ignore them. I continue to stare at the woman in front of me, watching and hoping for a single shred of regret in her face, but I see nothing. Not a damn thing.

"You're pathetic."

Finally Glinda's face twists with anger, and she shoves me away from her, causing me to move back a few feet.

"You brought this all on yourself, Elphaba. You wanted me to use your name? Do you honestly think it will make any difference? They don't care who you are, you're still the Wicked Witch they hate. You ruined so many people's lives, all because you just couldn't keep your mouth shut. Dr. Dillamond, that Lion, Boq, Nessa, even Fiyero! He's dead because of you!"

I recoil as though she'd slapped me. She's blaming me for Fiyero's death? Oh no. This won't do at all. I find myself coming closer to her now, my anger flaring.

"Fiyero? You think his death is my fault? You should be blaming your Wonderful Wizard for that. He came looking for me, I didn't convince him to leave you. I would have rathered he didn't. He knew the truth, he knew I wasn't evil, and he tried to help me. He wanted to protect me. He wasn't there, he didn't witness it like you did, but he knew right from wrong and he didn't give a damn about the rest of it. The power, the money, meant nothing to him, unlike you."

I bring my face inches from her's. "I lovedFiyero, he was a great man and I hate myself everyday for what happened to him, but I'll be damned if I let you pin his death solely on me."

I take a deep breath, closing my eyes and calming myself down before looking back at her. "I have come to ask you one last time, Glinda. Dorothy does not need those shoes to return home, there are other ways. They belong to me. Please, give me back my sister's shoes."

"No."

Out of the corner of my eye I see the Grimmerie sitting behind her. I almost forgot that it's one of the things I came for in the first place. I focus back on Glinda, glaring at her.

"I gave that book to you to protect, because I trusted you with its power. As comical as it may seem, there was a time when I would have trusted you with my life. Now I can see I was severely misguided in that belief and put my trust in the wrong person." I held out my hand to the Grimmerie and summoned the book to me.

"You no longer deserve this. You probably don't even have the power required to wield a quarter of the magic in this book. I don't know what I was thinking. You underestimated me, Galinda. Just like you underestimated Fiyero. He never would have gone along with the Wizard once he knew the truth. He left because the Wizard, and no doubt the fact that you let him get away with all of this disgusted him. Fiyero would be so disappointed in you."

Suddenly I feel a stinging pain blossoming from my cheek. I realize with shock that Glinda just slapped me.

"Go, Dorothy! Now! Don't just stand there, you stupid girl, go!"

"There's no place like home… There's no place like home…"

My eyes widen as it occurs to me what's happening. The shoes! I turn as Dorothy says that stupid sentence for the final time, and she begins slowly fading out of sight. My grip tightens on the Grimmerie, quickly conjuring a bag and slipping the book into it.

"No!"

Pushing Glinda out of the way, I lunge toward the girl, barely grabbing hold of her ankle before we are both transported far away from Oz in what could only be described as a cyclone of power. It is almost as if Morrible had created a tornado around us, with us in the very center being propelled into the clouds.

Dorothy is attempting to shake me off but I hold tight to the shoes. She used them knowing what they meant to me, and Glinda had encouraged her to do so. Why couldn't she have just given them to me?

Dorothy eventually kicks one of her feet free from me, leaving me with one shoe in one hand and a drastically failing grip on the other one.

"Give me the shoes! I can still propel you home!" I shout, but she makes no notice of hearing me. I manage to hook my finger into the back of the second shoe and pull with all my might against it, shouting with glee as it comes loose. Dorothy notices but before she can say anything I launch a wave of sheer magic at her, of everything I have in my body, propelling her faster through the vortex. I clutch both shoes in my grasp as I am finally reunited with the last remaining part I have of my sister.

The vortex wraps around me, signaling the end of the transport and jostling me around. These always have such bumpy endings. The question is, where exactly would I be taken? Dorothy said her home was Kenses or somewhere? Kansas maybe? Such an odd name.

I feel the effects of extending my magic so roughly as soon as I am deposited in the center of an oddly dull town full of strangely dressed people who walk around me like I didn't just pop out of a swirling vortex in the middle of a rather busy street. As if this is a normal occurrence wherever I am. I can physically feel myself fading from consciousness bit by bit as I just sit here in the middle of the road holding these shoes and the bag holding the Grimmerie. I'm vaguely aware of a man coming up to me, but I regard him through blurry vision.

"Miss? I'm sorry, are you feeling alright? You're looking a bit green. Miss?"

I have the urge to laugh in his face. A bit green? I want to respond, tell him to go away, but I cannot force myself to stay awake any longer.

I'm definitely not in Oz anymore.


A/N: Please review! Let me know if anyone is interested in me continuing this story. Thank you darlings!