───FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A LONG TIME, the Malfoy Manor was full of laughter since Saros had returned home, especially as Draco took to having his brother back where he believed Saros belonged. There was a rather nervous or jittery air about Lucius and Narcissa that Saros sensed whenever they believed the attention was off of them, but as soon as he looked in their direction, they would smile and join in on whatever was taking place at the time. The house-elves were sworn to silence about Saros' disownment and no one had dared to speak about the past unless it was the discussion of good memories. But as much information as Saros was getting, it still wasn't enough.

As days continued to go by, Saros thought that all of his memories would come flooding back to him by being in the presence of his family. In his mind, magic should have cured him of the blank state he hit every time he tried to process through old thoughts. And no one would tell him just what exactly had fallen upon him to cause his memories to retreat to the darkest crevices of his mind. He had to assume that by the way, his parents exchanged looks in silence that they knew, they just couldn't bring themselves to talk about it. Perhaps something so dark had riddled Saros that they believed he was better off not knowing.

And while he could respect the fragility of the situation, Saros also believed that he had a right to know. After all, it was his life that he was missing out on in large quantities, but whenever he grew close to try and pressure them into saying something, they would distract him with something else in the household. Whether it was giving him a detailed lesson pertaining to the Malfoy family history or they would grab one of his textbooks and go over spells or information that Saros was supposed to already know.

He had to admit, he enjoyed the magical lessons that usually his father would assist him with. Lucius explained that Saros was of age and he was able to practise magic outside of school without any consequence. Since he had the opportunity to work, Saros fiddled around with incantations under supervision and he seemed to have a natural talent for his magic. Remembering the "accio" spell that he had performed with William at his side, Saros told the story about how he had managed to summon the lamp and how it nearly crashed into his head.

Of course, through trial and error, Saros made plenty of mistakes as he continued to get his bearings straight within his magic. But Draco reassured him after they stopped laughing at the mistakes, that Saros was a brilliant wizard. He was a top student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and he had impressed many, including those of the wizarding government with his magical knowledge. It was bittersweet for Saros to hear such things as part of him was proud of himself for achieving so much and then the other part was devastated to know that he didn't remember any of it.

There was no recollection of a place called Hogwarts and that seemed to be one of the most important places outside of school for Saros. It was where he had spent six years learning magic so that he could be a functioning wizard of society but it was like none of that time mattered if he couldn't remember it. But knowing he had attended six years and hearing Draco talk about the length of seven years, Saros realised he had one more year to complete. Draco had been talking about returning for his fifth year come the month of September, so it left a question on Saros' mind that he dared to ask one afternoon in the company of his mother.

"I'll be able to return to Hogwarts in September, right?"

Narcissa nearly dropped the teacup in her hand after Saros approached her unexpectedly with the topic. With her hand starting to shake, she placed the teacup down on the table and returned her hands to her lap to answer.

"Well, I'm not sure if that would be in your best interest, Saros," she began, " given your situation-"

"Why not?" he interrupted as his tone took on a slightly defensive manner. "It could help, couldn't it? It's another place I'm familiar with. According to all of you, I attended the school for six years, that means I've experienced plenty of memories of there. I haven't been able to remember much since I've been here, but maybe something at school would help."

His eyes reached his mother's gaze and he didn't dare to look away for quite some time, waiting on what her "excuse" would be as to why she didn't think it was a good idea for him to return. Yes, there was the whole matter of him not remembering much of anything from his past, but he couldn't simply sit around the manor forever. He remembered the Healer explaining that there was a possibility that his memories wouldn't return and if that was the case, he was still going to have to move on with his life.

At seventeen years old, Saros liked to believe that he still had a long way ahead of him, even if his memories never returned, it couldn't be enough to fully stop him from pursuing other ambitions in life.

"You need time to recover, Saros-"

"But I have one more year in order to complete it-"

"You don't remember a lot of the coursework-"

"But Father has been helping me-"

The two went back and forth for what felt like forever as every time Narcissa came up with reasoning as to why Saros shouldn't return, he came up with a reason as to why he should. And the more she fought him on it, the more suspicious Saros became that there was something he wasn't being told. It seemed his mother shared stronger feelings, but her reasoning came across as weak as to what she was feeling.

"I have memories there," he added as Draco entered the sitting room where the two of them were, " I have memories at Hogwarts. I was a good student, you all said it yourselves. I think I deserve a chance to go back. I may not remember anything right now, but what harm can be done with me going back? People will know me, right? Maybe I can start to recognise things, maybe something will come across as familiar-"

"I SAID NO!"

Caught up in his own rambling, Saros hadn't noticed his mother shaking his head or turning red in the face as he tried to convince her to let him go back to Hogwarts. Her sudden outburst took him by surprise as her once shaky hands came to slam down on top of the large wooden table. He and Draco flinched at her reaction and the room fell silent, leaving the mother and son to stare at one another.

