Chapter Text
The room was dead quiet. Everyone was staring. Finally, Courfreyac broke the silence. “Marius,” he said.
“Yes?” said Marius pleasantly. The inspector was silent and grim-faced next to him, arms folded across his chest.
“Could we have a word with you? In private?”
“Of course!” Said Marius, still smiling obliviously. He turned to the inspector, apologetic. “This will only take a moment, I’m sure. Why don’t you have a seat? These gentlemen are excellent conversationalists, I assure you.”
Javert turned his gaze to the assembled students. “Hmm. We shall see about that.” Joly whimpered.
Marius followed Courfreyac and Enjolras into the front room. The moment they were out of earshot, Enjolras rounded on him. “What the hell are you playing at, Marius?! Is this some game to you?!”
Marius took a step back, surprised. “What on earth are you talking about?”
Courfreyac put his head in his hands. “You cannot possibly be that naive.”
Marius looked between the two of them, utterly confused, and Enjolras lost it. “You brought. A police inspector. To a place where we meet weekly to plan to overthrow the monarchy!”
Marius looked even more confused, if that were possible. “A police inspector? No, no, that is Monsieur Javert, one of Cosette’s uncles. You remember Cosette, she’s the girl I’ve been telling you about.” His gaze turned faraway, a dreamy smile appearing on his face. “Ah, Cosette. She is an angel! The most beautiful-“
Courfreyac cut him off. “Yes, yes, Cosette is wonderful, incredible, the most precious thing you have ever had the honor of seeing, now what does this have to do with you bringing him here?”
Marius blinked, returning to the present. “Him? Oh, er, he and Monsieur Madeleine, her other uncle, caught me, er, well-“
“Spying on them?” Courfreyac said with a raised eyebrow.
“No!” Marius protested. “I was merely … admiring her. From afar.”
“Repeatedly and creepily from behind a tree,” Enjolras cut in impatiently. “Get to the point.”
Marius flushed. “Yes, well, after I declared my intentions towards Cosette, they insisted upon learning more about me; my family, my friends, my occupation. So I brought Monsieur Javert here, to meet you all. You are my dearest friends and I think highly of you." He bit his lip, brow furrowing. "I didn’t realize he was with the police, I never intended to put the revolution, or indeed, any of you, at risk!” He was a bit frantic now, large eyes worried. “Please forgive me, perhaps if I spoke with him, he wouldn’t mention it? He is not a Paris officer, and they are only here for the summer-“
Courfreyac took him by the shoulders and shook him gently. “Marius! It will be alright!” Enjolras opened his mouth, and he shot him a warning glare. “You didn’t tell him what we meet about, did you?” Marius shook his head. “Then as long as the rest of our friends keep their mouths shut, he’ll have nothing concrete to report.”
The second he finished speaking, there was a crash and a swell of noise from the back room.