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Chapter 4: More Dragons? More Dragons!

That Sunday in October dawned bright and clear in Scotland. At Hogwarts, the panic that had started Friday night when portions of the Hogwarts wards seemed to go crazy had mostly subsided as there seemed to be no immediate danger.

In fact, the drained wards are recharging a good deal faster than they should be, thought Albus Dumbledore, sitting in his office as he enjoyed a hot cup of tea while enjoying the frankly spectacular view of the grounds and surrounding mountains. I wonder if there has been some change in the ley-lines under the castle? It is very rare, but they do shift. In fact, no reason to delay asking the lead unspeakable to do a survey of the surrounding lines. He concluded as he picked up his wand and sent out a Patronus spell before continuing his morning tea.

Later the survey results would be mixed, but conclude that at least two of the more accessible lines had reversed the direction of their flow and increased slightly in size. This neatly solved the mystery as far as everyone investigating was concerned. A shift in the lines explained all the odd behavior of the wards, but the Ministry and Headmaster really should have looked into the cause of the shift a bit more. In truth, not just two, but all of the ley-lines had shifted directions, now flowing away from the castle as vast amounts of magical energy poured in from an unassuming blue oval.


That power flowed through the runes that regulated it, down into the stones and eventually down into the earth itself. It also saturated the air around the portal. Most magicals of Britain did not know why Hogwarts was a boarding school, or why it was in such a remote place. In truth, wizards and witches as they mature benefit from a high saturation of magical energy, and Hogwarts Castle provided the highest saturation possible in the hemisphere.

Most of the inhabitants of the castle would begin to, on and off, notice a small buzzing sensation as the year went on. Poppy Pomfrey never would discover the reason, as it was not the effect of a spell or disease. In fact, it was wholly the effect of living in a place where the saturation of magic suddenly doubled in two days. Then again a week later. And then again three weeks after that. Then again two months after that. And one more time in May before leveling off at a level that was so far beyond any recorded that it would just be assumed that the equipment or scale was wrong.

Why was the saturation skyrocketing? Well, it was simply a matter of equalizing pressure from one world to another.

.........

On a positive turn, Harry’s recurring nightmares had been chased away by the roughly seven-hundred pounds of dragon that was cuddling him like a toddler would a teddy bear. On a less positive one, he really needed to use the restroom and he was being held in place; and Caliona was a lot stronger than he was. In fact, between the wing above him, the tail on his lap, and what he couldn’t determine as a rear or front limb, he wasn’t even sure which way to wiggle right now. Well if I can’t force my way out, or slip away from a limb here, I wonder if she’s ticklish?

From there it only took a little work to find out the right spot. Most of the scales were too thick, but when he reached the soft spot under the base of her wing, he got a twitch. A little more work and she shifted enough for him to escape. He found he was still the first one awake when he returned to the room, and the room was kind enough to provide a clock and some magical windows. As he noticed it was almost seven in the morning he thought about asking for some tea, but remembered the room seemed unable to make food. (He wasn’t actually sure if the water in the pool was real water taken from elsewhere in the castle or some kind of construct like everything else Room brought forth.)

Sitting down to look at some of his notes Harry saw the small rune stone Ralion had given him. Examining it more closely he was intrigued at how it worked with just a few runes carved into the right kind of stone; it made him wonder for a moment about other kinds of magic that could be made from runes. Suddenly his decision not to take the Ancient Runes class seemed to not be his brightest idea.

Looking around reminded him that the other group should be finding the portal soon. Based on what he’d heard, a stable portal would be cause for endless concern given the history on Azeroth, he hoped he could defuse the situation peacefully. To be honest, he was really tempted to step through the portal just to see what was on the other side. Well, besides a dusty cave anyway. Seeing a whole new world seemed so exciting, even if it was dangerous as hell apparently. In any case, he had a good amount of time before the pathway collapsed so he could go exploring at some point later on.

For now, it was time to finish looking at the information for the Fidelius Charm, if he wasn’t strong enough to cast it he could probably tap a little power off the runic circle at the other side. In any case, Harry decided that if Dobby decided to join his family he would certainly say yes because just as he was about to ask for some tea he had found some already waiting for him. Crazy little guy’s trying hard to make a good impression.

.........

“We’re directly above the arcane disturbance, but it must be in a cave below. Shaman, can you tell us if there’s an entrance nearby or if we need to dig?”

.........

