Horace Slughorn

Template:HP character Professor Horace E. F. Slughorn (born between 1898 and 1902) is a fictional character in the Harry Potter series of novels written by J.K. Rowling. He is a teacher, the former Potions Master at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and makes his first appearance in the sixth book of the series to take back up the post of Potions Master in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. He is also a good and trusted friend of Albus Dumbledore.

Background

Before the series starts, Horace Slughorn was the long-serving Potions master at Hogwarts and Head of Slytherin House since at least the 1940s. He retired in the 1980s, but returned to both positions, as Potions master at the beginning of Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts and as Slytherin Head of House at the end of that year.

During his long initial period of employment at Hogwarts, Slughorn taught several of the main characters in the Harry Potter story. Among his pupils were the young Severus Snape and Lily Evans, mother to Harry Potter. Harry's mother was one of Slughorn's favorite students, whom he repeatedly praises as "one of the brightest I ever taught... vivacious... charming... cheeky". Significantly, however, an earlier cohort of students included Tom Marvolo Riddle. On one occasion, Riddle questioned Slughorn about Horcruxes, artifacts which could act as vessels for pieces of a person's soul in order to grant immortality. Having learned of the nature of Horcruxes, Riddle went on to perform the necessary Dark magic to create his own Horcruxes, which contributed to his formidable power in his later reign of terror under his assumed name of Lord Voldemort.

At some point after his retirement and the resurgence of Voldemort described in the novels, Slughorn went into hiding, concealing all knowledge of his whereabouts from both sides in the growing conflict in the Wizarding world. However, at the beginning of the sixth book in the series, Hogwarts headmaster Professor Albus Dumbledore moves Professor Severus Snape, erstwhile Potions master, to the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, and both locates and convinces Slughorn to succeed Snape as Potions Master.

In book 7, Slughorn briefly appears with other Hogwarts teachers assembling to fight Death Eaters; it is revealed that he has become head of Slytherin House, Snape having been promoted to Headmaster in the wake of Dumbledore's death. Though Slughorn is hesitant to join in the battle, he was later seen dueling Voldemort along with McGonagall and Kingsley.

Life

Professor Slughorn's current age, family. and activities prior to joining Hogwarts are unknown. Based on the scene in the Pensieve in book 6, he was in his late 30s or early 40s (Voldemort at that time was about 16), and certainly younger than fellow professor Albus Dumbledore, placing his date of birth between 1900 and 1909, and his attendance at Hogwarts in the mid-1910s.

In 1940, Slughorn was hired to be a potion teacher at Hogwarts. Several students important to the plot of the series, including Lily Evans and Tom Riddle, passed under his care. In 1982, he retired, leaving Snape as the Potions teacher. In 1996, Dumbledore convinced Slughorn to return to Hogwarts and teach Potions, which he did for at least the two years depicted in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Role in the series

At the beginning of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Slughorn returns to his previous position as Potions teacher. He is initially unwilling to return to the school as he has been in hiding from Voldemort, and fakes a disappearance to mislead Dumbledore. He is persuaded when he sees Harry, who has accompanied Dumbledore, and remarks on Harry's similarity to his parents. Slughorn is reminded that, while on the run, he has not been able to take advantage of the very numerous personal and social contacts he has collected through his life thus far. Dumbledore also makes a point of allowing Slughorn to see that he is now wearing Voldemort's ring.

Slughorn demands less stringent entry criteria for Advanced Potions than his predecessor, Professor Snape, lowering the required grade from a perfect O (Outstanding) to a near-perfect E (Exceeds Expectations). This last-minute change enables Harry and Ron to take Potions to NEWT level, but because he had not expected to be allowed to join the course he has none of the necessary materials. Slughorn lends him an old textbook until he can procure his own.

