In Horace Slughorn's defence, he couldn't have known that all this would happen. All he had wanted to do was play match-maker between his two favourite students, Tom Riddle and Artemis Potter.
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----------------------> THE CONS OF BEING BRILLIANT AT POTIONS AND HAVING A PARTNER EQUALLY AS BRILLIANT, meant that the two of you tended to finish the assignment about twenty minutes before anybody else and would most likely find yourselves very bored. This was the case between Tom Riddle and Artemis Potter.
Professor Slughorn had been smiling so widely when they had turned in their potion, that Artemis was afraid that it might break out of his face. Professor Slughorn had then proceeded to look between the two of them with a coy grin before nodding like his decision to partner them up had been solidified, which left a very confused Artemis.
After heading back to their bench right in front of the teacher's table, Tom Riddle had proceeded to promptly continue to read ahead of his potion's textbook, like how one would expect from the model student. Artemis, on the other hand, had gotten bored at staring at the board in hopes that something interesting would happen, and had thus, taken out a piece of parchment and some charcoal and had begun looking around the classroom for inspiration to draw.
Tom Riddle noticed her action and proceeded to raise a perfect eyebrow. "Why do you have charcoal with you?"
"Why don't you have charcoal with you?" Artemis retorted, making Tom Riddle's face scrunch up in confusion. "Can I draw you?" She blurted out.
Tom blinked. "Pardon?"
"I asked if I can draw you. You know, sketch. Or illustrate, or make a portrait of or-"
"-I know what draw means," Tom interrupted, a little irritated. "I just don't understand why you want to do it."
"Well, I've been told that I am quite talented at drawing and anything related to art, actually. Not to brag, but I had a sculpture at a gallery in New York City at nine." Artemis smiled.
"I meant, why would you want to draw me?"
"Why shouldn't I want to draw you?" Artemis asked instead. "I'm bored, you're also bored- no matter how well you try to hide it. We are both done with all our work, so I thought this would be a fun-ish project that can occupy our time. Don't get me wrong, I'm going to draw you either way. I just thought I should follow social niceties and politely ask you permission even though my action won't change based on your answer and I will most likely ignore it if it isn't what I wanted to hear."
"Well, aren't you a ray of sunshine." Tom said dryly.
Artemis winked. "Only for you, love." She replied, before concentrating on his face and trying to see all the details.
Damn, his face was perfect.
"Now go ahead and continue reading or whatever you were doing before, and don't mind me, I'll just be sitting here and sketching you." Upon seeing Tom still looking at her blankly, Artemis gestured pointedly to his open potions textbook, making him roll his eyes before focusing on the book and attempting to ignore her.
