Thank you all for your incredible love and support. The fact that you felt you needed to check up on me means so much. And I can only repay you with another chapter, right? So here you go :)


Toby rounded the corner of the corridor, wary of his surroundings as he continued to walk forward. He would constantly reach back to rub his shoulders, the backpack he was carrying weighing heavily on even his strong body. He felt like he had a ton of bricks on his back.

It was sometime in the middle of the night, and he was trying his hardest not to get caught. Luckily, it didn't seem like there were any professors out this late at night, except for the one in particular that he was looking for.

"Ezra," Toby whispered. "Ezra!"

Within a few seconds, Ezra had peeled himself off of a nearby wall, still dressed in his teaching robes. He walked over to Toby, an expectant look on his face. "I take it you found them?"

Toby gave a wide grin that sparkled in the pitch-blackness as he pulled his backpack out from behind him. He kneeled on the ground as he undid the zipper, and pulled out a stack of books from the pocket.

"I think that's all of them," Toby breathed, rolling his shoulders backward with a satisfying crack.

"How'd you find them?"

"It was harder than it should've been," Toby admitted. "But in the end, a simple summoning charm was all I needed."

"Accio books?" Ezra said thoughtfully. "Impressive."

Toby nodded his thanks, and Ezra kneeled down next to him, holding up the books and flipping through the pages of some of them as he worked his way through them, cover to cover. After a few minutes, he frowned.

"What's wrong?" Toby asked in concern.

Ezra sighed as he stood up from the ground. "This isn't all of them," he said sadly, flopping his hands at his sides.

"How do you know?"

"Because when I found out about the books being stolen, I went on my own search," Ezra explained in a hushed tone as Toby stood up from the ground as well. "Spencer took some of my books, but she had Aria steal some books from the restricted section of the library. So I checked the restricted section, and used Madame Pince's guide to see which books were on the Chamber."

"And?"

"There were five," Ezra explained as he reached down and then held up one of the books for emphasis. "But one is missing."

Toby's eyes widened as he dropped back down to the ground, searching through the large pile of books. "Do you know which one it is?"

"No idea." Ezra shook his head as he let out a slow breath. "Why would Rita take all of the books, but leave one?"

"Maybe there's something in that one book that she wanted someone to find?" Toby suggested.

"No, that wouldn't make sense. Why would she want us to find something? She wouldn't try to help us like that."

"Yeah, you're right," Toby agreed, ducking his head in disappointment. But just as soon as it went down, it shot back up. "Unless…"

"Unless what?"

Toby stood back up from the ground. "What if she just took what she could find? And the other book…"

"Is somewhere else?" Ezra finished, getting excited now. "Toby, that has to be it! The last book just wasn't with Spencer."

"But why wouldn't she have that one with her?" Toby inquired.

"Maybe it was too heavy?"

"That's never stopped her before," Toby said knowingly. "She's stronger than she looks. I've seen her haul stacks of books as tall as me all the way across campus."

"So what are you saying?" Ezra asked, leaning against a nearby pillar.

"I'm saying Spencer probably didn't even have the other book."

"What?"

"Someone else probably has it instead," Toby said reasonably, eyebrows arched upward, indicating he wanted Ezra to guess what he was thinking. Ezra scratched his head, thinking about this, but no answer came to mind. Toby finally sighed, figuring he had to give Ezra a pass on this one and just speak up.

"Aria," he finally breathed. "It's gotta be Aria, Ezra."

"What?" Ezra's eyes widened at this. "Why Aria?"

"Aria was the one who stole the books from the library," Toby said in a low voice, aware of the high stakes they were in. "She must've just not given one to Spencer."

"But why would she – "

"Look, I didn't say I had all the details yet," Toby said defensively. Even in the dark, he noticed the accusatory glint in Ezra's eyes. Toby was in no way trying to blame Ezra's girlfriend - well, ex-girlfriend - for anything, but if she had something that they needed, then they needed to get it from her.

"Then what are you saying?" Ezra challenged.

"I'm saying she has to have it. We might not know why, but it's gotta be with her."

"But Toby, the girls don't keep secrets from each other," Ezra whispered. "You and I know that perfectly well."

"So?"

"So if Aria is keeping that book, then it must have some seriously valuable information in it for her to want to keep it from the girls," Ezra said logically, darkness present in his normally soothing voice. "Something she doesn't want them to know."

Toby leaned back, thinking about this intently. How could that be? What could be in that book?

