MORALITY ⟶ Angelina Johnson [1]

Chapter Fifty-Two

[Chapter Fifty-Two]

Every since Saros confessed that he still held out hope that magic would one day return him his natural leg, everyone seemed to be set on being overly nice to him. Not that he was complaining about their kindness but it only made him sound foolish that he had even said it to begin with. He didn't want people to feel sorry for him, he did enough of that on his own some days. And the morning after his first (failed) Quidditch lesson, Saros sat in his bed for what felt like hours, staring at his prosthetic that rested beside his bed.

Already he was hearing from two sources that his leg had to become part of him or he could basically not move forward with his life. It was probably easy for them to suggest such a thing as moving on, but Saros didn't know how. The prosthetic had been a part of his life for years now and still, he didn't see it as part of his body, it was just an attachment he used to get around. He felt more connected with his wand than he did with the prosthetic and everyone assumed that was the downfall.

But how was he supposed to see it as part of him? It wasn't flesh, it was goblin silver, the rest of his body was warm while the silver remained terribly cold to the touch. It wasn't natural and for that, he couldn't get it in his mind to consider it a part of Saros Malfoy. Not when he suffered through the phantom pains where his leg used to be, reminding him that there had been something else there before. The phantom pains were such a cruel reminder to him because he could remember times where he had both legs, running around the manor with ease.

And while the prosthetic functioned the same, it didn't feel the same. It left Saros carrying a guilt on his shoulders as well, thinking that he should be grateful that he actually had something. Even if he wasn't on speaking terms with his parents, they had made sure that Saros had the best prosthetic that money could buy. But in his mind, it just wasn't enough to make him feel better and it was reflecting in his magic and hindering him from moving on.

When he looked at people like Professor Moody, he knew it was possible for him to move on from the incident. After all, Moody continued on with his Auror career and hadn't let the loss of his leg stop him. Besides that, Saros was letting it get in the way of things before his life had truly even begun. He was still in school and in less than a couple of years time, he would be out int he wizarding world on his own.

He needed to take advantage of every opportunity given to him without coming up with excuses as to why he couldn't do it. Saros knew he could do many things and he did them with the prosthetic to the point where if it hadn't been revealed no one would have assumed anything was out of the ordinary, to begin with. That had to be enough to prove to him that the prosthetic was very much a part of him, even if he hadn't been born with it. Eventually, it would be the time where he would spend more years with the prosthetic than without it.

There were things that magic couldn't fix because if it could, he would still be in contact with his parents and speaking with Draco on a regular basis. Magic wasn't going to give him his leg back, magic wasn't going to make his parents change their minds, and all the magic in the world, couldn't fight every battle for Saros, especially when the fight was an internal one, to begin with.