#javert was also in heat at the time which is why valjean didn’t notice the foreman situation.

[judasisgayriot]

cause we watched les mis the other day I keep getting the factory bit of ‘at the end of the day’ stuck in my head and like. This factory is a shambles ‘the boss he never knows that the foreman is always on heat’ ok someone let him know about this unchecked omega smh!!! Foreman’s literally walking around in heat this isn’t fantine’s problem or responsibility… get it together alpha monsieur le maire

[discoenj]

idea from this post 

this specific set is a modern au where everyone’s alive because!! i had Ideas. but i’m also more than willing to do something where there is death if anyone wants it 

Also there’s been some age adjustments for the bishop so he’s around longer (i came So Close to hurting valjean but decided he’s been through enough)

also i’ll. put it below the cut because it got kind of long 

valjean isn’t completely sure where it starts. he figures, maybe, that is was with the bishop. 

-it’s bishop myriel that decides valjean deserves a better life and does what he can to help, practically adopting the already-adult. they stay in contact as much as they can, and after a while even valjean allows himself to consider the bishop family. The bishop stays around and helps where he can. 

-valjean finds out about fantine’s background and just. adopts her. it’s mostly accidental, and he doesn’t even realise he’s doing it until it’s already happened. 

-when he gets cosette, yeah. he ends up adopting her as his daughter too. when someone asked how that worked he just kind of. shrugged. he wasn’t even sure. honestly, at this point, fantine’s just happy to have her daughter back and is just kind of rolling with it 

-then there’s javert. valjean isn’t sure exactly when it happened; but maybe he has an idea. perhaps it was one day when they were having an argument, and it got a bit heated, and the inspector accidentally let it slip that he “had been born in a prison, damnit, i do understand!” when valjean hears that, he just. stops. and considers for a minute. 

-but javert? javert’s not having that. he says no to valjean adopting him. 

-so valjean lets javert have that, at least, but still offers him a family. 

-this is very likely the first time javert has truly felt loved and like he was really, truly meant to be somewhere, and wanted, at that. he accepts, albeit after “much consideration”, saying that it “was for the safety of others”. 

-fantine, valjean, and the bishop all know what that translates to, but don’t say anything. 

-next is fauchelevent. he was a complete accident, and he wasn’t really adopted a son, he was more… accepted into the family, much like javert. 

-so it goes on like that for a bit, until enjolras comes along 

-he’s not doing too great; he could be a happier child. he’s either run away or gotten kicked out, no one’s sure which, and he doesn’t particularly want to talk about it. 

-it’s javert and fantine, with cosette, who find him, outside after a storm. he’s huddled on a park bench or something, soaking wet, and fantine sees him and decides they need to help. cosette it excited at the prospect of a new friend—a brother! javert almost protests, but the group of now-four end up walking home together, javert carrying the child that can’t yet be even ten years old 

-valjean takes one look at this kid and adopts him on the spot. 

-as cosette and enjolras get older, they start making friends.

-there’s eponine, who’s parents… valjean met them once (maybe twice) and decided right off the bat he didn’t like them. fantine agreed, saying something about how they had watched cosette and been terrible. valjean agreed. 

-he tried to get javert to arrest them but javert just. “i don’t have a reason to? we know they’re thieves, but we don’t have enough evidence. i’ll see what i can find, though,” 

-it’s sometime in middle school that enjolras meets combeferre and courfeyrac. they stay over so often that they’re practically family; valjean unofficially adopts them not too long after meeting them. he can see how the three boys get along and how well they work together, all three balancing each other out in a great way. 

-then combeferre makes friends with a boy named joly from his science class. the two get along very well and joly’s invited to stick around with the rest of the group (which he does). with him he brings a girl he’s friends with, musichetta. the two of them get adopted fairly quickly as well. 

-with bossuet, it’s an accident. It’s not bossuet who almost trips or falls, but joly, which is surprising because he’s usually not too clumsy (it’s bossuet that they’d expect to, quite literally, fall for joly, but it happens the other way around) 

-joly almost tripped and fell but bossuet helped. Bonus if joly did fall and bossuet just. Laid next to him. But that’s how they meet bossuet; joly falls and bossuet happens to be in the right place at the right time, and joly suggests he comes to meet the rest of his friends. 

