This story is based on an original short story, "The Wizard's Apprentice," by Delia Sherman, which was actually itself based on an old Russian fairytale called, "The Wizard Outwitted". I've just changed quite a few things to make it fit with our favorite wizards. It just worked so perfectly, I couldn't help it!

Disclaimer! As such, the characters (and basic plot, and the occasional line), aren't mine.

Oh, also, it won't let me add line breaks. It sucks.

Enjoy anyway!

The Wizard's Apprentice

Chapter 1

There's an evil Wizard living in Little Whinging, Surrey. It says so on the sign hanging outside his shop:

Evil Wizard Books

L. Voldemort, Proprietor

His shop is also his house, which looks just like an evil Wizard's should, dark and foreboding as it rose above the sidewalk leading up to the front door, snakes carved into the wood around the frame and a long snake's tail leading to the bell at the top of the door, which was in the shape of the head of the snake, the clapper inside that rang being the snake's tongue. The house had likely looked respectable at one point, but the flower gardens were now mostly herbs, and hissing could be heard under the porch if you stomped too loud. The exterior was painted a dark grey, although many who were older would whisper about how, when they had been children themselves, their grandparents had said the walls were actually once a 'lovely' pale, slate blue, with white shutters. Now it was all grey, or black in some places. One of the few places of color was the upstairs window, which was thought to be the Wizard's bedroom, which shone in many different colors of light throughout the night, when most good, decent people were asleep.

Inside of the shop, were rows upon rows of shelves of old, musty books. They were large and dusty and some were hand-written by people long-dead, making them harder to read. Of course, not many people were brave enough to enter the building. It was mostly tourists, pausing for a glance through the unique store in hopes of a nice souvenir, only to end up hurrying out soon after, refusing to discuss what had happened.

It could've had something to do with the Wizard himself. Lord Voldemort, as he was called, though no one knew where the 'Lord' came from nor what kind of name 'Voldemort' was, was very tall, with pale, taut skin, piercing red eyes, lips so thin they were thought by some to be none-existent, a nose that looked more like a pair of slits cut into his face, and absolutely no hair. Not on his face, head, or arms, that anyone could see. He had long, thin fingers, and a way of speaking that sounded almost like a soft rasp, which could suddenly gain strength as he grew annoyed. He always wore a long, black robe over a black suit, with a grey shirt under the coat, and a red tie over that. And nearby, you could usually hear the slithering of his only companion, a huge pet serpent he referred to as, 'Nagini'.

There were rumors about what he, as an evil Wizard, could do. Some say he turned people (including himself) into animals. Others said he could actually speak to that snake he kept around him. Many argued that, if he could do such things, then surely he could turn animals into humans, too, and these were only a few of the whispers about the unusual man. He could give you cramps, break your bones, even kill you with a look or a spoken word. He could summon storms, kill your pets, cause your house to burn down, all with a flick of his wrist. If you were truly unlucky, he could send his pet snake slithering into your home to bite you as you slept. He could even hex you to do horrible things to yourself, cursed to shoot yourself in the foot (or worse). So people understandably were willing to keep their distance, and leave him alone.

Well, not completely alone. Besides his snake, once in a blue moon, when people could swear the next morning they had heard wolves howling and thunder rumbling (even though wolves hadn't been seen in the area in almost a century, and the skies were completely clear), an apprentice would appear at the shop, working for the evil Wizard for varying amounts of time before suddenly disappeared. Either a few months, or a few years, it didn't matter. None lasted more than 3 years, and then they were gone. Just gone. And no one really went looking for them, or worried about them, since they had to be horrible boys in the first place, to have chosen to work for an evil Wizard, right? So they must've deserved it, having not been good people.

Though it really depends on the definition of 'good'.

Vernon Dursley would never refer to his nephew as 'good'. Harry Potter was the opposite of 'good', in his opinion. The boy was a liar and a thief, lazy and very near useless. He had a poor attitude, was stupid, and would never amount to anything. Not like his own little boy, Dudley, whom he and his wife agreed was the best boy there was. But they had to take care of his wife's nephew, and so he was stuck with the horrible brat, who was little more than a waste of both a bed and food.

