One Year Ago

One year ago, the enchantment was still in place over the castle and everyone who lived there.

It was only a few weeks ago that a girl from the village on the other side of the forest had come to be made a permanent guest in place of her father.

There was dust and cobwebs everywhere, and wallpaper was peeling walls in some rooms, the fires only lit in the rooms where Chat Noir and Marinette visited the most, and the kitchen and boiler room.

In the room that was meant to be the ballroom, Plagg came hopping in, sliding to a halt near a window that looked out into the courtyard.

"Where could he be?" Trixx asked, coming in after him with Alya, Wyazz, Nooroo, and Tikki along with her.

"Who knows?" Alya said, as Plagg jumped up onto the window sill. "We've searched every last room and corner in the whole castle."

"I'm beginning to think he's not in the castle at all," Wayzz said to add his voice to the conversation.

On the window sill, Plagg looked out of the dirty window, wiping some of the years old dirt from the pane, and smiled as he saw Chat Noir in his caple walking around the grounds.

"Aha, there he is!"

"Wonderful!" Tikki said, smiling happily,jumping in glee.

"No time to waste," Wayzz said, smiling a wide smile himself. "We must find a way to get them together."

Plagg hopped down from the sill and together they all now went looking for Marinette.

"Let's go!" he called out, hopping past Wayzz so fast he was sent spinning on the spot.

"Love will not wait!" Tikki, the featherduster, added and quickly followed the black candelabra, followed by the teapot, and cup, and the sugar bowl, Wayzz the clock following as soon as he could.

"You really think she's the one?" Trixx asked hopping along next to Plagg "Will she break the spell?"

"I knew from the moment I set eyes on her." Plagg said, panting a little.

"If anyone can get through to Chat Noir, Marinette can," Alya said in agreement as they went looking for her.

"And her looks don't hurt either," Plagg said grinning getting a loud:

"PLAGG!" from Tikki and small giggles from Trixx and Nooroo.

"Wait for me!" Wayzz said as the others had already reached the end of the corridor.

o0o

Marinette was coming back upstairs from breakfast. She had decided to have it early today because she had a lot to do today.

She had just turned down the corridor which led to her room when she was met by everyone else.

"Hi Marinette!" Trixx said happily, Nooroo sticking close to Alya, not used to their guest yet.

"Hello," Marinette said smiling "Trixx, do you know what day it is?"

"Well it's not Tuesday…" Trixx said, thinking hard.

"Is it Thursday?" Nooroo asked, speaking up.

"No, silly." Marinette said laughing a little "Today is December 24th. The day before Christmas."

"And what a beautiful day it is," Plagg said quickly before Trixx and Nooroo could ask what Marinette meant. "A wonderful day for a morning stroll." Plagg continued grabbing the hem of Marinette's dress with his unlit 'hands' and pulling on it, guiding her back downstairs and towards the courtyard door.

"Yes! Nothing starts the day better than a breath of fresh air as you walk around the grounds." Alya said, encouraging Marinette to go.

"Yeah! Or you can go ice skating!" Trixx said, trying to think of something else Marinette could do.

Rolling her eyes, Marinette let herself be steered that way, spotting a pair of ice skates on a sleeping hook by the door.

Smiling, she took them off, waking the hook up in surprise, but he didn't say anything.

At the door, Nino the coat-rack held out a nice warm red winter coat.

"Merci Monsieur," Marinette said smiling as she did the zip up on the coat fitting her just right, going down to just past her waist.

Opening the door she was a little surprised to see Chat Noir out here already.

"Oh, good morning." she called out waving to him, making him turn around in surprise and slip on the ice.

"Oh dear, are you alright?" Marinette asked, coming over to help him, but he got up on his own.

"I fell, and landed on my…" he said before wrapping his cloak around him embarrassed "On... On the ice."

"It's pretty slippery," Marinette agreed, before sitting down and putting the skates on over her shoes.

"Yes," Chat Noir agreed. "It's slippery."

"This is a perfect day for skating." Marinette said, making sure the knots were nice and tight. "Although, I'm not all that good at it." she admitted getting up again and finding her balance.

Plagg, Wayzz, Tikki, Alya, Trixx and Nooroo were watching from the back door all hoping that this might get them closer together.

Despite saying she wasn't very good, Marinette literally skated circles around Chat Noir a few times giggling a little. "

Come on," she said, holding out a hand for him to take.

"No," Chat said and turned back to the castle but saw everyone there.

"Go on Master," Plagg said encouragingly, waving him on "Who knows, it might be fun."

"Go for it!" Trixx and Noroo called out together.

Getting a little more confident, Chat turned back to Marinette but then looked to his feet not quite sure what to do.

Needing a better view, everyone ran outside and up to the bridge overlooking the lake.

"Come one, why don't you try it like this?" Marinette said turning and skating off on her left foot, counting "One… two… three…" then she changed to her right "One… two… three… See? Its easy."

Nervously, Chat took a step and started counting, like Marinette did, but wasn't very good at keeping his balance on the ice so his arms were flying all over the place.

Up on the bridge, Plagg looked the most pleased, laughing at how great this plan was, and Alya while a bit surprised said what they were all thinking:

"I think this might work."

Slowly Chat got a little better keeping his balance and got more confident being on the ice.

Everyone was having so much fun, they didn't hear the gloomy music of an old pipe organ being played from somewhere in the East Wing of the castle.

Ok I really need to know who is going to play Forte. Felix, or XY (as suggested by Sunrise Phoenix)