Not Yet

After putting away the teaching aids, Horace Slughorn actually left the Potions Classroom before the students.

"Brendan Carson" also withdrew his gaze at the right moment, then turned to engage in polite, pleasant small talk with the students around him.

"Wow, Brendan, you're incredible!"

A freckle-faced boy beside "Brendan Carson" spoke in a thick Eastern European accent. "You could actually answer every question Professor Slughorn asked! How did you do it?"

"Study hard," Brendan Carson said casually. But halfway through, as if he had suddenly realized something, he switched to english with a faintly rolled-r accent.

"Just like that gentleman said, all you have to do is study properly. Mm, yes. If you spent half the time you use to watch upperclassmen practice Quidditch on reading instead, you'd be able to answer the questions Professor Slughorn asks too."

"But it's Quidditch!" the freckle-faced boy said excitedly. "Zooming around up in the sky—it's just way too cool!"

This freckle-faced boy was named Blerim Freedman, and he came from a Muggle family in Eastern Europe.

Normally, a Muggle family would never allow someone who suddenly appeared on their doorstep claiming to be a wizard to take their child away. But the Freedman family truly had no choice—

The upheaval caused by the collapse of the Red Giant Bear had yet to fully subside. A massive disaster had descended like a tsunami upon the people of every nation that had once belonged to it.

The Freedman family had no food left. The previous bitter winter had drained the last of their savings.

So when Hogwarts recruiters arrived with a bag of gold coins and the generous living conditions offered by Hogwarts, Blerim Freedman's father and mother pushed their child forward with almost no hesitation.

Thus, Blerim Freedman, who was Muggle-born and had received