Chapter Text
Riddle was having an enjoyable day.
It was a rare occurrence lately, considering the sheer amount of work that seemed determined to find its way onto his desk no matter how carefully he organized his schedule, but today had actually gone rather smoothly, and for once he had managed to make it through an entire afternoon without having to chase after Ace and Deuce, reprimand someone for breaking a rule, or listen to Crowley complain about some completely unnecessary problem that somehow became Riddle's responsibility.
At the moment, he was walking down Main Street with Cater and Trey, a small bag of ingredients held carefully in his hands after their trip to Sam's shop, where they had gone because the Heartslabyul kitchen had, somehow, managed to run out of several ingredients they needed for the strawberry tarts Trey had planned to make.
That simply could not do.
Strawberry tarts were one of Riddle's favorites, and while he was perfectly capable of eating something different if necessary, he saw absolutely no reason to do so when they had the opportunity to simply purchase the ingredients they were missing and make the tart properly.
Fortunately, Riddle had discovered that he had a little extra time in his schedule today, which was why he had offered to accompany Cater and Trey rather than leaving them to go alone, and although neither of them had particularly needed his assistance, the trip had turned out to be rather pleasant.
Trey seemed especially happy to have Riddle around, probably because it gave him the opportunity to spend some time with his childhood friend without having to deal with any responsibilities involving the dorm, while Cater had spent almost the entire walk talking.
Not that Riddle minded.
Cater always seemed to know everything that happened around Night Raven College, and while Riddle sometimes found the sheer amount of gossip Cater possessed slightly concerning, he couldn't deny that it was entertaining to listen to when he wasn't the subject of it.
"And then poor little Ulvo ended up being chased by the flamingos!" Cater exclaimed, laughing so hard that he had to briefly cover his mouth with one hand. "I'm telling you, Riddle, I've never seen someone run that fast in my life."
Trey chuckled beside him, shaking his head.
Riddle, however, frowned.
"He should know better than to try and feed the flamingos bread," he said sternly, adjusting his grip on the bag of ingredients. "I will have his head once we get back."
Cater barely reacted to the threat.
He had been around Riddle long enough to understand that there was a considerable difference between Riddle saying he would have someone's head and Riddle actually intending to enforce the harshest possible punishment, especially after everything that had happened with his overblot.
Besides, Cater had another advantage.
He was a snitch.
As long as Cater brought Riddle enough information about what was happening within Heartslabyul, he could get away with considerably more than the average student, and no one had figured out that little life hack yet, except for him of course.
"Calm down, Riddle," Trey said, offering him an easy smile. "I'm sure he learned his lesson."
Riddle glanced toward him.
Then, after a moment, he sighed.
"You're right, Trey. I should try to be more—"
A loud yowl suddenly echoed from Main Street.
All three of them stopped.
Cater visibly winced.
"Damn," he muttered, looking in the direction of the noise. "Wonder which Savanaclaw student is up fighting right now."
Riddle's expression immediately soured.
Not his dorm.
Not his problem.
If Savanaclaw students wanted to throw punches at one another in the middle of campus, that was their business, and Riddle had no intention of involving himself in yet another situation that had absolutely nothing to do with Heartslabyul.
They continued walking.
At first, the noise seemed distant, but as they came further and further into Main Street, it became increasingly obvious that the commotion wasn't exactly a small disagreement between two students. There was shouting, the occasional curse, and the unmistakable sound of bodies colliding with something hard enough to make several nearby students gasp.
Riddle frowned.
He could already see a crowd forming.
Students from every dormitory appeared to have gathered around the scene, with blue, yellow, purple, green, and other colors scattered throughout the crowd as everyone watched whatever was happening in the center.
Riddle almost smiled as he noticed a certain color missing from the crowd of onlookers.
Red.
The sight gave him a small sense of pride.
At least his students weren't behaving like ruffians and gathering around some ridiculous fight simply to watch it happen. Whatever else could be said about Heartslabyul, they at least knew better than to waste their time standing around and gawking at violence.