In his first Potions class, Slughorn offers a small amount of Felix Felicis potion, known as "liquid luck", to the student who brews the best cauldron of Draught of Living Death. He tells the class that he has taken Felix Felicis twice, once at age 24 and once at age 57. It will give the user constant good fortune for a day, but must be used sparingly. Harry wins the potion, with the help of handwritten notes in the borrowed textbook, which is also signed 'property of the Half-Blood Prince'. Harry continues to use the book in classes with great success, causing Slughorn to remark repeatedly that Harry has inherited his mother's abilities at potions.

Dumbledore, who has undertaken to teach Harry about his nemesis Voldemort by the use of a Pensieve or receptacle for memories, has at some point obtained from Slughorn a memory of Riddle's question about Horcruxes. However, when viewed, the memory turns out to be incomplete. Slughorn, ashamed to admit his involvement in telling Riddle about the Horcruxes, has deliberately obscured parts of the memory - specifically, his responses to Riddle's questions.

Dumbledore commissions Harry to obtain the full memory from Slughorn. Partly because Harry's eyes remind him of Lily's, partly because Harry has taken a little of the Felix Felicis, and partly because he has been drinking and is grateful to Harry for helping him obtain acromantula venom from Aragog, Slughorn is eventually persuaded to divulge to Harry the unexpurgated memory. Viewed, the memory convinces Dumbledore that his theory that Voldemort has employed six Horcruxes to achieve immortality is correct.

Dumbledore was insistant on wanting Horace to come back. The obvious reason is to retrieve Slughorn's memory. There is also a less obvious reason to get Slughorn to return: The Slug Club. In Order of the Phoenix the Sorting Hat gives a call to all houses to stand together in the face of the threat from without. Ron reports to Harry that it repeated this call in the Half-Blood Prince. Previously in the books, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff have managed to unite, but Slytherin does not join in. Slughorn's Slug Club gives talented students from all Houses a chance to come together socially across house prejudices. Though Slughorn shuts down his Slug Club after only one semester, Dumbledore likely wanted him to return for this as well.

Towards the end of the story, after the death of Dumbledore and the flight of Snape, Slughorn again represents Slytherin house on the orders of Professor McGonagall, now Acting Headmistress. He advises the new headteacher that Hogwarts should remain open. It is revealed in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that Slughorn remained at Hogwarts in the final book as the new Head of Slytherin House, and was asked by Professor McGonagall to take a stand during the final battle at Hogwarts. He is at first hesitant to stand and fight, McGonagall then gives him two options: leave or stay and fight. She gives him further warning that if he or any other Slytherin tries to tamper with their defence, she and the other defenders will 'duel to kill.' Slughorn appears to leave the school with the other Slytherins to save himself, but in a twist he returns with his House at the end with parents and relatives of all the students, symbolically striking at Voldemort from behind. Slughorn, along with Kingsley Shacklebolt and Minerva McGonagall, duels with Voldemort himself before Harry confronts the Dark Lord.

Appearance and character

When Slughorn is first introduced, he is described as having prominent, pale-gooseberry eyes, a "shiny pate", and an "enormous, silver, walrus-like moustache". He is "enormously fat," but not very tall, reaching only up to Albus Dumbledore's chin. He considers himself to be an old man who suffers from a weak wheezy chest and rheumatism. Despite his slightly fragile health, he managed to disappear for a year, travelling incognito and occupying one Muggle house after another while their owners were on holiday. He also mentions his favorite treat, which is crystallized pineapple.

Slughorn displays some of the character traits typical of those in Slytherin House, such as ambition, a thirst for influence and a preference for Pure-bloods (albeit considerably more deeply-closeted and less fervent than that of many other Slytherins). He is very well connected in the Wizarding world, and delights in being close to high-profile people. He does not harbour an ambition to be famous himself, however. As Dumbledore comments wryly, "He prefers the backseat; there is more room to spread out." Even after his return to Hogwarts, Slughorn is keen to build even more connections, and makes a habit of hosting regular receptions for students who are famous, related to famous people, or gifted or talented in one way or another. Known as "The Slug Club", this coterie of students is at the core of Slughorn's constant round of dinners, parties and receptions. In this way he also demonstrates that he is prone to show a large amount of favouritism, which is evidenced by his treatment of Ron Weasley. He flatly ignores Ron in favour of Harry himself and Hermione Granger, whom Harry has described to Slughorn as "the best in [their] year" even though she was born to a Muggle family and lacked prior experience of Magic.

