Skip to main content
2 of 3
Added book reference. Improved answer.
Möoz
  • 46.1k
  • 37
  • 260
  • 459

To add to the existing answers:

Why kill a prominent member of the community? That would spark investigation into the murder. A risk which Voldemort was probably not willing to make.

Voldemort did kill, and almost spontaneously sometimes. But consider this statement from HP7 (Bathilda's Secret) when Voldemort is approaching the Potters':

“Nice costume, mister!”

He saw the small boy’s smile falter as he ran near enough to see beneath the hood of the cloak, saw the fear cloud his painted face: Then the child turned and ran away. . . . Beneath the robe he fingered the handle of his wand. . . . One simple movement and the child would never reach his mother . . . but unnecessary, quite unnecessary. . . .

-Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, Chapter Seventeen (Bathilda's Secret).

He did not kill if it was unnecessary, which killing Slughorn would have been [I believe].

Möoz
  • 46.1k
  • 37
  • 260
  • 459