Horace Eugene Flaccus Slughorn
Origin: Harry Potter
Hair:
Eyes:
Species: Human
Birthday:
Residence: MT-6-4-1
Occupation: Potioneer, Potions teacher at magic accademy
Affiliation:
Talent: Magic
Medical notes:
Sports/Instruments: Piano
Languages:
Import Date: 5
Professor Horace Eugene Flaccus[16][12] Slughorn (b. 28 April[1] between 1882 and 1913)[2] was a wizard. He attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as a member of Slytherin before returning in 1931 as Potions Master. He also served as Head of Slytherin House, before retiring in 1981 due to a fear that Albus Dumbledore would discover that he had told Tom Riddle about Horcruxes, though Dumbledore himself did not feel that Slughorn had done anything wrong.
Following the return of Voldemort and the Death Eaters beginning to seek Slughorn out, the retired professor lived a life on the run, unsure if Voldemort intended to recruit him or kill him to keep his Horcruxes a secret.
In 1996, Dumbledore convinced Slughorn to return to Hogwarts by tempting him out of retirement with the prospect of "collecting" Harry Potter as he had so many other students, with his true goal being to learn what Slughorn had told Riddle. Slughorn eventually divulged his true memory. He continued to teach during the 1997–1998 school year under Voldemort's regime, and was surprised to learn that Voldemort meant to recruit him only to teach the young wizards that Voldemort would deem suitable to attend Hogwarts.[12]
During the Battle of Hogwarts, Slughorn sided with the defenders of Hogwarts, gathering reinforcements from Hogsmeade, and engaged his former pupil in a duel alongside Minerva McGonagall and Kingsley Shacklebolt. He survived the battle and had retired a second time by 2011,[14] having a portrait hung in the Slytherin Dungeon.[12]
Slughorn was described as being an enormously fat, bald, old man. He was short with an immense belly, so large that the buttons on his waistcoat usually threatened to burst off. His round stomach was usually said to precede him when he entered rooms, and when he stood, the top of his head barely reached Albus Dumbledore's chin. His girth was seen to take up most of the compartment of the Hogwarts Express and occupy at least a quarter of Honeydukes Sweet Shop. He was described as having a shiny pate, prominent, gooseberry coloured eyes, and an enormous, silver, walrus-like moustache.
In his youth, his moustache was gingery blond and his hair was thick and straw coloured. He had pudgy hands, fat thumbs, and a vast forehead, as well as highly polished buttons on his maroon velvet jacket that he wore over his lilac silk pyjamas. Slughorn had a particular liking of lavish, old-fashioned clothes: waistcoats with gold buttons during the day and luxurious velvet smoking jackets when at home. In one particular trip to Hogsmeade, he wore an enormous furry hat and an overcoat with matching fur collar and clutched a large bag of crystallised pineapple. When he duelled Voldemort in the Battle of Hogwarts, he wore an emerald-green pair of silk pyjamas. He claimed to suffer from old age, fatigue, rheumatism, and a weak chest. According to Harry, he seemed remarkably unabashed for someone whom he had just seen pretending to be an armchair.
However, he was still sufficiently agile to turn himself into an armchair and create a scene of chaos at short notice when he was trying to avoid unwelcome visitors, and managed to live on the run from Voldemort moving from house to house every couple of weeks (including his grand piano). He had a liking for embroidered clothing, with gold coloured buttons and plenty of velvet.[5] His comforts included soft chairs and footstools, fine wines and books, boxes of confectionery and plump cushions, all of which cluttered the room he met Harry in. His largeness fit his personality: he was jolly and genial, bustling around, twiddling the ends of his walrus moustache and puffing out his massive belly. He at times wore a silver pocket watch.
