Harry Potter and the Devil's Apprentice

Summary: At the age of 7, Harry Potter disappeared. 10 years later, the world is in turmoil. The Order of the Phoenix struggles to survive as the Dark Lord reveals his mysterious Apprentice. AU

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.


Both of the boys widened their eyes in alarm, an exclamation of 'oh shit' was heard, and they both took off around a corner. The man tried to follow, but when he rounded the corner, there was no one in sight. Only one trace of evidence that the boys had been more than a hallucination remained: a small piece of an old t-shirt, lying on the path.

Chapter 3: Harry Hunting

Nymphadora Tonks sighed, not paying heed to any of the babbling Order members (excluding Snape, who wasn't allowed to attend such large meetings) around her. She had been so sure the boy in the paper had been Harry Potter. She didn't know why, but something had seemed so peculiar about him. In the end, she supposed, it had all come down to raw intuition. Tonks almost laughed aloud at herself. She was as clumsy as a drunkard after a ride on a Muggle tilt-a-whirl. Who was to say her intuition was any better than her gracefulness?

Maybe it had been the way she had been just thinking about Harry Potter as she walked towards Grimmauld Place to visit Remus and Sirius (but mostly Remus) and about how hard everyone had tried to find him. How she had wondered why on Earth it was so imperative to find the boy. Maybe it had been the way the Muggle newspaper had just flown into her face, forcing her to unwillingly create a domino effect on a few innocent passersby. And maybe, just maybe, it had been the way her eyes had registered that boy, the peculiar boy in the middle of destruction completely obsessed with finding something buried in the rubble of what had once been a building…

"What is he looking for?" Tonks fortuitously asked herself aloud.

Remus put a hand on her shoulder and she suddenly realized everyone was looking at her.

"Nobody knows," the lycanthrope replied.

"Whatever it was," a new voice entered the atmosphere, "he found it."

Dumbledore rose from his seat and crossed the room to a very weary looking Sirius Black, "He was still there? Was he a Muggle?"

"No," Sirius responded. "He was a wizard. A friend was with him. They mentioned Muggles, and I'm pretty sure they can Apparate."

As Sirius continued to tell the Order what he had witnessed since he had left Grimmauld Place an hour or so past, Tonks couldn't help but listen on the edge of her seat. Something strange was about to occur, she could feel it.

Dumbledore walked over and took the small shred of the boy's T-shirt out of Sirius's hands (although the latter seemed reluctant to let it go), "We can use this," he said, "to find the boy. I still doubt he is the one we are looking for, but there is always hope. We do not know why the building was attacked; perhaps the one in this picture has an answer or at least a clue." The Headmaster paused in order to let his words sink in. "Now I do believe some ancient magic is in order…"

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Hundreds of miles from Grimmauld Place, someone felt particularly uneasy. He got the sense that the game of 'Harry Hunting', which had been played since the day he was born, had been taken up a few notches. And although his cousin had seemed to thoroughly enjoy the sport, he preferred Quidditch to almost anything.


Hello everyone! Short slightly boring chapter, I know, but bare with me, it is necessary. Actually, the only reason I was able to force myself to post this at all was because someone emailed me and I told them I'd probably get a chapter up by this weekend, not to mention all the lovely reviews I got.

And somebody guessed something right in their review, although I won't reveal who or what till next chapter.

To all those people who are also reading my fanfic Defending the Light: Don't freak out that I'm updating more for this fic. It's just that I planned it in a way that DTL has really long chapters and I don't want to stray from my original outline too much. Devil's Apprentice, however, has much shorter chapters because I'm still making the story up (I have the main gist of it, but I'm not sure how it'll end yet and there's still some plotholes).

Yesterday my marching band performed in not one, but TWO competitions. GRAND CHAMPIONS, BABY! And we got runner-up Grand Champion at the second one, plus best auxiliary (YAY GUARD). So… go wildcats!