How Slughorn knew about horcruxes

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 145463

Corey:
> Hi list members, I've wondered about something. Does any but me 
> wonder how Slughorn knew about Horcruxes? He seemed to know about 
> the subject. We know he had a memory about the topic. We know this 
> because Harry gets it from him in HBP after some wine, of course. 
> Just kicking ideas around.

Ceridwen:
I didn't wonder, no.  Slughorn is a contemporary of Dumbledore's.  
Which makes him pretty old.  Even if he's slightly younger, (I got 
the impression that he's just a tad younger) it's possible that 
Hogwarts had a different curriculum when he was in school.  Since 
textbooks have initial publication dates, and the Potions text was 
originally published fifty years before, it stands to reason that 
there was a text before that, which would have impacted the class 
differently.

They may have taught DADA differently, too.  And maybe N.E.W.T. 
students learned about various Dark Arts that the whole body of 
students weren't privy to.  But, maybe it was taught as 'one of those 
things you just don't do' in the lower classes, too.  Like Crouch!
Moody showed the Unforgivables to fourth year students.  Each head 
would leave his or her stamp, and each incarnation of the Board of 
Governors would have some say.

So, it doesn't surprise me that Slughorn would know about horcruxes 
if Dumbledore did.  And, Dumbledore did.  I'm not questioning why 
Dumbledore knew, either.  If nothing else, he and Slughorn have been 
around long enough to run across at least information about things 
like this.

Ceridwen.