-no one’s quite sure how jehan ends up in the group, only that they do and that they’re staying, no one wanting them to leave. They were a little awkward and shy, at first, but they stayed, and fantine took one look at them and knew that they were a keeper 

-it’s a joke, at first, that jehan offer for the gothic kid to come over for dinner one night when the entire family got together, but they do. Enter montparnasse, who is unofficially adopted. Javert still thinks he’s a little shady, but montparnasse isn’t a complete jerk.

-feuilly first met cosette, and then enjolras, and was officially made a member of the group quite quickly. Enjolras got along with him quite well. 

-with feuilly came grantaire. He had met him in an art class somewhere, and then it had turned out that they had a literature class together, and he had offered for grantaire to sit with him and the rest of the group at lunch one day. He kept coming. 

-it’s not until one night that grantaire ends up on the doorstep, though, that he ends up apart of the family. It’s raining, and it’s javert who notices him. “Valjean?” “Hm?” “Were we expecting guests? There’s a child on the porch,” “I know. Would you like to let him in,” “Oh my god,”. After this exchange javert did let grantaire in, who was apologetic and shivering. “I’m sorry, I didn’t… I couldn’t think of anywhere else to go, and my parents… well, my father…” “It’s quite alright,” Valjean had said with a smile, allowing him to sit on the couch, getting him a blanket and some hot tea to help warm him. He’s learned from Myriel, that is undeniable. 

-it’s myriel that first starts to notice signs that things might not be all that great with grantaire, in the sense of he notices that grantaire is trying, but… he’s struggling. But it’s javert who first talks with him about it, noticing the little things (he’s not an inspector for nothing), like the way he holds himself and how his body sags under the weight of it all when he thinks no one’s looking, how he has gotten himself addicted to caffeine and avoids sleep and yet, when he can sleep, does it for long increments at a time, and how he holds the bottles he drinks out of as if they were bottles made for something alcoholic. Javert recognises these signs and, one day, takes Grantaire to the side. “Is everything alright?” he asks, legitimately concerned for one of the kids he didn’t even ask to have around. “Yeah, I’m great, why?” Grantaire had responded fairly easily, almost as if he were attempting to tease the inspector. “I can tell, it’s alright. You can talk with any of us, if you need it, we’re all here for you, and I’m quite sure most of us can understand.” they both agree to not talk about this exchange, or any others of this manner that they have. But Grantaire knows that his new family is there for him, and it… it helps, a little, to know he’s not alone. 

-bahorel was possibly brought along by grantaire, who had met him in a creative writing class and thought he was amusing? Courfeyrac and jehan had agreed that he should join, the two also sharing the same class with bahorel and grantaire. At this point, javert had sighed and shrugged, fully resigned to the fact that he was an uncle to all of these children. 

-it’s sometime in eighth grade when joly finally asks musichetta out. She accepts. His anxiety spikes as he realises that it’s very possible he might also like bossuet quite a lot, and then he starts to notice the way that musichetta and bossuet have both started looking at each other and “Do you think everything’s okay?” “I’m sure it’ll be alright, Joly,” “But--” “If you’re really concerned, talk to them,” 

-because joly may be smart. But does he notice that they both very obviously like him very much too? Not at first. It probably takes fantine asking him when he and musichetta started dating bossuet that he just. Finally realised. 

-now that his anxieties have been adequately addressed, he’s able to bring it up to musichetta 

-she’s the one that actually. Goes to bossuet and asks him. So now they’re all happy together!! 

-no one’s really… sure when grantaire and enjolras get together, it just kind of… happens. They provide each other with a certain balance and enough of a challenge and they help make the other better, reminding the other when there’s something they may have forgotten and making sure that they’re doing well and taking care of themselves. There’s also the arguments and the debates, which, while still… a lot, and almost a show to watch, aren’t fueled by only disagreement but the enjoyment they both get from the debate and “Exercising their minds”, for lack of a better term 

-they also end up adopting eponine’s younger brother, gavroche. 

