A Witch Among Villians

Friends being Hurt

[LOCATION: Trey's Room]

"Pardon the intrusion." Ace announced as the group came into the room
 "Clover-senpai, are you okay?" Deuce asked looking worried.
 "Hey, Glasses! We came here to check on you!" Grim stated.
"Oh, it's the A-Deuce combi~ You even brought Grim and Hazel-chan with you~" Cater said.
"Hello~ Wait, what's with the "A-Deuce" thing, Cater-senpai?" Ace asked.
"Eh? You both have "-ce" at the end of your names, so I just combined them~"
 "Please call us by our complete names!" Deuce asked.
 "More importantly, what exactly happened to Trey-senpai?" Ace interjected.
"Ah, I missed a step on the stairs. I tried to be cautious during the fall, but my right leg ended up getting the worse of it. I'll have to be in crutches for a while." Trey explained.
 "Eh-!? Isn't that kind of bad?" Deuce exclaimed.
 "It looks like I won't be able to participate in this year's Magift Tournament." Trey sighed.
"I thought of letting it slide if it was just a small injury, but... Here, have some canned tuna as a get-well present." Grim said holding out some canned tuna. "Get better soon, 'kay, Glasses?"
"Haha, thank you."

"Geez, give me a break. It's already tough without our star player Trey, and now we've gotta re-do the player selection." Cater lamented.
DEUCE & ACE: "Oh!? Player selection!?"

(knocking on door)

 "Really, now. What are you all doing gathered in an injured person's room?" The redhead asked.
 Ah-!! It's the irritable Riddle!" Grim said.

"Irritable, you say? I won't get mad if you don't break the rules." Riddle raised an eyebrow before turning to Hazel.

"We heard about Trey and came over as quick as possible." Hazel told her soulmate, earning a nod.
"Thank you for your concern Hazel. Trey, how's your condition? Is there something you want to drink or eat?"
"You don't have to be so worried. I told you, I'm feeling okay."
"But... You got injured because of me and..." Riddle said sadly.
"What do you mean?" Ace wondered.
"I had to go to the 3rd years' classroom because I had business with them. But then..." As he recalled what happened.

---Flashback----

[LOCATION: Stairway]

RIDDLE: "I'll be a little late, but go on ahead and practice for the Magical Shift Tournament." Riddle told Trey as he was departing, but then...

RIDDLE: " Wh-whoa-!!"
TREY: "Riddle, watch out!"

----End Flashback---

"He covered for me when I fell down the stairs and he got injured himself..." Riddle finished. 

"I think you'll have been able to break your fall, you know? I covered for you on my own, so don't worry about it." Trey smiled.
"Still..."

ACE: "(whispering) Haze, this is like..."

"I know." Hazel nodded.

"Come on, Riddle-kun~ No need to be so gloomy!" Cater said trying to lighten up the mood. "I feel bad about Trey-kun's injury, but we just have to do his best in his place~"
"Y-yeah, you're right."
"Come on, let's give the injured person a chance to rest. Disperse, disperse~" Cater said having the group leave.

[LOCATION: Heartslabyul Dorm - Lounge]

"So, Cater. There's something you couldn't say in front of Trey, isn't there?" Riddle asked getting to the point. 
"As expected. You're quick on the uptake, Riddle-kun~" then he turned to Hazel. "You know something about why Trey-kun got injured, don't you, Hazel-chan?"

"Excactly. You see.." Hazel began to explain.

[LOCATION: Heartslabyul Dorm - Lounge]

"I see... The Headmaster asked that from you, huh..." Riddle thought.
"See? I knew that Grimmy won't be visiting without a reason." Cater smiled.
"Actually, I thought that something was amiss, too, so I asked Cater to gather some information."
 "And then we found out that the only targeted people are the top players like Riddle-kun or Trey-kun." Cater said seriously.
"It is true that I hadn't slipped nor had someone pushed me from behind that day. However... I don't know how to explain it, but it felt like my body just moved around on its own." Riddle explained.
"The other guys who got hurt said the same thing, too." Hazel added.
 "I think it would be a good idea to narrow our list down to the tournament players." Riddle suggested.
"You mean to say that they're injuring strong players so that they'll have fewer rivals for the Magical Shift Tournament?" Ace wondered.
 "It's a competition that will be viewed worldwide. The tournament is connected to a guaranteed way to secure one's future, so it's not unthinkable that people will use any means necessary to win." Riddle explained.

CATER: Hm... Still, it's very strange. It's not like you were pushed by some kind of wind magic, right?"
RIDDLE: I didn't feel any sort of impact at all."
CATER: It seems like there were some who got injured during lessons, too. I wonder what's going on..."

"We'll have to find a way to expose the culprit ourselves. Plus this all sounds familiar to a certain spell I knew of. It sounds too much like an Imperius." Hazel said gaining a frown.

"Imperius?" Cater asked.

"...simply put, it's a curse spell that makes another person do something out of their control, like a puppet on a string. There was a string of incidents one time years ago that involved that curse and it was declared an 'Unforgiveable Curse' because those affected were in a sort of mind control, doing the caster's bidding. It was also strictly forbidden to use it or it would earn them a one-way ticket to Azkaban Prison." Hazel explained.

"That would be frightening if someone is using that here." Deuce shivered.

 " Getting back to the topic, I think that we need to take the initiative if we're ever to catch the culprit." Riddle stated.
 " What do you have in mind, then?" Grim asked. 
 For example, let's try to guess who will be the next victim so we can secretly be their bodyguard. We'll be able to secure the student's safety should an accident occur. At the same time, we'll be able to scope the vicinity for anyone suspicious." Riddle suggested.

"A student likely to be targeted? Like who?" Hazel asked.

"You're quick on the uptake, Hazel-chan~" Cater said as he started to explain. "Actually, we already have plenty of ideas as to who can be potential targets among the students~ I'll share the info via group chat, so go check the group album out, 'kay?"
"Diamond-senpai... This is some great information..." Deuce smiled in appreciation.
"Of course~♪ Alright, shall we go check up on the potential targets~?" Cater asked.
"Off we go!" Grim giggled.

"In addition, we should narrow down possible suspects meaning whole dorms. The one behind this wouldn't want to risk getting their own dorm mates injured which means less of a chance of winning." Hazel said.

"That's a good point. And Riddle was obviously targeted too. Mortishackle isn't participating because of the lack of players. And recently Pomefiore was targeted too, so we can cross them off." Grim said. 

"And I highly doubt those of Ignihyde are interested in the tournament in general because of the prefect meeting a few weeks back. In addition, I don't think those of Scarabia would stoop to something like this. Especially the prefect, he seems too trusting, but he probably would only attack if he was provoked first. That would leave Diasomina, Octavinelle, and Savanaclaw." Hazel concluded.

"So the culprits one of those three dorms? Just have to keep reading the patterns." Ace stated as everyone nodded.

------------------------------

now, I think some people noticed that I left out the prefect meeting, but it was for a reason, and Hazel did say Mortishackle would act as refs after all.

Plz comment and let me know what you think so far!