Riddle's expression softened.
His students were following the rules.
Excellent.
Then he saw it.
A flash of red.
It was barely visible between two students standing in front of him, nothing more than a glimpse of a familiar dorm color disappearing behind someone's shoulder, but Riddle's eyes immediately locked onto it.
He stopped walking.
His smile disappeared.
"...What?"
Cater and Trey noticed immediately.
Riddle stared at the crowd.
There.
Red.
Another flash.
Then another.
His stomach dropped.
"No."
His grip tightened around the bag in his hands.
"Riddle?" Trey asked cautiously.
Riddle's face was beginning to turn red.
Not from embarrassment.
Not from exertion.
From pure, concentrated fury.
"That better not be..."
He pushed forward.
The crowd parted slightly as students noticed who was approaching, and with every step Riddle took, the students nearest to him began moving out of his way with expressions that suggested they already understood something terrible was about to happen.
Cater looked over the crowd.
Then he saw the red uniforms.
His expression changed instantly.
"Oh."
Trey's eyes widened in unison.
"Oh no."
Riddle finally caught a clear view of the center of the crowd.
His heart nearly stopped.
It wasn't one Heartslabyul student.
It wasn't two.
It wasn't even a small group.
Nearly every Heartslabyul student present seemed to have somehow gotten themselves involved in the fight, with several students grappling with one another on the ground while others were either attempting to pull them apart or, judging by the way they were swinging their fists, making the situation substantially worse.
Someone had a torn sleeve.
Someone else had a bloody nose.
Another student was sitting on the ground with their hair completely disheveled.
And in the middle of all of it were students wearing the unmistakable red-and-black colors of Heartslabyul.
Riddle nearly dropped the ingredients.
His face burned.
His hands began trembling.
How dare they?
Not only had they broken a rule, they had broken one of the most basic rules of the school, and they had done it publicly, on campus, in front of students from every dormitory, with absolutely no regard for how disgraceful their behavior made Heartslabyul look.
Cater quickly reached over and took the bag from Riddle's hands.
Trey immediately understood why.
"Riddle," Trey warned quietly.
Riddle's fists curled.
His voice thundered across Main Street.
"HOW DARE YOU ALL!"
The entire fight stopped.
Every single student froze.
The effect was almost comical.
One Heartslabyul student was halfway through trying to pin another student to the ground, while another had their fist raised in preparation for another punch, and a third was currently tangled with someone beneath them; all of them remained perfectly still for several seconds before slowly looking toward the source of the voice.
Riddle stormed further towards the crowd.
The onlookers took a few steps back at the pure rage wafting off of Riddle, but none of them dared to leave, too curious to see what would happen this time.
Yet nobody was brave enough to be caught between Riddle and his dorm.
"Housewarden!"
"Oh shit—"
"Fuckfuckfuck—"
"Get off me!"
"Ow!"
"Stop moving!"
"I wasn't even fighting!"
"You literally punched me!"
"That was self-defense!"
"Against what?!"
"Quiet!"
The students scrambled to separate themselves, tripping over one another as they hurriedly climbed to their feet, brushing dirt from their uniforms and attempting to fix whatever damage they could before Riddle reached them.
It didn't help.
Riddle had already seen everything.
Once everyone was finally standing, the group fell into an uncomfortable silence.
Every Heartslabyul student stared at the ground.
Nobody wanted to make eye contact.
Riddle slowly looked across the entire group, taking in every bruised cheek, every torn sleeve, every disheveled hairstyle, and every student who was suddenly finding the pavement beneath their feet incredibly fascinating.
His eye twitched.
"You all dare break Rule 006!?"
His voice echoed down Main Street.
Several students from other dorms exchanged confused looks.
A Pomefiore student leaned slightly toward a Scarabia student standing beside them.
"What's Rule 006?"
The Scarabia student shrugged.
"Dunno."
Riddle's eye twitched again.
