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.

I changed something in chapter 1. You do not need to go back and reread it. All you need to know is that Snape did not fake an attempt on Dumbledore's life; he faked the murder of Dumbledore. Everyone but a few select members of the Order now believes Dumbledore is dead.

I know some of this stuff seems random, but everything is connected. The only question is: How? Yes, this is going to be one of those stories where you'll read something then go back and think: So this is what the author meant!


Voldemort grinned maliciously. His Apprentice was strong, stronger than anyone but himself, perhaps stronger than himself when it came to enduring pain. And all of the Apprentice's power belonged to him. His grin widened.

And on the other side of the mask, the Apprentice donned a malevolently delighted look that could rival the Dark Lord's.

Chapter 5: Deception

Some people do more than fate will allow

And everyone's being deceived somehow

For not every word one hears is true

But in the end, the biggest fool

Is who?

7:00 a.m., One of Voldemort's Many Strongholds:

Bellatrix Lestrange had always prided herself on knowing just about everything that went on in the Dark Lord's inner circle. She was, after all, his most loyal servant. But now, for the first time in what seamed like forever, she was baffled. The Apprentice had come to her attention two years ago, but it was evident the Dark Lord's little protégé had been around for longer than that. How much longer, Bella could only guess. As she plodded along angrily down a long, stone hallway lit by torches, Bella sensed another presence coming from a corridor to her left. When she saw who it was, Bellatrix almost groaned aloud.

One of her archrivals was walking towards her. She had never seen him without his Death Eater mask on, but she knew who he was. She was probably one of about eight Death Eaters who knew. Although he would be a wonderful addition to anyone's army with his magical capability, Lestrange could not fathom why the Dark Lord let him live. He was immature and completely out of line when it came to respecting his betters. True, Bella had flirted a bit, he was young and seemed a fine prize, one of the Dark Lord's treasured followers. But she had soon found him to be completely unbearable to be around. And he thought too much. In Bellatrix's opinion, men who thought too much were dangerous, and although danger was often exhilarating, she would much rather flirt with power. That was why she had married Rodolphus after all.

"I heard you had an unfortunate run in with the Dark Lord last night. It's just like you, Bella, to poke your nose where it's most likely to get broken." her masked rival greeted her with a menacing laugh.

"How do you know this?" Bella snapped back at him, perturbed once more by the way he always seemed to know everything she did.

That was just it, his knowledge, which scared Bella most about him. True, the way he prowled around could be called intimidating by a lesser being, but Bellatrix wasn't at all fazed. And his magical ability, which was, though impressive, was not a hindrance to Lestrange at all. He was younger than her and she was confident she could beat him in a duel if that time ever arose. Yet his familiarity and overall comprehension of what went on within the Dark Lord's ranks made her blood run cold. She, Dolohov, Lucius, and two or three other little known Death Eaters within Voldemort's top ranks had always been the most knowledgeable in matters concerning the Dark Lord and other Death Eaters. She alone knew things concerning them she'd thought no one else did. She wasn't too sure about that anymore.

"I know a lot of things," he replied with an easy grace. "Word travels fast, especially when we don't want it to travel at all. Rumor is defiant that way."

She scoffed at his words, "I don't know why it matters. The Dark Lord was not angered in the least…"

He laughed again, "No, I suppose he would not concern himself over it. Although, that's probably because he knows there are those that will."

"Who?"

"I think we both know the answer to that."

Bella did know the answer, and it took much effort not to scream at him because of it.

"The Apprentice has nothing to do with… anything! No one even knows who he or she is."

"I have a feeling you believe that just about as much as I do." He looked directly at her, face completely concealed by his Death Eater mask, "You honestly don't think the Apprentice isn't pissed about you spying on them do you? And here I was actually giving your brains a little bit of credit. Rather idiotic of me really, I think being within a hundred kilometer radius of you may have dropped my IQ."

Bella glared at him with newfound gall, "You do have a tendency to forget whom you're talking to. I am one of the Dark Lord's closest followers and you can be sure I'll tell him all about your insolence! I'd love to hear you make a slipup like that in front of the Dark Lord."

"The Dark Lord can go fuck himself for all I care."

Bella stopped walking and just stood where she was, frozen in place with shock over the foolish child's last statement. That was what he was, a foolish child who knew nothing of the world and would meet his end soon enough. Bellatrix almost laughed aloud.

