Authors Note: Ok, I'm not actually the author, this was written by a friend of mine, who rocks!
Please buy her book! It's AWESOME!
It's titled 'The Last Thing that Dies', and it's on sale on Amazon and Barnes & Noble; I think that it is only available online, but someday it'll be physically in bookstores.
Seriously, give her a try!

Disclaimer: We don't own any character mentioned in this story except for Cosette Frollo and Ariel, the rest belong to Disney Pictures and Victor Hugo.

He didn't know what was happening. It wasn't the day of any festival, and Judge Frollo's usual visits to the Cathedral of Notre Dame were only at night… so why was the street suddenly filled with soldiers in the middle of the day?

He could see how some of the soldiers pushed people away from the main road, which led to the Palace of Justice. The Gypsies were not treated the same as the White French citizens; they were either hit off or arrested if they didn't move fast enough.

Raising an eyebrow in disgust, Clopin tried to remain as calm as he possibly could. Those were his people the soldiers were treating like animals, his people…

He saw several children hiding near his puppet show post; looking at the soldiers fearfully.

"Make way!" the soldiers shouted. "Make way for Mademoiselle Frollo!"

People looked doubtfully at each other as the soldiers kept repeating the same words; Mademoiselle Frollo? Had the judge been recently married? Or was there a relative of his visiting the city?

The first alternative was immediately crossed out of Clopin's mind. If there had been a wedding, not only the whole city, but the whole country would have known about it; Claude Frollo was anything but a humble man. The new arrival was bound to be a relative; probably a long-distance cousin or something of the sort.

He felt a hand grabbing his shoulder. For a Split second, he thought it was one of the soldiers trying to arrest him or take him away as the rest of the people, but this hand was much lighter and much gentler than any man's could be.

Clopin turned around to see the worried face of La Esmeralda; her green eyes couldn't stay away from the whole procession.

"They say it's the judge's niece," she said to him, almost in a whisper. "Jehan Frollo's daughter; he's sent her to live with her uncle."

Clopin allowed his eyes to travel from her beautiful face to the carriage that was now entering the city.

"Claude Frollo's niece, huh?" he said in the same low tone Esmeralda was using. His frown disappeared as he saw the children drawing near his post; their faces were as if they asked for protection. This made sense; who better to ask for protection than their own King?

"Come children!" he said, adapting a cheerful voice and placing a puppet on each hand. "It is time for Clopin to tell you a story."

As the excited children drew nearer, and away from the soldiers, Clopin turned to look at Esmeralda for the last time.

"I want you to find out about this Mademoiselle Frollo," he said to her. "They might say all they want about the reasons she's here, but I want to be sure she won't present a new threat to us."

Esmeralda looked at him for some seconds.

"Understood," she finally said as she walked away.

Cosette Frollo couldn't believe all the scandal they were making because of her. The streets were absolutely chaotic; it was as if the Pope himself was the one arriving to the city instead of her.

"Look, Cosette! Look at the Cathedral!"

Cosette managed to give a small smile to her maid and caretaker.

"Yes, Ariel, it is beautiful," she said. "It is a shame, though, that such a beautiful sight must be ruined by the screams of people outside. Don't you think it unnecessary for the soldiers to be making such a scandal?"

Ariel gave her a warm look.

"It is your uncle's best interest that you get safely to his palace. You never know what could happen with so many people on the streets… there could be thieves or bandits."

They both looked out of the carriage's window to see a beautiful, brown-skinned woman dancing nearby, entertaining a few people and playing a small tambourine. The woman looked inside the carriage and smiled at Cosette.

"Ugh, and then there's all these… all these Gypsies," said Ariel, shutting the window's curtains with disgust.

"Come now, Ariel. Gypsies are people, just like you and me."

"Indeed they are," said Ariel. "But they are not like us; they're dirty people, people of sin and vice, remember that."

Cosette sighed.

"Right, right."

They both remained silent for some minutes, until Ariel brought up the subject of how Cosette should present herself to her uncle… again.

"Remember, your uncle is a man of importance, a man of authority; even though you are his relative, you must at first address to him as 'Minister Frollo' or 'sir' until he tells you it's all right for you to address him as 'uncle Claude'."

"Right," said Cosette; not exactly giving Ariel her full attention.

"After you are settled, you must ask him about the rules you are to follow inside his house; it would also be polite to offer to accompany him to the mass he attends in the evening. You will also be attending on mornings of course; it is not proper for a young woman to be seen outside at night much, even in the company of her uncle."

"Of course," said Cosette, not really knowing what she was agreeing to since she wasn't listening to her main anymore.