"I guess we need to get that book from her," Ezra said with a sigh, once it was clear Toby wasn't going to say anything else. He didn't like going behind Aria's back, but it seemed like something that had to be done.

Toby nodded. "Tomorrow is the trip to Hogsmeade, so no one is gonna be in their houses."

"Wait." Ezra held his hand up, eying Toby suspiciously. "You're going to sneak into the Ravenclaw Tower?"

"Yeah." Toby gave a simple shrug. "I can get the password out of Caleb."

"I don't know how I feel about that," Ezra said unsurely. "I could just go ask her for it or something."

"She's not going to give it to you!" Toby argued. "Ezra, I know it's hard, but Aria's not your girlfriend anymore."

"And she's not going to be again if I do something like this to her!"

"You're not the one doing it, I am!"

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps on the pavement reverberated throughout the corridor. Ezra and Toby froze, too stunned to go into hiding, until Ezra's instincts kicked into gear and he pulled Toby away, behind the nearest pillar.

"Professor McGonagall, you can't be serious!"

"I'm quite serious, Mr. Longbottom," McGonagall said forlornly as she stalked down the hall, Longbottom in tow.

"But Professor, we're only halfway through the school year!" Longbottom squeaked. "At least give it another chance."

"I've given plenty of chances, Neville," McGonagall said seriously, switching to his first name now and shocking the boy greatly. It seemed that she'd call him anything but "Professor" – to her, he'd always be the little boy in Gryffindor that had shown effortless and unexpected bravery during times of trouble. "I can't let this go on any longer. There have been too many attacks. It's time we started admitting that Hogwarts is no longer safe."

"We don't need to admit that to the students, they're already figuring it out!" Neville argued. "But it's not necessary to close the school just yet."

Ezra and Toby whipped their heads toward each other, their faces paling. Closing the school?

"I'm afraid it is more than necessary," McGonagall said solemnly. "You saw what I just saw, didn't you?"

"Of course I just saw it, Professor," Neville admitted. "But please, give me some time."

"I've given you nothing but time, Longbottom!"

"Then give me some more time!" Neville pleaded. "The mandrake draught is almost ready, I swear it!"

McGonagall stiffened, but then took two steps toward Neville. "What good will that do if the students just keep dropping?" she challenged. "Make all the juice you want. But no matter what, I have a feeling these attacks just won't stop."

"Professor – "

"Go to bed, Neville," McGonagall said finally, before swinging around, her cloak billowing behind her, and stalking down the hall to her office. Neville sighed, but then promptly exited the hall as well.

"They're closing the school?" Toby whispered. "It's that serious?"

"And there was another attack," Ezra whispered back, realizing that the feeling in his legs was slowly disappearing. "Who?"

"What's going on?"

Ezra and Toby whipped around, their hearts ready to explode out of their chests, but they soon both let out a long breath. "Emily!"

Emily held up her hands defensively. "Yeah…"

"What are you doing here?" Toby asked.

Emily lowered her head shamefully. "I was, uh… I was gonna go see Maya."

"I knew it!"

All three jumped at the sound, and Paige ascended from the shadows in the same pair of pajama pants and tank top that she was wearing earlier. "I knew you were going to see her!"

"You followed me?" Emily said angrily, and Paige just held a giant smirk on her face, as Emily's own face turned a deep shade of red.

"Face it Emily, you really do like Maya," Paige said smugly. "I was right all along."

"Have you ever thought that I'm going to visit her to figure that out?"

"Man, I'm gonna get fired with all of you out after curfew," Ezra said, leaning back against a pillar as the world started to spin.

"But wait, why are you two up?" Emily asked suspiciously, turning her body so that she was facing Toby and Ezra.

"None of your business!" Toby said defensively, knowing a childish answer would never work on Spencer, but it was worth a shot on Emily.

Emily continued to eye him suspiciously, but then let it go. "Well, can you at least tell me what's going on?"

"Didn't you hear?" Ezra asked, propping himself off of the wall. "There was another attack."

"Oh, I already knew that," Paige said with a small shrug, and all eyes turned toward her.

"You know who was attacked?" Toby asked, surprised. "Who?"

"I saw on my way down here," Paige explained. "On the ground, in front of a window, totally paralyzed."

"Who?"

Paige rolled her eyes. It wasn't like this person meant all that much to her anyway, but that didn't make the effect of her words any less chilling.

"Mona Vanderwaal."


Boom.