It happened while she was brushing her hair. A flash of movement in the mirror and a loud crack followed by a ka-THUNK made her whirl, dropping the brush; there on the floor behind her sat a strange girl, wincing and holding her head in her hands as though she had a terrible headache. She wore odd-looking clothes, and she was dark, like Fiyero, so maybe she was from the Vinkus, Elphaba thought. But she didn't seem to have any marks on her face - and hadn't he said something, once, about Vinkus women always staying at home?
The dark girl groaned, and Elphaba cautiously stepped toward her. "Are you all right?"
Another groan. "I don't think we're in Hogsmeade anymore."
"Where?"
The girl opened her eyes, which immediately widened in shock as she took in her surroundings - and Elphaba. "You're not lavender!"
Elphaba blinked in surprise; she was used to people commenting on her skin -- but certainly not like that. Lavender? Well, that would be a girl of a different color! She put her hands on her hips. "No, I know that I'm green, and I'm tired of explaining it to people, and you don't have to go on about it, please."
The girl shook her head, then grabbed it as though shaking it had made it hurt. "No, I meant my friend. Her name's Lavender. We were practicing Apparating." Then her expression changed. "No, forget I said that. I can't believe I'm talking about it. I must be splinched."
"What?"
"Never mind." She looked around, her eyes taking in all the detail: Elphaba's simple bed, Galinda's elaborate one, their books piled high on their desks. "Where am I?"
"Shiz University, of course."
"Sorry, I don't know it. Am I at least still in Scotland?"
"Where?"
The girl's eyebrows lifted. "Are you having me on? You can't tell me you don't know Scotland."
"I don't know Scotland, I'm sorry. I'm from Munchkinland and I haven't travelled very much, really. Coming here to Shiz was the biggest journey I've ever taken."
"Shiz." The girl turned the syllable over in her mouth as though tasting something strange and somewhat unappetizing. "It's a University? What do you study here?"
Elphaba couldn't keep the note of pride out of her voice. "The Headmistress is teaching me sorcery. I'm a natural witch, she said."
"Oh! So am I!" The girl grinned suddenly, her teeth very white against her dark face. "So this is a place like Hogwarts, then. That's my school," she confided. "My name's Parvati, by the way."
"I'm Elphaba. Where's Hogwarts? Is it in the Vinkus?"
"It's in Scotland. Which you don't know where it is. Where's Vinkus?"
"Somewhere to the west, I think. I'm not very good with geography."
"No kidding." Parvati rolled her eyes. "Hmm. Vinkus. Isn't that in Poland? And if that's to the west..." she trailed off, frowning. "I didn't think it was possible to Apparate that far."
That was the second time she'd used that strange word. "Is Apparating like flying?"
A suspicious look crossed Parvati's face. "You don't know...I thought you said you were a witch?"
"I'm learning to be a witch. I just started," she said defensively. "I can make lights flicker, and things move around. I haven't learned Apparating. Anyway," she added, "obviously you can't do it either, if you were trying to go somewhere else and you ended up here."
"You're right about that," said Parvati, smiling a bit ruefully. She held her head in her hands again. "I've got a bit of a headache - think I splinched something, maybe."
"I might have a headache powder," offered Elphaba, and went to rummage in her dresser. She was reaching toward the back of a drawer when she heard the door bang.
"Oh!" It was Galinda's voice, at its most imperious. "Who are you, and what are you doing in my room?"
"Er...it's complicated," said Parvati.
Elphaba turned from the dresser. "Her name's Parvati, and she's a friend of mine, so don't worry about it."
"What a surprise. I didn't think you had any friends." Galinda looked appraisingly at Parvati, then back to Elphaba. "Too bad," she said airily. "I was hoping that maybe Madame Morrible had assigned me a new roommate so I wouldn't have to put up with you anymore."
"Don't think I don't wish the same," muttered Elphaba, but Galinda had already turned to collect some books from her desk.
She headed toward the door, then paused with her hand on the doorknob. "And do brush your hair before coming to class. If you can't do anything about your skin, at least you can get that rat's nest untangled." Leaning toward Parvati with a conspiratorial smile, she added: "But you ought to leave, first. You might catch her lice."
