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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---------------------> STRESS WAS UNIVERSAL. It existed in every single human being and increased during pressure full times like when a person was due to write a set of examinations that would basically decide their future- only one Artemis Potter did not know what exactly she wanted to do with her future. Lovely.
People also had different ways of channelling their stress into somewhat productive ways. Gen would randomly pull up a few unfortunate lower-class years and explain to them in detail the entirety of the history portions for O.W.Ls, firmly a believer that it was only if one could teach a topic to someone who knew nothing about it, only then were they through in that particular topic. Roman let out his stress in an aggressive manner, spending it at the Quidditch pitch and smashing bludgers, with Reginald, Bilius and many of the other O.W.L or N.E.W.T taking Quidditch players.
Artemis, on the other hand, took to painting or sketching every time she allowed herself a break, and so, Tom was also struck in the Ravenclaw Tower for hours on end, one of the drawbacks of being the blonde-haired blue-eyed beauty's artistic inspiration.
It was admittedly helpful for them both as the two first-in-their-years quizzed each other on topics and worked out problems and assignments together, having taken the same electives although they weren't in the same class considering nearly everybody in the year had taken either Ancient Runes and Arithmancy or both, mainly at the insistence of their parents.
And so, Tom and Artemis sat in one of the many royal blue sofas in the beautiful Ravenclaw Common Room, textbooks and marked homework sheets surrounding them with the occasional litter of quills, charcoal and ink-pots, a mug of coffee, pieces of chocolates and wrappings seen on the small tea-table in front of the sofa.
Tom was holding his transfigurations textbook, reading it aloud so Artemis could study as well while she drew him with charcoal at the back of one of her already corrected homework assignments. At random intervals -just to check if she was listening- Tom would ask her questions.
"What is the difference between conjuration and elemental transfiguration?" He asked, prompting Artemis to let out a thoughtful hum before she replied.
"Well, transfiguration is changing matter from one state to another while elemental transfiguration is changing one of the four elements -water, air, earth and fire- into an actual object or thing. Conjuration is just a fancy name for air elemental transfiguration. After all, Gamps laws make it clear that we can't just summon things into existence; so during conjuration, we basically transfigure the air around us into something else, don't we?"
Tom nodded his head. "Yes. However, while your answer is correct, it is not the explanation given in the textbook."
"So?" Artemis retorted, a small smile adorning her face as she finished sketching Tom's face perfectly, leaving two holes for eyes because even with Tom right in front of her, she sadly still couldn't draw his eyes as perfectly as she wanted it to be. She finally lifted her head, meeting Tom's eyes. "The textbook is just a guideline to understand the topics. Since I've understood it, I can write it in any way I want as long as I have the key points and I do."
