Horace Slughorn was lured back to Hogwarts by Albus Dumbledore dangling Harry Potter in front of him like a collector’s item. In the movies, he may not have been as rotund as we expected, nor had his walrus-like mustache as J. K. Rowling wrote, but Jim Broadbent captured his deep regret mixed with greedy pursuit of comfort and influence. In those latter things, Slughorn would often skirt the law to achieve them or ignore responsibilities to friends for personal gain.
He would never claim to be villainous, nor would he get prosecuted due to his connections at the ministry, but if not for his cheery demeanor Slughorn would be considered quite a bad person when you collect his misdeeds together. So we did.
Slytherin To Muggle Houses
Horace clearly doesn’t think much of Muggle laws concerning property ownership. He displays this disregard before we even get to meet him, dropping into houses Muggles have left unattended and unceremoniously moving himself in for a spell, pun intended.
Freezing alarms and moving in pianos are far more of his concern than whether those muggles would actually want him there. In a pinch, he’ll even mess the place up to avoid detection, although he can un-mess things just as easily. All in all, a bad habit he’s gotten into that he justifies as self-preservation.
Unriddling Horcruxes
This could be the big one of them all. Just like Dumbledore, how was he to know that he was face to face with the soon-to-be most feared wizard in the world?
Nevertheless, Slughorn was either bamboozled by Riddle’s careful flattery or succumbed to his desire to be needed in giving up the secret of Horcruxes. Riddle may have discovered their secrets eventually but Horace Slughorn helped him along a dangerous path all too easily.
Funeral Thief
If your friend agreed to go to a funeral as long as he got to rifle through the pockets of the deceased, would you give them a virtually free pass? Didn’t think so. Nevertheless, that’s what Horace Slughorn does to Hagrid here.
Harry may have been slightly manipulating Slughorn into the situation, but Horace still found a way to line his pockets as he usually does. No amount of singing and drinking camaraderie in the aftermath makes up for that.
Meadle Man
Regardless of the ‘feeble’ attempt Draco made to get this poisoned bottle of booze into Dumbledore’s hands, Slughorn nevertheless was set on keeping it for his own enjoyment.
Any supposed friend who would accept a gift meant for someone else and just decide to keep it isn’t a good friend to have. While it gets lost in the frenzy of Ron’s poisoning it shouldn’t excuse Horace for generally being a bit of a jerk.
Petrificus Totalus
It’s good Madame Pomfrey is around for medical cases at Hogwarts because Slughorn evidently has no poise for perilous situations. When a student falls at his feet frothing at the mouth and with the cure literally meters away, he does nothing but stands in befuddled paralysis. Harry has to leap into action while Horace blusters about the bottle he’s holding more than the student fighting for his life.
You wouldn’t want to get bit by something poisonous with only Slughorn to rely upon. He’d probably complain about the sun being in his eyes or getting his robes dirty.
Pure ‘Old-School’
Horace Slughorn certainly benefits from ‘oh, he’s alright’ passes given from the Hogwarts faculty. While he claims to hold no direct prejudices against ‘Muggle-borns’ he brings it up often enough that you know he hung out with those who did.
Unfortunately, being from an old wizarding family and having Slytherin friends surrounding him almost guarantees that now and again he’s going to say something he’ll have to talk his way out of because it was a bit ‘off’. Once again, if he wasn’t such a jolly, affable presence Slughorn might already be a pariah for some of these attitudes.
Secret Keeper
While many might think telling Riddle about Horcruxes is his greatest failure, this outweighs it. When Voldemort rose to power Slughorn should and could have divulged his first-hand knowledge of Riddle’s interest in Horcruxes. Not only would this knowledge have been invaluable to Ministry Aurors but it would’ve directly weakened Voldemort’s perception of invincibility.
Keeping his silence ensured more lives were lost than need be. No doubt this knowledge is why Horace wouldn’t relent to inform Dumbledore all those years later. He could’ve saved lives, and didn’t.
Pineapples For Politics
It’s just a throwaway comment for Horace but he reveals that he routinely makes political moves that affect people’s lives. He puts it on par with receiving prime Quidditch tickets or crystallized pineapple and it’s a little despicable when you think about it. Alumni of his ‘Slug Club’ apparently receive and offer him chances to affect postings and policies.
His intricate web of influence, that Harry envisions as a literal spider pulling strings, could shape the British wizarding world. Given Horace’s questionable practices, he probably shouldn’t be the one with that type of leverage.
Leaf No Galleon Behind
This one is only in the movie but it’s pretty clear. It almost slides by unnoticed because of Harry’s Felix Felicis wackiness but he found Slughorn in the Herbology shed taking Tentacular leaves unsupervised, unlike in the book where the leaves were destined for 3rd-year classes. While he offers an excuse, he’s very jumpy and far too ‘sticking his head through a window’ for someone ’not’ up to something sneaky. As Harry puts it “the general sneaking around, jumping when (Harry) saw him…”. Moreover, he’s doing the deed near dusk and wouldn’t have been seen if not for Harry walking in on him.
He even admits to the leaves being “worth galleons to the right buyer, not that he’s familiar with such back-alley transactions. But one does hear rumors…”. Sure, Professor. Obviously on the low end of the suss-spectrum, but it all points to the overall attitude of entitlement Slughorn seems to have.
Not Paying Amortentia-n
Horace Slughorn surely entranced students with his first potions class, but he wasn’t exactly careful. He presented potions that he described as dangerous in the extreme and left them out long enough for Malfoy to lift some of the Polyjuice Potion from under his nose (where his mustache should’ve been).
Once again his loose regard for care aided someone with ill intentions. Romilda Vane could’ve had a field day!
