Thank Goodness!

-ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

"Thank goodness!"

Hermione said as her eyes fell on Emerald who entered the great hall. It was their first morning back.

"I was begging to think you hadn't returned."

Hermione added, wrapping her arms around Emerald who froze, hesitantly hugging the other witch back.

"Where else would I go?" "Well you know what they say," Hermione said as she stifled a laugh. "There's no place like home." "Very funny."

Emerald replied and they walked to the table with the others, Harry was invested in his copy of advanced potion making and Ron... Ron was invested in swapping spit with lavender brown.

Nothing had changed.

Harry looked up from his textbook as Hermione and Emerald sat down across from him. He managed a grin at her.

"Do my eyes deceive me?" He said. "Or have you actually gotten greener?"

Harry's eyes didn't deceive him, no infact, Emerald's hands had now been permanently stained green. The Wicked switch of the West had left her mark on her even in death. Elphaba was growing on her, quite literally. Emerald rolled her eyes.

"Why yes I suppose that's true." She said as she looked down at her green hands. "I did some messing around with the Grimmerie, the Wicked Witch of the Wedt's spell book and I suppose the green skin is a permanent sign affect." She said with a shrug. Though the green skin would have bothered her once, she found herself growing more and more accustomed to her heritage.

"Well it looks nice on you." Harry said with a grin. "It suits you." He added. "Positively emerald."

✮ ⊹₊ 𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊 𓆏 𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊₊ ⊹ ✮

"Draco?"

Emerald entered the Slytherin common room where the blond Slytherin stood, his back to her as he faced the fireplace. He was reading something. Emerald wasn't sure what.

"Draco?"

She said again as she stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder. Draco flinched. He turned to look at Emerald with narrowed sliver eyes which softened when he saw her.

"Oh." He breathed. "Emmy." He added. "It's you." His hand closed around the parchment in his hand, crinkling it up in his closed fist so she couldn't see it.

"What were you reading?" She asked cautiously. "Oh." Draco began. "Just a letter from my father. Making sure I made it back to Hogwarts safely..." He said.

"How was your holiday?" Draco asked, quickly changing the subject. "It was nice." Emerald said fondly with a grin. "I returned to my mother's apple orchid. I was alone but it gave me time to think about a lot of things." She said. "Oh yeah?" said Draco, "Like what?" "Like.. my place." She said, her eyes looking down at her green stained hands.

"My ancestry, I have learned to accept it and embrace it." She said simply at Draco looked down at her green hands. "I always thought you looked better in green." He said with a faint smile. "I'm glad to see you finally agree with me."

He took one of her green hands and pressed a kiss to her fingers. Emerald smiled down at him as he did so.

"I missed you." She said softly. Draco offered her a bit of a grin. "I missed you as well, my dear." He replied. He did a quick check around the common room to see if anyone was watching. Once he concluded that it was clear he leaned down and placed a small kiss on her lips. It was short, Emerald was honestly expecting more.

"I-" He began and he glanced down at the crumbled parchment in his hand. "I have to go. I'm supposed to meet Snape about something." He said but Emerald knew it was an excuse. She could tell.

He was off to assist to the plan. His plan. The dark lord's and it pained her to watch him go. She would have to tell him at some point, her heritage wasn't the only thing she had been thinking of.

Draco was going to have to choose. It was either going to be her or his loyalty to the dark lord. She couldn't stand to be with someone who supported the attack on her home, on her mother.

Draco would have to choose and Emerald had a sneaking suspicion he wasn't going to choose her.

✮ ⊹₊ 𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊 𓆏 𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊₊ ⊹ ✮

Shame over took him as he walked. It hurt him enough to lie to her, but this? This was worse than that. He uncrumpled the letter in his hands as he walked to the room of requirement. His eyes scanned over it, reading it again and again and again. Fear gripped tightly at his chest and would not let him go.

He couldn't breathe. He couldn't think. He already had his unthinkable tasks assigned to him but this was too much. He thought about the conversation he had with his father over break. It was brief, just before he left for school. He spent the entirety of holiday deciding if he should even tell his father or not. But on the last day he broke.

"Father," He had said, speaking up on their way to Hogwarts. "I forgot to mention to you, a new student came to Hogwarts this year." "And who would that be that you should think it so important to tell me?" His father said with a snarl, not even looking at his son as he spoke.

They had arrived at the train station, other students milled about. Some were boarding the train that sat and waited. Others told their goodbyes to their family. Draco looked up at his father.

"Emerald Thropp." He had said. "The granddaughter of Elphaba Thropp, the Wicked Witch of the West." he could not forget the look of utter shock on his father's face. "What?" he had hissed. The train gave a whistle, signaling it was about to depart. Draco looked to the train and then back at his father whose eyes were now trained solely on his son.

"That is not possible." "But it is." Draco persisted. "She was sorted into Slytherin." That was the last thing he had said to his father before dashing off to board the train. He hadn't heard from his father since.

But this letter which had arrived this morning, was his father's final thoughts on the situation. On the heir of Oz. It pained him to read it. It was simple enough, short in speech, just two words. But those two words pained him to read and comprehend.

He read them over again and again, wishing they said something different each time. But they didn't change, they were still the same as he peered down at them one last time. Those same words looked back up at him. In his father's writing he could read it back clear as day,

"Use her."