MORALITY ⟶ Angelina Johnson [1]

Chapter One

[Chapter One]

On the morning of August 25th, the Malfoy Manor seemed to be in a bit of a stir, even before the sunlight broke as it was the same day as the 422nd edition of the Quidditch World Cup. The first one awake had been Saros, but not for the same reasons as his other family members stirring from their beds. The boy had been sitting up for the last hour at the edge of his bed, gritting his teeth as his fingers had a firm grasp on his bedsheets. The pain seemed to come and go in short spurts, however, each jolt seemed to leave him breathless as he tried to fight it off.

"It's not real," he muttered to himself, " it's not real, you know this..."

After another spout of pain, Saros had attempted to hold it in but as he bit down on his tongue by accident, he let out a yelp as the tip of his tongue began to bleed. Swearing under his breath, Saros turned his head just in time to see his mother poking her head in as his bedroom door opened. She had obviously heard his cry of pain as she had a look of worry on her face.

"I'm fine," he told her, something he said far too often in her company, " I just bit my tongue while sitting up, that's all."

Obviously, Narcissa Malfoy was not convinced as she invited herself into the room and took to sitting next to her eldest son on his bed. She could read the pain on his face and she knew it simply wasn't from him biting his tongue, even if he wiped the blood on the sleeve of his pyjama shirt. She wasn't going to make a fuss about it, but at the same time, she didn't want her son to hide if he was feeling ill. Silently, Narcissa watched as Saros leaned forward off to the side of his bed and grabbed the prosthetic leg that was propped up against his nightstand.

In the light, the goblin-wrought silver shone beautifully, nearly blinding anyone who looked directly at it at that moment. Saros tried to ignore the fact that she was watching him, almost as if she was making sure that he placed the prosthetic on properly. After years of dawning the leg, he would think that she would trust him enough to know that he knew what he was doing. After all, he was the one who had to walk around with it on.

The silver-fitting was cold but Saros didn't notice as he placed it on and within seconds, it magically fitted itself to below his knee. The beauty of goblin-wrought silver was not just the appearance but the magical properties that the silver contained that wizards and witches simply couldn't reproduce. But it definitely came with quite the price as goblin silver was not cheap by any means. Over five hundred galleons had been spent on the prosthetic for Saros, but thankfully he came from a wealthy family, which made it affordable. For other people, like one of the professors at Hogwarts, Professor Kettleburn resulted in using wood or something along the lines or nothing at all.

The silver was light and it moved very similarly to how a natural limb would as it moulded to the shape to where his actual leg came to an end. The silver was supple and pliable compared to any other metals, mixed with goblin magic, it was the closest Saros would ever get again to having a realistic limb again. Unfortunately, the way he had lost his leg, magic simply could not repair it.