To be fair, Harry was a liar and a thief, and he did tend to sleep during the day. But since Vernon beat Harry daily, and sometimes twice a day, there was really little point in attempting to please the man by behaving politely and curbing his tongue. He stole food from the fridge at night because otherwise he wasn't fed enough. What little food his aunt and uncle gave him would usually be stolen by their fat "perfect" son, Dudley, when they were distracted. And he took naps through the day because his uncle worked him like a slave, from sunrise to sunset. And he lied so often simply because he was actually quite smart (books being often thrown away in their house, Harry was able to sneak them for a quick read between naps and work), and knew that if he could turn his uncle's anger to someone else, or to something else, like a broken hoe keeping him from tending the garden, then Harry would escape an extra beating, or at least a weakened one.

It was no surprise he tried to run away quite a few times. Of course, he was always dragged back by his uncle, which would've been confusing, considering the man's severe dislike of him, but Harry did know how to cook better than his Aunt Petunia, thanks to all of the cookbooks he'd read, and they liked having the free labor. Not to mention, it seemed the family couldn't be happy without Harry there to bully around. But no matter the reason, he always got caught by the huge man, and forced back to the house, and back into the little cupboard under the stairs, usually locked in until it was time to cook again.

But on his eleventh birthday, Harry decided that he wasn't going to be caught again. He snuck out of his cupboard as soon as he knew the family was all asleep. It helped that they all snored as loudly as passing trains. He quickly made a sandwich and wrapped it up to go before slipping out the front door and racing off. He had to hurry and make use of his time to get as far as possible. He finally sat down to rest around sunrise and ate half of his sandwich, then got up to keep going. At lunch he ate the other half of his sandwich, pausing for another short rest before continuing. When nightfall came, he had walked a long way, and his stomach was growling. Then, lucky him, it began to rain.

He had been sticking to the woods, as far away from towns as possible in order to avoid his uncle, who would no doubt be searching for him. But now, as night fell and he was hungry and soaked through, he began to look around hopefully for lights. It took him almost another hour before he finally saw a bright green light, high in the trees in the distance. He hurried towards it, not even pausing. Harry had always liked green, after all, with his own bright green eyes helping to make him look different from the people who called themselves his family.

Not even pausing to stare at the foreboding structure in front of him, Harry hurried up the steps, hissing back at the sound that came up from under the porch before knocking loudly on the door, standing and shivering as he waited. Nothing happened for a while, and he wondered if maybe the person wasn't home, but then the heavy door opened with a loud squeak of un-oiled hinges, and he found himself looking up at burning red eyes set in a pale, unusual face.

"What do you want?" the man asked in a rasping, almost hissing voice. Normally, it would've sent Harry running right back into the woods, but due to the circumstances, his mouth over-rode his brain, and he looked right back at the man before replying.

"Something to eat and a place to rest. I'm soaked through, too." Those red eyes narrowed at the boy's words, and he let out a low hiss, which was answered by another hiss at his feet. Harry glanced down to see a snake, then looked back up at the man when he heard him speaking English again.

"Can you read, boy?"

"What?"

"Are you deaf, or just stupid? Can you read?"

Taking in the sight of the frightening man in front of him, the snake he seemed much too comfortable with, and now the dark, intimidating house he stood in front of, he decided that maybe he shouldn't trust the man with… anything. Yet.

"Sorry, no. Never learned."

"Are you sure?" He held out a business card to the dark-haired boy. "Take a look at this."

Harry inspected the card, turning it upside-down and looking at it in confusion. Then he finally handed it back with a semi-apologetic shrug, very glad he'd lied.

The card said:

Evil Wizard Books

Lord Voldemort, Proprietor

Arcana, Alchemy, Animal Transformation

Speculative Fiction

Monday-Saturday. By Chance and by Appointment

Voldemort continued to look at Harry with those piercing red eyes, and the young boy tried not to fidget on the doorstep. As Harry's glasses fogged up from the wind and his breath, the older man shrugged and stepped into the shop, leaving the door open. His snake slithered off to some other place in the building as well, and the Wizard called back out to Harry. "You're letting the rain in! Close the door behind you and leave your shoes there. I don't want you dripping all over the floor, and certainly not on the books!" He returned with a large towel, and Harry eagerly shut the door behind him and removed his shoes as he was told, wrapping himself up in the towel to dry off.

And that was how Harry Potter became Lord Voldemort's new apprentice.