A/N: I feel so ashamed that I have neglected this story for so long. It's the reviews that motivated me to get off my fat ass and freaking update. By the way for those who are wondering, I have absolutely no idea what Thereon's name means, like I said this is an adopted story and I liked the name the former owner gave him so I didn't change it.

Thereon tried to pull himself together but he couldn't his heart broke with every single one of the man's memories he viewed. He wasn't naïve he knew that there were a lot more Jack Mullins out there and that he would have the misfortune of having to judge them at a later date.

Maybe this wasn't the life for him, as much as he wanted to make sure those sick and twisted mother-fuckers rot in the deepest pit of hell he still couldn't deal with looking through all those memories, even if it was a nice person that was about to die from old age, it was inevitable he still had to view their memories and he knew he was going to cry, he was going to miss that person even though he had never seen them before in his life.

This was going to be a lot harder than he thought.

Severus winced as he felt what Thereon was feeling, albeit on a lesser level but still, he felt the need to slam open the doors and remove Thereon from whatever it was that was causing the little boy such grief. He held himself back, he knew he had to be rational about this, he couldn't just barge into a meeting with the Dark Lord, he wasn't an idiot and he definitely didn't want to be crucio'ed till he lost his mind.

But he was willing to face the wrath of the Dark Lord just to get to Thereon, he couldn't deny how his heart was drawing him to the boy, longing to embrace him and protect him.

Severus reached for the handle of the door but he couldn't quite bring himself to grab it. Another tortured scream from Thereon was almost enough to motivate him to slam the doors open and demand what the hell the Dark Lord was thinking and why he was torturing the boy. Instead he settled for opening the door gently and asking if there was something wrong.

"How dare you interrupt? Have you lost all your senses Severus"? The Dark Lord hissed angrily. His red eyes narrowing and glaring at Severus with enough fervour to make the man shudder.

Severus didn't even have to hesitate to make his decision, he knew automatically what his instincts were telling him to do and he knew that he was going to do it without a doubt. No matter what his rational mind was telling him, he knew that his instincts were going to surpass it.

He headed straight for Thereon and gathered the young boy into his arms. The boy instinctively wrapped himself around the source of the warmth, his trembling frame shook harder as he let himself go. It felt strange to be comforted like this, Thereon usually wouldn't want to be held like this by anybody, even his parents. He didn't want anyone to see him being weak but he just couldn't bring himself to pull away from the most comforting embrace he had ever received in his life.

The Dark Lord could barely contain his surprise, here was one of his best followers, as cold and aloof as they come, openly cuddling and comforting his young apprentice, it was quite a sight to behold.

Severus and Thereon were back at Hogwarts. Thereon followed Severus down to the Dungeons and into his Office.

"Why are you trailing me Mr Le Torneau, did I owe you something"? Severus asked, seating himself behind his desk.

Thereon shuffled from foot to foot nervously. "I wanted to say thank you, I really appreciate everything you did for me today Sir".

"You're very welcome Mr Le Torneau".

"Er Sir, you can call me Thereon". He said, fighting the blush that lit up his face when he saw Severus raise an eyebrow.

"Very well, Thereon, you may call me Severus, but only in private". Severus said, not quite believing his own ears. Why was he letting a little kid call him by his first name, Draco does it but that was because he was Draco's Godfather.

Thereon beamed at him and hurried out after saying goodbye. He didn't want Severus to see him grin like an idiot.

He ran to his dorm room with the grin still plastered on his face.

Draco eyed him suspiciously. "Why are you grinning like that, it's creepy".

Thereon rolled his eyes. "You only think it's creepy because I've got fangs. Anyway, if you really want to know, the reason I'm so happy right now is because I have finally got on Severus' good side".

Draco scoffed. "Yeah right".

"I'm not joking, you know what? I'm going to get Severus to fall in love with me". Thereon flopped onto his bed happily.

Draco didn't know what to say to that so he just shook his head. "Good luck with that Thereon, now go to bed. I need my beauty sleep and I don't want you keeping me up".

Thereon snuggled into bed, smiling as he thought of how he was going to get the Potions Professor to fall for him.

I'm very sorry that this was so short but I just had to post something, I promise the next one will be much longer. Comment to let me know what you think :) Laters