Raoul Chagny was the first to return to school (excluding Enjolras), with plenty of stories to tell his close friends from that Sunday. The first Monday after the murder, he had spent his morning down in the police office with the still distraught Christine. They had been questioned separately, so Raoul had no idea whether she was still spouting out nonsense about "the Angel of Music" to the authorities.

The day after that, he had accompanied Christine and Mrs. Daae to the doctor. While Christine was extremely frustrated that no one could believe her, both Raoul and her mother had to be concerned. The doctors could not fine any signs of brain disease, but suggested that witnessing the dead body of Minister Martin had triggered the trauma she was still facing over her father's death. The Angel of Music, one of her father's fairytale stories, was her way of coping with another death.

"Please, Raoul, Mamma, you've got to believe me! I don't know if Erik is the Angel of Music or not, I doubt the Angel is real anymore... But someone taught me how to sing!"

"Who is Erik?" her mother asked Christine, growing more and more concerned.

"He's the one that taught me how to sing, he told me he was the Angel of Music!"

"You taught yourself how to sing, Christine," Raoul attempted to remind her, "You're always singing scales and stuff in your room, everyday."

"Scales that he taught me!"

The three of them went on like that for most of the day, until Raoul returned to school that Wednesday. Meg came back the day after that, Thursday, and Enjolras had been in school all week.

Maybe Christine was right, maybe there was some strange man that had taught her how to sing. The thought that could have happened, and he had no idea, was sickening, scary and fascinating at the same time.

Raoul felt like a fish out of water, as if he had come back after a three-month long summer vacation, although it had only been two days. His whole life seemed different. Most people moved across the halls, not caring enough to question Raoul on the mysterious murder. Of course, he had talked to Enjolras and a few of their other friends about it, but life for him continued in the usual mundane manner, no matter how different he felt internally.

"Yeah, that's awful," Marius commented during lunch period. "And Christine's not doing well?"

"No... I don't even know, really. She's just having a hard time," Raoul told his friends. 'A hard time' was what he and the Daae's had agreed to call it for the time being, trying not to get word out that Christine might just have well been going insane.

"Cosette told me she's seen her a few times with Meg, but I haven't really heard much else about her since," Marius said and Raoul thought of Cosette for the first time in a long time. Cosette Valean... when was the last time he had thought of her?

His head brought him back to a far away thought of when he was shifting through his father's old police papers. The murder of three in Concord, with one of the possible killers named Valjean... that was Cosette's last name.

Was it just coincidence that a Valjean family moved to their small, harmless town the same time as a vicious murder occurred? It had to have been.

Raoul didn't know much about Cosette's family in the first place. Her full name was very French sounding, but he knew nothing about her home life. Raoul thought he heard Marius say something about her being an only child with a dead mother, but he never really listened much when Marius went on rants about the 'love of his life.'

After school, he went to visit Christine again, but she still held on firmly to her fable of the Angel of Music.

"Okay, okay. So, I'm admitting that the Angel of Music isn't real, but there is definitely a man named Erik who wears a cape and a mask and I've talked to him. Whether or not he is the killer is beyond me, but someone was talking to me. You don't think I'm insane, do you?" Christine, despite the trauma she had faced, was extremely talkative with Raoul the past few days.

"I believe you. I'm not concerned with who the killer is. That's my father's job. I didn't know the minister, but I love you. I'm only worried about you," Raoul told her, grabbing her hand tightly. Christine had spent her day in bed, wrapped under the covers, a book on her nightstand.

"I love you, too."

Raoul smiled, he was beginning to feel better about Christine. She would be back to normal in no time. Well, at least her sweet oddness that was normal for her.

"So you're feeling better, than?"

"Oh, yes, I'm feeling much better. How was school today?"

"Good."

"And Enjolras and Meg were fine? They seemed to be okay?" she asked. Again, Raoul nodded.

"How was Cosette? I hope she was helping Meg along. You know, she texted me today, but I just didn't feel like talking to her. I've spent so much time in bed and I'm just tired a lot of the time."

There was her name again. Cosette.

"How is Cosette?" he countered, "I didn't see her today."

"Oh, well, I did see her yesterday. She and Meg came to visit and she seemed just fine. I miss being in school."

"Will you be back next week?" Raoul asked, wishing he could learn more about Cosette Valjean.

"Yes, definitely. I feel better when this whole murder is behind us. Oh, God, I still feel weird from it."

"I do too," he assured her, "We all are. Even Enjolras is still out of sorts from it."

"I wish it never happened," she said in a soft moan.

"Me too."

They continued on with their visit. Raoul was excited she was going to go back to school, things would start to seem normal again. They could get to the bottom of the murder, Christine's obsession with the Angel of Music would be solved and done with and everything could go back to normal.

Normal, that sounded pretty good to him.

Thank you for reading! I'm SO sorry I haven't updated in forever, but my laptop broke and I lost the chapter I was planning on posting. Hopefully, these two mini chapters make up for the time I spent away. Please review!