"How dare you? How dare you say something like that in the Dark Lord's own home?"

They had reached their destination now, one of the many arsenals in one of the Dark Lord's many lairs. Bella flicked her wand at the same time he did and their chosen weapons darted into their waiting grasps. Lestrange couldn't help but sneer at some of the useless Muggle weapons he chose. She promised herself that one day, she would take him down a few pegs. She was the Dark Lord's most trusted servant, and his most knowledgeable. She alone would rise above the rest and stand at the Dark Lord's right hand side, even if she did have to deal with the Apprentice for a while. That obstacle would be taken care of later.

Bella would make sure the Apprentice would fall if it were the last thing she did.

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8:30 a.m., an Undisclosed Location:

Michael Adrastos Katakottos sat at his computer with a scowl on his face. Dark Lord be damned, one of these days he was going to move somewhere no wizard had ever set foot in. He was sure he could find a secluded Muggle town somewhere tropical. But as of now, if he didn't do what he had to do, he was dead meat.

Running his hand through the soft brown hair that framed his handsome face, Michael checked the screen in front of him once more. Everything was going exactly as planned. The electronics around him glowed eerily in the dim lighting of the room, but for Michael, the light was comforting. One might even go as far as to say his computers were some of his closest friends.

Then, suddenly, without any premonition whatsoever, the screen went completely blank.

"Shit!" Michael cursed and began to pound different buttons on his keyboard, "It's totally shut down!"

"Was there some kind of power failure?" a gangly teenage boy with shoulder-length hair and glasses asked, a slightly fearful look on his face. "Should we tell J-Cat to abort?"

"No, damn it all! A power failure couldn't do this! Something's interfering with the system." Michael cursed again. "And I think our communication devices have gone dead as well. We can't send a Patronus or owl into a Muggle area, so someone needs to Apparate over to alert the others."

He didn't want to alarm anyone, but he was worried. Nothing could crack his system like this. It may sound arrogant, but it was true. No Muggle technology could interfere with his computers. It had to be some kind of magical interference causing the crash. A very powerful magical interference. But the few wizards capable of knocking out everything like that were either too far away or dead. Except for one, that is.

And that thought was the most frightening of all.

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8: 15 a.m., Outside of Buckingham Palace

There was nothing stranger, Remus decided, than Albus Dumbledore in Muggle clothing. The man could have at least had the decency to wear something discrete. But no, he was in the middle of Muggle London wearing a loud tie-dye shirt, ripped jeans, and sneakers. He really couldn't help but sigh.

Dumbledore smiled warmly at him, "You don't approve of my attire, Remus?"

Lupin gave a short laugh, "For someone who's supposed to be dead you certainly don't act like it… I just question your motives of standing out so much when you're supposed to be in hiding."

Dumbledore chuckled, "I am in hiding. As of now, no one can see either you or me except a selected few who already know I'm alive. You really do need to question my motives more; you could learn some very interesting information that way."

Remus raised his eyebrows, once again in awe of the magical ingenuity shown by the man who had given him a second chance at life. There was still one thing that still baffled him however…

"If no one can see you anyway, why are you in disguise?"

Dumbledore's eye's twinkled just a little brighter.

"Who said this was a disguise? I happen to enjoy dressing like this for a change."

Before Lupin could even begin to contemplate that thin line between idiocy and genius the former Headmaster was walking upon, Nymphadora Tonks approached and he was too busy watching her to think very hard.

"Wotcher, Remus!" she greeted him brightly, "And Professor Dumbledore, awesome shirt, I'm now inspired. Next time I get a chance, I'm having multicolored eyes."

Lupin shook his head in amazement. How did people like Dumbledore and Nymphadora stay so optimistic in times of war? For some strange reason, their hope fueled his own.

"Is everything ready, Nymphadora?" he asked her.

"Don't call me Nymphadora, Remus! Honestly. And to answer your question: yes. Everything is in place. The target has been spotted leaving an Internet Café and shows no signs of suspicious activity thus far. As soon as he gets into a decent position, the Aurors will do the rest." She looked up, "I really can't believe your plan involves manipulating the Ministry into helping us."

With a nod of his head Dumbledore replied, "From what I can sense, the target has started heading in this direction, towards the palace. I'm going to take precautions to ensure no thing magical or Muggle gets in the way of retrieving him. I do not believe he is Harry Potter, but I do believe he is important somehow."