-they’re either seniors in high school or freshmen in college when they get the call that myriel has been put in the hospital and likely won’t make it. They all knew him, and they had all gotten close to him, albeit not as close as they had with valjean. He had still been a fixture in everyone’s lives, someone there to help when he could and someone they could talk to. 

-and enjolras and grantaire have an argument. It’s over something petty, really, but with everything going on, everyone’s under so much stress that it just… spirals. It ends with grantaire staying at the cafe overnight, enjolras storming out and going home before everything crashed down on him and he started crying. Cosette helped him when she went back home, asking if he wanted to call grantaire (he said no to that one) or any of his other friends. All but grantaire ended up staying the night that night, grantaire having declined any offers for him to stay with any of his friends. 

-when the group goes to the cafe the next day, they’re in awe of the back wall. On it, there’s a painting of a family tree. It starts with myriel some candlesticks by a painting of the bishop, a line connecting him to valjean, who has some bread (for the obligatory bread joke) next to his portrait. His line connects to fantine, with the locket by hers, which connects to cosette, who has a little bird. Then there’s… everyone in the group is there, each with portraits and symbols and lines connecting everyone like a web, and it looked almost messy and yet it wasn’t, not to them, because they understood how everyone connected. Even javert and fauchelevent are there, connected to valjean and javert with a line going… nowhere. There’s lines for gavroche, connecting him to eponine and enjolras and… a dark spot, where there’s no one there, the same spot javert’s line goes to. Enjolras makes decision to have someone right an “R” there, for lack of a portrait. 

-when grantaire returns, he’s crowded by his friends, and he appreciates the gesture, really, but he had left because he had actually started to get tired and had crashed somewhere that javert had suggested he go for some alone time, and “i’m fine, really, what…” 

-and then he sees where they’re written in an R, for him, and almost tears up 

-he and enjolras apologise, in their own way 

-someone makes sure to get a picture of the painting of the family tree grantaire had done so they can show it to the bishop, valjean, fantine, and javert. 

-when myriel dies, everyone does their best to stay happy, not because they don’t want to mourn him but because that was one of his last requests--for them to remember him fondly and keep their heads up and hopes high and to look for the good, to fight for what’s right, and to remember what they had been taught. 

-does that stop everyone from having a group breakdown sometime around his funeral? No. but they’re all together, they’re all a family, and that’s what he would’ve wanted. They’re all getting better and they’re trying and things are looking like they’ll actually be okay. And that’s all any of them could ever ask for.

[theatricaldynamite]

C o s e t t e x J o h a n n a AU

For

@elviriel

​

I took our main baes and made an au of them where they end up together. 

Starring Devery Jacobs - Cosette Jasmine Cephas Jones- Johanna Barker Jason Momoa- Jean Valjean Gina Torres- Javert Mads Mikkelsen- Judge Turpin Laverne Cox- Benjamin Barker/Sweeney Todd 

Please remember that this is also a Sweeney Todd AU and Judge Turpin is gross.

Larks

Jean Valjean was once in jail.  He did it to feed his family, but that did not stop him from being put in jail for stealing a loaf of bread.  When he was released, his family had perished.  Starvation, it seemed.  Now that he was out of jail, finding good honest work was even harder which is why he changed his name using forged papers and the candlesticks a priest had given him to show him he could change his fate.

He changed his name, his background and his life and was now a successful business owner in a small town in France.  He maintained a low-profile life style which kept him safe for a while.  His former parole officer, it has seemed, has been trying to find him all these years.  When Javert showed up on his door step, Jean thought he was finished.  However, he didn’t seem to recognize him.  In fact, he wasn’t after him, but one of his workers, a young woman named Fantine.  She has been causing a ruckus regarding her daughter who was in foster care. The family looking after her had put in a formal complaint.

Fantine was desperate to get her daughter back so much that she was ignoring cancer treatments- not that she could afford them anyways. Her daughter, Euphrasie, had been taken away from her as she was so young, alone and sick when she gave birth to her.  Euphrasie, or Cosette as she called her, was her main motivation.  