Personality and traits
Horace Slughorn was described as having a bumbling, jovial sort of personality. He was rather vain and quite fond of food, especially crystallised pineapple. Despite being a relatively good-natured person, he only had eyes for people who he thought had talent, would go far in life, and thus give him helpful connections and be able to influence or gain benefits from them. Thus, while he invited other students to his "Slug Club", he had a tendency to rudely ignore people like Ronald Weasley because he didn't view them as important, talented, or famous enough to warrant his attention. He also turned to ignoring Marcus Belby after discovering he did not have any attachment to his accomplished uncle, despite inviting him to the Slug Club's reopening.
Slughorn was also a bit of a hypocrite, as he told Harry he believed teachers should not have favourites but then proceeded to say that Harry's mother, Lily Evans, was one of his. Shortly after this encounter, Dumbledore told Harry that in fact, while Slughorn was a teacher, he formed a group of his favourite students with him at the centre in order to forge connections, make introductions, and always reap some sort of benefit from them. In addition, he stated that he was not prejudiced against Muggle-born students, but seemed surprised that Harry said Hermione Granger was the best in his year; despite this, he asserted that Lily was one of the most talented students he ever taught, and frequently compared Harry's talent to hers in very favourable terms. It seemed Slughorn felt that pure-blood students usually displayed the best talent but was happy to bring Muggle-borns or half-bloods into his inner circle if he thought they were talented or gifted enough.
Compared to his predecessor Snape, Slughorn's teaching methods were more friendly, excitable, and interactive, not unlike how a good-natured laboratory professor conducts lessons. He also appeared to know how to motivate students for his subject; in his first Potions lesson since coming out of retirement, he encouraged his students to concoct for him the Draught of Living Death with a ready bottle of Felix Felicis as reward to the student who brewed the best potion. In contrast to Snape, who only allowed students that had achieved Outstanding in their Potions OWL to attempt the N.E.W.T. class, Slughorn was content to admit students with Exceeds Expectations.
He also exhibited no qualms at using his school connections to procure useful assets for his own benefit, as seen when he convinced Pomona Sprout to provide him with plant samples as potion ingredients fresh from the Hogwarts Greenhouses, or when he took advantage of Hagrid's attendant despair to retrieve some of Aragog's prized venom, along with the stocks of unicorn hair Hagrid had inside his cabin. Slughorn's professional relationships with his fellow professors often worked to mutual benefit, often working with his fellow instructors to maximise their benefit to the students, such as ensuring that his students had plenty of spare ingredients from Pomona Sprout's greenhouses while offering his own expertise within her field in exchange for the favour.
Slughorn generally displayed the more positive traits of Slytherin, such as ambition. He never wished to be famous himself; instead, he preferred to help others become famous, which, if successful, gained him influence and/or benefits from them, such as being able to recommend the next junior member of the Goblin Liaison Office, free Quidditch tickets or a box of his favourite crystallised pineapple. By his own admittance, he revered magical creatures such as Acromantulas, and thought Aragog was a magnificent specimen.[5]
Slughorn had evident self-centredness; he mentioned that all the mead he brought was quite safe as he had a house-elf drink some from each bottle to ensure it was not poisoned. This revelation disquieted Harry, as it showed that Slughorn saw nothing wrong with risking a house-elf's life to protect his own, although there is the very strong possibility that Slughorn possessed an antidote to give the house-elf if poison was present in the drink. Slughorn was shown to be easily forgiving, like when Harry brought a Love Potion-intoxicated Ron to his office to be cured and saying their misunderstanding about retrieving Slughorn's memory as "water under the bridge".
Slughorn was keen to make ever more connections, and in his post as teacher, made a habit of having regular meetings with students who were either famous, related to famous people, or talented in one way or another. Known as the "Slug Club", this group of students were constantly being invited to Slughorn's office for dinner and parties. Students that he did not consider to be "high-fliers", such as Arthur Weasley, and later his son Ron, were simply ignored. However, those with proven negative affiliations, such as Draco Malfoy, due to his father being a Death Eater and imprisoned in Azkaban, were not invited to the club meetings either. And while he invited Marcus Belby for his affiliation with the famous Damocles Belby, Horace turned to ignoring Belby once discovering that he has no contact with the man.[5]
Slughorn's personality, in many ways, contradicted the "evil Slytherin" stereotype held by many students of the other Houses, Gryffindors in particular. He was a good person, and did not seem to hold any real prejudice against Muggle-born witches and wizards. While he thought pure-bloods generally had more wizarding talent, he was always happy to meet and teach Muggle-borns and half-bloods who displayed great potential. He was, however, self-serving enough to favour students of status or talent, largely for the purpose of benefiting from his connection to them in the future.