Tonks nodded as well before taking off.

"Dumbledore," Remus started, "If you don't believe this young man is Harry Potter, who do you think is Harry Potter? And where could he be?"

The look in the Headmaster's eyes said it all.

How could Dumbledore, Dumbledore, give up hope? It just seemed unnatural. As for Remus, he didn't know what he thought. He knew Harry was important to the war somehow and the wizarding world needed him, yet he also knew the Harry who had spit up on him as a baby and couldn't pronounce his name. Lupin wanted desperately to believe Harry was still out there somewhere, but it seemed the only people who really thought there was a chance of Harry being alive was Sirius and Nymphadora. And even if they were just fooling themselves with a completely irrational hope, Remus knew he could never thank them enough for believing in the prospect that gave him the strength to go on.

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8:22 a.m., Buckingham Palace Road

"Did we have to wear these disguises?" Draco whined and patted his spiky, heavily gelled black hair.

"Hey," Harry countered, his black hair just as spiky as Malfoy's, "It was my turn to pick the disguises, and I say we go for the gothic punk look. Check this out."

Harry glared menacingly at a few people and about five of them immediately crossed over to the other side of the street.

"But do our pants have to have chains on them?" When he received no response, Draco worriedly glanced at his friend, "Something bad is going to happen isn't it?"

Harry gave a short laugh before saying: "Do I look like a seer to you?"

Draco eyed his friend's strange, black, Muggle attire, which, in Draco's opinion, was alarmingly indecent, especially the jewelry. If men were supposed to wear earrings, they would have been born with holes in their ears.

"Well… you certainly don't look like a seer…"

Harry snorted again, "Yeah. I wish I had some of my writings with me. And the sun could at least have the decency to quit blocking out the stars…"

"The sun never listens to anyone, Jimmy-Jay."

"I suppose so. But even if it did, it still wouldn't listen to me. No one ever seems to listen to me."

"People listen to you, I listen to you…"

Harry jerked his head towards Malfoy, "I never said it was a bad thing. Oh, and don't call me Jimmy-Jay! Sheesh, you're going to drive me insane one of these days."

"You're already insane."

"Oh yeah."

The two boys continued walking in silence for a moment before Harry spoke once again.

"Here's where we split. I know I've said it before, but I think something strange is going to happen today, so I'll say it again. He knows we're here and if everything doesn't go perfectly, we're going to have a rough time sorting out a mistake."

"Alright," Draco replied tersely, "But do yourself a favor and relax a little. Running on three hours of sleep isn't going to help you either. You're exhausted, and personally, I think that if something unusual is going to happen today, you're not ready for it."

"I'm fine."

With those parting words, both boys set off to different locations, both locations right outside of Buckingham Palace.

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8:31 a.m., Buckingham Palace Road

Kinglsey Shaklebolt was having a very long day, and it was only half past eight. Being the only Auror aside from Tonks who knew Dumbledore was still alive, he had been given the daunting task of making sure the Ministry was convinced that the strange kid who dug around in the rubble of destroyed buildings might be involved with the war somehow. How, he had no idea. In Shaklebolt's opinion, the boy was just one of You-Know-Who's random underlings. He had probably been at the attack on that building the other day and had probably been looking for something he'd dropped in the rubble that could have identified him to the Ministry yesterday. Nothing more, nothing less. And Shaklebolt felt he could be doing more constructive things with his time. Trying to find out more about the Apprentice for instance…

Kingsley kept his eye on the target, who was walking menacingly down the street. The Auror had seen many things in his life, and he found that the kid didn't disturb him in the least. What disturbed him was what the kid represented. The Ministry was very keen on arresting this boy because, basically, not many arrests had been made recently. The Death Eaters had been rather passive as of late; the attack on the building the other day had been the biggest attack of the month. And if the Ministry's eagerness to chuck anyone even slightly suspicious into Azkaban wasn't enough, Shaklebolt got the notion Scrimgeour and some other Ministry officials were scheming. Not even Dumbledore knew what they were doing. And speaking of Dumbledore, well… Dumbledore was scheming too. He would disappear for days at a time and tell no one where he was going. What was more, he seemed to have lost all use of his left arm. It wasn't too noticeable, but Kingsley was used to discerning things others overlooked.

Shaklebolt waited a moment longer before turning to the other Aurors under his direction.

