The atmosphere around them instantly grew tense. The Slytherins instinctively avoided his gaze, and some unconsciously took two steps back. Only Malfoy forced himself to say, "This is between Slytherin and Gryffindor. Don't stick your nose in it, Wade Grey!"
"Draco—" Nott tugged at his arm and said softly, "This has stopped being fun. Let's go—"
"It was because of me!"
Neville gathered his courage and said with a slight tremble, "I ran into them on the way here. Malfoy used the Leg-Locker Curse on me. He said he wanted someone to practice the spell on—Harry—and Ron and Hermione—stood up to Malfoy and the others to help me. Then Malfoy called Hermione—called her a Mudblood—"
"Neville!" Michael barked sharply.
Neville's voice abruptly cut off. He looked blank for a moment, then understood from everyone else's expressions and looked at Wade with some panic.
Those present suddenly realized that there was another student here from a non-magical family—Wade had never deliberately told anyone at school that his parents were Squibs. He had only said that neither of them could do magic.
Because to wizards, Squibs and Muggles were not much different—even Squibs suffered more discrimination than Muggles. Muggles had at least made some remarkable, earth-shaking changes to the world. But what did Squibs have? They were nothing more than worthless dregs abandoned by the wizarding world.
When he had first started school, Wade had also been looked down upon by some because he came from a non-magical family. But he had quickly shattered those prejudices with his ability. No one mentioned his blood status anymore, and quite a few students even assumed that Wade had been born into a pure-blood family and had received elite wizarding training since childhood.
—Otherwise, there was no explaining why they had been rendered utterly worthless