As morning progressed, nightly fasts were broken all across the country. Sirius checked in with Harry and told him he’d be sending Kreacher to Hogwarts today with a slightly better version of the mirrors they were using; he’d had Remus send a few well-made folding mirrors from the muggle world with a new owl on his way out of the country for a bit. Harry replied that he was fine, and nothing was happening at Hogwarts other than he was still feeling a strange buzzing sensation. That was attributed to the ritual yesterday, and could probably be ignored for now.

Later, when Kreacher found his Masters heir, he did not quite expect him to be sharing light snacks with four dragons and a girl that had spent the summer at Number 12. Luckily they seemed oddly well behaved, so he approached the boy-who-might-be-heir-to-the-Blacks.

Experiences with Buckbeak informing his actions, he approached only after he had been noticed by the dragons. Standing before Harry, he couldn’t hold himself back anymore. The chance of completing the Task he’d been left kept him polite, and he drew on every lesson on comportment he’d ever observed, determined to get this right. After handing over the new mirrors and accepting the old one (never want the mirror to fall into the wrong hands) he started to plead his case to the boy.

“Many years ago, Master Regulus Black stole an item from the Dark Lord and died for it. He tasked Kreacher with its destruction, but Kreacher has always failed in his favorite master’s Last Task. Master Sirius has told Kreacher that Halfblood heir could find the venom of a Basilisk or a dragon’s fire so Kreacher could finish his task. So Kreacher comes here and asks, and sees that Master’s heir is snacking with dragons.”

Harry, gave the small, oddly polite creature a nod. “I will ask. And if they can not or will not help, there should be a Basilisk corpse with venom in its fangs down in the Chamber.”

Turning to Ralion, he spoke. Ƥ: “Ralion, this creature has a magical locket he claims was stolen from a wizard that’s been trying to kill me since I was a toddler. It was the last request of his favored master that he destroy it, but he’s been unable to. Would you consent to making an attempt? I think you can breath fire or poison, or I have no idea what that sack under your jaw is for.”

Đ: “You’re right. Uh, you might want to make a space to burn this. Twilight Flames should work on consuming items as they do flesh, but stopping them from also consuming the castle will require a bit of care. It shouldn’t get badly out of control, extinguishing our own flames was a lesson Tendrion was firm we learn, but better safe than sorry.”

A few moments and a section of the room expanded and a wide area was covered in a platform of soapstone above granite. Kreacher could barely contain his excitement as he placed the locket in the middle of the platform. Everyone came to stand at the edge and watched as Talion had to gesture the house-elf back three times.

When he was clear, Ralion took a deep breath (Only wishing a little for the stronger fires he’d have once he grew from drake to dragon.) and spat out dark blue hungering flames. Coming a little closer, his own flames not a danger, he watched the locket as its first protections began to falter. He breathed again, a smaller, more fine stream directly onto the locket before he felt the first touches of his Flight’s absorption kick in.

Early Twilight Dragons gained much of their strength from absorbing Nether drakes, but this had been refined later on. Though not a completely efficient process, the magical properties of the Twilight Flame stole the strength of those it burned, adding some of their capacity for magic to the dragon’s own. For a small piece of equipment, even accounting for it being heavily enchanted, this was proving to be an unexpectedly rich meal.

The onlookers were becoming worried at how long this was taking, until the tiny piece of metal screamed and let out a cloud that resolved briefly into a human-like figure cloaked in shadow. Ralion’s thoughts on undeath mostly revolved around wishing everyone would do the sensible thing and burn their dead. So he took his own advice and buried the apparition under a torrent of flames until there was nothing left at all. Seeing the house-elf fall down to its knees in relief Ralion moved back over to the onlookers and offered his thoughts. Đ: “If that wasn’t a phylactery I’m a chicken.”

It only took a gentle elbow nudge from Hermione to get Harry to admit there was a noun there of some unknown significance, but he had no idea what it was. Luckily with his ability to make conversation through the language and species divides and the book-conjuring power of the Room of Requirement, they soon had worked out a rather horrifying answer.

.........

Learning that Voldemort was alive because he had split his soul caused a fair amount of disquiet, even among creatures that knew of, and had encountered a Lich at one point. On the plus side, Voldemort retained his flesh by keeping part of his soul inside his physical form, but the dragons shuddered at the thought of the instability and insanity that would likely come from splitting one’s own soul. The fact that there was at least two pieces in objects that they knew of was horrifying.

Once again, they were eating a late lunch and trying to plan how to get the dragons unseen through the castle; Harry had just remembered how the real Moody had been found in his trunk and they were trying to figure out how to use something similar when the small rune stone sitting on the table began to vibrate. The six of them (Hermione being slightly out of the loop but having good advice to toss in anyway.) had after discussing their options decided to wait to cast the Fidelius until after making contact with that other group.