"The target is entering a non-crowded area. We will quickly administer the charms on him so no Muggles will notice him. Then we will stun him on the count of three. Now go!"

The moment the charms started to hit, the boy put up a shield charm non-verbally. Thankfully, enough spells had been cast so the Muggles merely went on about their daily business.

Not bothering with one and two, Shaklebolt quickly called out "Three!" and the Aurors opened fire.

There was one instant where Shaklebolt's eyes met with those of the strange boy, and he suddenly felt as if he had been hit in the head. Clearing his mind, an exercise his grandfather had taught him in order to react quicker, Shaklebolt blew up the sidewalk from under his opponent. Taken slightly off guard, the teen's incredibly strong shield charm weakened just enough for a few of the stunners to hit him.

Then something happened that shocked Kingsley: the boy, instead of falling down unconscious, dropped to his knees in order to avoid getting hit even more and kept his shield charm up. He might have gotten away if he hadn't have been trying to Apparate while dropping to his knees. Shaklebolt mentally winced at the thought. Highly discrete Apparation wards, so discrete even You-Know-Who wouldn't have been able to sense them, was one of the precautions Dumbledore had taken to insure nothing could interfere with the plan. Trying to Apparate anywhere around the Palace would feel like the equivalent to crashing headlong into a concrete block. Taken off guard once more, the boy's shield charm weakened again and he hit his knee on a sharp place in the sidewalk where Kingsley had blown it apart, which also caught him unawares. Stunner after stunner hit him until he finally went down, unconscious.

Kinglsey accio-ed the teen's body to the small area where the Aurors had set up base. As soon as the kid was no longer out there, the Muggles started noticing the blown up piece of sidewalk. The Muggles, however, did not concern Shaklebolt. The kid in the paper, the one who looked for things in heaps of rubble and currently dressed in pitch-black Muggle clothing to match his pitch-black hair, was no ordinary underling. In fact, he was no ordinary person. No one Kingsley had ever known could fight off that many stunning spells, but that wasn't the strangest thing about him. When their eyes met, Kingsley had felt very odd, as if something had been pressing on his skull. He did not know what kind of magic the raven-haired boy had been using, but it was not anything he'd ever experienced before. Also, for a moment (and it was probably a trick of the light) the boy's eyes had seemed to glow…

Kingsley ordered everyone to alert the others, took precautions so that the teen would stay unconscious, and took care of a few other things that needed to be taken care of. He could not erase the feelings of unease that filtered through him, everyone appeared to be plotting something or the other, and for some reason, he felt the boy might be a connection to everyone else's schemes.

The Aurors left quickly and efficiently and life went on as usual for the people walking over the place where the fight had just broken out. And no one, magical or Muggle, paid any heed to the teenage boy with the lanky build and shoulder-length hair that skulked rapidly down the street, heading towards Buckingham Palace.

Some people do more than fate will allow

And everyone's being deceived somehow

For not every word one hears is true

But in the end, the biggest fool

Is who?


In the Next Chapter, a certain someone is not at all pleased when they wake up in a certain someplace they definitely don't want to be.

Why I Haven't Updated in Forever: Not that anyone really cares, but I made a deal with myself that I would not update this until I updated Defending the Light (another fic of mine) since that one got more reviews. Turned out the chapter was harder to write than I thought. After a battle with writers block, I finally got close to done! Then I got writers block again and made up my own language. Then I made up a world that could have that language as their ancient language. Then I made up some characters for my world, which turned into me attempting to write an epic fantasy novel. Which I shall not give up on! Hopefully.

Why I Did Update: Honestly, I randomly re-read all the reviews I got for this story and felt the guilt pile on.

I apologize to Fuai, who also guessed right about Harry and Draco being the boys in chapter 2. If you are reading this, Fuai, I'm SO sorry I forgot to mention you!

Michael Adrastos Katakottos's name means something you guys will probably never figure out, but if anyone does, they get a special mention! Of course, I can't reveal what his name means for quite a while.

I've been told by my beta that I'm too wordy. Any constructive criticism and/or helpful hints pertaining to this flaw in my writing will be greatly appreciated. I'm also not quite sure how this whole chapter worked out since I was jumping around a lot. Please tell me what you think about it.

Hmm… you know, this story has more story alerts than reviews. Apparently, some people have been just as lazy as me!