Slughorn makes me uneasy

[hermionegallo]

No: HPFGUIDX 138329

hg replying to two particular points, so major snippage...

> Betsy Hp wrote:
> "The knowledge itself isn't enough to tip Slughorn into the ESE camp
> for me.  Especially when he seemed to find horcruxes quite 
repulsive."
> 
> Del replies:
> What bothers him
> are the consequences coming from splitting one's soul, and the 
reduced existence of one who is kept alive by a horcrux. IOW, he's 
bothered by the *uncomfort* inherent from creating a horcrux, which 
is totally in-character for him. But the horcruxes in itself don't 
repulse him at all. Consider how he talks about them:
> 
> "It can't hurt to give you an overview, of course. Just so that you
> understand the term"
> 
> "It's natural to feel some curiosity about these things... wizards 
of a certain calibre have always been drawn to that aspect of 
magic..."
> 
> "But all the same, Tom... keep it quiet, what I've told - that's to
> say, what we've discussed. People wouldn't like to think we've been
> chatting about Horcruxes. It's a banned subject at Hogwarts, you
> know... Dumbledore's particularly fierce about it..."
> 
> Re-reading this scene made me wonder whether Slughorn had had a
> personal experience with horcruxes. I wouldn't put it past him to 
have been interested in them himself in his youth, but to have 
recoiled when confronted with the consequences for his own soul - he 
couldn't face hurting himself. 

hg:
In my reading of that scene, I found him neither repulsed by 
Horcruxes nor unwilling to make one because of personal discomfort; 
rather, I find him to be an intellectual (yes, I do!) and so 
intrigued by knowledge of any complex, even lesser-known magic.  My 
guess, therefore, would be that his academic interest led to his 
knowledge of Horcruxes.  

Del, your take on Slughorn as seemingly pedophiliac doesn't bother 
me -- in fact, I think you point to two very important aspects of 
him: his gathering together the cream-of-the-crop students, and his 
secrecy.  I believe his motives in the Slug Club serve the students 
well and without malice; he sees himself as self-appointed mentor to 
the best of the best (which is simultaneously self-serving and a 
public service).  Although to some he'd be off-putting, to someone 
like Hermione, he's meeting a long-unmet need.  I don't get the 
impression that it's all name-dropping, after all.

As to the secrecy -- well, there are a lot of things he could be 
concealing, not necessarily wicked.  Secrecy can imply past misdeeds 
without that being the case.

Del:
> [Dumbledore] clearly explained that *very few* people
> ever connected the ugly LV to the handsome Tom Riddle. Though now 
that I think of it, I'm actually not sure Slughorn made the connection
> either, maybe it was DD who told him, very recently. Humph, that 
would put a wrench in my accusation that Slughorn deliberately kept 
silent about LV's horcruxes, wouldn't it :-) ?
> 
> I'll have to think more about it. But I can't help but feel that
> something is very much off with Slughorn. Maybe it's the memory of
> Crouch!Moody that's influencing me, but I am wary of this new
> professor who is presented as being apparently so pleasant and
> harmless, and who is yet sometimes described in terms that still 
make me uneasy.

hg:
I really, really, really don't think that Slughorn connected the dots 
about Voldemort being Tom Riddle until Dumbledore approached him 
(offstage) during the summer btw GoF and OoP (as he most certainly 
must have, seeing as he wasn't able to get the new professor that he 
wanted and was stuck with Umbridge -- and as Slughorn has been in 
hiding for a year at beginning of HBP).  The implications of him 
KNOWINGLY sitting on information that could save the wizarding world 
(and everyone else for that matter) are enormous.  It would make him 
more culpable, I think, than Voldemort himself, and I don't think it 
likely that JK would introduce a character 6/7 of the way into a very 
long story who was really the most culpable of all.  Can you 
imagine?  Death after death after death, not ever even trying to do 
anything?  Year after year?  Most awful of all.  Slughorn is smart 
and observant, but he seems to not connect the dots time and time 
again in the course of HBP.  (Lots of dots to connect after all.)

That said, it makes a lot of sense that Dumbledore came to him summer 
1995 and said, "look, Voldemort's back, and I really could use your 
help.  You taught Tom Riddle; is there anything you'd like to tell me 
that could help me defeat him?"  Slughorn would say, "Tom Riddle?  
Whatever happened to -- you don't mean..."  Now Dumbledore could 
ask, "Yes, one and the same.  Horace, I've been wondering about 
Horcruxes.  In any of your experience with Tom, do you remember him 
saying anything about Horcruxes?"  "Horcruxes?  It was a banned topic 
at school, but I think he may have asked me -- you don't 
think..."  "I do think -- is there anything you'd like to tell me?"  
At which point Slughorn would realize that the memory was a 
discussion of MULTIPLE Horcruxes, he had only tried to speak 
academically, maybe even talk Tom out of pursuing that information, 
and he'd think, "Boy did I really screw up..."  He'd grudgingly let 
Dumbledore know he's on the right track while trying to eradicate his 
own culpability, then go directly into hiding -- from Voldemort and 
Dumbledore both.

Thoughts?
hg.