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The Slug Club

"Oh, it was quite fun, really. I mean, he drones on about famous exploits a bit, and he absolutely fawns on McLaggen because he's so well connected, but he gave us some really nice food and he introduced us to Gwenog Jones."
     --Hermione Granger, describing a Slug Club party (HBP11)

Horace Slughorn has taught Potions twice at Hogwarts, and both times he created something informally called the "Slug Club:" an elite group of students chosen because they have influential parents or because Slughorn believes they will be important some day.

Slughorn called the get-togethers "parties" or "suppers," and indeed, they are essentially social networking events.

The Potions Master stays in touch with his former students and uses these connections to help his new ones. Of course, he also loves it when they send him lavish gifts too.

Few Hogwarts student groups cross as many boundaries as the Slug Club. The Slug Club is open to all houses, all years, all ancestries, boys and girls. If Slughorn thinks you are powerful, successful or well-connected, chances are you will be invited to attend Slughorn's "parties."

The Slug Club
The "Slug Club" that Slughorn forms during Harry's 6th year include:

• Harry Potter
• Cormac McLaggen
• Blaise Zabini
• Ginny Weasley
• Melinda Bobbin
• Hermione Granger

Who doesn't get invitations
Ron is quite miffed because he never gets invited to the meetings, and Draco Malfoy resorts to crashing the Christmas party because he wasn't invited. Slug Club candidates who didn't make the cut: Marcus Belby, Neville Longbottom. Molly Weasley complains that Arthur was never invited either (HBP).

Probable Slughorn "favorites" from earlier years *

• Lily Evans
• Dirk Cresswell (now Head of the Goblin Liaison Office) (HBP4)
• Barnabas Cuffe (now editor of the Daily Prophet) (HBP4)
• Ambrosius Flume (now owner of Honeydukes) (HBP4)
• Ciceron Harkiss (HBP4)
• Gwenog Jones (now Captain of the Holyhead Harpies) (HBP4)
• Marcus Belby's Uncle Damocles (inventor of the Wolfsbane potion) (HBP7)
• Cormac McLaggen's Uncle Tiberius (HBP7)
• Lucius Malfoy (HBP7)
• Theodore Nott's father (HBP7)
• Eldred Worple (author of Blood Brothers: My Life Amongst the Vampires) (HBP15)
• Tom Riddle

*Note: It is difficult to definitively identify early "Club" members because Slughorn doesn't dwell on whether they were in the club or not. If Slughorn mentioned someone was one of "his" students, received gifts from them, or socializes with them, they made it on this tentative list. For example, Draco's conversation with Blaise aboard the train holds the clue about Lucius:

My father used to be a bit of a favorite of his. Slughorn probably hasn't heard I'm on the train, or…" "I wouldn't bank on an invitation," said Zabini. "He asked me about Nott’s father when I first arrived. They used to be old friends, apparently, but when he heard he'd been caught at the Ministry he didn't look happy, and Nott didn't get an invitation, did he? I don't think Slughorn's interested in Death Eaters." Malfoy looked angry, but forced out a singularly humorless laugh. (HBP7)

So Draco knew that his father had been one of the elite and fully expected to be treated the same way.

Members of the Slug Club are indicated on the Lexicon A-Z list with this icon: