Harry kicked the trash can in the alleyway hard. Damn them. Couldn’t the Ministry do anything right? Of course they could, he reasoned, just not when it involved him.

The receptionist apologized profusely as Harry explained the mistake to her and asked if anything could be done, but as Snape had said, the only thing to do was continue on with the apprenticeship or die. Harry didn’t even look at Jennifer as he walked out… she of course had been on her way in to try and rectify the mistake as well. Now Harry stood in a dark alley in Diagon Alley, disgusted with himself and the world. He should have just taken Fred and George up on their offer to work in their shop… anything would be better than an Apprenticeship with Severus friggen Snape.

It was getting dark and Harry felt his insides squirm. What would happen if he didn’t return to the shop in Blackpool? He wanted desperately to run away and forget any of this had happened at all. Why did things like this always happen to him?

Harry leaned heavily a crumbling white stone wall and tried to think this out. Snape hadn’t given him any instructions yet… so what if Snape just… didn’t? Could a person be apprenticed to two masters at the same time? If Snape just didn’t give Harry anything to do at all then maybe Harry could go and get apprenticed to an auror, and then he could continue on with life as planned. Then he wouldn’t really be breaking any rules since Snape wouldn’t set any… damn but this was hard. Harry doubted very much that would work, and knew the only way to ask was to return to Blackpool.

By the time Harry was done trying to reason with himself and had returned to St. Bedes Lane, it had grown completely dark. He tried the door to the apothecary, but it was locked tight. He desperately wanted to have done with this all so he could return to the Burrow and get some sleep, but until then he didn’t want to tell everybody just to whom he had been apprenticed to. He could hardly handle the nagging thoughts in his own mind of how much the whole situation sucked, and didn’t think he could handle the Weasley’s saying the same thing over and over to him. Deciding to go back and get a room in the Leaky Cauldron for the night, Harry apparated back to Diagonalley yet again. Once he had his room, he borrowed an owl from Tom the innkeeper and sent a note to Ron telling him that he wouldn’t be home for the night, and possibly not for the next few nights. Harry knew there would be questions, but he was so emotionally taxed at the moment he couldn’t bear to put any more details in the letter before he sent it off.

It wasn’t long before exhaustion kicked in from the many long distance apparations he had done that day along with the gravity of his situation weighing down on him. Harry fell asleep on top of the covers in his room, not even bothering to remove his shoes or glasses.

In the morning Harry lay on his bed, dazed and confused, wondering if the events that had transpired the day before were truth or dream. If they were a dream, he decided, then he would have woken up to the violently orange walls of Ron’s attic bedroom instead of a plain room in the Leaky Cauldron.

It took quite a while before Harry convinced his limbs to move and his body to pull himself out of bed. This was going to be a long day. Not feeling hungry Harry skipped breakfast, checked out of his room, and apparated back to Blackpool into an alley that lead to St. Bedes Ln. Steeling his nerves, Harry marched determinedly to the apothecary and found the door unlocked.

Dust once again assaulted Harry’s senses as it had done the day before, and he stifled the urge to cough. The little bell above the door announced his presence and Snape stuck his head out from the back room.

Harry waited as the man narrowed his eyes at him, as if trying to decide something, and then disappeared into the back once more. Unsure of what to do, Harry walked into the back room and waited numbly for his instructions.

“What do you want Potter?” Snape was digging through another box. Harry noticed that many of the shelves that lined the room were now full of colorful potions jars and ingredients, and the floor was littered with empty boxes.

“To get this over with,” Harry said through gritted teeth. Yes, this was going to be a very, very long day.

Severus stood straight and said, “You are under my authority. You will do as I say or else you will not meet my standards and be released from the apprenticeship.”

“Fine.”

“Fine sir, Potter,” Snape corrected him with a sneer. This shop opens at seven am and closes at five pm Monday through Friday. You are to be here during store hours. You will also be here at six am Saturday and stay until 11am. You are not to touch any potions or ingredients without my express permission. You will not serve customers without my permission. You will not leave this shop without my permission. Am I understood?”

Harry crossed his arms. “Yes, sir,” he said, already feeling renewed loathing and hatred for his former Potion’s Professor.

“Good.” Snape gave a little smile that told Harry he was in some kind of trouble if the man was happy.

Harry frowned. “What do you want me to do then?”