However, he is in some ways different from many Slytherins who entered the house after him (or, more significantly, after Tom Riddle): unlike Malfoy and the like, he has no trouble liking successful Muggle-born Witches and Wizards, even if he appears a little surprised by their success. This might be indicative of an unconscious prejudice, or of a belief that Wizard-born children raised in a wizarding environment might be expected to have a head start relative to their Muggle-born colleagues who are unfamiliar with magic (though Hermione is, of course, the exception to the rule).

Unlike many Slytherins (including Professor Snape), he does not appear to show any animosity towards those outside of Slytherin House - even if he does sometimes show some excess favouritism towards students according to their family. Slughorn, in fact, is a ruthless meritocrat, who likes and favours those who do well or are talented: thus his favouring of Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, and possibly Ginny Weasley. He first notices Ginny when she performs the Bat Bogey Hex on the Hogwarts Express, and his regard for Harry and Hermione appears mainly founded upon the high standards they set in his Potions Lessons (though Harry is, of course, not being innovative but merely following a superior set of instructions to those Hermione follows). He further shows this through his cold brush off of the Death Eater's son Draco Malfoy (despite having been a friend of Abraxas Malfoy, Draco's grandfather).

Another of Slughorn's weaknesses is avarice, which Harry exploits by luring him to Hagrid's hut with a promise to grant him access to Acromantula venom, an extremely valuable magic substance.

Slughorn's personality is a moderated version of the "evil Slytherin" stereotype seen prior to the sixth book in such characters as Lucius Malfoy or Severus Snape. Despite his ambition, he is not a bad person, is horribly guilt-ridden that he unwittingly aided Voldemort's rise to power, and is not even remotely as prejudiced against Muggle-born witches and wizards as most Slytherins.

It is, however, noteworthy that Slughorn is one of the first Slytherins who has not been portrayed in an entirely negative light. He is instead depicted from a neutral if not slightly positive standpoint; on his first meeting with Slughorn, Harry is unsure how to assess him, and throughout the book Slughorn shows both positive and negative traits to his personality (which is natural to all humans, including Dumbledore who shows his fatal flaw of inaction in the same book). Although he is selfish, superficial, snobbish, materialistic and occasionally deceptive, he is also pleasant, mild-tempered, a good and innovative teacher, ultimately loyal to Dumbledore, and a powerful and courageous duelist, as evidenced by his taking part in a duel against Voldemort himself.

On 30th July 2007 casting director Fiona Weir confirmed Ian McNeice will play Horace Slughorn in the film version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Name and possible influences

'Slughorn' (and 'Slughorne' and 'Sloggorne') are old Scottish Anglicized spellings of the Scottish Gaelic word "slogan" in its original sense of "battle cry" or "rallying cry" [1]. Scotland is JK Rowling's country of adoption, and many of her characters (Scrimgeour, McGonagall) have Scottish names.

The name Horace probably refers to the Roman poet Horace, who like Slughorn, enjoyed wealth and the influence of his associates, and also the indulgence of his personal tastes. (In Horace's Ars Poetica, the poet gives a description of himself that matches Horace Slughorn: "As for me, when you want a good laugh, you will find me, in a fine state, fat and sleek, a true of hog of Epicurus' herd")

The 19th-20th century magician Horace Goldwin, who is described as similar in appearance and nature to Horace Slughorn, could be another influence. Goldwin was a friend and rival to the more proficient stage magician, 'The Great Albini', who could be an influence of Albus Dumbledore.

Latin hora' means "hour", "time". Greek ουρος has meanings including guard.

References

• One good Slytherin Character analysis by redhen
• Horace Slughorn Character biography by Mugglenet
• Harry wins the Felix Felicis, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," 2005, Rowling, J.K., Chapter 9, pg 188 (North American version--Scholastic)