Why Didn't Dumbledore Use Legilimency on Slughorn? - Harry Potter Explained

Hey everyone,

Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In this video, we’re going to be discussing Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter, Potions Professor Horace Slughorn, and the events of the Half Blood Prince.

I just rewatched the Half Blood Prince for the 500th time last night. Though it was not the most well received of all of the films, I really enjoy it every time- particularly Jim Broadbent’s performance of Slughorn- and the unusual relationship that he develops with Harry Potter over the course of the film. Their relationship, though genuine in some respects, was largely contrived- the result of Dumbledore’s instruction to Harry to become ‘chosen’ by Slughorn.

“I tell you all this,” Dumbledore continued, “not to turn you against Horace — or, as we must now call him, Professor Slughorn — but to put you on your guard. He will undoubtedly try to collect you, Harry. You would be the jewel of his collection; ‘the Boy Who Lived’…or, as they call you these days, ‘the Chosen One.’”

Basically, Dumbledore wanted Harry to become one of Slughorn’s absolute favourites- he wanted him to be the next member of Slughorn’s SLUG CLUB.

But, the truth is, Dumbledore didn’t instruct Harry to be chosen by Slughorn just to pad Slughorn’s shelf of ex-students. He didn’t want Harry to be praised by Slughorn just for the sake of it- he had an agenda. Dumbledore wanted one of Slughorn’s memories, and he was going to use Harry to get it.

After receiving his special mission from Dumbledore, Harry’s escapades begin. He takes Dumbledore’s mission very seriously, and kicks things off by enrolling in Slughorn’s potions class so that he can get closer to him. At the beginning, Dumbledore’s instructions are simple: get to know Slughorn. But things begin to get a little more complicated, and a little more serious, when Dumbledore brings Harry to his office to look through the pensieve. A pensieve is a magical object used to review memories - and while Dumbledore eventually shows Harry a series of memories- he starts Harry off with one of his own.

At the moment that Harry dips his head in the pensieve’s water, he’s suddenly taken all the way back to the year 1938. As an observer, the first thing that Harry witnesses is a very troubled-looking young boy sitting alone in the room of an orphanage. Wool’s Orphanage. Seconds later, the boy gets a visitor, and that visitor turns out to be none other than a young Albus Dumbledore. After some discussion, Dumbledore reveals to the boy that a. he is a wizard, and b. He is invited to Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. What Dumbledore did not know at that time, however, was that this boy, Tom Riddle, would go on to become the most evil dark wizard in history. Tom tormented the other orphans and was supremely difficult- Dumbledore even researched Riddle and became more familiar with his background, but it didn’t mean that he was bad to the core- and it didn’t mean that he wouldn’t get a chance at Hogwarts.

The point of this scene, and the point of Dumbledore showing Harry all of this, was to give Harry a sense of context for the task that he would later give him, and the memories that he would later show him. He wanted to give Harry an idea of the troubled boy that lord Voldemort once was, show him that Tom Riddle was once a student much like him, and show him how his path of darkness began.

The next memory that Dumbledore shows Harry is one of Slughorn’s, and it shows an older, more refined, more..together Riddle, and an interaction with Slughorn himself. Slughorn was one of Riddle’s professors you see- in fact, he was Riddle’s favourite professor. In the memory, Riddle, after praising Slughorn with all sorts of compliments and buttering him up with his favourite pineapple treat, asks Slughorn something.

“I was in the library the other night, in the Restricted Section, and I read something rather odd about a bit of rare magic. It's called, as I understand it... a….”

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Music by:
Juan Naranjo
Jacob A. Cadmus
Samuel Kim

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