Was Severus in the Slug Club? (Was: Snape liked Hogwarts? )

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 154268

Pippin wrote:
> >  <snip> Snape obviously loves learning, but I'm not sure he was in
the Slug Club as a student.
> > <snip>
> 
Betsy Hp responded:
<snip> 
> I do think he was in the Slug Club, mainly because he was at 
> Slughorn's Christmas party (which I realize isn't seen as definitive 
> proof), a club we know for sure did *not* include any of the 
> Marauders.  

Carol adds:
I'd say that his being at the Christmas party is pretty strong
evidence, considering that the only other teacher we see there is
Trelawney, great-great-granddaughter of a famous Seer, and all the
other guests are apparently either current Slug Club members like
Harry, Hermione, and McLaggen and their dates or former Slug Club
members like Eldred Worple and their guests. (Or perhaps Worple is a
current celebrity who was somehow overlooked by Slughorn in his
Hogwarts, but I doubt it.)

Slughorn tells Trelawney, "We all think our subject is most
important," and it's highly unlikely that he would have overlooked the
shining talents in his own subject of a boy who also happened to be in
his House. Slughorn doesn't care about personality (look at McLaggen).
What he cares about is talent or potential for advancement, and he
would have seen plenty of that in young Severus Snape. (No doubt he
got O's on his long, detailed essays as well as the potions he
produced in class.) "I don't think even you, Severus" may relegate
Snape wrongly and unfairly to second best, but it's rather like
McGonagall's "Charlie Weasley couldn't have done it" when Harry
catches the Remembrall in SS/PS. Charlie Weasley could have played
Quidditch for England, so the comparison illustrates Harry's
exceptional ability (genuine ability in Quidditch; feigned ability in
Potions) not Charlie's or Snape's inferiority. "Even you" indicates
awareness of abilities far above those usually encountered in a
student. (That Harry's Potions "talent" is really Snape's is a painful
or comic irony here, but it doesn't negate Slughorn's awareness of
Snape's abilities.) Slughorn's treatment of Snape at the party is
genial and affable, if a bit oblivious of Snape's reserved personality
and his and Harry's mutual dislike. He calls him by his first name,
puts an arm around his shoulders, and encourages him to socialize
rather than "skulking." Later, after the events on the tower, he says,
"I taught him. I thought I knew him." Unlike McGonagall, who goes on
about how Dumbledore wanted everyone to trust Snape despite his past,
Slughorn seems to have trusted and even liked him on his own. 

Carol, who thinks that the evidence points toward young Severus having
been a Sluggie, though he probably was not invited to the initial
lunch on the train because he would have been an unknown at that point