"You all know that rule 006 clearly states that fighting is not allowed on campus!" he shouted, pointing toward the students with an accusing finger. "This is one of the first rules you are taught upon being sorted into Heartslabyul! Yet somehow, despite every single one of you knowing perfectly well that fighting on school grounds is prohibited, you decided that the appropriate response was to start brawling in the middle of Main Street where half the school could watch!"
Nobody answered.
"Do you understand how disgraceful this is?"
A few students nodded.
"Yes, Housewarden."
"I couldn't hear you."
"YES, HOUSEWARDEN!"
Riddle's expression remained furious.
"Good."
He took a slow breath, attempting to regain control of himself before he said something he would later regret.
After everything that had happened with his overblot, he had promised himself that he would be more reasonable, that he would listen before immediately jumping to conclusions, and that he would remember that his students were people rather than extensions of the rules he valued so deeply.
But there were limits.
And this was very clearly one of them.
"Now," Riddle continued, his voice still stern but slightly calmer, "I want every single person who participated in this fight to remember exactly what happened here. You will not simply walk away and pretend this never occurred, and I will not accept excuses such as 'they started it' or 'I was only defending myself' without hearing the entire story first."
A student nervously raised a hand.
Riddle stared at them.
The hand immediately lowered.
"Good decision."
Before Riddle could continue, the first warning bell rang.
The sharp sound echoed through the campus.
Every student's posture changed immediately.
Riddle glanced toward the clock.
Classes.
Of course.
He had completely forgotten that he was supposed to be heading to his next lesson, and now he had wasted time scolding his students when he should have been unpacking the ingredients in the kitchen and have already been on his way to class..
He sighed through his nose, still visibly irritated.
"I expect everyone who has been involved in this fight to give me a proper explanation of what led to this incident after school is finished," he said, his eyes sweeping across the entire group one final time. "I will hear each account individually, and if I discover that any of you have lied to me, attempted to conceal what happened, or decided that this would be an appropriate opportunity to blame someone else for your own actions, then your punishment will become considerably more severe."
The students swallowed simultaneously.
"Yes, Housewarden."
Riddle nodded.
"Good."
He turned away.
For a moment, he simply stood there with his back to them, shoulders tense and fists still partially clenched at his sides, before finally letting out a long breath and beginning to walk toward the classroom building.
Cater and Trey quickly followed.
Trey handed the bag of ingredients back to him.
"Here."
Riddle accepted it.
"Thank you."
Cater glanced back at the Heartslabyul students.
"They're so screwed."
Riddle gave him a sideways look.
"They certainly will be if they haven't learned anything from this."
There was a pause.
Then Riddle's expression softened just slightly.
"...Although I suppose I should make sure none of them are seriously injured."
Trey smiled.
"I already figured you'd do that."
"Of course I will," Riddle replied, sounding almost offended that Trey had suggested otherwise. "Punishment is one matter, but leaving an injured student unattended simply because they broke a rule would be irresponsible."
Cater grinned.
"There's our responsible little housewarden."
"Do not call me little."
The three continued toward their classes, leaving the crowd behind them to slowly disperse, while the Heartslabyul students remained gathered together with the uncomfortable realization that they had managed to accomplish something remarkably difficult: they had not only broken one of Riddle's rules, but had done so loudly enough and publicly enough that their housewarden had personally witnessed it, meaning that whatever punishments awaited them after school were now unavoidable.
And although Riddle was still irritated enough that he could practically feel another headache beginning behind his eyes, the anger gradually gave way to something quieter as he walked, because beneath all the frustration was the undeniable concern he had developed for his students after everything he had learned about himself, and he already knew that once classes ended, after every single student had explained exactly why they had been fighting and after he had determined the appropriate consequences for each of them, he would make certain that every bruised cheek was treated, every cut was properly bandaged, and every student who needed to visit the nurse was sent there, because rules were important and breaking them had consequences, but that did not mean he was going to stop caring about the people who had broken them, especially not when it came to his subjects..