Immediately, Narcissa's expression softened as she caught the look on Saros' face. He didn't look fearful, he didn't look intimidated or even anywhere near defeated with his ideas. Instead, his expression held hesitation and sudden distrust. His eyes were narrowed, his brows closing in on each other as they were nearly knitted together. In his stern face, all Narcissa could see was the sternness of her own late father's face as the Black genetics shone through her eldest son.

Except this wasn't the namesake of Saros' middle name, she wasn't looking at Cygnus Black the Third. She was looking at her son and right at that moment, she was overwhelmed with the sudden feeling of when she first felt like she was losing him. It was the same look he had given Lucius when he told his father after the Quidditch World Cup that he no longer wished to speak with him as he had been disgusted by his father's actions.

And while she had thought he would have backed by the rise of her voice, Narcissa was mistaken.

"As far as I'm concerned," Saros began after clearing his throat, " I am of age, which means I am in charge of making my own decisions. If the Healers find me competent enough to return to school, come the first of September, I will be returning."

Giving his final thoughts and plans on the matter, Saros turned on the heel of his left foot and walked out of the room, leaving Narcissa and Draco alone. 

Concerned with how the conversation had ended between Saros and Narcissa, Draco found himself following his older brother out of the sitting room. It seemed the honeymoon phase of Saros' return was over and with Saros becoming more confident in his surroundings, he was beginning to question a lot more. It was growing increasingly hard for Draco to lie to his brother or come up with excuses when Saros asked about certain things. If he found out the truth, Draco was more than certain that Saros would be appalled and attempt to leave again.

Just the other night, they had been sitting around the dinner table enjoying a meal and conversation when Saros didn't seem to like the direction the conversation had taken. They had been discussing their grandfather, Abraxas Malfoy, and his accomplishments. But when the conversation came up that Abraxas had been part of the brilliant part that forced a Minister for Magic out of office, Saros found himself questioning why. They bragged about how Nobby Leach hadn't remained in office for long and Saros wanted to know why there was an opposition to the man.

Turned out, it was all due to the fact that Nobby Leach was a muggle-born, the first muggle-born to be appointed the position.

Saros didn't understand the conflict until his family started to reveal their views on muggles and Muggle-borns and suddenly, there seemed to be a shift at the table. He learned that Muggle-borns were witches or wizards that were born in muggle families or in clearer terms, a witch or wizard that was born to two non-magical parents. Still, as they explained it, Saros didn't seem to understand the issue until his father claimed that Muggle-borns were unworthy of magic and didn't belong in the wizarding world.

"Why aren't they worthy?" Saros questioned in a neutral tone. "Why don't they belong?"

The reasoning was that Muggle-borns didn't grow up in wizarding homes, they weren't aware of the wizarding world until they were eleven years old. Purebloods were said to be the best and the threat of muggle-borns threatened the peaceful living and sanctuary of the wizarding world. Having muggles included in any aspect of magic was considered to be an insult, muggles didn't understand magic, and to include them was practically disrespectful towards the oldest lines of magic.

They bragged about the purity of the bloodlines that Saros came from, the Black family and the Malfoy family, one of them being an ancient and noble wizarding bloodline and the Malfoy lineage wasn't very far from that either.

"Those that don't understand magic, those that haven't lived in magic since birth have no right to live and practise it among us," Lucius had said before a sip of wine, missing out on Saros' expression hardening.

"So what does that mean for me?" Saros asked at the time. "Because here I am seventeen years old, only learning about it. That practically makes me a muggle-born at this point in terms of knowledge, do I not belong?"

Lucius nearly spat out his wine at the table as he wasn't expecting Saros to take such offence to what was being said at the table, but he could see the hurt on his son's expression.

"You said that muggles are dangerous?" Saros continued. "But how? How can they be dangerous when they were the ones who took care of me when I didn't even know my own real name? Jo and William treated me like I was family to them. William supported the idea of me having magic, in fact, he was encouraging, I don't understand how that is bad."

With his frustrations visibly growing, Lucius and Narcissa took it upon themselves to delve deeper into wizarding history. Draco and Saros sat, listening to the tales of the witch hunts that took place across Europe and around the world as muggles took to hunting down magical folk in order to kill them. They believed magic to be evil and thus, it was the entire reason as to why the wizarding world was in hiding. He was told about witches being burned at stakes and the threat of squibs that were supposedly a result of muggles and muggle-borns diluting magical blood and producing non-magical children.

That night after the discussion, Saros left the table and locked himself in his room for the remainder of the evening and the next day, he said nothing about what they had gone over at dinner.

There seemed so much thrown at him at one time that Saros couldn't possibly wrap his mind around it. The idea of William and Jo being part of a population that wanted Saros and his family dead, it seemed so unlikely. However, the pictures that his parents had painted in his head had left Saros with nightmares of Jo appearing in the middle of the night and setting him on fire in his bed. That was not the image he wanted of the people that had saved him and took care of him, but his parents' fear tactics had certainly worked.

