Horace Slughorn

"Horace likes his comfort. He also likes the company of the famous, the successful and the powerful. He enjoys the feeling that he influences these people. He has never wanted to occupy the throne himself. He prefers the backseat; there is more room to spread out."

- Albus Dumbledore

Professor Horace E. F. Slughorn is the current Potions Master and Head of Slytherin House at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was Potions Professor for over fifty years and Head of Slytherin before retiring in 1981. He was a friend and colleague of Albus Dumbledore, who persuaded him to return to the post in 1996. Dumbledore enlisted the help of Harry Potter to accomplish this, together with the help of Slughorn's own fond memories of Harry's mother. He soon proved to be much kinder to Harry than his predecessor Severus Snape had been. After retrieving a memory from Slughorn, it became apparent to both Harry and Dumbledore that the information Slughorn had provided Voldemort with led to the latter's immortality. During the Battle of Hogwarts, Slughorn sided with the Order of the Phoenix and engaged his former pupil in a duel. He celebrated Voldemort's death after the battle, and afterwards resumed his career at Hogwarts.

Early life
"My father always said he was a good wizard in his day."

- Draco Malfoy talking about Slughorn

It is unknown exactly when Horace Slughorn first walked into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Suffice it to say, he did so when he was eleven years old, as most young wizards in Britain do. Upon setting foot in the school and placing the Sorting Hat on his head he was sorted into Slytherin House; he soon proved to be an exceptional student, particularly gifted in the art of potion making. So much so after graduating from school, he chose to return to teach his favourite subject. At the time of Slughorn's youth, it was traditional for a young wizard, upon graduating from school, to tour the Wizarding world, learning from foreign wizards. If Slughorn followed tradition, he too would likely have observed this custom before returning to Hogwarts to teach. Little else is known about Slughorn's youth except that he once took Felix Felicis when he was twenty four years old.

Teaching career at Hogwarts
"He taught Arthur and me. He was at Hogwarts for ages, started around the same time as Dumbledore, I think."

- Molly Weasley

Once back at Hogwarts, Horace took on the position of Potions master, and would eventually become Head of Slytherin House. He joined the staff faculty at the same time as Albus Dumbledore, when Armando Dippet was the school's Headmaster. Slughorn founded a small club consisting of students he thought were particularly talented, ambitious, clever, or simply well connected. This group would become known as the Slug Club. By showing extreme favouritism to these select pupils, Slughorn was able to benefit from their eventual success or fame, reaping rewards such as free Quidditch tickets, boxes of candy, or simply the chance to give advice to high ranking officials at the Ministry of Magic. Horace was also the head of the "Slug Club".

Students he felt weren't "high-fliers," such as Arthur Weasley, and later Arthur's son Ron, he simply ignored completely. During the school year of 1944, he hosted a supper in his office consisting of a small group of Slytherin boys, most prominently among them was Tom Marvolo Riddle. After dismissing them from his study, Tom remained behind and questioned Slughorn on the matter of Horcruxes. Despite being taken aback by Riddle's interest in such Dark Magic, he reluctantly agreed to give him an overview of Horcruxes, on the condition that everything they discussed remained between them. Using the information, Riddle later went on to create six Horcruxes, making himself immortal. The fact that Slughorn had provided the knowledge that made this possible was a terrible truth he would carry with him for the rest of his life.

Slughorn remained at Hogwarts for many years after Riddle's departure, going on to teach many talented students, including Severus Snape and Lily Evans; the latter whom he particularly liked for her sheer cheek and natural flair for Potions. The extent of his involvement in the First Wizarding War is unknown. If, however, it was the same as the Second War, he likely went into hiding, fearing the Death Eaters would attempt to recruit him.

Retirement and life on the run
"It's quite easy once you know how, one simple Freezing Charm on these absurd burglar alarms they use instead of Sneakoscopes and make sure the neighbours don't spot you bringing in the piano."

- Horace Slughorn

After the school year of 1981, Slughorn decided he had had enough and resigned from both his positions at the school and went into a secluded lifestyle, moving from one Muggle house to the next, using his many and varied contacts to maintain a very comfortable lifestyle. His reasons for doing so because he feared Voldemort would attempt to recruit him into the Death Eaters. He felt so guilty, in fact, that he modified his own memory of the incident both to hide his guilt from others and also to shield himself from the terrible shame he felt. Slughorn was not able to hide forever, though, as he discovered one evening in the summer of 1996 when Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter came to call in the Muggle village Budleigh Babberton. In an attempt to escape Dumbledore, Slughorn faked a struggle, wrecking the house and disguising himself as an armchair. He hoped Albus would be fooled into thinking the Death Eaters had kidnapped or killed him; in his haste, however, he forgot to cast the Dark Mark over the building. Dumbledore saw through this guise and forced Horace to reveal himself. Dumbledore feigned going to the bathroom, leaving Harry alone with Slughorn. Slughorn was unable to resist an opportunity to recruit the "Chosen One" into the Slug Club, and so agreed to return to the school on the condition that he received a pay raise.

