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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-----------------------> THERE WAS AN ART TO BREAKING PEOPLE'S HEART. However, this art was so unique and so strange that hardly did anybody know it, let alone have the talent for it. Christian Cranston was one of those people, they learnt, as he came up to Gen from where she sat at the Ravenclaw table for dinner on the very day she had expressed her doubts regarding their relationship.
His face had been wiped clean off all amusements and his tone was gaunt. "I'm breaking up with you," he told her.
Gen continued to sip her soup. "Okay."
Christian blinked, confused by her lack of reaction to his proclamation. "You'll never find somebody like me."
"Oh, thank Merlin!" Gen cried in relief, setting off a few eavesdroppers to laughter and thus, making the tips of Christian's ears turn red with both embarrassment and anger.
He narrowed his eyes at her. "You're going straight to hell." He spat. Unfortunately for him, Gen was not one of Artemis Potter's best friends for nothing.
"Of course, I got a kingdom to run after all," Gen replied with a smile, looking him dead in the eyes.
Christian spluttered for a second before turning around and walking away haughtily and hastily.
Many just rolled their eyes at Gen's indifference, well used to it by now. However, it was only three people who could see the way when Gen's eyes dropped back to her soup, they held sadness within them and the way her movements became slower than before.
To others, this break-up was just another one added in Gen's long lists of failed relationships. But to Gen, this break-up was yet another break-up added in her long list of failed relationships.
Artemis and Roman could see that with every break-up, a layer of Gen's dream of having a fairytale fantasy faded.
The third person who noticed Gen's sadness was Reginald Davis who, having grown up with two older sisters and two younger ones, was quite knowledgeable in understanding the emotional cue's of women and translating their expressions into words.
So, he passed Gen a chocolate bar that he had in his pocket, making her give him a questioning glance.
Reginald shrugged. "Chocolate makes everything better."
"I'm fine."
"No, you're not. And it's completely okay if you aren't," Reginald told her, smiling softly. "All that matters is that you're going to be. Don't worry." He finished, looking pointedly at the chocolate bar.
Gen smiled, taking the chocolate bar. "Thank you."
"No problem."
Gen's cheeks pinked and all Roman and Artemis could do was share a horrified glance.
Because no matter how much they loved Gen, even they would admit that the standards that she held for her boyfriends were overwhelmingly, impossibly high. She had broken up with boy-toy number three because he thought her favourite colour was teal instead of turquoise ("You know nothing about me!") and with boy-toy number seven because he told her that she looked pretty instead of beautiful.
