When the Petal Falls

Summery: Maurice works for Prince Adam at the castle to support his wife and young daughter. He is cursed with the rest of the castle when the Enchantress crashes the party, unable to return to his family. Soon after his wife succumbs to her sickness and passes away. Belle is placed in an orphanage for the next thirteen years, until she runs away in search of a father she barely remembers. She vows to find him and bring him home, but she gets more than she bargained for when she stumbles upon a lonely castle surrounded by winter.

A/N: I own nothing. I am merely playing with the characters while supporting my muse. I hope it does not disappoint.

Prologue

The guests started to arrive just after sunset. Maurice Fournier watched from the stables as the first carriage pulled in. Lumiere immediately jumped into the role of valet and greeted the guests like old friends while Maurice hurried to tend to the horses. They would need water and rest before starting on the journey home hours later. No one paid him any attention as he performed his duties, which was the way he liked it. Neither the servants nor the guests spoke to him, which left him time to take care of his tasks as efficiently as possible. The sooner the party was over the sooner he could return to Villeneuve. He missed his wife and daughter terribly.

Prince Adam never gave his staff much notice when planning a party, which always left them scrambling to prepare. Maurice had overheard Cogsworth complain on more than one occasion how he hated not having enough time to get things organized. The old man was obsessed with running the household as orderly as possible, so anything that was given less than twenty-four hours preparation was welcomed about as much as a snowstorm in winter.

The guests trickled in for the better part of an hour. Just when Maurice finally thought the last of them had arrived, more would appear. Lumiere kept up his cheerful attitude throughout all of it, but Maurice was having difficulty. He knew his wife would be struggling to get Belle off to bed. She'd had a terrible cough for close to a month, and as soon as he had enough money saved up he planned on sending for the town doctor. It pained him to leave the burden of caring for a three-year-old child on an ailing woman but there was nothing to be done for it. Prince Adam may be an overbearing tyrant to work for, but it was the best job he was liable to find. He couldn't afford to lose it just because he was tired and worried for his family.

After Lumiere escorted the last of the guests to the castle, Maurice returned to the now overflowing stables where the sounds of horses neighing and slurping water filled the air. He couldn't take more than two steps without running into one the animals. He didn't mind. He much preferred spending his time in the stables caring for the horses than in the castle tending to hundreds of spoiled, pampered humans. That was always his assumption about the people the prince invited into his home. If the spoiled, selfish prince sought out their company, Maurice didn't think he would care too much for them.

Noticing that one of the water bins was empty, he quickly grabbed it and took it outside to refill from the basin close to the gate. He couldn't help but look out into the scenery beyond. Though it was dark and too far to see from this angle, Villeneuve was only meters away. He tried to imagine what Celine was doing. Was she struggling to put their energetic daughter to bed? Was she reading Belle a bedtime story? Or was she sitting in bed, struggling to breath after yet another coughing fit? He pushed that disturbing thought aside, for it would do no good to worry. There was nothing for him to do until he could return home. Until the party was over, he would just have to focus his energies on his task.

He filled the tub and began his trek back to the stable when he heard the disturbing sound of screaming. He frowned and dropped the tub on the ground by his feet and ran toward the castle.

Though he hoped he'd imagined the scream, he knew he hadn't because a moment later more screams erupted from the closed door. The door didn't remain closed for long. It soon burst open and a stampede of overly dressed woman in white gowns and wigs ran out in what he could only call blind panic. What on Earth was happening?

"Monsieur Lumiere?" Maurice called out uncertainly, pushing his way through the crowd.

"Ach, do not go in there, sir!" cried one of the women he'd unwittingly shoved aside in his haste to enter the castle. "There is a witch inside!"

"A witch?" Maurice's stomach plummeted, but he forced himself to continue. As much as he wanted to run away with the guests, if Prince Adam found out that he'd deserted his post in a time like this he would never find work again. He could not afford that, and neither could his family.

He pushed on, braving the growing crowd of people as he did so. Soon enough he stumbled upon a familiar face. "Mrs. Potts. What's happened?"

The middle-aged housekeeper's face had paled considerably as she considered Maurice. It seemed words had escaped her. She merely raised a shaking arm and pointed in the direction of the ballroom. He was about to run in that direction when she called after him, though not speaking directly to him.

"Chip! Chip, where are you?"

"He went that way, ma'am," answered Lumiere from behind them. Together the three hastened to the ballroom.

What awaited them was worse than Maurice could've imagined.

A beautiful woman was bathed in a brilliant white light, though the sight of her brought chills down his spine. She seemed to hover in mid-air, and she was pointing a red rose at a figure Maurice could only assume was Prince Adam, though it no longer resembled the master Maurice knew. The very sight of the beast wearing the prince's clothes was enough to fill the stable hand's nightmares for the rest of his life.

Mrs. Potts spotted Chip, who seemed to be rooted to the spot near the door. She began pulling him away and turned to Maurice. She opened her mouth, presumably to speak to him, but whatever she'd been about to say was cut off by the most unnatural jerking movements Maurice had ever seen.

He took a step to help her, but he was soon overcome by the movements as well. The pain was unbearable. He felt his bones shift and his muscles bend and twist. He soon felt himself contorting and shrinking until he could no longer move. He could no longer talk. He couldn't even breathe.

What is this magic? He longed to ask the question out loud, to demand answers from the witch who was now walking calmly around the castle. She surveyed the room and the new objects inhabiting it as though it was exactly as she was expecting. Her unnaturally beautiful eyes stopped on Maurice for a moment before moving on.

Maurice chanced a look at the spot where Chip and Mrs. Potts had been, but where two humans once stood, now rested a tea cup and matching tea pot. He tried to move in their direction, but discovered to his horror and astonishment that he no longer had any legs.

What was now his body collided with the hardwood floor. He opened his mouth to speak, but no longer had the energy. All he wanted to do, all he could do, was lay on the cold floor.

His last thoughts before he lost consciousness were of his beautiful Celine and darling Belle. What was to become of them?