Out of retirement
In his first potions class upon returning to Hogwarts, Slughorn offered a bottle of Felix Felicis to the student who brewed the best cauldron of Draught of Living Death. Using tips scribbled in a borrowed copy of Advanced Potion Making, Harry impressed Slughorn with his attempt and won the potion. Slughorn remained impressed with Harry in class, believing that the young wizard had inherited Lily's ability in the discipline. Later that year, Dumbledore would task Harry with coercing the full memory of Slughorn's conversation with Tom Riddle from the reluctant potions master. After a disastrous first attempt in which Slughorn shouted at Harry and slammed the classroom door behind him, Slughorn became determined not to give Harry another opportunity to question him, staying out of his way in class and not inviting him to any more Slug Club suppers. Fortunately, chance and Felix Felicis gave Harry the perfect opportunity. One night at Hagrid's hut, to help bid farewell to Aragog, Slughorn reluctantly passed the memory about Voldemort to Harry after getting heavily drunk. Harry, in turn, helped Slughorn obtain some valuable Acromantula venom from Aragog. Harry then passed the memory to Dumbledore. At the end of the school year, Dumbledore was murdered by Severus Snape. Slughorn was deeply shaken by this, commenting that he thought he knew Snape. He also expressed his concerns that parents would not allow their children to return to Hogwarts. Nevertheless, he remained at the school and resumed his old post as Head of Slytherin.

Duel with the Dark Lord
Slughorn stayed at Hogwarts under the tenure of Severus Snape as Headmaster and, like the rest of the teachers, attempted to protect the students from Snape and the Carrows. When the Dark Lord invaded the castle with his army, it was initially believed that Slughorn had fled in cowardice; but as it transpired, had gone to Hogsmeade to round up reinforcements. He returned to the castle at the head of vast number of residents and shopkeepers from the town, along with friends and family of the students and staff already fighting. Slughorn engaged the Dark Lord head on, with McGonagall and Kingsley, proving himself a masterful duelist, able to hold his own against even the most dangerous dark wizard of all time. After being incapacitated by Voldemort, Harry entered the fray and resumed the duel, killing Voldemort once and for all.

Personality and traits
"I'm glad that's over. Strange man, isn't he?"

- Neville Longbottom talking about Horace Slughorn

Slughorn generally displayed traits of Slytherin, such as ambition. He never wished to be famous himself; instead, he preferred to help others become famous, which, if successful, gained him influence and/or benefits from them, such as being able to recommend the next junior member of the Goblin Liaison Office, free Quidditch tickets or a box of his favourite crystallized pineapple.

Slughorn was keen to make evermore connections, and in his post as teacher, made a habit of having regular meetings with students who were either famous (Harry Potter), related to famous people (Cormac McLaggen), or gifted or talented in one way or another (i.e. Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley). Known as "the Slug Club", this group of students were constantly being invited to Slughorn's office for dinner and parties.

Slughorn's personality contradicts the typical "evil Slytherin" stereotype held by many Gryffindors. Despite his ambition, he is not a bad person, and has little prejudice against Muggle-born witches and wizards. However, he is horribly guilt-ridden about the information he gave to Tom Riddle about Horcruxes that helped his rise to power, and crudely edited his memory of the event to prevent anyone finding out what he'd done, and also to relieve himself of his own guilty feelings.

Physical description
"He looks a bit like a walrus and he used to be Head of Slytherin."

- Harry Potter

Slughorn has prominent, pale gooseberry coloured eyes, a shiny pate, and an enormous, silver, walrus moustache, which in his youth was gingery blond and his hair was thick and straw coloured. He is short and round, and claims to suffer from old age, rheumatism and a weak chest.

However, he is still sufficiently agile to turn himself into an armchair and create a scene of chaos at short notice (approx. 2 minutes), when he is trying to avoid unwelcome visitors, and managed to live on the run from Voldemort moving house every couple of weeks (including his grand piano). He has a liking for embroidered clothing, with gold coloured buttons and plenty of velvet. In the movie, Slughorn is seen wearing tweed suits.

Magical powers and abilities


Horace Slughorn was an uncommonly powerful wizard, with a wide variety of skills.

Occlumency: Horace was an extremely able Occlumens, being able to shield his mind against even a wizard of Albus Dumbledore's calibre.

Transfiguration Mastery: Despite his wide frame, he was extremely agile, being able to create the impression of a struggle within his house in a matter of seconds and transforming himself into an armchair; human transfiguration is something only a master of that art could accomplish.

Master Duelist: Slughorn was a master duelist, being able to hold his own against even Lord Voldemort himself; the fact that Voldemort was wielding the Elder Wand during that duel is further evidence of Slughorn's amazing ability (although Voldemort had failed to unlock the Elder Wand's power at the time).

Master Potioneer: Perhaps chiefly among Slughorn's many talents is his ability as a potioneer. Slughorn was able to create extremely complicated potions such as Felix Felicis, Polyjuice Potion and Amortentia, the former two which would take a normal wizard months to brew, he is able to concoct within a few days.

Behind the scenes
"Who am I? He's called Horace Slughorn. He's a retired teacher of magic who's drawn back out of retirement because he's got some secrets they need in the battle against the Death Eaters and he's quite star struck as a teacher and he's drawn back into the fold because he likes to notch up celebrity students, and he's drawn back by Harry."

- Jim Broadbent

On September 17, 2007, it was announced that Jim Broadbent would play Slughorn in the film version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. So far there is no information regarding Broadbent's return for either of the seventh films.

After the first pictures of Broadbent as Slughorn were released, many fans were quick to pick up on the drastic physical changes made to the character. The movie Slughorn is not short, is just a little chubby (but not walrus-sized), is depicted in tweed outfits rather than the described velvet, is not bald, and does not sport a mustache. The omission of the mustache may possibly be due to a dislike of wearing mustaches by Mr. Broadbent, or merely due to the fact that the film does not depict him as "walrus-like".

Name
'Horace' was the name of an epicurean Roman poet, fond of food and someone who liked to make friends with people of influence. 'Slughorn' is a historical heraldic term meaning 'war-cry', derived from an old Scottish word and later becoming the modern 'slogan', but may also be derived from his large, sluggish physique.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows