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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----------------------> TOM RIDDLE TOOK A MOMENT TO ADMIRE the beauty of the Ravenclaw Common Room, having never seen it before. It was gorgeous, with sofas and armchairs in the colour of royal blue and side-tables littered with parchment, quills, ink-pots, broken pieces of chocolate and mugs filled with what looked to be coffee. It was a book lover's paradise, with books everywhere and as far as the eye could see, whether it be on the large shelves stuck on the walls or piled on the seating areas.
Unlike the Slytherin Common Room which gave its students a lovely view of the Black Lake and surrounded them with a blanket of cold, the Ravenclaw Common Room had a starry sky as it's ceiling and was perfectly warm.
Students occupied the sofas and the wooden floor, some holding a book in their hands and reading contently while occasionally either biting a piece of chocolate or sipping some coffee and others chatted pleasantly with their friends.
Tom could see some chalk-boards with a variety of headings, ranging from 'Questions to be Answered' to 'Topics to debate on this weekend'. Under the former, he could see questions like, 'Are the Deathly Hallows solely fiction?', 'Which Celestina Warbeck song is the best?' and 'If Roman Rhys does not confess his very obvious love to Bilius Prewett, would it be wise to do it for him?' while under the latter, there were texts such as, 'A person of the male gender polyguised as a female can get pregnant', 'Curse-breaker is just a fancy title for grave robbers' and 'Ollivander is immortal'. Beside each of the debate topics were a list of people who were going to speak for and against it.
Before Tom could observe more of the hidden gems of the majestic Common Room, Artemis' voice rang, prompting him to face her.
"You know, if you're going to admire anything for so long, why not do it to me?"
"You're not as beautiful as your Common Room is."
Artemis rolled her eyes. "Gee, thank you, Tom. You certainly know what a girl likes to hear." She commented dryly, making him raise an eyebrow.
"Don't we have to do the portrait thing now? I don't have all day, you know. You said only an hour."
"Right," Artemis said, turning on her heel and walking towards one of the elegantly spiralling staircases. "Come on, follow me." She called out.
He obliged, but couldn't help but ask, "Where are we going?"
"To my room." She answered simply.
"...Both of us? Alone?"
"Well, I'm the artist and you are my only muse currently, so yes."
"It isn't appropriate that the two of us would be alone in your room together." He said disapprovingly, bringing Artemis to once again roll her eyes at his remark.
