Snapedom

“I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.” Groucho Marx




Something that struck me on rereading the Slug Club chapter in HBP: we can make some fairly informed inferences about the makeup (and intersections) of the Slug Club, the Pureblood supremacist faction in Slytherin, and the Dark Lord’s supporters in Slytherin.

The first thing to note is who is missing from the “Slytherin” compartment when Harry sneaks in to spy: a full half of the sixth years—Theo Nott, Daphne Greenglass, Millicent Bulstrode, Tracey Davis, and our hypothesized fifth Slytherin girl (two of whom at least were planned on Jo’s original class list to be half-bloods). Who is present? Three Death Eater’s sons, a Draco fangirl who always laps up his boasts and laughs at his anti-Trio taunts (including his calling Hermione a Mudblood), and a haughty Pureblood who expresses disdain for the “blood traitor” Weasleys.

I think we’ve isolated the Pureblood supremacist faction in sixth year Slytherin. Certainly Zabini makes it as clear as he can that he’s not there as one of Draco’s hangers-on, and one can hardly imagine Crabbe-n-Goyle and Zabini sharing any other possible commonality than blood prejudice.

Next, Zabini explains to Malfoy that “I don’t think Slughorn is interested in Death Eaters,” and that Sluggy’s interest in Nott evaporated when he learned his old friend Nott senior had been caught at the Ministry.

Which means we now have both a Death Eater’s son who doesn’t hang out with his house’s pureblood supremacists, and a pureblood supremacist whom Slughorn confidently expects not to be a Death Eater wannabe.

And indeed, look at Blaise’s reaction to Draco’s announcement that he might not be finishing school, having moved on to bigger and better things. Blaise is supremely underwhelmed, and his scathing comment is not entirely unambiguous about whether it’s Draco’s competence or his choices (or, indeed, Voldemort’s competence and choices) he most questions. “And you think you’ll be able to do something for him? Sixteen years old, and not even fully qualified yet?” And he never responds to Draco’s claim that the Dark Lord has a job he wants Draco personally to do.

That could indicate Blaise simply doesn’t believe a word of it. But why not say so? (Or just cough skeptically as he had about Harry.) Or it could mean he’d been convinced but didn’t want to admit it, but in that case he should be looking angry while the others look awed. But Blaise is smart and subtle. It could also indicate he secretly sides with Narcissa’s position, that Draco would be better off completing his education. And it could also be a subtle commentary on the sort of adult who shifts the heavy lifting off on unqualified kids. After all, none of the Slytherins have reason to think well of people like Dumbles.

But this criss-cross of alignments, of course, matches what we saw during Voldemort’s first rise. Sirius’s parents, although the worst sort of pureblood supremacists (or so it seems), threw a fortune into protecting their home against that Lord Thingie fellow. Having a father (Barty Sr.) strongly committed to one side didn’t guarantee the son would follow. And there were Slytherins (such as the then Head of House) who weren’t virulent Pureblood supremacists at all.

*

Now let’s return to the Slug Club. Slughorn wants to stay out of the direct conflict if he can. But if he has to choose sides, it won’t be Voldemort’s. So I don’t think he ever knowingly let the Slug Club be used as a Death Eater recruitment camp. (Well, in 1943, before he had Riddle’s measure, quite possibly it was….) But Slughorn refused to invite those he suspects to be aligned with Voldemort to participate in 1996; there’s no reason to suppose he did differently in 1977.

Of course, once Bellatrix married Rodolphus, Tom had an in with the younger Blacks (which apparently neither Horace nor some of the senior Blacks fully appreciated)—and the Blacks’ other in-laws, such as Lucius. So there may be plenty of Slug Club recent graduates that Horace doesn’t realize have been recruited.

The Slug Club is one of very few cross-house and cross-year organizations we actually see at Hogwarts (the one-meeting Dueling Club, the D.A.—which however excluded Slytherins, and one mention of a Charms Club being the others). There’s no reason to assume that was different in 1977 either. But in canon, no one younger than fifth year was invited.

Which takes us to the question: had Severus been in the Slug Club? Jodel answered in the negative (tentatively) on the grounds that young Severus, though certainly talented enough, was neither personable enough to attract Horace’s initial interest, nor sufficiently appreciative of self-serving favors to be worth Slughorn’s investment. But I think we can approach the matter from a different angle.

What was going on that fifth year? In their argument after SWM, Lily accused Severus of hanging out with known DE-wannabes. Sirius asserted the same in GoF, though admitting there was no evidence that Snape himself had ever joined Voldemort. Avery and Mulciber, whom we know were Sev’s friends towards the end of 5th year, and Evan Rosier and Rabastan Lestrange, whom Sirius says had been at some point, all had DE fathers/older relatives—exactly the demographic we saw Horace exclude later. So if Severus was hanging with that crowd, he wasn’t likely to be invited.

Now turn that argument on its head. If he weren’t invited into the Slug Club, with whom else could he hang out? The most talented and well-connected at Hogwarts were being solicited to align with Dumbledore, the Death Eaters, or the neutrals/establishment-supporters—the Slug Club. Any other fifth-year Slytherins not being invited into the Club were either talentless and without influence (in Slughorn's opinion), or Death Eaters’ kids. So if Severus were excluded from the club his choices were losers, or DE kids, or no one.

Who would, for sure, have been invited into the Slug Club in their class? Slughorn’s favorite, Lily Evans. She’d have been a fool to refuse, too, if she then planned on any sort of career after she graduated. Moreover, her being such a favorite of Slughorn’s suggests that she dealt better with his fulsome praise than her son did; she might even have enjoyed it and liked the man. And I very much doubt that being a suspected Dumbledore-supporter would have disqualified an invitee the way being a DE-sympathizer would.

Whom else would Slughorn have really, really wanted from that year? Obviously, James Potter and Sirius Black, if he could get them—wealthy Purebloods with the highest connections, obvious talent, and no DE-taint. But I don’t think he’d have anything much to offer them; they’d probably disdain his invitations.

Except… James is crushing seriously on Evans. And she’s going to Slughorn’s little get-togethers, and meeting potential contacts—and potential rivals to James. Moreover, if James and Sirius go, Snivellus probably won’t. In fact, he won’t even be invited, if James makes it clear that’s the price of his and Sirius’s attendance.

And after the end of fifth year, when Snivellus’s die had been well and truly cast, or in seventh when Lily agreed to start dating him, James might well have decided to dump that bore Sluggy. Hard. And take Sirius (and later Lily) with him. Which would explain nicely why James Potter, Quidditch star and Head Boy, never rated a single mention from that eminent collector Horace when he talked to Potter fils.