“Clean. Do not us any cleaning spells in the shop, store room, or lab. They will react badly with any spilled potions or ingredients. Other magic is fine, but not cleaning spells. Everything you need is in the closet.” He motioned to one of the two doors off of the store room. Harry went to it and opened it to find a number of Muggle cleaning supplies, a sink, a mop and bucket, rags, and a broom. “Every inch will be spotless, understood?”

Harry gritted his teeth, taking offense at once again being treated like a house elf, but nodded anyway.

“I can’t hear your head Potter. Answer me when I talk to you so that I know you understood.”

“Yes sir.” Harry said it quietly, but it seemed good enough for Snape.

“Go.”

Harry took the mop and filled the bucket with water and disappeared into the store front, thinking that he wanted to be as far away as possible from Snape at all times. He might kill himself before Snape got around to it before he was finished with this damned apprenticeship.

Trying to keep his mind off of things, and failing miserably, Harry scrubbed the floors, walls, windows, and counters, and was just moving on to the shelves behind the counter when Severus appeared to check on his progress. Harry was so engrossed in his own thoughts about different ways he might die making potions and end his suffering, that he didn’t notice him come in.

Severus surveyed the room, surprised at the boy’s progress. He seemed an exceptionally hard worker, and it had only taken him an hour to clean the storefront from top to bottom. He had even cleaned the shelves under the counter and cleared out the cobwebs in all the drawers.

“I am done in the store room. You may clean in there when you are done here. Be careful not to knock things off the shelves.”

“Yes sir.” It was another quiet answer, but Severus could hear the strain and anger in Harry’s voice as he forced it out. His anger aggravated Severus… where did the brat get off acting so ungrateful for the chance to be his apprentice? He would have it easy here compared to the auror apprentiship program where they would be exercising hard every day and where he would be putting himself at risk on every assignment he went on.

Harry tried to ignore his Master as he sneered and left the room. “Sodding prat,” Harry said under his breath, thinking that it might make him feel better to say it, but finding that it didn’t.

Soon he was on to cleaning the store room, which took considerably longer since he had to move hundreds of bottles and ingredients to clean the shelves underneath. Twice a potion almost slipped from his hand, and once it did, and he only just barely caught it thanks to his Seeker reflexes. Thinking about being a Seeker sent Harry into a daze… he had been offered a spot on the Irish international team… but no, he had to go into the Ministry Apprentiship Office instead to be an auror… to be an apothecary. There was no fun in being a potion maker.

It was noon when Harry finished, and his throat was dry and sore from lack of water while he worked. His stomach also grumbled loudly and he thought of heading out for a bite to eat. Snape’s words about not leaving without permission came to mind and he discarded the thought, knowing that he would probably not be allowed a lunch break. Harry was sure that if he had been somebody else he would not be made to clean the shop, and instead would be learning to brew potions and would be treated civil, but the fact was that he was Harry Potter the boy who Snape hated above all others.

For the first time Harry peeked his head in the room beyond the store room. This appeared to be a laboratory where the Potions were brewed and ingredients prepared to be sold. Snape had three cauldrons simmering at once.

“Do you want this room cleaned too?” Harry asked, leaning on the mop handle.

Snape nodded. “Yes. Do not clean the table tops. I have ingredients that cannot be disturbed before they enter the cauldron.

“Yes sir.” Quiet and forced… Harry thought that would be his life from now on… quite submission that he had to force upon himself with every fiber of his being. He set to work again, moving around the four square work tables in the center of the room and the three work benches that lined the walls. There were two doors on the far wall of this room, and Harry wondered that the shop was so big, and where these other two doors lead to. Surely one was a bathroom?

After half an hour he had finished cleaning the lab floors and walls, since he had been told not to touch the tables.

“Done sir,” he said, leaning on his mop handle again.

“Good, clean some more.”

Harry frowned yet again. “Sir? It’s all clean.”

“I heard you Potter. Clean it again.”

“All of it?”

“Every room.”

Fighting off the urge to growl, Harry said, “I haven’t had lunch or any breaks yet.”

“Not my problem Potter. Clean. Now.”

Determined not to whine and give the man the satisfaction of knowing he had beaten him, Harry took his cleaning supplies and went back to the store front to do it all over again. He went slower this time, knowing he would probably be told to start again if he finished again, and wasn’t done until nearly five. He kept his mind occupied thinking about the kind of flat he wanted to rent, and thinking about exploring Black Pool some after he was finished here for the day. He still didn’t want to go back to Ron’s house just yet.

