Wow, I still can't believe the response I got last chapter. You guys love your Vanderjesus, that's for sure (but hey, I really can't blame you. She's Vanderjesus, for crying out loud!).
Bagilia: Spencer and Mona have some chemistry on them. It's cuz they're SO much alike! And well, that might've been it ;) but I agree, Haleb is fantastic, and there really aren't a lot of Haleb fics out there. Fanfiction is OVERPOWERED by all of the Spoby and Ezria fans! Not that I blame them, of course, since both are wonderful couples, but still. We need more Haleb! I'm so upset that Caleb is leaving as well, but I'm gonna keep watching. See what happens. I just... CAN'T leave this show! It's impossible! So addicting. And I agree: Tom Felton, and MATTHEW LEWIS! Both are so hot, I can't choose. Thanks so much for the review, and SLYTHERIN BROS FOREVER!
Sgdp1261: Ugh, Mona Vanderjesus. That. Girl. And that is SO typical PLL, you're right! She better be in the finale, or I'm gonna cut someone... I'm glad you liked the chapter! Noel is definitely being shady, and you'll find out why later... but it's not gonna be what you expect ;) and oh, Mona is DEFINITELY, DEFINITELY a Ravenclaw to the bone. I can see people sorting her into Slytherin because homegirl is evil as anything, BUT all of that evil comes from her brilliant, brilliant mind. She's the opposite of Spencer in that sense; Spencer builds up her knowledge to get somewhere, to be the best, but Mona is just born with that genius. She doesn't care about being the best, she just cares about being able to hold her smarts over everyone's heads :)
PrettyWitchyVamp: So I take it you REALLY liked the Ezria last episode? Me too, hun. Me. Too. And my love for Mona has gradually been building up over time. First season I was like "meh, okay", second season she got AWESOME, and even MORE awesome when they revealed her as A... by season 3, ESPECIALLY 3B, I was bowing down, kissing the very ground she walked on. Also, Janel Parrish is, in my opinion, the most talented actress on that show. Every episode, she's given 3-5 characters to play, since Mona has so many different personalities, and she nails every single one of them. And Mike and Mona? Woah. I have never thought of that... I can see Mike and NOEL going out more, to be honest, especially since I'm really hoping Mike turns out to be gay. Wouldn't they make such a cute couple? :D although the M&M thing is intriguing... I haven't been feeling Spoby lately either, which is why I love writing for them here; it helps me to fall back in love with them :) and YES I saw the sneak peeks! "No, I don't do boxes." You can say THAT again! I feel like Aria must've developed some deep claustrophobia by now: she was shoved in a box with a dead body and almost pushed off of a moving train, and THEN she almost lost an eye getting stabbed in the crawl space! Seriously, though. A, we all know you're pretty easy on Aria, but GIVE THE GIRL SOME SPACE!
TotalCowGirl: Thank you! :)
Titanium Wolf: Haha, that evil laugh was very well played. And yes, things certainly have gotten interesting since Mona entered the scene. What is she up to? You'll just have to wait and see ;)
Ava B: I miss Noel too! He was such an awesome villain, with his smolder and his smile that takes up half of his face ;) and Mona is very interesting, mainly because of how unpredictable she is. You just have no clue what she's going to do next, and the suspense and surprise is awesome! And you're right! Emily would make a lovely addition, she's always been a firm rider on the Ezria train :) with that swimmer's body, she'd make a great sergeant-at-arms, beating anyone to the ground if they speak out of turn during meetings, haha.
WideOpenSpacesGirl045: Spencer being sneaky in the least sneaky way possible is such a Spencer thing to do :) well, Mona is jealous of Jenna to say the least since she still has feelings for Noel, I can say that... but whether there's more behind it like everyone thinks, that's for you to figure out! Glad you enjoyed the Spoby/the chapter, and it was awesome hearing from you again! Thank you so much, and never, NEVER apologize for long reviews! I love/cherish them more than anyone can ever understand XD
ShadowsOnTheMoon: Haha, I was hoping you'd be happy with Vanderjesus! I tried to do her justice here, so hopefully that paid off! And thank you so much, once again :)
Alright, next chapter... I have a feeling a lot of you are not gonna be very happy with me after this :/ all I can say is to be patient, because things WILL turn around! So enjoy, and don't forget to review!
