"Harry... let's go too..."
Ron tugged at Harry and pulled him quickly down the corridor in the direction Wade and the others had gone. The two who had originally been at the center of the brawl no longer drew much attention now, and they got away smoothly.
As they turned a corner, Harry looked back and saw Pansy and Goyle finally going to help Malfoy up, only for him to forcefully slap their hands away. The once-proud blonde boy was now covered in dust and grime, viciously wiping away his nosebleed. The other Slytherins gathered around him, smiling as they offered him comfort.
Harry could see the hypocrisy and indifference on their faces even from across the corridor.
Harry had always thought that, aside from Snape, Malfoy was the worst person he had ever met—he was even more hateful than his cousin Dudley. But at that moment, he suddenly realized that Malfoy was not as universally supported as he had once thought. He seemed to have no true friends in Slytherin.
Then the wall blocked his view.
"What are you looking at?" Ron asked curiously.
"Nothing." Harry turned back and said, "I was just thinking that if I ever faced an enemy I couldn't defeat, you and Hermione would definitely stand by my side and fight with me."
"Of course!" Ron assumed Harry meant Malfoy and the others bullying Neville, and immediately said indignantly, "Slytherin has always been this awful. We'll never give in to them! We can't let them get too smug! Neville's just too timid. He needs to be braver."
"He's very brave, don't you remember? He beat up Malfoy with you, for Hermione's sake—he punched that guy right in the nose!"
"Oh, right!" Remembering what had just happened, Ron was still excited. "Neville finally acted like a