He was horribly guilt-ridden about the information he gave to Tom Riddle about Horcruxes, and crudely edited his memory of the event to prevent anyone finding out what he had done, as much as to relieve his own guilty feelings. Though Albus Dumbledore would undoubtedly have tried in earnest to convey the importance of the contents of the original memory, Slughorn stubbornly refused to give it up till 1997. He was also horrified at his accidental poisoning of Ron Weasley and later came to visit him in the Hospital Wing.[5]
Despite his ambition, Slughorn knew where to draw his personal boundaries. His tendency to ally himself with powerful, talented, and important people never blinded him to his moral values, and thus, he was never tempted to join forces with Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Unlike Peter Pettigrew, Dolores Umbridge and others who were keen to surround themselves with powerful people, he was not one to side with whoever was winning. Slughorn knew where his loyalties lay, and he fought against Lord Voldemort head on during the final battle.
Although Slughorn initially attempted to hide and avoid getting himself into any danger or conflict, he was willing to defend himself and other people when his loyalties were questioned, when backed to a corner and when it was necessary to defend those he cared about. This was especially shown during the final battle as while it initially seemed that Slughorn fled in cowardice with the other Slytherins, he had actually only left to round up reinforcements and returned to the battle. This, along with the fact that he fearlessly stood up to Voldemort himself, showed that he was a courageous man. He was also strong willed and was able to master Occlumency, a rare ability that required a strong mind.
Slughorn possessed a great ability to feel shame and regret for his mistakes, many of which he often tried to cover up, hide from, or when it came down to it, fight with all of his magical power. His determination to not repeat past mistakes or lay them to rest was rather evident in his handing of the Horcrux memory to Harry and his duel with Voldemort. He clearly regarded his giving of information about the possibility of multiple Horcruxes to young Tom Riddle to be his greatest mistake.
Slughorn was also a rather analytical and calculating individual, able to see great potential in students, but also had his blind spots as well, such his overlooking of Ron Weasley's latent talents and being vulnerable to Tom Riddle's flattery. His analytical abilities and mindset allowed him to deduce Harry's early attempts to coax the Horcrux memory from him. In many ways, not only did Slughorn possess an inordinately strong moral compass, but was also the consummate strategist, such as when he fetched necessary reinforcements from Hogsmeade to aid in the Battle of Hogwarts.
This propensity towards strategy and making powerful alliances is compliant with the Slytherin traits of cunning and fraternity, as Slytherins would take calculated risks and always had a backup plan, usually relying on staunch and stalwart allies, something that Slughorn was a certifiable genius at. In a great many ways, Horace Slughorn embodied the best traits that Slytherin House has to offer: camaraderie, strong social intuition, cunning, and strategy. However, Slughorn was also difficult in taking surprises, as when Ron was accidentally poisoned by a mead, he became too shocked to do anything to help, until Harry saved the situation with a bezoar.
Magical abilities and skills
Horace Slughorn was an accomplished wizard. Lucius Malfoy commended his son about Slughorn's competence and even Albus Dumbledore, quite possibly the greatest wizard of all time, openly respected Slughorn's abilities, saying that he was an extremely able wizard and calling his talents considerable. Voldemort himself also acknowledged the considerable magical abilities of his former teacher, so much so that he strongly desired to recruit Horace to his side. Slughorn's impressive magical abilities allowed him to survive the Battle of Hogwarts and even stand up against Voldemort himself with aid and survive the duel.
