Slughorn makes me uneasy

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 138139

I know Fenrir Greyback is a direct metaphor for pedophiles, but
personally it's Slughorn that makes me hugely uneasy sometimes. I
believe that JKR purposely depicted him in a way reminiscent of RL
pedophiles so as to make us be wary of him.

Let me explain.

While re-reading HBP at random, I came accross that passage, which is
similar to several other passages in the book, and is pretty
representative of them I think:

UK ed, p. 229, "Silver and opals"

"The three of them turned to see Professor Slughorn, who was wearing
an enormous furry hat and overcoat with matching fur collar, clutching
a large bag of crystallised pineapple and occupying at least a quarter
of the shop.

'Harry, that's three of my little suppers you've missed now!' said
Slughorn, poking him genially in the chest. 'It won't do, m'boy, I'm
determined to have you! Miss Granger loves them, don't you?'

'Yes,' said Hermione helplessly, 'they're really - '

'So why don't you come along, Harry?' demanded Slughorn.

'Well, I've had Quidditch practice, Professor,' said Harry, who had
indeed been scheduling practices every time Slughorn had sent him a
little violet-ribbon-adorned invitation. This strategy meant that Ron
was not left out and they usually had a laugh with Ginny imagining
Hermione shut up with McLaggen and Zabini.

'Well, I certainly expect you to win your first match after all this
hard work!' said Slughorn. 'But a little recreation never hurt
anybody. Now, how about Monday night, you can't possibly want to
practise in this weather...'

'I can't, Professor, I've got - er - an appointment with Professor
Dumbledore that evening.'

'Unlucky again!' cried Slughorn dramatically. 'Ah, well... you can't
evade me for ever, Harry!'"

There are several hints reminiscent of pedophilia in this excerpt that
make me deeply uneasy:
* the invitation (complete with the cutesy violet ribbon - think
Dolores Umbridge, her pink cardigan and her technicolor kittens...) to
private parties presented as fun times and "recreation"
* the group of select students on whom favours are bestowed and who
give favours back, even many years later
* the way Slughorn talks about wanting to "have" some kids
* the physical touching
* Harry doing his best to evade Slughorn
* Hermione partly lying about liking the parties (she says later that
they are "not that bad", and that they are "even quite fun sometimes")
* the not-so-rich older man (he told DD he wanted a rise when he took
the job) offering luxury parties to young people
* and of course the candy, even if he eats it himself. 

And when Slughorn throws his Christmas party, he invites a vampire who
is *very openly* interested in "feeding" on some of the girls present.

So anytime I run accross such a Slughorn scene, I feel uneasy. I know
that my personal past history of abuse is for a lot in this unease,
but what I'm wondering is whether JKR was really *not* counting on
such a reaction? JKR is not stupid, and she's not naive or
inexperienced either. I am pretty sure that she knew exactly what she
was doing with Slughorn (even the name...), and that she *meant* for
this behaviour of Slughorn's to be a red flag for her readers.

Don't get me wrong: I am NOT saying that Slughorn IS a pedophile. That
would be pointless and out of place in a HP book. Slughorn is no more
a pedophile than Fenrir Greyback is, or that Lupin has got AIDS or a
RL disability. What I am saying is that JKR crafted a parallel in my
eyes between Slughorn and RL pedophiles, and that I think she did that
to make us be very wary of Slughorn.

Personally, I just can't forget that Slughorn was a teacher at
Hogwarts (and Head of Slytherin too I think) both during Tom Riddle's
years (which were also the years of Grindelwald), and during VWI - the
time of the "gang of Slytherins", Snape, and many other DEs...

Some of my questions are:
* Why exactly is Slughorn running away from LV and his DEs? Is he even
 really running away from them?
* Is it a coincidence that he so conveniently left his job at Hogwarts
just in time for Snape to replace him? Did he do it for himself as he
pretends, or for DD, or for LV, or because he was threatened or
blackmailed, or for yet another reason?
* Is it a coincidence that DD found him to offer him the job? Or did
Slughorn let DD find him?
* Why does he keep bringing Lily up in front of Harry, while *never*
mentioning that she happened to be in the same class as Snape? And why
were James and Sirius apparently *not* among his favourites? They were
both very smart and well-related...
* And what about the HBP book...?

There's also the matter of the highly dangerous potions that he
presented to his students at the beginning of the year. We already
know to what dramatic use Draco put the Polyjuice Potion. The
Veritaserum is another extremely dangerous potion. And as for the
Amortentia potion, it brings me back to the beginning of my post, and
the subtle hints of pedophilia. Was Slughorn discreetly trying to
wreak havoc on Hogwarts, by granting students "accidental" access to
potent and dangerous potions?

And of course there's the matter of the "dirty little secret" that
Slughorn so vehemently denied. How come he even *knew* about
horcruxes? Why did he accept to discuss them with a student? Why did
he keep that discussion a secret for so long? Is it really possible
that he didn't recognise LV as being one of his very favourite
students, and if he did, why did he *never* mention to anyone that Tom
Riddle had asked him about horcruxes? And if he couldn't confess that
particular mistake to DD, how can we be sure that he's not hiding some
other dirty little secrets?

Most of the time, I like Slughorn, when I just go along. But sometimes
there are those red flags... JKR did say that HBP and Book 7 could be
considered like two parts of the same book, and we know how she can
throw seemingly inconsequential clues throughout a book that lead to a
huge twist in the end...

So, Slughorn makes me uneasy, and I wonder what others think of him.

Del