Squib

"*A Squib is someone who was born into a wizarding family but hasn't got any magic powers. Kind of the opposite of Muggle-born wizards, but Squibs are quite unusual.*"
— Ronald Weasley's basic description of a Squib[src]

A **Squib**, also known as a **wizard-born**, was a non-magical person who was born to at least one magical parent. Squibs were, in essence, "*wizard-born Muggles*". They were rare and were looked upon with a degree of disdain by some witches and wizards, particularly pure-bloods.

Muggle-born witches and wizards were believed to be descended from Squibs who married Muggles, introducing the potential for magical ability into the bloodline, thus a few generations later a wizard would be born to two Muggles.

## Contents

* 1Overview
* 2History
* 3Different from Muggles
* 4Squib persecution
* 5Known Squibs
* 6Believed Squibs
	+ 6.1See also
* 7Behind the scenes
* 8Appearances
* 9Notes and references

## Overview

A Squib was a human who had at least one magical parent, but did not inherit magic from said parent. A wizard or witch child would typically show signs of magical abilities by seven years old; any child who did not was very likely a Squib, though they were possibly late-bloomers.

Squibs were rare, even just one being born into a family was unusual. This is why the case of Thaddeus Thurkell's seven Squib sons was particularly noteworthy.

Squibs were incapable of practising magic in any way, as Argus Filch found out when he attempted to use the supplementary course Kwikspell, which was designed to help adult wizards improve inadequate magical skills. His efforts had no effect as he had no magical skills to improve upon.

## History

"*Angus Buchanan became world-famous among wizards whilst also being celebrated among Muggles, a hitherto unknown achievement. Wizards of many nationalities began turning up to watch him play sport.*"
— Squib Angus Buchanan' achievement in Muggle sport[src]

In the 1600s, Isolt Sayre, the famous founder of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, gave birth to a daughter whom she named Martha. Martha was named after her paternal grandmother and while her twin sister Rionach was magical, Martha was not. Martha was the only one in the family to be born a Squib, and because of that she considered her upbringing at Ilvermorny to be painful. Martha went on to marry and lived her life as a No-Maj.

In 1858, Angus Buchanan never received a Hogwarts acceptance letter, but got as far as the Sorting Hat before he was exposed as a Squib. In sheer desperation after managing to get into Hogwarts, he threw himself ahead of a girl whose name had been called and placed the Hat upon his head. The horror of the moment when the Hat announced kindly that the boy beneath it was a good-hearted chap, but no wizard, would never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. Angus took off the hat and left the hall with tears streaming down his face. This had never happened before and it never happened since. Angus being a Squib caused him to become estranged from his family.

In 1900, Angus wrote an inspirational book, titled *My Life as a Squib*. His book helped break the taboos of Squib culture in wizarding society. Angus ended up becoming a star in the Muggle sport of rugby, and his sporting talents became so well known that wizardkind fell in love with his inspirational story, not to mention developing an odd interest in the Scottish rugby team.

While Eugenia Jenkins was Minister for Magic from 1968 to 1975, Squib Rights marches began to surface. However, these marches attracted pure-blood riots.

## Different from Muggles

**Cornelius Fudge**: "*Incidentally, can Squibs see dementors?*"
**Arabella Figg**: "*Yes, we can!*"
— Mrs Figg confirms a Squib's ability to see Dementors[src]
In addition to being born into magical families, Squibs differed from Muggles by their knowledge of the wizarding world. They were able to see things that were hidden from the Muggles and use magical objects and creatures. During the 1996–1997 school year, Argus Filch scanned students with a Secrecy Sensor as part of the school's enhanced security measures, and Arabella Figg made a living breeding cats that had been cross bred with Kneazles. Both of these individuals also formed wizarding-like relationships with their cats.

Squibs were considered different than the Muggle relatives of witches and wizards, who were ordinary people who happened to have some knowledge of the wizarding world— this was because Squibs did have magical blood that wasn't expressed.

Despite the differences between Squibs and Muggles, they usually had a stronger affinity with each other than with wizards. Due to the prejudices in wizarding society, it was generally considered kinder to send them to Muggle schools and encourage them to integrate into Muggle society. Some voluntarily chose to cut themselves off from the wizarding world altogether; for example, Isolt Sayre's Squib daughter Martha chose to distance herself from magic entirely. Others lived as allies to wizardkind and others, living somewhere in the middle, chose to work with wizards but were not very neighbourly to them.

## Squib persecution

"*You disgusting little Squib, you filthy little blood traitor!*"
— Marvolo Gaunt to his daughter, whom he angrily accused to be a Squib[src]

The Ministry of Magic did not keep records of Squib births, a sign of wizard society's general disregard for them. They could, however, check if a person was a Squib using their parents' names, as demonstrated in 1995 during the disciplinary hearing of Harry Potter. The common practice with Squibs was to send them off to Muggle schools as children and encourage them to integrate with the Muggle community, which was much kinder than the other practice which involved letting them live in the magical world where they would always be treated as second-class citizens. Some, however, chose to remain in the wizarding world regardless.

