The Slug Club

• Type: Social Club
• Location: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
• Owner/Residents: Founder and Leader: Professor Horace Slughorn
• Key Features: An exclusive, invitation-only group for students selected based on their ambition, intelligence, talent, or, most commonly, their connections to powerful or famous witches and wizards.

The Slug Club is an informal group of students personally selected by Potions Master Horace Slughorn. The name is a play on Slughorn's own surname. Slughorn's purpose in creating the club is to “collect” individuals he believes will achieve great success and influence in the wizarding world. By building relationships with them during their school years, he establishes a vast network of well-placed contacts from whom he can later request favours, such as free tickets to Quidditch matches or a box of his favourite Crystallised Pineapple. Membership is not based on Hogwarts House affiliation, blood status, or academic performance alone, but rather on Slughorn's personal assessment of a student's potential. He is known to drop members if they fail to live up to his expectations. Neville Longbottom, for instance, was invited to the first meeting on the Hogwarts Express but was not invited to subsequent gatherings. Slughorn ran the Slug Club during his first tenure as a professor at Hogwarts and re-established it immediately upon his return in 1996. Notable members from his first era include Lily Evans, Lucius Malfoy, Dirk Cresswell, and Gwenog Jones, the Captain of the Holyhead Harpies. Upon its revival, new members included Harry Potter (whom Slughorn considered his “crown jewel”), Hermione Granger (for her exceptional intelligence), Ginny Weasley (after Slughorn witnessed her perform a powerful Bat-Bogey Hex), Cormac McLaggen (due to his uncle's connections at the Ministry of Magic), and Blaise Zabini (whose mother was a famously beautiful and wealthy witch).

The Slug Club is central to the plot of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Albus Dumbledore used Slughorn's desire to “collect” Harry Potter as leverage to convince him to return to teaching at Hogwarts. Dumbledore's true goal was for Harry to use his membership in the club to get close to Slughorn and retrieve a crucial, unaltered memory concerning a young Tom Riddle and his questions about Horcruxes. Throughout the school year, Harry attended several Slug Club gatherings, which typically consisted of lavish dinners in Slughorn's office. These meetings provided Harry with opportunities to build a rapport with the professor. The Slug Club's Christmas party was a significant event where Draco Malfoy was caught gatecrashing by Severus Snape, leading Harry to overhear their conversation about Malfoy's secret mission for Lord Voldemort. After several failed attempts, Harry finally succeeded in obtaining the true memory from Slughorn by using a dose of Felix Felicis, a potion that grants good luck. The information in the memory was vital, confirming Voldemort's creation of multiple Horcruxes and setting Harry and Dumbledore on the path to destroying them. The club's network was also implicitly valuable during the Battle of Hogwarts, when Slughorn returned with reinforcements from Hogsmeade, likely having used his extensive connections to rally support.

As a social group rather than a physical place, the Slug Club had no official clubhouse. Professor Slughorn hosted meetings in various locations that were convenient and could be decorated to his opulent taste.

• Slughorn's Office: The most frequent meeting place. Slughorn would host elaborate suppers for his chosen students here, as well as a large and festive Christmas party complete with music and flowing mead. The office was magically enlarged and lavishly decorated for these occasions.
• Hogwarts Express: The first meeting of the revived Slug Club took place in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express at the start of the 1996-1997 school year. Slughorn invited his prospective members for lunch on the journey to school.

In the film adaptation of *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*, the Slug Club gatherings, particularly the Christmas party, are visually emphasized to show Slughorn's love of luxury and networking. The film depicts the grandeur of the events with large, festive crowds, elaborate decorations, and waiters, reinforcing the exclusivity and social-climbing nature of the club. (film)