When Jean Valjean heard her story, he was deeply moved and wanted to protect this young girl in the way he wasn’t able to protect his family.  She didn’t last long enough to hear these words from him, but it was long enough for Javert to recognize who he actually was.  He needed to move fast to get to Cosette

Cosette was raised by a number of different people in a number of different houses with nothing consistent in her life but her misery. She did not care for the different places she was put.  Her latest one was even worse than any house she’s been in.  She felt like Cinderella without a Fairy Godmother.  Tormented by the other foster kids and put to work by the guardians.  She was only eight years old but she knew how hard life can be.  

She had hopes; daydreams about her real mother. A castle on a cloud for just her and her mom.  She dreamt of her mother coming to pick her up and whisking her away to a happy life.

A mother never came, but a father did.

As the first snow fell of the season, Cosette was sent to get groceries in clothes that were too flimsy for the snow. She had ten dollars and a list that would not be covered by it.  It would be bad to steal.  It would be worse for her to not.  

“Excuse me,” she heard a deep voice behind her say. She turned to find a large man in nice clothes looking at her.  She wasn’t allowed to talk to strangers. Panicking, she ran.

“Wait,” he called.  “Is your name Euphrasie? Are you Cosette?”

She stopped so fast she fell to the ground.  He knew her name! He was at her side in an instant making sure she wasn’t hurt.  It’s been a long time since she’s seen kindness.

“I’m a friend of your mother.”  He told her.  He told her what happened to her and how he wanted to take care of her if she wanted. He warned her that it might be dangerous because he wouldn’t be able to legally adopt her.  People would think she was kidnapped and they would have to hide. A policewoman name Javert would always be looking for them.  Cosette considered it.  She wanted a new life, but danger scared her.

“Do it, lark” said the voice of her foster-sister Eponine coming out of her hiding spot calling her by the nickname they gave her. “Leave. Get out of this place and never look back. You’ll be more free out there than you would be here. Go be happy.”

“I thought you didn’t like me,” replied Cosette confused on why she was concerned about her happiness.

“I don’t,” she said. “ I knew you would get to leave one day and I would be stuck here forever.”

“You can come with us if you like as well,” piped up Jean.  “I would never leave someone unhappy behind.”

“You’re not kidnapping two kids in one day, mister!” said Eponine. “Besides, they are my real parents and got another baby on the way.  If I go with you, who’s gonna look after my sister and my little brother on his way. Just go.  I won’t tell anyone.  I saw nothin’.”

Cosette did something that she’s never done before.  She hugged her foster-sister.  It wasn’t a big hug, or a warm hug, or even a good hug but it did make Eponine smile. With that Cosette fled with a stranger into a happier life.

They hid in Paris.  Her new papa had friends who hid them away.  It was small but very comfortable. Cosette never knew such happiness.  How wonderful the world was now.  She had time to grow curious, to learn and to explore. Her papa told her if she smiled anymore than she does that she would burst. They stayed there for many years.  Everyday better than the last.

One day she came home to find that her father was packing them suitcases.  They were close to being found.  Javier was hot on their trail.  They needed to move fast in order to get away.  Jean offered her two option like he had done all of those years ago.  She could either stay here as she was almost of age to be on her own. He would give her everything, including his candlesticks.  The other option was to flee with him.  

Together, they went to London to once again make their life anew.

Cosette loved Paris, but London was nice too. It was much darker there and more rainy, but she made the most of it. She like the walks that they went on together. Skipping ahead and waiting for him to catch up. Offering food or money to the needy as they passed.

They were walking down a street that they never had walked through before as they tried to change up where they walked to.  Turney Lane. She felt eyes watching her. She looked up to find a pretty girl around her age looking at her.  Was she crying?  She fled as soon as they made eye contact. Cosette was no stranger to the look in her eyes.  She had that same look when she lived in her foster homes.

“Do you know who lives in there papa?” she asked, not really expecting him too.  He replied as she thought.

“Johanna,” said homeless woman who came up to her to beg for money.  She had seen this woman before. She believed it was on Fleet Street. Cosette tried to emit her into a hospital but she ran off before she could. Cosette felt that she was younger than what she looked.

“I’m sorry,” replied Jean putting money in her cup.  “What was that?”

“Johanna,” repeated the woman in her raspy voice. “Pretty little Johanna.  The witch locks her up in her high tower and brushes her hair.”