"I don't have lice!" Elphaba shouted, but the door swung shut behind Galinda before the words were out of her mouth. She slumped to the floor. "I hate her, I hate her."
"Yeah, obviously she doesn't like you either," said Parvati.
"And I hate being stuck with her. I wanted to share with Nessarose - that's my sister. But it didn't work out that way."
"I know exactly how you feel." Parvati's voice sounded sympathetic, even wistful. She scooted over until she was sitting on the floor directly behind Elphaba; picking up the hairbrush, she began to brush Elphaba's hair with smooth, even strokes. "My sister and I went to Hogwarts together, too. We'd always been together, so we thought we'd be together there, but it didn't work out that way for us, either."
Elphaba closed her eyes, feeling the bristles of the hairbrush move against her scalp, feeling Parvati's deft fingers as she carefully worked out the tangles. Nobody had ever brushed her hair like this. Not her mother, who had always resented her daughter's strange coloration; and of course Nessarose wasn’t able to. It felt so good, so comforting, and she never wanted it to end.
But all too soon Parvati put down the brush. Elphaba turned her head, started to thank her, but hands turned her head back to face front. "Shh. Let me finish. You have lovely hair."
She turned the word over in her mind. Lovely. Nobody had ever applied that word to any part of her before. But here was this strange girl, who looked like she might be from Vinkus but claimed to be from somewhere called Scotland, which Elphaba had never seen on a map, who said her hair was lovely. Who was almost as pretty as Galinda, though in a dark way, but who was kind, not cruel. Maybe it was because Parvati had a sister she loved. Maybe having a sister was a special kind of magic that made a person kinder, she thought. Take Galinda, for example -- she only ever thought about herself. But if she'd had a sister, someone else to think about, maybe she would have been a different sort of person.
Parvati was doing intricate things with her hair now, weaving the strands, pulling and smoothing them back. "There. My sister and I always used to plait each other's hair like this. Go look in your mirror and tell me if you like it."
Bemused, Elphaba rose and went to the mirror. "Oh! It looks so elegant." And it did, a smooth weave of black falling down her back, the usual fierce tangles all vanished. "Can you -- could you --" She stopped, suddenly shy.
"Could I what?"
"You're a witch, right? Are you as powerful as the Wizard?"
Parvati looked puzzled. "Which one?"
"What do you mean, which one? The Wizard. Our ruler!" This Scotland place must be very far away, thought Elphaba, if this girl didn't even know who the Wizard was!
"Well," said Parvati, sounding a bit cautious, "I don't expect I'm as powerful as your ruler is. I've not even taken my NEWTs yet."
That made absolutely no sense, but she decided to let it go. "I was just wondering..." She put a hand to her beautifully-plaited hair. "You made my hair look so nice," she said, all in a rush, "so do you think you could do something for my skin?"
"You mean," said Parvati slowly, "make it not be green?"
"Right. I don't care, you can make me dark or light, but I don't want to be green. Please?"
The other girl shook her head. "I wouldn't know how, sorry." Her lips twisted in a wry smile. "Besides, if I knew how to change skin color, I'd have gone a few shades lighter myself."
"Are they not all dark like you where you come from?"
"Not at all. The girls who look like your roommate don't care for my color, either. But I've got used to it."
"I see." And she did. That was why Parvati was so kind to her; being dark back in Scotland was probably as bad as being green here in Oz. A sudden idea occurred to her. "You could stay here. Everybody would just think you were from the Vinkus." And Parvati could be her roommate, and she wouldn't have to live with Galinda anymore. And they could brush and plait each other's hair...
"I can't. I've got to go home," said Parvati, breaking into her thoughts. "I think I'm ready to try Apparating back."
"Oh," said Elphaba, trying to hide her disappointment. But it was no more than she'd expected. And she really couldn't expect Parvati to leave her sister; that would be like asking her to leave Nessarose. Which she'd never, ever do. She offered Parvati a shaky smile. "Well, there's no place like home, is there."
Parvati nodded. "There's no place like home," she repeated. And, with a crack, she disappeared.
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http://hieroglyfics.net/elphaba.htm | written August 2004 by Isis