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.
...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
--------------------> GEN SMILED COYLY AT ARTEMIS OVER BREAKFAST THE NEXT MORNING. Artemis raised an eyebrow at her behaviour, but chose to ignore it. Indulging in Gen's quirkiness had never ended up well in the past, and she had a feeling that the result would not be changing in the near future as well.
Upon realising that Artemis wasn't going to call her out on her behaviour, Gen was left with the task of starting the conversation of the topic herself. She leaned against the table and smiled once more at Artemis, who was sitting exactly opposite to her.
"So," Gen began with a smirk, "Did anything happen between you and Riddle last night? Was there kissing? Was there tongue? I need details!"
Artemis thanked Lady Tyche that she hadn't been eating or drinking anything when Gen spoke, because she was confident that she would have choked. That didn't stop her from spluttering over her words, however. "What! No. Never. No way. Na-da. Nil. Zilch."
Gen frowned her eyebrows. "So there wasn't tongue involved?" She asked to confirm.
"-And there never will be." Artemis clarified seriously. "Ever."
Gen pouted. "But- you both have chemistry!"
"What is chemistry?"
"Never mind," Gen waved her off before clearing her throat. "What I meant was, that the two of you looked nice together-"
"Gen, stop. Please."
"-and I was hoping that romance would bloom between the two of you." Gen continued.
Artemis hurriedly shook her head. "Merlin forbid that. Gen, the only thing blooming between Riddle and I would be the list of things we do not have in common."
"Then what did you do during your romantic walk last night?"
"We patrolled, Gen, because that was one of the conditions behind us accepting our responsibilities as Prefects." Artemis emphasised.
"But something romantic must have occurred." Gen insisted.
Artemis rolled her eyes. "Yes, actually."
Gen perked up.
"There was this lovely, young couple who were doing unspeakable things with each other in the janitors closet, and after we caught them, they screamed profanities at us, and Riddle and I took points away from their houses at the exact same time." Artemis mock-sighed dreamily. "It was beautiful."
Gen scowled and threw a piece of carrot at her friend. "I hate you."
"Aww... I love you too!" Artemis cooed, blowing her a kiss.
Roman rolled his eyes at his best friends and continued to eat his porridge while solving his daily dose of crossword puzzle in peace.
Gen blew her a raspberry before taking a cookie and proceeding to dunk it into her cold milk.
