Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter characters

My thanks to my beta PinkRose

Large doe soft eyes peeked out from the dark space under the shabby second hand bed, the left was already darkening into a deep purple. Matilda sighed tiredly at the sight as she gently coaxed the tiny boy out from under the bed.

"Come on Tom, I'll make you a mug of apple cider, I think there's one packet left," her voice was as tired as her face, but was still able to offer a little comfort to the beaten child though no longer quite able to drum up the righteous anger that would have filled her years ago when she'd started working at the orphanage. Too many years, and too many pairs of hopeless eyes had left her empty, no longer able to do more than clean up what she could and offer a bit of comfort now and then to her neglected charges.

Slowly the small boy scrambled out from under the bed. "Are they gone?" his voice is soft and polite, though his eye is black and cloths scuffed and torn there are no tears in those large velvet eyes. Only five years old but he'd already learned one of the most important lessons of the orphanage, crying doesn't help, and often makes things so much worse. The older boys would always target a crybaby mercilessly for daring to show such weakness.

A small frown touched her lips as she put a hand on the back of the slight child. Tom had never been one of those, she realized. She had never seen him cry, and probably the only reason he was picked on at all was that he was one of the youngest in the house and his almost porcelain doll face and large eyes made him look like a kicked puppy.

They had just entered the living room when Matilda gave a muffled curse. "Not another one, it isn't like the poor kids have much…Oh when I get my hands on whoever's doing this I'll tan their hides." The floor of the living room was littered with blobs of white fluff; in the center of the room was the shredded hide of a teddy bear, black button eyes had been gouged out leaving terrible empty voids in the now severed head.

The front door banged open and three older boys practically bounced in the room. "Where do ya think Tommy boy's gotten off to? The little pip squeak got away too fast for us to have any real fun," One of the boy's joked before he noticed the fluff. Jaded blue eyes suddenly opened wide as he recognized the ragged bits of tattered brown fur and he gasped. "Apollo!" The boy shrieked as he fell to his knees carefully picking up one of the shredded brown scraps. Large fat tears spilled down his cheeks as he looked at the remains of the only thing he had of his Dad.

Matilda keenly felt the boy's pain, knowing already that there was nothing to be done, the stuffed animal had been too badly damaged to repair. It hurt her in a way that the sight of Tom's bruised face had not because bruises would fade, but she knew that the teddy bear meant the whole world to the now weeping boy and the loss of it was devastating.

"I'll help you clean up the mess," Tom whispered as he reached up to hold her hand. His small angelic face was the picture of a child's sorrow as he watched the other boy. Matilda gave a small sad smile as she looked down at him. He was always such a good boy, always willing to help with the cleaning or the cooking, and even now when one of the boys who had bullied him was hurting he didn't laugh or taunt the child, but showed his compassion and willingness to be of use.

Tom kept his face a perfect mask as he softly fingered the smooth slightly worn black button hidden away in his pocket.