Chapter One: The Magician

Disclaimer: OK. I saw THE ILLUSIONIST and figured I'd do a fic with a person like that in it. That and I like Magic and it's different than my normal stuff. Here are a few pre-fic notes:

I am still a MegErik fan. I just have an urge to do a fic like this- and I like designing my own chars. For fics 'n stuff.

This may-or may not- turn out like a sue. At this point I don't know but I'm hoping that it won't be.

I'm doing my best to keep them in character. There will be some points where they aren't-but that's it. Don't flame me on that. No flames at all actually.

It is a Semi-song fic. This means that they do sing- but it isn't a song fic.

"Attention everyone! Attention!" Called one of the two new managers of the Opera populaire- Barnard Charles. He was a tall man, very scrawny for his age; and had a light brush of silver hair on his face. He'd bought the opera Populaire from Andre' and Firmin four years prior, and had spent that time renovating it. He was a millionaire, and so was his partner, Bayard Mace. The two had been friends since childhood and decided that they would work together to make the opera populaire as wonderful as it once was. "As you know we seem to have come up a bit short in our funds to get the chandelier and most of the west part of the opera populaire finished; so to help raise money- we've hired extra help."

"From who?" Carlotta asked loudly as the doors to the stage opened to reveal a woman with a four-year old girl holding onto her hand and a few bags. The woman was a redhead who had on a long black overcoat with a fluffy white shirt under it. The woman herself looked very thin, as if she'd not been fed like a queen, much like Carlotta had in the past. The little girl however, looked well fed while not being too chubby.

"May I present- Mademoiselle Dane. She will be performing magic on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays while we practice our operas Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays." No one seemed happy to hear about it- although some were glad to hear that three days a week they'd get off of practice to relax or something. But they weren't sure she could actually do magic.

When they asked her if she could, she just smiled, brought a table over to Carlotta; and began her trick. She grabbed a frog and put it under one of three cups. She moved the cups around, and then stacked the two empty ones on each other. She then tapped it three times- and then asked Carlotta to cough.

So she did, it was a soft cough at first, but then she started gagging, and started screaming when the frog that had been put under the cups started to crawl out of her throat and jump off her tongue.

Diane Dane caught the frog and put it in the palm of her hand, she then stuck two of her own fingers into the palm where the frog was, and pulled out a red rose. She handed it to her daughter while the entire opera cast was clapping for her.

"This is my daughter, Mia Dane." Mia smiled quietly and stayed close to her mother. Mia had red hair like her mother, except her hair had a slight curl to it, while Diane's just hung at her shoulders and didn't flow at all.

"Mademoiselle Dane has agreed to help bring in more of a crowed with her magic tricks so we can re-build the populaire completely. Now, Mademoiselle- may I show you to your room?"

Diane got a private room for her stay. Mostly because she wasn't part of the ballet, so she couldn't stay in the ballet dormitories. It wasn't a big room, but she didn't need a big room, she just needed room to practice her tricks with her daughter, and sleep.

"Thank you Monsieur." Diane said before Charles could shut the door behind him and leave Diane and Mia in their room. "Well Mia? How do you like it so far?"

"It's OK." Mia smiled at her mother and asked her to do a card trick. Card tricks were always Mia's favorite of her mother's tricks. Diane had many flashy tricks, most with frogs coming out of opera singer's mouths, speeding up time in a certain place, or letting an orange drop at a slow rate. She never could understand why a simple card trick was Mia's favorite.

"Alright, can you find me a deck?" Mia nodded eagerly and unpacked her bags in the tiny room connected to Diane's; that was a good way to get her daughter to unpack. Promise her a simple card trick, and her entire suitcase would come flying open and all over the room.

Diane unpacked her bags as well; placing various family pictures (If they had photos back then, then photos, otherwise, portraits) on the beauro; most of which were of her and her daughter, and her own mother. Who had died two years prior.

Mia was Diane's world. She did have many devoted fans that would put themselves in the way if she ever got arrested- but they weren't as important to her as Mia. Though they were flesh and blood, they were all each other had.

Diane was in love with Mia's father, whom she thought had loved her back. He was so handsome, and he had promised her the world. But the world suddenly became a lie- when Mia was born.

He started getting angry when Mia would cry; he started getting angry with Diane when she asked for help. So angry that he would hit them both; and he even made Mia bleed once when she was two and was crying over her departed grandmother. He called her a screaming wretch and hit her against the brick wall of their house.

Not only that, but he hated Diane's abilities.

"It's witchcraft!" He bellowed. "My wife has sold herself to the devil!" and he would beat her while screaming that she was a harpy from the devil.

She could remember that he was a bible-black tyrant. He went by the bible and the bible told him to repent anyone who had committed a sin; and in his eyes, Diane was a walking sin, who had produced a sin named Mia.

"Momma?" Diane snapped out of her daze and looked at Mia, whom was holding a deck of cards tenderly. "Can you do the trick now?"

"Sure baby." Sin or not, Diane loved Mia more than anything she'd ever loved. She was so innocent and beautiful; she would make any man happy to be with her, and she was glad that Mia didn't have to grow up around someone who thought she was a sin. Diane took the deck, and held all the cards in her hands. "Pick a card." Mia did, six of red hearts, but she knew the trick well enough to know not to say a word about it. "Now put it back." So she did. She placed the card between the king of hearts and the nine of black spades. Diane fixed the cards back into the deck; held her hand over the deck and the six of red hearts floated out of the deck. "Am I right?" Mia squealed her childish squeal and nodded. Diane smiled and slid the card back into the deck. "Great, now can you go unpack baby?" Mia nodded, after taking her cards back, she started towards her bedroom.

"Momma?" Diane looked at Mia, whom had not gone back into her room yet. "Can I learn magic too?" Diane smiled and nodded to her daughter, she was so glad to hear Mia wanted to learn her trade.

"Of course baby, I'll teach you when you get a little bit older OK?" Mia nodded and trotted into her room to unpack her things.

How could Siegfried not love that little girl? She was so cute and loving. But parts of her knew why he couldn't love her; it was because her mother was a sin, and he was just so sure that Mia would be a sin too. So sure that she would be a Satan patron just like her "witch" mother.

But the joke was on him, Mia was sweet, smart, and loyal; kind of like a puppy, except she wore gowns and was obsessed with the card tricks her mother knew; one of the least flashy and exciting tricks she knew. But Mia loved it, and that was all that mattered. Without Mia- Diane's life would have absolutely no meaning.

Hi! Ummm yeah. I finally decided to put this on the internet. Well anyway; I hope you liked the first Chapter, and I hope you like the fic as a whole. No flames and stuff. I finished a book and while I'm waiting for it to either be rejected or accepted- I'm working on my fan fictions. Here is my Phantom fic; some stuff from my past fics may appear in here- I haven't entirely decided yet. Enjoy!!