MORALITY ⟶ Angelina Johnson [1]

Chapter Seventeen

[Chapter Seventeen]

If Saros believed that he was going to enter the Slytherin Common Room and be greeted with silence, he would be mistaken for the second time that evening. As he entered the common room after delivering the password, he was greeted with the calls of celebration. Fellow Slytherins were cheering him as he entered, acting as if they were so proud of him all of a sudden. Maybe some of them were happy for him, maybe they were glad to see he had been selected as the Champion before Harry was also chosen as well. It allowed Slytherin or at least, some other house besides Gryffindor to receive recognition again. However, Saros didn't believe most of them were really that happy for him.

Judging by the irritated look on Cassius' face as he walked in, it was safe to say that the Slytherins probably just realised that they were stuck with Saros as their Champion, and in their heads, something was better than nothing.

Of course, Draco seemed genuinely happy and Saros could believe that his brother out of the crowd was the one that was actually thrilled. Draco had been encouraging him to compete from the beginning and while Saros confessed that he really didn't want to, there was no going back. At least his little brother was attempting to be as positive as possible throughout the whole situation. Yet, Saros wasn't in the mood for festivities and he didn't want to hear the false congrats thrown his way. As he had stated when he was around the other professors and Champions, all he really wanted to do was go to bed.

Brushing by other students and avoiding Draco's gaze, Saros made his way through towards the boy dorms and off to his room. When he reached his bed, he flopped down on it, burying his face into his pillow right away. He wanted to scream, he wanted to kick his legs out like a toddler would after losing their temper, but all he did was lie completely still and quiet. He was focusing too much on the negatives and that was weighing him down drastically, he had to focus on the things that had gone right or he was going to end up losing his mind.

First, Angelina had not been selected, which to Saros, confirmed that she was going to be safe. He had also managed to get into the tournament, which made his brother happy and Saros liked when Draco was happy, it allowed them to get along better. And maybe, just maybe, the tournament would allow Saros to prove it to others, no, to himself that he was capable of doing so much more than he originally thought.

The loss of his leg that placed him in a bad mindset for too long, he limited himself before others could and then on top of that, others like his parents put even more limitations on him. This was his chance above all, to show to all that he could do it. If he could get through the tasks, what was stopping him from doing anything else?

If he could get through the tournament, what stopped him from trying out for the Quidditch team next year?

Sure, by then it would be his seventh year, not really lining him up for a long career, but that didn't matter, at least he would be able to give it a go.