You're right. Petunia and Vernon did do the shmooze thing, and of course, they were the worst sort. They did it with poorly fabricated facades instead of legitimate mutually beneficial networking.

And, I seem to recall the same thing. Hermione didn't see any harm in it, but Harry didn't like it (felt he was being used. The legitimacy of that *shrugs* well I won't argue that part just yet. LOL) and Ron felt left out.

Of course, this goes back to Ron's feelings of inadequacy already (sixth of seven children, youngest boy, everything's been done) and his inherent lack of extraordinariness. I will agree he's good at chess, but that alone isn't enough. He doesn't seem to have the ability to transfer that strategy into real life, which in my opinion, would have made him a much more likely candidate for entry into the Slug Club.

Kimberly / Slytherin