"Get out of the house!" Yelled Thenardier, as drunk as ever. "Don't you come back, ya little bastard!"
Little Gavroche, only five years old, tripped out the door and face planted into the cold, bitter snow. He heard the door of the inn slam shut. What was to become of Gavroche? Inspector Javert would be there soon to check for any beggars on the streets.
All the little boy did was tell Thenardier that he wished that he did not cheat his guests out of their money and possessions. This angered the greedy man and his wife. A fight broke out between the young boy and his parents. The next thing he knew was that he was on the streets in the cold.
Where was his older sister, Eponine? Surely she would keep him safe from their parents. Oh, that's right…she was out with a man she had recently met. So, she would not be returning until later on that night.
Gavroche stood up, wrapped his arms around his chest, and began trudging through the snow. The wind was violent that night, and visibility was low. The five year old could barely see or hear; but then he could. He heard the clicking of horse shoes against the roads.
"Javert!" He said to himself.
The boy ran as fast as he could to a nearby alley. It was a struggle for the feeble boy to run over to his desired destination because of the howling winds and the painful cold. Gavroche made it to the alley and he behind a barrel. The horses with policemen on them came into view. Gavroche ducked so they would not see him. He waited for a few moments until he looked up again. They were gone.
A pair of hands grabbed Gavroche by the shoulders and began to drag him away. "Let me go!" He screamed, almost beginning to cry.
One of the hands covered his mouth. The police had found him! If Javert was as really as bad as everyone said he was, Gavroche would be one of the youngest people to ever have a heart attack. His feet dragged in the snow as he was carried away. A building sign soon came into view. ABC Cafe. He had heard of this place before. It was a rival bar with his father's inn.
Gavroche soon felt his arms begin to warm up from the cold. They were inside the Cafe. The small boy was placed on a couch nearby a fire. He looked up in front of him. He was young, but not like Gavroche. Maybe he was about 19 or 20…his curly hair had the same dark brown tone as his eyes did.
"Who are you?" Gavroche asked.
The boy stared at him for a moment. "I'm Courfeyrac." He said.
"Are you a policeman?"
"No, I'm just a student." He said. "You were about to get caught by the Inspector, so I took you here, where you would be safe."
Gavroche simply stared at him. "Why?"
Courfeyrac shrugged. "Well, you're not but five or six years old, yes?"
"Yes…"
"You can't die tonight in the cold then. You have yet to experience the world around you. Now why were you wandering about in that kind of weather?"
Gavroche sighed. "My papa threw me out into the streets."
"Who is your papa?" Courfeyrac slid off his red jacket and wrapped it around the trembling boy.
"Thenardier."
"He's the owner of that inn down the street?"
Gavroche nodded, and then he smiled with Courfeyrac chuckled. "That's the inn where Grantaire got stripped of everything he had brought with him just to have a simple drink!"
The boy nodded. "That's why my papa made me leave; because I wanted him to stop taking other people's things."
Courfeyrac looked to the boy with a smile on his face. "You're a good boy. What is your name?"
"Gavroche."
"Well, then, Gavroche, we need to get you to bed. I'll take you to the house where my friends and I live. You will also live there, and I will raise you to be one of us."
"Are you going to throw me out?" Gavroche asked with once alarmed eyes and now sleepy ones.
Courfeyrac shook his head. "Never, Gavroche. You're one of us now. A fighter you will be, and a strong one at that."
Gavroche nodded and soon fell asleep in Courfeyrac's arms. He took the boy to the house where he and his friends lived and placed the sleeping child in his own bed. Sleeping on the ground would not be so bad.
One thought haunted his mind though: What would Enjolras think?