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harry potter - Was Severus Snape a Potions student of Slughorn's?


Was Severus Snape a Potions student of Slughorn's?


By the timeline, it sounds plausible (Tom Riddle was, and he wasn't that much older than Snape).



Answer



Yes, Snape was a student of Professor Slughorn's. As b_jonas states, Slughorn says so in Half-Blood Prince. Specifically, Slughorn says it here:



‘Snape!’ ejaculated Slughorn, who looked the most shaken, pale and sweating. ‘Snape! I taught him! I thought I knew him!’

Half-Blood Prince -- page 585 -- Bloomsbury -- chapter 29, The Phoenix Lament




One could also presume that Snape was Slughorn's student because Slughorn raves about Lily Evans's talent in potions and we all know Snape is Lily's classmate. There is no indication in canon that there were two Potions Masters teaching simultaneously at any given time in Hogwarts's history. That there is one teacher per subject at Hogwarts seems to be a theme (Defence Against the Dark Arts is the strongest indicator of that; one might argue that this is because the DADA position was cursed by Voldemort)


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