As Ariel kept talking, Cosette managed to open the curtains a bit without her maid noticing. They were just passing in front of a puppet show. The puppeteer, a tall and very handsome Gypsy dressed in what seemed to be a jester costume, was entertaining several children with the puppet of what seemed to be a deformed man and another which appeared to her to look like her own uncle; even though she had only seen him twice in her life during the visits he made to her father.

The jester raised his head and their eyes met. For a few seconds, they kept staring at each other. His eyes were full of emotions; of passion, of anger, of joy, and of fear.

She had never seen such eyes in a man before. It was as if he could look into the very depths of her soul…

He broke their glance and kept doing his show. The way he moved the puppets and made them all seem like if they were telling a story amazed her. Suddenly she became as entertained as the children who circle around his post.

She couldn't keep watching for much longer. The carriage finally managed to get away from all the crowd and started going faster.

"Oh, at last!" said Ariel a few minutes later. "We're here, Cosette!"

As soon as she had finished saying that, the carriage came to a halt. The door was opened so both women could get outside.

They were now at the entrance of what appeared to Cosette as a castle. It's towers were almost as tall as the Cathedrals. Only these were pointy, and they seemed darker.

Awaiting her was an escort of several soldiers, all surrounding a white-haired man, dressed in court robes. Judge Claude Frollo embraced his niece with the coldest hug Cosette had ever received. Yet Frollo made it seem as if he was truly overjoyed to see her.

"Welcome, welcome, my dear," he said, placing his hands on her shoulders. "I trust you had a comfortable trip?"

Oh, sure, if you call being locked up with Ariel for twelve hours comfortable, she thought.

"Yes, thank you," she said in her most authoritarian and polite voice. "My father sends his regards and his thanks for allowing me to stay here with you."

"Not at all, dear niece, not at all," said Frollo. "Let's step inside now; you must be exhausted from your journey."

He then turned to Ariel, who bowed at his presence.

"Minister Frollo, I am here as a maid and caretaker to Mademoiselle Cosette. I am at your full disposition and service."

Cosette rolled her eyes. If there was something she hated the most, it was protocol.

"Very well. I will have some of my servants help you take my niece's things to her room. From now on, you will be assigned as protection to my niece. You are never to leave her side. I will arrange for you to be settled at her chambers."

With that, he led Cosette to the inside of the Palace.

Night fell. Everyone was probably asleep. Everyone except Frollo and his Captain of the guard, Phoebus.

"I heard your niece got here today, sir," said Phoebus, trying not to get too comfortable at his chair near the fireplace. He knew he always had to be alert with a man like Frollo. He knew where his loyalties lay, but he didn't trust the man one bit.

"Yes, Captain, she is to stay here to complete her studies," said Frollo.

"That's… that's very noble of you to help her with her education, sir."

Frollo raised an eyebrow.

"You have been uneasy all evening, Captain. What is the matter?"

Phoebus knew better than to lie to him.

"As your Captain of the guard, I must inform you, sir, that there are several rumors circling through the citizens about your niece's purpose here," he said. "Of course I've been very vigilant with the soldiers so that these rumors don't start spreading among them as well. I though you should just know that."

He expected Frollo to react in an angry manner, or at least to feel insulted by the news. But instead, the judge eyed him carefully.

"If I told you something, Captain, would you respect my wishes of not to tell anyone about it?"

"I… yes, of course, sir," said a very confused Phoebus. "You have my utmost respect and loyalty; you know that."

Frollo nodded, looking satisfied.

"There is another purpose in why I insisted my niece to be brought here."

Esmeralda had heard enough. Besides, she was sure that if she remained spying outside the window for much longer, she was bound to be discovered. She ran as fast as she could toward the graveyard, looking behind her shoulder every ten seconds.

She searched for the grave at the center and opened it. She hated the entrance to the Court of Miracles, but Clopin always thought of everything; there was no possible in way in which anyone could suspect this was the entrance.

Several women were waiting for her. They seemed relieved when they saw her entering.

"We expected you earlier," said one of them. "But King Trouillefou told us not to move until you arrived."

"Thank you for waiting," panted Esmeralda, trying to catch her breath. "I need to see Clopin; I need to see him now."

"He's somewhere in the treasure room, singing and juggling for some girls," said another woman, who couldn't help but to roll her eyes.

"Come on, Isabelle, he's just entertaining them; they say they've just escaped from prison." said the young woman's mother. "You know how awful that can be, especially for a Gypsy. The soldiers like to see you cry."

"So we have newcomers?" asked Esmeralda as he walked down the tunnel with them.

"Yes," said Isabelle. "They apparently heard that they could find protection here through some of the Gypsy prisoners. They got here about an hour ago. Nobody was expecting them so we mistook them for spies at first."

