MORALITY ⟶ Angelina Johnson [1]

Chapter Twenty-Five

[Chapter Twenty-Five]

Saros was overcome with a sense of bitterness after he left the first-aid tent, angry with how people had been so quick to point out his prosthetic in order to get themselves ahead in the game. To accuse him of cheating when it seemed everyone else had done their own form, it was unbelievable and made him want to spit venom into their faces. While he didn't expect much from the other headmasters of the other schools, Saros expected a bit more coming from Dumbledore, but that had been his first mistake. Professor Dumbledore didn't come out flat and claim that he believed that Saros had cheated, but he didn't come to his defence either.

Instead, he merely stood off to the side while Saros attempted to defend himself, even Madam Pomfrey had jumped in to defend him, but Dumbledore had remained silent. Rest assure, Saros believed that had it been Harry accused of cheating, there would have been a whole armada of excuses waiting to attack the accusers back. But that's how it was going to be and Saros understood that as of that moment. No one was going to play fair in terms of making sure that their favourite Champion was going to win.

Unfortunately, Saros was a not a favourite to any of the judges.

Stepping out, he took his position to stand in front of the judging panel as they all returned to their seats. He didn't even want to look at any of them, furious with every single one of them for what they had done. He expected zeros across the board and honestly, he didn't care. The competition was more than rigged and that was outside of Harry being chosen as a Champion. People were cheating for the prize of eternal glory and money, Saros didn't need either at that point. Just surviving the First Task, he had proved it to himself that he was much more capable of things than he initially thought.

If he could manage to fight off a pissed off dragon and collecting a golden egg from her nest, then he was certain by that time next year, that he could at least try out for the Slytherin Quidditch Team.  That was really the only positive he was willing to take away from the competition so far. As the judges seemed to be at work, tallying up their score or whatever they were doing, Saros glanced around at the crowd that waited in full silence.

First, he spotted Draco, simply because his brother's hair colour stood out among the rest. Draco was in the row nearest to the arena, his hands had been gripping the railing so tightly and from where Saros stood, he swore it looked like his brother had been crying. Abandoning his spot, Saros made his way over to the sides of the wall to call up to him and make sure that Draco was alright. They hadn't spoken since the incident involving Hermione and Saros was still upset with him when it came to the "mudblood" word being cast but Draco was still his little brother at the end of the day.

Saros hadn't completely separated himself from his family, despite his conversation with Andromeda and feeling confident with what he had to do, it was easier said than done. Abandoning his family if they chose not to abandon their beliefs was going to be harder than any fight against a dragon.