Some pure-blood families, such as the Blacks, disowned any Squib members and removed them from their family trees, as they removed Marius Black. Even Orford Umbridge, an unenthusiastic wizard who was tolerant enough to marry a Muggle woman, would come to despise his son for being a Squib. John Buchanan, proud of his wizarding ancestry, came to loathe his son for being a Squib and violently disowned him, even forbidding his other ten children from seeing him again.

Even families that were tolerant of Muggles and Muggle-borns seemed to regard Squibs poorly. The strongly Muggle-supporting Weasley family didn't talk about Molly Weasley's second cousin, who worked in a financial career and was implied to be a squib. Ron Weasley seemed embarrassed to even mention him to Harry Potter, when Harry asked if all of Ron's family were wizards.

For this reason, many wizarding families were anxious to see early signs of magical ability and were upset by the prospect that a member might have been a Squib. Neville Longbottom was thought to be a Squib by his relatives, leading his great-uncle Algie to put him in various potentially dangerous situations hoping to "*force out some magic*" from him. In fact Neville had displayed very early signs of ability that his relative missed, until Algie accidently dropped him out of a window and, fortunately, Neville finally displayed his magic by bouncing into the garden unharmed.

Marvolo Gaunt constantly called his daughter Merope a Squib as a slur, due to her poor magical abilities, which were inhibited by her fear of her father and brother. Similarly, Karl Jenkins rudely called Albus Potter the "Slytherin Squib" due to his poor magical skills in his first year at Hogwarts.

Some magical families would blame any Muggle parents for a Squib's birth. For example, Orford Umbridge and his witch daughter would blame his Muggle wife, Ellen Cracknell, for her son being born a Squib.

However, the wizarding world did set up at least one organisation to support Squibs, called the Society for the Support of Squibs.

It was unclear as to Lord Voldemort's attitude towards Squibs. He had personally noted throughout his life that he aimed to purge Muggle-born wizards and witches for "stealing" magic. However, as Argus Filch was allowed to remain in Hogwarts, it is likely they were not prosecuted as blood traitors.

Because of their low status in the magical community, some Squibs who chose to remain in the Wizarding world developed a bitter personality towards witches and wizards. Argus Filch, in particular, was rather unpleasant with most students and would be rather harsh on them; Ron Weasley believed that Filch's Squib status may have been the cause of this attitude. Martha Steward II found it so painful to live among magical folks that she eventually severed ties with the community to assimilate into Muggle society.

Squibs, at times, tried to fight for their rights, as they marched for equality in around 1968 or 1969. However, pure-blood extremists would absolutely refuse to give anything respectful towards Squibs, and even launched an attack against the marchers that led to riots. Even in the 1990s, many years after the protests, the Ministry refused to keep track of Squib births, showing a disregard for Squibs' attempt to earn their rights.

## Known Squibs

"*If Filch's trying to learn magic from a Kwikspell course, I reckon he must be a Squib. It would explain a lot. Like why he hates students so much. He's bitter.*"
— Ron Weasley's explanation of Filch's grouchy personality[src]

## Believed Squibs

**Harry Potter**: "*Are all your family wizards?*"
**Ron Weasley**: "*Er — yes, I think so. I think Mum's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him.*"
— Ron Weasley mentioning Molly's cousin who is believed to be a Squib[src]

 Credence Barebone
 Merope Riddle
 Molly Weasley's second cousin
 Neville Longbottom
 Kelly Brown
 Stuart Hogg
 Jim Hamilton

### See also

* Blood status
* Magic genes

## Behind the scenes

* The term likely comes from the English expression "a damp squib" (dud firecracker), an expected delight that disappoints.
* The word squib also refers to an incomplete or insufficient discharge of a firearm.
* Similarly to the previous instances, "squib" is used for a small explosive, generally used theatrically for pyrotechnic effects, such as simulated bullet hits in films.
* The word could also be a pun on "skip", referring to the fact that the person was "skipped" by magic. In fact, at least one book series (Terry Goodkind's *The Sword of Truth*) used the word in a meaning analogous to Squib in several books.
* The *Star Wars* series also uses the term *Squib* as the name of an alien species.
* Two Squibs (both are minor characters) seen in the series are Arabella Figg and Argus Filch. Both seem to love cats and have the same initials.
* It is unknown what the term would be for the non-magical offspring of a Squib and a Muggle.
* Mafalda, a deleted character, was set to be the child of a possible Squib and a Muggle. However since the character was cut this information has yet to be confirmed.
* Although Muggle-borns are descended from Squibs, there is not a single known case of a Squib having children.