Disclaimer: I do not own the Erik, Christine, or any other characters mentioned. All I own is the plot. Songs owned by ALW.

Chapter 1

Christine couldn't believe it, but then again she wouldn't put anything past Raoul, especially since when she first set foot in the DeChagny Chateau she had not been able to do anything for herself. An order she found out Raoul had given the servants.

"Raoul! Raoul DeChagny, where are you! I need to speak with you NOW!" Christine called at the top of her lungs.

"Mademoiselle, he's busy right now I can tell him to talk to you when he is finished." A female servant responded.

"He'd better talk to me immediately or this engagement is over! I'm through with this, Marie!" Christine said angrily.

"Can I prepare you some breakfast, Mademoiselle, perhaps some toast with those strawberry preserves you seem to favor so much?"

"No, that's the other thing, when did I become a paraplegic? Last time I checked, I still have two hands with which I can prepare my own breakfast."

Neither of the women saw Raoul enter the hallway and quietly listen in.

"I'm sorry, Mademoiselle, forgive me for having offended you." Marie responded.

"No apologies are necessary, Marie, Little Lotte needs to learn her place as the Vicomtess DeChagny, which does not in any way involve preparing her own meals. Go prepare that toast and those delightful strawberry preserves you spoke of. We shall take breakfast in my study." Raoul said from the doorway of his study, startling both Christine and Marie.

Marie bowed and left to prepare the ordered breakfast for the couple. Meanwhile, Raoul placed a hand on Christine's shoulder and steered her toward his study. Once inside, Christine swatted his hand away and sat on the couch.

"I really would like you to stop calling me Little Lotte, Raoul, for I haven't been Little Lotte for quite awhile." Christine said, thinking that she hadn't been so since going to study in the ballet dormitories under Madame Giry.

Raoul ignored her comment, "What was it you wanted to speak with me so civilly about, Lotte, so much so that you resorted to frightening Marie?"

"The wedding," Christine said holding up her left hand with the gleaming engagement ring for emphasis.

"Ah, yes, I almost forgot," He grabbed quite a lot of money, by Christine's standard, off his desk and handed it to her, "for your wedding dress."

"Raoul, this is too much I assure you I am able to find a dress for a lot less. Why did you not tell me that you had decided to move the wedding date up? As I had remembered it, you had said we were going to make important decisions such as this together as a couple."

"Well, I'd thought that you would want to have a clean beginning as soon as you could so you could forget everything about the life you knew before…"

Christine, however, heard something else.

She was under the Opera Populaire, her first time there, actually. She watched in awe as he swept off his cloak and began to serenade her.

"I have brought you to the seat of sweet music's throne ...To this kingdom where all must pay homage to music ...Music ...You have come here for one purpose and one alone ...Since the moment I first heard you sing, I have needed you with me to serve me, to sing for my music ...my music ..."

He then approached her, his gait graceful, poised as he continued to sing.

"Night-time sharpens, heightens each sensation ...Darkness stirs and wakes imagination ...Silently the senses abandon their defenses ...Slowly, gently, night unfurls its splendour ...Grasp it, sense it, tremulous and tender ...Turn your face away from the garish light of day, turn your thoughts away from cold, unfeeling light and listen to the music of the night ..."

She could feel the darkness of his music encircle her as he came closer, all thoughts of Raoul and the Opera vanished from her head as she was swept into the musical darkness.

"Close your eyes and surrender to your darkest dreams! Purge your thoughts of the life you knew before! Close your eyes, let your spirit start to soar! And you'll live as you've never lived before ..."

She closed her eyes as the music continued to encircle her, imagining the life this music and he could bringher. Such passion she'd never known before.

"Softly, deftly, music shall caress you ...Hear it, feel it, secretly possess you. Open up your mind, let your fantasies unwind, in this darkness which you know you cannot fight --the darkness of the music of the night ...Let your mind start a journey through a strange, new world! Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before! Let your soul take you where you long to be! Only then can you belong to me ..."

Right then that was all she wanted, to belong to him completely as he finally came to stand in front of her, as he grabbed her, as he spun her around, as he sang into her ear.

"Floating, falling, sweet intoxication! Touch me, trust me, savour each sensation! Let the dream begin, let your darker side give in to the power of the music that I write --
the power of the music of the night ..."

Guided by him, she gently caressed his milk white mask savouring its cool porcelain smoothness. Yet he would not allow her hand to linger on his mask for long. Which was fine by her since all she wanted was to stay there in his arms, surrounded by his scent…everything went black after that, but she did remember the end of his song.

"You alone can make my song take flight -help me make the music of the night ..."

"Lotte, Lotte, Christine!" Raoul snapped his fingers in front of her eyes.

Christine shook off the memory even though she felt a strange sense of comfort in remembering it, "I apologize, Raoul, what were you saying?"

"Where did you go, L—Christine? You had this glazed look in your eye."

"Nowhere, Raoul, nowhere." Christine sighed, as the odd sense of comfort she had felt left her.

"You weren't thinking of him, were you? You really need to forget what happened. For the sake of everyone, especially me. Please, focus on our future together, Lotte, please." Raoul didn't like to beg, but he felt he had to just this once because that look was reminiscent of another look, one he tried to forget.

"For heaven's sake, Raoul, I wasn't thinking of him. I'd just been picturing the wedding…" Christine lied.

She felt dreadful about lying to Raoul, but at the same time she knew Raoul would react badly if she told him. Would her thoughts ever be free of both he and Raoul?

"May I take leave of you now, Raoul, I'd like to catch Meg before she leaves, I promised her that she could come with me to pick out the wedding dress."

"What about bre—never mind, go. Be sure it is the most elegant dress there is."

"I will." Christine said, although she knew that the most elegant dress for her was destroyed by water.

Once Christine had left, Raoul summoned a servant and ordered, "Fetch me Madame Giry."

Once Madame Giry arrived, Raoul sighed and asked her, "Do you know what troubles Christine?"

"I do not, Raoul." Madame Giry replied.

"Could you ask her? Maybe she'll open up to you."

"I highly doubt that, Raoul, if she will not tell Meg, then she surely will not tell me. But I might know someone she would tell. Can I ask him to talk to her, then I'll be able to tell you what's troubling her. This wedding has to come to fruition in two weeks, for all our sakes, especially hers."

A/N: Please review! Constructive criticism accepted gratefully! No flames!