On Moral Compasses/Slughorn & favoritism

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 168634

Magpie:
> The type of Pureblood elitism Slughorn has fits with his hiding 
> from the DEs, I think. He's supporting their agenda, but doesn't 
> want to face that, so he just hides. 

Jen:  Slughorn is important in the story as Dumbledore's ally and for 
holding the key to Voldemort's defeat.  Regardless of his moral 
compass or his social agenda, he's refusing to join Voldemort in the 
only way a man who isn't brave is capable of doing--by hiding.  He's 
not a Peter who allows himself to be drawn in and then tries to 
rationalize his behavior later, or a Bagman who passes information 
and claims truthfully or not that he didn't know what he was doing.  
No, Slughorn's a person actively attempting to avoid joining up in 
the first place.  

Magpie:
> And I don't think they'd be looking to recruit him just because of 
> his contacts either. I suspect, especially based on his 
> conversation with Harry, that he's probably given a lot of people 
> the impression he'd fit right in.  You can support a racist agenda 
> while still making exceptions for the "good" ones. I wouldn't be 
> surprised if Slughorn had plenty of memories of conversations that
> might make our hair curl.

Jen:  And yet Slughorn's going out of his way to avoid association 
with DEs throughout HBP, first by hiding and later by avoiding DE 
children.  He makes a dangerous choice to openly side with Dumbledore 
when he takes the job at Hogwarts, and then his final act of defiance-
-the guy is getting braver as he goes along--is to give Harry the 
real memory and seal his own fate (imo).  

There's a reason given for why he might be recruited when Dumbledore 
said Slughorn was talented and could be useful to the other side.  
And when asked by Dumbledore if the DEs had come calling, Slughorn 
replied: "I haven't given them the chance."  I understood those 
explanations as ones to take at face value.

One main purpose for Slughorn in the story seems to be his value to 
Harry as an ally who looks very different from those people Harry 
would deem noble enough to be on his side.  Problems with the moral 
compass are fine in Dumbledore's eyes as long as a person is opposing 
Voldemort.  

Jen