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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In another universe, Lady Filomina Potter would have faced severe complications during the birth of her second child that would sadly cause her to not be able to carry her third to a full term. Subsequently, her oldest son and his wife would have passed away in a sudden attack at Diagon Alley and her only great-grandchild, Harry, would be an orphan.
In one more type of universe, Artemis Potter would have been unable to complete the portrait of her potion's professor before her first year, thus, missing the opportunity to congratulate him regarding his achievement. This take would eventually bring her to access Tom Riddle without a rose-coloured lens, effectively identifying him as the culprit behind the release of the Chamber of Secrets and rather than Myrtle, she would be the one to die.
In another universe, Artemis Potter would meet the basilisk's gaze head-on, dying on the spot. And when Tom would have found out about that, he would be consumed with grief, blaming the mudblood Myrtle to be the reason his or went into the bathroom in the first place and would evolve to be the greatest Dark Lord the world had ever seen.
In yet another universe, Artemis Potter would allow her mind connect to the dots and bestow her with an answer to her Riddle, which would lead her and Tom to exchange words and also her death; made to look like Morfin Gaunt had fatally wounded her before Tom had heroically killed him, unfortunately being too late to save her. This as well would have led to a near-future filled with chaos, ruins and destruction.
But those four universes -among so many more- are so different from this one. The butterfly effect was real but in this one- in this universe, Harry Potter, born on the 31st of July 1980, grew up with two amazing parents and three sets of un-biological uncles (although, technically, Sirius and Regulus had been adopted by his Great-Aunt) and the right to brag about the fact that the Minister of Magic was always either his Great-Aunt Arty or Great-Uncle Tom (who, Harry had sincerely thought was named moose when he was three and muse until he was eight).
IN HORACE SLUGHORN'S DEFENCE, he couldn't have known all this would happen. All he had wanted to do was play match-maker between his two favourite students, Tom Riddle and Artemis Potter.
He couldn't have known about the disaster he managed to avert because of the minute change in the seating chart list or prefect patrol partners. He couldn't have known about all the blood he had stopped from spilling and children he had stopped from becoming orphans. He couldn't have known about any of it.
He couldn't have known about the light he managed to bring into the life of a student who had only known darkness and he most certainly couldn't have known that his superb match-making skills would save a student from himself along with so many others.
He couldn't have known what a wonderful country magical Britain would become under the leadership of Tom and Artemis Riddle as the alternating Ministers of Magic. He couldn't have known that his little decision changed the course of the future for the better.
He couldn't have known that he would be the Guest of Honour at their beautiful wedding- where the couple got married under a scribble of a backdrop he was told was supposed to be a picture of a butterfly in a trash bag and their vows would be filled with puns and circling around the word or. He couldn't have known that Artemis would dedicate her campaign victory to him when she won the first election against her husband. He couldn't have known that Tom and Artemis would invite him to stay with them every year during Yule and summer, something he would accept, of course.
He couldn't have known that his students' first child, Leonardo -after the painter and with respect to the lion and star, specifically chosen to taunt Walburga Black- would bear the name 'Horace' as his middle name. He couldn't have known that their second child, Mariposa (Spanish for butterfly in reference to Tom being a butterfly in a trash bag plus the starting letter 'M'), would be a Slytherin while Leo, an eagle; both children following their parents' footsteps.
He couldn't have known anything about the future at all. He couldn't have known all this would happen.
Because at that moment when he made that rather impulsive decision, all he had seen was a boy whose last name was Riddle and a girl who liked solving them. He had seen two students who he adored dearly, and who he thought would be compatible and good for each other. He had seen all the ways they were alike and all the ways they differed and thought they would balance each other perfectly. At that moment, he had been a teacher who had only wished the best for his students.
So in Horace Slughorn's defence, he couldn't have known all this would happen. All he had wanted to do was play match-maker between his two favourite students, Tom Riddle and Artemis Potter; but thank Merlin that he did.