“Rapunzel,” offered Jean. The woman didn’t respond.

“Who is the witch?” asked Cosette.

“Judge Turpin that is, that is, that is the witch,” she replied excitedly. Jean paled at the title of Judge.  “Locks her up and throws away the key. Beats up boys who look at her.  Go in to say nice words comes out with a bloody eye.”  She laughed and ran off. She screamed the name again as she ran off. Johanna.  

Who was Johanna? Why was she locked in a tower?

~~~~~~~~

Sweeney Todd was born Benjamin Barker and a biological parent of Johanna who would have loved to raise her if given the chance. She was raised in New York and was a fantastic hair artist. Before she was fully transitioned, she came to London to apprentice a great barber.  While there, she fell in love with a Londoner with bright blonde hair named Lucy. They got married and soon Johanna came along. For a while, their life was perfect.

Lucy has always been in the same social circle as Judge Turpin and tried to avoid him as best as she could. Whenever they were at parties, she could feel his heated eyes follow her, even at age 13. When the judge found out that Lucy not only married transgendered woman, but a black one at that, he was outraged. He had the US citizen Benjamin Barker deported for marriage fraud and sent back to the states for life. Lucy was devastated. Her love was gone. Her income was depleting and she had a year old baby that should could hardly take care of.  After a horrific meeting with the judge to bring her partner back, she was found no longer fit to take care of her baby.  The judge swiftly came in and took the baby to raised her.

Johanna was raised in a quiet part of London.  One of her first memories was being six and getting her hair dyed blonde. Whenever she asked or complained about having to dye it, all her guardian would tell her is that “he prefered her blonde.”  

She was shut in, homeschool and never ventured outside of London.  She tried to run away, but he somehow always knew her plan.  It was almost like he was always watching her.  She felt like her pet lark.  Caged and unable to sing.  Larks never will, you know, when they are captive.

She was lectured about the evils of men. Warned to keep away from them.  That was fine with her.  She never cared for them much anyway.  

She noticed Cosette while gazing out her window on a gloomy fall day. Everything in her life seemed to be on a gray filter and it was the first sunshine she’s seen in years.  The sunshine practically floated as she danced along the sidewalk and her laugh rang through high and clear. She was walking with a big burly man whom she called Papa.  He seemed to dote on her. By the time the young ball of light noticed her, she was in tears. Making eye contact with her, she fled from the window unable to show her face to someone so pure.

She saw her again the next day. And the day after that. Both of these times it seemed like she was looking for her.  One the third day, she talked to her.

“Hello,” she had greeted her. Shouting from the street. Johanna knew the fates of the men who greeted her, but what of women?  Would the judge hurt her too? He was home today so who knew what he would do. Flustered, Johanna awkwardly waved and once again fled.

A few minutes later, the light was in her room. Her guardian introduced her as Fantine and she was there to teach her French.

“Thank you, Judge Turpin,” said Cosette.  “No off you go, we have work to do!”

No one shushes the judge. Yet she did and she got away with it.  And she was in her bedroom.

“Are you OK?” she whispered urgently as soon as he was out of earshot. “My papa, he’s downstairs, and I are concerned.” Whatever she was expecting it was not that. “I managed to convince that creepo to have me tutor you in French. Oh, my name isn’t Fantine, by the way. It’s Cosette. I didn’t think it was smart to give my name to the guy if I was going to kidnap you.”

“What?” was all Johanna could muster.

“The look in your eyes.  It reminds me of my life from before my papa saved me. So we came here to rescue the princess from her tower, if she wanted. Always need consent and permission to help.”

“I’m…” Johanna started.  Her reflex response was fine.  She was not fine.  She was terrible and trapped. She found herself telling this light everything because she knew she could trust her. Somehow, she knew that she was not a trap from the Judge.  “He watches me. Not just over me but through the walls.  He does it when I sleep or thinks I don’t know he’s there, but I know. I hear him.”

“Hear him doing what?” asked Cosette asked. Johanna shook her head unable to utter the words.  “Oh.”

“I’ll be eighteen soon, but I think..,” Johanna choked out determined not to cry with the Judge downstairs. “I think he’s going to try to marry me.  So, I’ll never be able to leave.”