"How did you know they were on our side?" asked a worried Esmeralda.

"Clopin asked them some questions; besides, you could see they were Gypsies at first sight."

Esmeralda sighed.

"Well, that's good. Sometimes I feel that I have to be around here every five seconds to stop him from hanging people."

For she knew very well that Clopin was the kind of man that acted first and asked questions later. She still hadn't figured out how someone like him could find the very idea of killing someone as funny; even though it was killing spies.

After a while, they entered the treasure room, and sure enough, Clopin was singing for some of the children while three women Esmeralda had never seen before were watching the whole spectacle excitedly.

Esmeralda recognized the song Clopin was singing at once; it was the Festival of Fools' song. He had been practicing several times since the festival was only three days away.

Once a year we throw a party here in town, once a year we turn all Paris upside down… Every man's a king and every king's a clown! Once a year we crown the King of Fools.

"Why do you crown ugly people, King Clopin?" asked one of the little girls.

"Yeah, why is the King of Fools always the ugliest person in Paris?" said one of the boys.

Clopin gave a hearty laugh while he took his jester mask off his face and wiped his forehead with his hand. He was clearly exhausted.

"Well, children, it is to show the people that everyone can be a king; no matter how they look like on the outside."

"Because it's what's inside us what really matters, right?" said another of the smallest girls proudly.

"Right you are, mon petite cherie," said Clopin as he carried her in his arms.

"But why does it always has to be a king? Why not a queen?" said another girl.

"Duh, because girls suck!" said a small boy, which made him receive a blow to the head by some of the girls.

"Now, now, now," said Clopin, adapting a more serious tone until the children had stopped fighting. "I can't choose an ugly girl to be the Queen of Fools because there is no such thing as an ugly girl."

Esmeralda could see the three newcomers eying Clopin with more and more interest.

"There isn't?" said the little girl whom Clopin was still carrying.

"Of course not, my dear. Look at that queen over there for example! She's the one that made all little girls like you to be the prettiest people on Earth."

Clopin pointed toward one of the walls, where a small statue of the Lady of Paris hung.

"My mommy says she watches over all of us," said the girl. "Is that true?"

"I'm sure your mother's right," said Clopin, placing her down. "Now, run along! It is time for you to go to sleep!"

The children moaned in protest.

"Oh well, I was planning to tell you the story about the bells of Notre Dame tomorrow, but since you'll all be tired because you didn't get to bed early…"

There was no need for the children to be told twice. They ran as fast as their little legs could allow them to where their parents were.

After he had stopped laughing, Clopin turned to look at Esmeralda and the rest of the women.

"Isabella! Just the person I needed! I was wondering if you could help our newcomers to settle somewhere. I'm sure they must be tired."

Isabella just nodded and, with the help of the other women, guided the three newcomers to their new rooms.

"Thank you," said one of the new girls. "How can we ever repay you?"

But Clopin merely smiled and shook his head.

Once the room was empty, except for Esmeralda and himself, he collapsed in one of the chairs.

"Tired?" asked Esmeralda.

"You can say that again," he said with his eyes shut. "I think I'm getting too old for this."

It was Esmeralda's turn to laugh. She was pretty sure that there would never be a day when Clopin would become "too old for this".

"I didn't know you believed in her," she said, looking at the statue of the Virgin.

"I don't," he said. "But they do. Somehow they believe that she and God watch over us."

Esmeralda sat down next to him.

"What do you believe in, Clopin?"

She saw him open his eyes.

"It doesn't matter what I believe, since I don't know myself the answer to that question."

They stood silent for a while until he stood up again; his energy was back.

"So," he said in his usual playful manner. "What did you learn about the honorable Mademoiselle who arrived to the city today?"

Esmeralda sighed.

"She's here to help the judge find us," she finally said. "She has apparently a certain interest in meeting Gypsies."

"So Frollo plans for her to befriend us and then betray us," said Clopin, more to himself than to Esmeralda.

"Yes, that's what I heard him telling his new Captain."

"When is the old man planning to leave us alone for once?" said Clopin as he climbed one of the columns and swung himself around it. "How about if we grant his niece's wish and allow her to get… a much closer look at us?"

Esmeralda looked at him with a question mark on her face.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Clopin climbed down the column.

"Just imagine the shame the judge would have to go through if his superiors knew how he allowed a member of his own family to be taken by Gypsies; he would surely be removed from his post or worse… Imagine what he would do to get her back in order for his superiors not to know about it."

"Taken by Gypsies?"

Clopin began to laugh.

"Kidnapped, La Esmeralda," he said, winking at her.