Five o’clock came and went and Harry had started cleaning a third time, now thoroughly frustrated knowing that everything was clean, but he was doing it yet again. Finally at five thirty when Harry’s stomach was giving another loud protest, Snape appeared from the back and examined Harry’s work.

“Go home Potter,” he told him. “Be back at 6:30 am.”

“Yes sir,” it came out as barely a whisper because Harry’s throat was so dry. Quietly he thought that he’d have to look up some kind of spell for keeping food cold so that he could bring some lunch and possibly dinner with him the next day.

A pocketful of Muggle money in his pocket, Harry exited back onto the street. The sun was still high enough that it made Harry feel like he had part of the day left. He walked back to the main road and kept walking until he came to a little deli. He bought a sandwich and a bottle of water and felt like he inhaled it because he had eaten it all so fast. Stomach happy, he went on with his exploration of the city.

Harry picked up a Muggle paper at the grocery store further down the road and sat on a bus stop bench looking through the renters section. He didn’t want to spend too much a month on an apartment… he had plenty of money in his vault but he also entertained ideas of having money for a house later on. Deciding on 350-400 pounds a month, Harry conjured a pen and began circling likely prospects. It didn’t look like he’d find anything beach front for that cheap, so he scratched that idea altogether. He found a one bedroom for 425 a month, and a two bedroom for 600 a month, but nothing under that. He was fine with a one bedroom, but he decided to stick to his budget and not go over.

As the sun began to set Harry decided that if he couldn’t find anything there in town after a week that fit his budget he’d start to expand his search to neighboring cities since he now had the ability to apparated. Harry had also spotted a large fireplace in Snape’s lab and fancied getting himself a place with a fireplace large enough to add to the floo network so he could floo in every morning.

Harry continued his exploration of the city on foot until it had been dark for about an hour, and then apparated back to the Leaky Cauldron. He wondered how many witches and wizards lived in Black Pool as he drifted off to sleep, dreaming about a joining a city Quidditch team that was the best in the world because he was their Seeker.


* * *

It was 6:30 exactly when Harry arrived at the front door of the Apothecary. He had asked Tom to pack him a lunch and two bottles of water, and was thankful that Tom had also shown him a combination shrinking cooling spell for his food so that it fit neatly in his front pocket.

Harry found Snape in the lab starting a fifth cauldron.

“What do you want me to do sir?” Harry asked, feeling in a better mood for some reason, probably at the prospect of actually getting lunch in a few hours.

“Clean.”

Harry felt his good mood evaporating, but didn’t say anything except, “Yes sir,” before he went and found the cleaning supplies in the closet. He did much as he had done the day before, cleaning the entire shop, and even the bathroom today, which he had found behind one of the doors in the lab. The only difference today was that he scarffed down his lunch at noon and had plenty of water to keep his throat from going dry. At five, Snape told Harry to go home.

The sun shone warmly down on Harry as he picked up another Muggle paper and looked through the renters section as he ate his lunch. Many of the same flats were advertised, and Harry didn’t find anything he wanted to look at from the days new entries.

Suddenly craving ice cream, Harry threw the Muggle paper in a waste bin and apparated to Diagonalley. As he ate an ice cream cone at Fortescue’s, he thought it might be worth looking into a flat in Diagonalley. He knew some of the shops had apartments above them.

“Excuse me,” he asked Fortescue as he came out to serve a woman and her two anxious little girls. “Do you know of any flats for rent here on Diagonalley?”

Fortescue thought about it and said, “I’ve got one above my shop for 850 a month and there’s one above the Owlery for 200 a month… don’t think I’d fancy living there though for the racket and smell of the owls.”

Harry nodded. “Thanks anyway.”

“Plenty to look at out in Muggle London though, I’d check there. Get a job at the Ministry after graduation did yeh?”

“Something like that,” Harry shrugged, feeling ashamed even to tell the ice cream seller that he had mistakenly been apprenticed to Snape.

Harry arrived at 6:30 again the next morning and didn’t wait to be told to clean. When Snape came out into the shop front at 7 to see why Harry hadn’t shown up, he was surprised to find him scrubbing the floor on his hands and knees.

“I know sir,” Harry said when Snape just stood there looking down at him. “Clean Potter, clean.”