“I’ll get you out of here. I promise you I will get you out.  If you are OK with the news thinking that you have been kidnapped then we can do it tomorrow if you want.” She was bright, too bright for Johanna.  Colors began to refill her room.  The walls were no longer gray but a deep blue. Her bird even hopped around excited.

“Can I bring my bird? It’s a lark.  I want to free her.” Cosette laughed looking at the bird nodding her head and confirming the lark can come too.  Johanna was getting adventurous now. “And I want to get a short hair cut.  Eventually, grow it out and never dye it blonde again.”

“Sure. I mean, yeah.  Whatever you want,” replied Cosette a little confused. “What would be the best day to break you free?”

“Monday, it’s his longest day! But, why are you doing this? Why are you helping me?”

“My real name is Euphrasie Tholomyès.  I was on the news as a foster care kid who was kidnapped. I wasn’t.  I ran away with a stranger because he knew my mom and it was the best decision of my life.” She grabbed Johanna’s hands. “I don’t know your mom, but I can do that for you, too.” They froze as a voice drifted from the first floor.  It was time for Cosette to leave.

“One more thing before I go and if you don’t like it, I’ll never do it again.” Before Johanna could even respond, she felt Cosette’s lips lightly touch hers. It was over as soon it is began but even more colors in the room started shining. Johanna found herself pulling the girl closer and kissing her as hard as she could feeling the rainbow shine though.  

Cosette left and kept true to her word. On Monday, she was free.  She had finally found her family. Little did she know that as she fled, her biological family returned.  

Sweeney Todd was back in London and she was going to get her revenge.

[readingraebow]

Les Misérables Section Ten

Part 5 - Books 1-3

1. Why does Enjolras encourage some men to leave the barricade? He's sure that they're all going to die and doesn't want men who have families sacrificing themselves because that's a worse kind of abandonment. Even though dying at the barricade would be a noble act, it would leave their families destitute since most women who were left without a provider turned to prostitution and most children who were left orphaned died. Plus, he says that the barricade can be manned by thirty men so why sacrifice forty? That's wasteful since those men could be useful elsewhere. So he encourages men who have families to leave.

2. Who provides a fifth uniform so a fifth man can escape death at the barricade? Five men are selected to leave the barricade but there are only four uniforms. So they ask Marius to choose which man stays and which four will leave. Marius is struggling with this since he'll basically be sentencing a man to death when another uniform appears on the heap. Jean Valjean joined them while they were trying to decide which man should stay, sensed the problem and stripped off his own uniform to allow all five men to be saved.

3. What does Jean Valjean request as compensation for his sacrifice for the Republic? So Javert has been tied up in the tavern all this time and the battle is ~heating up and everyone is going to defend the barricade. So Enjolras says that the last man out is to shoot Javert in the head. Well, Jean Valjean hears this and asks if he's still entitled to a reward for his help with the Republic. Enjolras says that he is and Jean Valjean asks if he can be the one to put a bullet in Javert's head. Enjolras asks if anyone objects to this, no one does and he agrees. But just as Jean Valjean is about to shoot Javert, gunfire breaks out and everyone goes to defend the barricade. So Jean Valjean unties Javert and tells him to come with him. He takes him to the back of the barricade, tells him where he's been living and under what name and then lets him go.

4. What are the Parisian sewers like when Bruneseau visits them in 1805? What are they like in 1832? When Bruneseau visits the sewers in 1805, they are, uh, not great. The are suuuuper unclean (made worse by the fact that they are sewers) and frequently back up and flood the streets of Paris. The entire sewer system had been built by several different monarchs so the entire system pretty much didn't make sense. With passages twisting and turning without reason, rising and falling, with scars on the floors and gashes in the walls, the structural nightmare was nothing compared to the actual sewer itself. Reeking cesspits, poisonous ooze on the walls, drops falling from the room, darkness: basically it was Babylon's digestive system and it needed a cleansing. Which is what it ended up getting. By 1832, the entire thing had been overhauled so it was clean, cold, straight and correct. But it also took cholera to correct this since the sewer system was part of the problem of public hygiene. Basically because the sewers were constructed wrong, the sewer system also contaminated their water system. So it wasn't until that was corrected that the sewers could be overhauled, sanitized and begin to run smoothly.

