HOW SLUGGISH WERE YOU?

This is a non-profit tribute to the works of JK Rowling who, together with her publishers and licensees, owns the characters and situations elaborated herein.

A/N: Spoilers. Thanks to all my reviewers.

Slughorn, oh Slughorn, how sluggish were you?
Slow to act, slow to think, slow to help too,
So busy choosing the future successes
'Cos helping with their careers clears up your messes

And reaps you rewards for the rest of their lives,
See how you smile when each present arrives.
You pick them on family, promise or merit,
What they can do or what they might inherit,

But noticing ethics or responsibility
Seems to be somehow beyond your ability;
Who needs good character when you are winning?
Who needs the truth when a tale you are spinning?

Secrets are lethal in inverse proportion
To how many know them, and so your contortions
To hide what you told, that just you and Tom know,
Are foolish and selfish and promise of woe.

If you alone Voldemort's secret can tell,
His success and his safety require your death knell,
And you'll die with the knowledge that you helped him win.
You can never escape from the weight of that sin.

Though his vengeance is swift and his reach may be long
There's more chance to escape if you're part of a throng
And if Dumbledore knows, he can better defeat him.
Then if you die still, at least you helped to beat him.

It was lucky that Harry had Lily's green eyes
And that Aragog's venom you didn't despise,
It was lucky you'd brewed him luck potion, day one,
Lucky him, lucky you, lucky for everyone.

Slughorn, oh Slughorn, how sluggish were you?
A slow-moving, sleazy and slimy slug too;
Selfish and self-absorbed and self-indulgent
The effect of your teaching was far from effulgent.

Effulgent: giving or radiating light

A/N Next the Half-blood Prince, then probably Draco.