That same night, Hanna was in the Hufflepuff common room, perched on one of the overstuffed mustard-colored sofas as she painted her nails orange and black for the Halloween ball coming up. She would've just done it up in her room, but it was a cluttered mess by now, and she was afraid she'd chip her nails on something.
Just as she was about to move on to her right hand, she heard the tap-tap, tap-tap-tap just outside of the room of someone tapping against one of the barrels that were stacked up in a corner in the kitchen corridor. It was the code for entry: tapping the rhythm of "Helga Hufflepuff" on the second barrel from the bottom. Hanna then heard the creeaakk of the lid opening, exposing a passageway into the common room. She turned to see who it was, but no one was there.
That's weird, she thought skeptically. "Hello?"
No one answered. Even weirder. "Helloooo?"
Silence still. The longer no one answered back, the more scared she became. What if it was the person who was behind the scam with the "A" fangs? Neither she or any of the girls had gotten anything else like it since the first time, and they were relieved at the time. But then they started to think: if this was truly over, wouldn't someone have said something? Wouldn't someone want to take credit for their stunt? Come out and say "gotcha!" while laughing their ass off? None of that happened, so Hanna and the others had a bad feeling that this wasn't over, and that it was going to get worse before it got better.
Hanna inched further up on the couch, fingers spread apart so the polish didn't smudge. Something wasn't right. She didn't know what it was, but it wasn't right.
Just as she was about to get up from the couch and go upstairs to the dorm, she heard a noise. She whipped around, shaking so badly that, out of context, one would think she was in the middle of an earthquake. But once she realized what the noise was coming from, she relaxed.
Caleb pulled off his Invisibility cloak, his face glowing with happiness. It immediately vanished, however, when Hanna smacked him as hard as she could.
"OW!"
"You scared the hell out of me!" Hanna snapped.
Caleb looked down at his arm, right on the spot where Hanna smacked him, before looking back up. "That hurt!"
"I don't care," Hanna said stubbornly, folding her arms over each other. "I was willing to do a lot worse when I didn't know who you were. You're just lucky that I like you!"
"Jeez, you're jumpy," Caleb said incredulously as he rubbed his arm. "What's wrong?"
"... Nothing," Hanna proclaimed. "I just... I didn't know who you were, or why the door opened and no one came and... how in the hell did you even get an Invisibility cloak?"
Caleb just flashed another bright smile as he sat down on the couch, pulling Hanna down with him. "Thank the one and only James Potter."
Hanna sighed, finally managing to calm down. "Well, you caught me at a bad time," she pouted. "I look horrible."
He sat up on the couch, taking in the sight of her. Her golden hair was in a messy bun, and she had taken off every drop of makeup that she would normally wear. For all the makeup she wasn't wearing, she had replaced in articles of sweats: yoga pants, slippers, and a tie-dyed t-shirt in Hufflepuff colors.
Caleb smiled at her, leaning in to kiss her chastely on the lips. "You look perfect. And by the colors on your nails, I'm guessing your decking yourself out for Halloween?"
Hanna smiled, flashing a pair of pearly white teeth. "You would be correct! So don't touch them! They're still wet."
"Do you want me to dry them more quickly?" he said with a devious grin, twirling his wand in his hands, indicating he was willing to use a little magic to speed up the process.
"I'm good," Hanna said with a shrug.
"Really?" Caleb said, not bothering to hide the surprise in his voice.
Hanna just cuddled into his side as she stared at the large wooden mantelpiece in the middle of the room, honey in color and engraved with carvings of badgers. It was an intricate masterpiece, and Hanna always found it pleasing to look at. "If they dried too quickly, I wouldn't have an excuse to stay down here and wait for them to dry while I talk to you, now would I?"
"You have a point," he said with an affirmative head nod. "So, the Halloween ball. What are we going as?"
"Well, I had this great idea where we could both be house elves!"
"House elves?" Caleb repeated with a laugh.
"Yeah!" Hanna said excitedly. "Like, Aria used to always try to get me read Harry Potter's biography back when we were third years - "
"Did you?"
"Do I ever actually read anything?" Hanna said manifestly. "Anyway, she read it cover to cover several times and would tell me the entire plot anyway, to the point that by now I basically know the whole thing by heart, and I always thought Dobby and Winky would make a cute couple!"
"How?" Caleb asked. "They weren't even ever together in the book! They just talked about each other."