Occlumency: Horace was an extremely able Occlumens,[1] with his skills being acknowledged by even Albus Dumbledore, who deemed him to be much more capable in it than Morfin Gaunt. His mastery would have allowed him to resist even a Legilimens of Dumbledore's calibre as well as the effects of Veritaserum, which made Dumbledore refuse to use such forceful and coaxing methods against Slughorn due to his ability to repel them.
Memory modification: Horace was able to modify his own memory to make it seem something less horrible, as seen in the case of Tom Riddle asking about Horcruxes. However, this was crudely done, as parts of the memory were clouds with a booming voice, rather than an actual visual.
Transfiguration: Despite his wide frame, Horace was extremely agile and displayed impressive skills in Transfiguration, being able to create the impression of a struggle within his house in a matter of seconds and transforming himself into an armchair; Human Transfiguration is something only a master of that art can accomplish. He was also able to swiftly use the spell Anapneo to vanish throat blockages, demonstrating his proficiency in this field.[5]
Duelling: Slughorn was a highly accomplished duellist, being able to survive the Battle of Hogwarts, later claiming that he was able to dispatch many Death Eaters by himself to Sprout and Flitwick after the battle. Alongside Minerva McGonagall and Kingsley Shacklebolt, he was even able to contend with Voldemort himself, only being overpowered when Voldemort's rage over Bellatrix's death caused him to lash out, although it must be noted that Voldemort was wielding the Elder Wand at the time without having achieved mastery over it and Harry Potter's loving sacrifice was weakening the power of Voldemort's spells. Being capable of duelling such a powerful Dark wizard although, was testament to his superb skills in martial magic.[22]
Potions: Perhaps chief among Slughorn's many talents was his considerable ability as a potioneer. Slughorn was able to create extremely complicated Potions such as Felix Felicis, the Polyjuice Potion, and Amortentia. He was extremely proficient in Potions, having taught the subject up to N.E.W.T. level, and was even seen to be at least on par with, if not superior to, Severus Snape in the subject, considering he was Snape's teacher on Potions, as he understood and agreed with Snape's edits of a copy of Advanced Potion-Making. He also fully understood Golpalott's Third Law to the letter and was flawlessly proficient with Antidotes as he was able to recite a long and complicated theory of them to a class of N.E.W.T students and swiftly, with no effort, make a perfect remedy for a very powerful Amortentia. He was also said by Dumbledore to be capable of brewing an antidote to Veritaserum, which he has always carried in order to prevent Dumbledore from using Veritaserum to coerce the true memory when Voldemort asked about Horcruxes out of him.[5]
Non-verbal magic: As a testament to Slughorn's considerable magical abilities, he was capable of effectively performing nonverbal magic, something that only wizards and witches of outstanding skill can perform. In 1996, Slughorn aided Albus Dumbledore in fully restoring an entire room that had been torn to pieces with "one identical sweeping motion" of their wands without saying anything. He extracted one of his own memories from his temple for Harry Potter with no incantation.[5] It is also noteworthy that Slughorn was able to cast non-verbal spells during his duel with Voldemort, an incredibly impressive magical feat.[22]
Charms: Slughorn was able to repair a whole room with one Mending Charm (with Dumbledore's help) and provide Harry one of his memories using the Memory extraction spell, both of which non-verbally, showcasing his skill with charms.[5] He also used successfully used the Freezing Charm to deactivate various Muggle Burglar alarms whilst evading the Death Eaters, as well as using the Intruder Charm as a magical alarm.[15] and could cast the simple Wand-Lighting Charm successfully as well.[28] Furthermore, he was capable of producing a non-corporeal Patronus,[11] a mark of superior magical ability, given the immense difficulty of casting such an advanced and powerful protective charm.
