Chapter One
"Monsieur, you really will enjoy the opera house. It has been long enough since I left with you," Leron Follet said as he and his benefactor approached the once more grand opera house. "One would never have imagined that it burned so horribly twenty years ago." He turned back in the darkness of Paris' night to search out the face of the man that followed him. "Monsieur de Chagny? Are you all right, sir?"
Raoul de Chagny looked at the young man that he had taken away from that horrid place five years earlier. He had never meant to stumble – quite literally – into Meg Giry. No, Meg Follet, he corrected himself. Madame Giry's young, beautiful daughter had two children and a recently dead husband when they had met again, but her sorrow from her loss was masked as she had smiled with the light of the world in her eyes as she told him what a singer her young Leron was and of Lisette, her beautiful dancer that was only a year younger. They were children strait from heaven, she had told him. It had been then that Raoul had asked if the boy had wanted to travel. A talent shouldn't be wasted, of course. He had not been sure what had possessed him to ask at the time, but looking at the boy now a man of eighteen that walked a few paces ahead of him, he was not displeased with the result.
"I'm well, Leron. Keep your eyes in front of you before you run into something," he chided kindly.
"Didn't you know my mother from the opera house?"
"I'd much rather not talk of it."
Leron shut his mouth and turned his eyes to the walkway ahead of him and then to the steps in which he took two at a time up to the top. He scurried into the beautiful opera house and looked around him at all of its glory. He glanced back to Raoul, who lingered at the door. "Come in, sir," he beckoned to him with a mischievous smile placed on his thin lips. "Perhaps we'll hear the Angel of the Opera."
"The ghosts have been replaced with angels now, have they?" Raoul muttered sourly.
Leron placed a finger to his lips as he moved up another flight of stairs and into the room in which held the stage and the marvelous chandelier. He looked up to it and smiled slightly as he heard the distant sound of a soft voice.
"Think of me. Think of me fondly when we said good-bye. Remember me once and a while. Please promise me you'll try. When you find that you once again long to take your heart back and be free…. If you ever find a moment, spare a thought for me."
Raoul paused again where he stood and watched his young ward looking toward the ceiling as the words flowed down to their ears and the lad's face lit like the sun had touched it. The elder man followed his gaze to see the shadow of a figure he could not see clearly.
"Please, sir, if I might…"
"Of course," Raoul answered as he moved away.
"We never said our love was evergreen or as unchanging as the sea. But if you can still remember, stop and think of me."
"Is that an angel's voice that graces our opera house?" Leron asked with a smile on his face.
The owner of the voice's gasp echoed through the otherwise empty room and Leron turned a smiling face up toward her. "Angèl, Angèl, won't you come down from heaven just a moment for me?"
"Leron?" her surprised voice echoed down to him. "Oh Leron!"
"Don't let me stop your heavenly voice!"
"Think of me. Think of me waking silent and resigned. Imagine me trying to hard to put you from my mind," she sang, her voice wrapping around the room as she descended by way of the hidden stairs. "Recall those days, think back to all those times, think of the things we never knew. There will never be a day when I don't think of you!" She landed the end of the stairs in a run continued her quick pace across the stage and down to Leron, her expressive green eyes wild with excitement. She seemed to fly from the stage as she leapt into his arms. "Oh Leron! You've returned to us!"
"Upon my word, Angèl! No child any longer!"
She smiled and hugged him closely. "Nor you, Leron. Oh, you are sly! You heard me sing, you know you shouldn't. It is not good to sneak up on an angel while she sings."
"It is not good for an angel's voice to be kept from those of us that melt for it."
"I thought I was alone."
"Is it so late?"
"Yes."
"I had no idea, honestly. Monsieur and I-"
"Monsieur?" Angèl asked as her eyes traveled past her friend and to the doorway. At the sight of the man that lingered there, her small, pale hand gripped tightly to Leron's jacket. "He can't be here! Who is he, Leron? He shouldn't wander this place now! Out! Out I say!"
Leron let forth a chuckle that echoed. "Still a spoiled princess!" he announced to her. "Does Grandmama still tell you stories of ghosts and angels when you sleep?"
"Madame Giry does no such thing and has not done so since I was young!"
"And your mother?"
"Mama has not done so in years either!"
He laughed again, not only at her indignant responses, but at the fact that the simple diversion had steered her away from her quick temper. As quick as it came, it simmered again and was out, leaving an angelic smile on her features. She pushed back a strand of near black hair and stared at him with those green eyes. "So cruel, my old friend, that you forget I am no child now. Does Papa know you're here?"
"My own mother and sister do not."
"Horrible lad!" she announced, laughing between her words. "Are you the one who took my Leron away from here?"
Raoul looked over, startled to note that the girl- though it was hard to think of her as such with her angelic voice-had spoken to him. "Yes," he said simply, not commenting on the possessiveness in her young voice. He looked her over for a moment, noting her disheveled curls that fell around her face and her eyes that seemed to glow. "Do you sing for the opera?"
"Papa won't allow it yet."
"Still no?" Leron asked.
"Yes. Soon, though, I feel. He has something new that he said needs my voice and I have worked hard. Now that you're back you can sing the lead male role!"
"Me? Certainly not… I've hardly sung while away."
"The unpardonable sin!"
Leron laughed. "To your dear papa it will be, I fear." He turned back to Raoul. "He was my teacher, as well as hers."
"Ah. Why should I not be here?" Raoul asked suddenly. "You are here, and certainly I can protect myself far better than you."
"I am always here, but you should not hear my voice. A curse will be laid upon you." She stopped a moment. "I won't tell this time, because you didn't know, but next time you shan't be so free of it."
"A curse?" Raoul asked, a frown forming on his face.
"Yes, now leave. Get out. Out I say, before the curse decides to place itself upon you!" she said with a near-giggle, her exotic green eyes dancing.
Leron laughed. "Certainly you wouldn't turn him out this late, little angel? No. I will escort him to safety, never fear. He's not one to poke his head into it all."
"Good. Make sure not to let him hear again."
Leron shook his head and continued to smile. "Good evening, Mademoiselle Angèl."
A/N: Enters our story's namesake. Please R&R.
Lynx Ryder: AHH! So good to hear from you! Since I haven't been working on PotC I never get reviews from you so I was so happy to see you were the first reviewer of my story! Thank you for having faith in my writings, that means a lot to me :) If you have any advice along this as a fellow "I don't read so and so's kids fics" person, please let me know :)
Octopus1738: Wow, really:really excited: That's good b/c this is my first PotO fic. Or "phic" as I keep seeing it written. Clever… hehe… Anyway, thank you very much for your response! Hope this chapter was as good as the first!
TBC
TS
