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 EVER FICKLE LADY FORTUNA SEEMED TO BE FAVOURING HER THAT DAY as Artemis spotted Tom's tall figure and wavy dark locks about a road or two before the Riddle household. She mentally let out a relieved breath, happy that she reached him before the seemingly inevitable and cruel confrontation took place.
"Muse-y!" Artemis yelled, bringing him to instantly freeze in his steps before he snapped his neck 180 degrees to meet her face.
"Artemis?" He asked with the utmost confusion present on his face. "You're awake? You're alright? Are you sure you're fine?" He paused, narrowing his eyes at her. "What are you doing here?"
"Stopping you," Artemis answered his third question as she neared him, stopping and panting. She raised an index finger at him. "One second. Need- to- catch- breath." She said in between exhales, prompting an amused expression from him before his face became guarded.
"Why are you here?" Tom demanded in a blank tone.
Artemis stood up straight, meeting his face with soft eyes. "Don't do this Tom. Don't meet them. It'll only make things worse. Don't talk to them. Let's just turn around and walk away. Sometimes -only sometimes- it's better to not have a riddle answered."
"Well, I want the answer to this one," Tom said coolly. "I want to know why I was left alone for half of my life."
"I really think you don't."
"They abandoned me!" Tom growled. "My filthy muggle father threw my mother out on the streets and she died giving birth to me! I had a family. I have a family. My grandparents on both sides are alive, my uncle is alive and my father is alive. Yet, none of them even bothered to check up on me at the orphanage, let alone whisk me away from that nightmare. They were alive and they didn't care! They left me there to rot! They deserve a fate worse than death!"
"They do," Artemis acknowledged, causing Tom to look at her in surprise, having not expected such an answer from her. "But not by your hand."
"Why not?" Tom retorted, still seething. "The person they forsaken and forgotten returned to take their breath away and make them remember. It would be a poetic end."
Artemis firmly shook her head. "Nothing ever ends poetically, Tom. It simply ends and the survivors of the tale turn it into poetry. All the blood spilt in the past and will be spilt in the future is and will never be beautiful. It will, however, always be red." Her eyes met his. "Tom, they deserve a punishment, just like you deserve justice, I'm not denying that. But it should not come from your hand."
"Why the hell not!"
"Because you're better than that," Artemis said. "The best revenge you can ever have on a person is to live your life absolutely happy without them."
"That's a bunch of crap," Tom scoffed. "The best revenge you can have on a person is to send them to Hades."
"Don't, Tom," Artemis said. "They're not worth the effort. Ignore them. Let them fade into oblivion alone and bitter." she gently placed a hand on his cheek, half-smiling as she met his eyes. "You can be happy without them, so much happier. Don't give them the satisfaction of being the centre of your anger, they don't deserve it. They don't deserve being in your thoughts at all, let alone your emotions. Don't allow them that power."