"Sometimes that's all you really need," Hanna said softly, looking up and into Caleb's caring brown eyes. She was trying to relay a message onto him: Caleb was trying really hard to be a good boyfriend, and was constantly checking up on her. He still had a feeling that something was up with the fangs, ever since he was there when Aria got hers, so Hanna knew by now that he was trying to be protective. But it was almost suffocating; she loved Caleb, and she loved more than anything being able to spend time with him, and having him as company. Having him here with her right now made her extremely happy. He was more than just her boyfriend, he was her best friend. She could really tell him anything.
But not this. She couldn't tell him this and risk having him get hurt. She hardly knew anything about what she was dealing with, and she wouldn't put it past him to do something stupid once he found out. And when he kept hovering over her the way he was, it was hard to keep it a secret. Nevertheless, Hanna just wanted Caleb to know that she loved him just as much as he loved her, and that neither of them needed to prove it by being around each other all the time.
"Well, I'm exhausted," she finally said. "But thanks for coming! I'm going to go up."
Just as she started to get up from the couch and walk toward the stairwell, Caleb called her name.
She turned around to face him. "Yes?" she said slightly impatiently.
Caleb opened his mouth, with everything he wanted to say on the tip of his tongue. He ended up closing it and just staring at the floor, shuffling his shoes against the couch.
Hanna just stared at him. "Caleb, I don't have all night."
"I know you're hiding something from me," he finally blurted out.
Hanna's eyes widened, but then her features hardened. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"See, that," Caleb said exasperatedly. "That right there. You're putting up walls, Hanna. You've never done that before. Why the hell are you starting now?"
"I'm not putting up walls!" she snapped. "You need to get over yourself, Caleb. Just because I want to go upstairs and sleep doesn't automatically mean that I'm avoiding you!"
"But you are avoiding me!" he said bluntly. "Everytime I try to get close to you, you're all distant or scared. Or you're your bubbly self for a few minutes, and then there's this.. awkward tension between us and you try to get out of it!"
"I just have a lot of stuff going on, Caleb!" Hanna retorted.
"So something is going on," Caleb said affirmatively as he got off the couch, taking slow, purposeful steps toward her. "Stuff. Those fangs. The ones that Aria and Spencer got."
"What about them?" Hanna said irritably, but she wasn't careful enough to hide the touch of fear in her voice. She still hadn't told him that she had received one as well, or Emily.
Caleb raised his eyebrows at her. "Did they get them again?"
"No," Hanna said honestly, crossing her arms over herself. "They didn't get anything since then. I told you, it was a prank."
"Did they find out who did it?"
"No, we didn't," Hanna said, shaking her head.
"Wait, we?" Caleb repeated, shocked. "Hanna, you're getting involved in this?"
"How can I not, Caleb? They're my best friends - "
"You got one too, didn't you?" he finally said, and Hanna stopped short. Damn, he was good.
At her hesitation, Caleb cracked. "Hanna, I can't believe you! I could've helped you figure this all out! And now that you're involved - "
"I told you, this ended right when it started, Caleb," Hanna barked.
"But you don't even know who did it!" Caleb barked back. "Hanna, a lot is going on right now. That fire in the Ravenclaw common room? It was huge. Whoever did this to you, or is still doing this to you, they're not playing around. Mike Montgomery still hasn't woken up, and currently looks like something out of a muggle zombie movie. What if that happens to you?"
"Please," Hanna said breezily. "If that ever happened to me, I'd look way better than a zombie."
"Hanna..." Caleb started exasperatedly.
"How can you even be so sure that those two are connected?"
"I won't know until I find out, now will I?" Caleb shouted.
"No," Hanna said simply. "I won't let you get involved in anything. Nothing is happening right now, therefore there's nothing for you to do. Just relax, okay? Relax."
Caleb huffed loudly, but finally grabbed his cloak and got ready to wrap it around himself. But before he did, he looked up to stare right into Hanna's eyes. "Goodnight, Hanna," he said coldly before draping the cloak over himself and stalking out of the room.
Hanna groaned. Great, now she'd done it. For whatever reason, Caleb couldn't seem to let go of this, even though there was seemingly nothing to let go of!
He'll get over it, she thought to herself as she made her way over to the stairwell.
At least, she hoped he'd get over it.
Side Note: References? There's one that you might not get, but if you do I'll be quite impressed. Other than that, this chapter makes me so sad. Hate seeing Haleb fight :( wait for it though! For now just keep swimming... despite some shit going down this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it! PLEASE review/follow/favorite/WHATEVER to let me know if you did!