And it seemed as though they weren't lying about the witch hunts either as Saros scanned the personal library of the home and found multiple books that confirmed what they had said. He read up on Salazar Slytherin, one of the Founders of Hogwarts, and just so happened to the be the founder of the house that Saros had been sorted into during his school time. He read about the wizard wanting to keep the school segregated to keep the pureblood students safe, but he had been outnumbered and due to that, many witches and wizards had been killed.

Discovering such a dark piece of history, Saros had a feeling that his parents were tiptoeing around other subjects and maybe that was why his mother didn't want him to return to school. The information he had learned had been enough to leave him with terrible nightmares, what if he learned more? According to the books and his family, Muggle-borns were allowed to attend Hogwarts, maybe they thought the sense of fear would be too much for him during such a time.

The constant fear of wondering when a Muggle-born would decide to hurt him or his family as they had been described as master manipulators throughout the text. They were the bridge between the wizarding world and the muggle world. They knew the secrets of magic and if they passed that information along, it left the wizarding world at a disadvantage. And yet, even if the stories and text had left Saros nervous, even if he had nightmares, he still couldn't bring himself to believe it fully.

He couldn't picture William to be a master manipulator and the boy had been so encouraging towards Saros actually having magic. He had kept the secrecy after witnessing what Saros had been able to do, that didn't sound like the beginning of a small killer. However, his family had been able to plant a seed into his mind that Saros couldn't seem to get out.

"Saros! Saros!"

The sound of Draco's voice echoing in the hall brought Saros to come to a halt after the spat with his mother. He turned around to see Draco hurrying towards him to fall in step.

"Where are you headed off to?" Draco asked him, trying to appear as though nothing was wrong.

"To the library again," Saros said, " I thought about looking up the history of our kind again. Something just doesn't settle right in my mind. Mother seems frightened about something and I thought it had to do with the muggle-borns and I thought it had to do with my memory or lack of it, but it seems to be something else. She won't say what it is-"

Draco let out a heavy sigh, bringing his brother's words to an end. " I know what it is, Saros."

"You do?"

"Yes," Draco continued, " you see, before what happened to you, you weren't all that happy at Hogwarts and maybe you weren't all that happy while you were here either."

"Why not?"

"Because of your leg."

It wasn't a total lie, Draco began, but he wasn't about to tell Saros about his conflicting feelings that opposed the family's pureblooded views. It seemed they were getting Saros back on track with knowing that muggle-borns and muggles weren't as good as he had made them out to be but they needed to stay consistent with that. It was for Saros' own good as Draco heard his parents discuss.

"My leg? What about it?"

"Well, you don't seem to mind it as much now, but it really used to dampen your spirit," Draco told him. "You used to get upset about things because you felt like it was getting in the way...like Quidditch. You wanted to play but you said your leg held you back. I think Mother is nervous that you'll start to feel limited again and she won't be there to help you."

Truth be told, since receiving the prosthetic of goblin-silver, Saros hadn't paid any mind to the fact that his leg was considered different. Sure, he found moments where he felt stiff, some aches and pains, but it didn't actually bother him. But it wasn't the first time he had heard about his leg being somewhat of a barrier when it came to achieving happiness. It made sense, not having the feelings or memories of the struggles that came with the incident had left him in a better mindset when it came to the acceptance of his leg.

The amputation didn't bother him as much as it probably did initially and while his mother's worrying suddenly made sense, maybe Saros could prove to her that he wasn't bothered by it anymore. With a fresh memory, for the time being, Saros was granted an ability to start over in a lot of ways. Apparently, he still had a lot to learn when it came to the history of his people and their opposing views because in his mind it didn't sound right, but he wouldn't doubt the words of his family.

But at least he could start fresh with other matters that held him back before or try them again.

"Well then, let's give Quidditch a go," Saros suggested, " I mean, we've been talking about it so much, I might as well see it in action for myself. You can teach me and maybe I can get the hang of it this time around. Either that or I'll make a complete arse out of myself on a broomstick, either way, it's probably a better way to spend the afternoon than looking up the horror stories of our past history."

Draco swallowed at the last bit before he realised just what Saros had requested him. He was actually being asked to teach Saros had to play Quidditch. All of his life, Saros had been the one to help him or teach him something, but now it was finally his chance to do the same for his brother. Angelina and the rest of the group had failed to help Saros, Draco knew that from what he had observed when he witnessed his brother try to learn from members of the Gryffindor team from a distance.

But if he could teach Saros or help his brother find his balance on a broomstick, then it would be all that Draco needed to confirm that it was the right thing that Saros had come home. Even if they were keeping him there with certain lies, Draco convinced himself it all for the greater good when it came to his brother's happiness and health.

"Come on, let's get the brooms from the shed and we'll work on you mounting first!"