On Slugs

"A scene of total devastation met their eyes. A grandfather clock lay splintered at their feet, its face cracked, its pendulum lying a little farther away like a dropped sword. A piane was on it side, its keys strewn across the floor. The wreckage of a fallen chandelier glittered nearby. Cushions lay deflated, feathers oozing from slashes in their sides; fragmetns of glass and chine lay like powder over everything. Dumbledore raised his wand even higher, so that its light was thrown upon the walls, where something darkly red and glutinous was splattered over the wallpaper. Harry's small intake of breath made Dumbledore look around.

"Not pretty is it?" he said heavily. "Yes, something horrible has happened here."

Dumbledore moved carefully into the middle of the room, scrutinizing the wreckage at his feet. Harry followed, gazing around, half-scared of what he might see hidden behind the wreck of the piano or the overturned sofa, but there was no sign of a body.

"Maybe there was a fight and--and they dragged him off, Professor?" Harry suggested...

"I don't think so," said Dumbledore quietly, peering behind an overstuffed armchair lying on its side.

"You mean he's--?"

"Still here somewhere? Yes."

And without warning, Dumbledore swooped, plunged the tip of his wand into the seat of the overstuffed armchair, which yelled, "Ouch!"

"Good evening, Horace," said Dumbledore, straightening up again.

Harry's jaw dropped. Where a split second before there had been an armchair, there now crouched an enormously fat, bald, old man who was masage his lower bell and squinting up at Dumbledore with an aggrieved and watery eye...

The wandlight sparkled on his shiny pate, his prominent eyes, his enormous silver, walruslike mustache, and the highly polished buttons on the maroon velvet jacket he was wearing over a pair of lilac silk pajamas. The top of his head barely reached Dumbledore's chin.

"What gave it away?" he grunted as he staggered to his feet...

"My dear Horace," said Dumbledore, looking amused, "if the Death Eaters really had come to call, the Dark Mark would have been set over the house."

The wizard clapped a pudgy hand to his vast forehead.

"The Dark Mark," he muttered. "Knew there was something...ah well."

For some time, I have wondered about dear 'ole Sluggy. He seems a bit shady to me. Maybe because of the whole Mad-Eye Moody situation, I am not comfortable accepting the new teacher as being harmless. I do not think that the real Slughorn is stuffed in a box somewhere like Moody, but rather I wonder about Slughorn's past and intentions. As it seems there is a place in one of the Potter books, where Rowling mentions that only a Death Eater can cast the Dark Mark. I believe it might be in Book 4, where Harry and Winky are being accused of casting the Dark Mark. If that is the case, then is Slughorn giving something away about his past? Or if Dumbledore knows all, as it seems, then is he baiting Sluggy by telling about the mark? Slughorn readily admits that he....forgot. He never says that he forgot it, but he said he "knew there was something..." I am looking forward to the next book to see if I'm reading too much into the situation. We will see of Sluggy, in the end, turns out to be Death Eater.

Another interesting fact that I read from the Muggle Matters website: The chiastic structure of the books that correlation between them. This adds an interesting aspect into the whole "slug factor." If you are not familiar with this, then look at the chiastic structure below:

Book 1
>>>>>Book 2
>>>>>>>>>>Book 3
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Book 4
>>>>>>>>>>Book 5
>>>>>Book 6
Book 7

Now the correlation lies between books 1 and 7, books 2 and 6, books 3 and 5, and that leaves book 4 on its own. This is similar to the idea of the odd numbered books being concerned with the internal struggle and the even numbered books dealing with the external troubles. For example: Book 5---the internal struggle of the dreams and occlumency, whereas Book 6 is concerned with the external struggle of Albus/Voldy.

If we use the chiastic structure, then we see the correlation between Book 2 and 6. In both books, there is a incident with slugs. Ron attempts to jinx Malfoy and in turn the jinx backfires and Ron "eats slugs." If Rowling is using this structure, then how symbolic is Slughorn in Book 6 and what will he do in Book 7.

By the way, slugs are believed to be "born from the mud, and to feed upon it. It was, therefore, interpreted as the symbol of the sinner, and of laziness, because it made no effort to seek food, but ate what it found at hand." All of this is from the book, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art.

In closing, I wish I had more time to devote to 'ole Sluggy so that a solid conclusion might be developed. I believe he is one of those characters that the readers do not know well enough to really care that much about or attempt to figure out his role in the next book. Although, I do find the chiastic link to be hochinteressant! I have a feeling that this structure will lead to many blogs in the future.