5. How does Jean Valjean determine which path to take? So the sewer system is uneven and the parts that slope downhill lead toward the river. When Jean Valjean first enters the sewer, he incorrectly gauges where he is. But he rightly realizes that the sewers are basically the same as the streets above. So he pretty much wanders blindly into the sewer, hoping to make it away from the battle area and into the part of Paris where people are still living their everyday lives. Eventually he realizes that he's going downhill and also realizes that in this way, he will eventually reach the river. When he reaches another opening, he also feels the outside of it to see if it's smaller. If it is, he passes it, rightly thinking it's a dead end and he's continuing in the main tunnel.

6. Who does Jean Valjean meet at the sewer gate, and what offer does this person make to him? Just as Jean Valjean believes that he's stuck in the sewers and will die there without getting out, Thénardier appears on the other side of the gate. He sees Marius and thinks he's dead and says that if Jean Valjean will split whatever money he got off of Marius when he killed him, Thénardier will unlock the gate with his key and let him out. Well, Jean Valjean doesn't have his wallet and, of course, he didn't get any money off of Marius when he killed him and Marius doesn't have any money any way. So Jean Valjean manages to find a little bit of money in his pockets. Thankfully, this seems to satisfy Thénardier and he unlocks the gate and lets Jean Valjean out.

7. Who does Jean Valjean meet outside of the sewer? So it turns out Thénardier was being pursued by Javert. After Jean Valjean let Javert go, he returned to his normal duties and one of them was guarding the sewer gate. He saw Thénardier go that way and was waiting for him to show himself. Because Thénardier believed Jean Valjean murdered Marius, he actually let him out of the sewer because he thought a murderer would be of more interest to Javert. Well, Javert doesn't even recognize Jean Valjean until Jean Valjean tells him who he is. Jean Valjean decides to surrender himself but asks for one more thing before Javert does with him whatever he likes: he wants to take Marius home.

8. How does the night end for Jean Valjean and for Marius? When Jean Valjean and Javert take Marius home to his grandfather's house, everyone thinks he's dead. But Marius's family calls in a doctor who examines him and discovers that he has only minor wounds. While he is attending to Marius, Marius's grandfather appears. They hadn't woken him but the room they were in was next to his and old men are light sleepers. So he comes in and also believes Marius is dead. He is fretting about that and the fact that Marius died hating him when all he would've had to do was come home and the old man would've forgiven him. It's around this time that Marius wakes up and his grandfather faints, haha. Meanwhile, after dropping off Marius, Jean Valjean asks if he can have one more favor. He wants to go to his own home to say goodbye to Cosette and settle his affairs. Javert agrees and, when they arrive, pays the cab driver. Jean Valjean goes inside and happens to look back out the window and notices that Javert is gone.

  Section Ten Reading Journal

So I had a little trouble with this section. The battle at the barricade is such a climactic moment and it’s so charged that I wanted to just read it and get on with it. And Hugo puts a LOT of stuff in in the middle of the barricade. And I fully realize who I’m talking about (throwback to: the workings of a convent, the Parisian water system, a bird’s eye view of Paris) but it just felt really unnecessary? Like it was dragging out the battle a little too much when I was already struggling to get through it because so many of my favs died.

And between all of the stuff that felt like it didn’t need to be there, the battle felt almost too short? Like it was quick and done. If there’s anywhere in this 1200 page book that I could’ve used MORE details, it was there.

But there were still some fun things. It was a really great send off for most of Les Amis (but also they could’ve been mentioned more; especially since we had a pretty in depth introduction to each member. It would’ve been nice to have the same kind of send off). But my absolute favorite thing about this section was that Grantaire slept through THE WHOLE BATTLE. THE WHOLE THING. And I 100% cried when he woke up just to die with Enjolras so Enjolras didn’t have to die alone. I’M FINE. IT’S FINE. *hides giant pile of used tissues*

So I can’t wait to finish this book. I can’t believe there’s only one section left. It has definitely been a long time coming though and I’m excited to see how it all turns out!!