Defence Against the Dark Arts: Slughorn possessed superb defensive abilities against Dark Magic and his knowledge of the Dark Arts also gave him knowledge of many advanced defensive spells. Overall, Slughorn's proficiency in defending himself from the Dark Arts was great enough that he was able to aid in the creation of the extremely powerful defence around Hogwarts during the Battle of Hogwarts that only Voldemort was able to breach and alongside Minerva McGonagall and Kingsley Shacklebolt, he was even able to duel Voldemort himself, the so-called most dangerous Dark wizard in history, only being overpowered when the Dark wizard was angered over the death of his lieutenant, and survive the encounter.
Dark Arts knowledge: Professor Slughorn had considerable knowledge of the Dark Arts, having even been aware of the extremely advanced ability to create Horcruxes. He was horrified at the mere suggestion of murdering people so he never took it beyond theoretical knowledge, but he knew enough to tell Tom Riddle everything he needed to know in order to achieve immortality, something he regretted deeply.
Love: Though not as demonstrably learned in this powerful branch of magic as his peer and colleague, Albus Dumbledore, Slughorn was still exceptionally knowledgeable and powerful in the nature of love. This was evident when teaching Love Potions, as he was able to distinguish between the obsessive love caused by love potions and the genuine, unconditional love felt by most people. He was clearly capable of love, as it allowed him to overcome his shame of his Horcrux memory and to give it to Harry as a weapon to destroy the monster he felt partially responsible for creating, as it was Voldemort who killed so many of his beloved students, especially Lily Evans, whom Slughorn was extremely fond of and doted upon as one of his most prized pupils. Slughorn also felt great need to protect his students, regardless of favouritism, as was his most redeeming quality. It was also his ability to love which gave Slughorn the strength to ultimately show his true loyalties and fight against Voldemort himself head-on.
Social networking: Slughorn was a seasoned and gifted individual in his ability form powerful and lasting connections throughout his career as a teacher. His ability to form connections for himself and others made him a valuable ally to have and was able to capitalise on this skill of his for decades for both self-serving and selfless reasons. He was also a master rally man, as he was easily able to stir the citizens of Hogsmeade into a war frenzy and gain their support to add their power to Battle of Hogwarts against Voldemort and his Death Eaters.
Indomitable willpower: The fact that Slughorn was capable of performing Occlumency and avoid giving his real memory to Dumbledore and Harry showed that his willpower was extremely strong. This was especially evident as he was unwilling to join forces with Dark wizards like Voldemort despite his tendency to ally himself with powerful people and ultimately fought against Voldemort head on during the Battle of Hogwarts.
Piano playing (Possibly): Slughorn owned a piano which he brought with him when he was on the run from Death Eaters, suggesting that he could play it.
Possessions
Wand: Slughorn likely purchased his wand from Ollivanders at the age of eleven before starting his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, like many other wizards in wizarding Great Britain. It is 10 1/4" long and comprised of Cedar wood with a core of dragon heartstring. The handle has two prongs extending out of the end, which might relate to his surname 'Slughorn'.
Hourglass: Slughorn's Hourglass is a clock made of two glass vessels connected with a narrow passage, with a green fluid flowing through inside and serpent design outside (representing him as a Slytherin and Head of House). He owned it since before Tom Riddle began studying at Hogwarts. The sand runs accordingly to the quality of the conversation: if stimulating, the sand runs slowly, and vice versa.
Dragon-skin briefcase: Horace also owned a rather expensive briefcase made of prized Dragon-skin which he uses to hold his personal things, mainly documents related to the subject he teaches at school.
Potion-making kit: This is where Slughorn stored his ready supply of potion ingredients. Horace pulled out several components inside it to mix up an antidote for Ron's love potion-induced lovesickness upon Harry's request to cure his friend. It is also from here where Slughorn placed a bezoar that Harry showed him in one of their lessons.
Piano: Horace owned a piano. When he used to escape from Death Eaters, he took the piano with him, making sure "neighbours don't spot [him] bringing in the piano".
Antidote to Veritaserum (suspected): Dumbledore suspects that ever since he requested Slughorn to divulge the memory regarding Tom Riddle asking about Horcruxes, the Potions Master has kept a side of antidote to veritaserum as a precaution for any further attempts.