Also, since Harry was the only one that could communicate with the pursuing drakes and not be attacked on sight he would go through and talk to them. He knew it might take a little while to get through the Draconic Parseltounge divide as he had with the speakers in the room. (Now almost never missing a word, and when he did it was a word he wasn’t familiar with in English.) They figured the hunters had probably heard Ralion shouting orders at some point, so the usually quiet Caliona, with somewhat raspy but functional vocal chords that got to answer the receiver as she opened a connection with her magic. Đ: “There is no immediate threat. Stay out of the water and do not kill the human about to come through the portal, please confirm.”

“Confirmed, we will not kill the human without provocation.” Harry shrugged at that as he prepared to go through. Though he didn’t know that Dobby had been raiding the lost and found for him, he did prefer the new, better fitting boots, pants, and shirt. A wand holster with an enchanted release was proving very handy as well. Taking a deep breath he willed control of the room to Hermione as planned just after crossing and restoring the barrier around the portal. With a smile on his face, he walked up to it and paused slightly.

“One small step for man...” And stepping through, got to briefly see a dusty and mostly dark cave before the room started to spin and he passed out. Luckily he was caught by a young man in brown leather armor as he quickly sheathed his daggers and rushed forward before Harry found out how hard the rocks were on this planet.

Fortunately he was only out for a few moments before he started to come around. Opening his eyes he saw what, in better lighting might have been a blue dragon circling the runic circle that sat on the ground below this side’s portal. He did notice a different shade of dragon seemingly talking into her talon. Đ: “...a little magic intoxication, he should be fine in a few moments. Wait, he’s coming around now. Are you certain you want him to handle the explanations to us? Fine then, no need to be rude.”

Coming around to stand directly in front of him, she started to converse. “I have no idea why, but the dragon on the other end said to speak to you in Draconic, can you understand me, mortal?”

Falling back into what was becoming a familiar tongue he hissed a reply. Ƥ: “Yes. My name is Harry Potter, may I ask yours?”

Đ: “Strange way of speech you have there. My name is Alira of the Green Dragonflight. We’re hunting a group of five dangerous creatures that seem to have used magic far beyond what they should have been capable of. In addition to being twisted monsters, they’ve abducted at least one of our friends. Your people are in danger, but we’re hesitant to enter another world uninvited. Have you seen them?”

Ƥ: “I’ve had a very interesting couple of days actually. I don’t know if you’re going to believe me, to be honest.” Harry closed his eyes as the room was still trying to spin on him.

Đ: “Just tell me what’s happened please. Time is of the essence.”

Ƥ: “Alright, but dragon at the portal, please don’t tinker with it. I don’t know what would happen on this end, but if it destabilizes on the other end before the energy leaches out it’s going to destroy a school and town.” That got a gruff response from the dragon that he wasn’t crazy or stupid as three other dragons stepped forward.

Harry was still trying to keep his eyes closed. He wasn’t sure what magic intoxication was, but it was making him nauseous. “All right. The night before last, on the my world, I have no idea the time here, I was asleep having my normal nightmare when everything just cleared, instantly.

“I found myself in a forest with massive trees and gleaming magical shafts of moonlight. I saw figures in the distance, and then I just knew things, like the receiving set of runes for the one you see on the floor there. Wait, I didn’t notice that before, did I get another language jammed in my head too?”

Pausing for a moment, he opened his eyes and looked at the Night Elf woman in ornate robes with some kind of blatantly magical, glowing staff across her back. “Good fortune to your family. How is the weather here? One the other side it’s getting a bit cold, I almost need to break out my heavy shirts.”

That got people’s attention. Especially the Night Elf’s. “You speak my native tongue, but in a very old dialect young man. I have not heard some of those inflections spoken aloud in a millennium. How is this possible?”

Continuing in a language that had only recently been renamed Darnassian, Harry responded. “I think I was given a dream from a being called Elune several nights ago. The leader of the dragons you were hunting was apparently a decent guy trying to do the best he could, and he traded his eternal service to Elune for getting the ones he cared off this world, away from the Old Gods.”

Looking at him like a teacher would a wayward student, eyes boring into him she confirmed his suspicions. “I would normally think you a liar for saying that child. But, probably at the same time you were granted a vision, Elune touched my mind for the first time and implored me to keep our group in camp for a full day. It required a show of Her strength to cow some members of our group, but we waited until the appointed time to continue. Did the Goddess’s intervention cleanse the taint from those dragons?”

Sighing, and again closing his eyes, the room’s spinning was slowing, but still making him feel sick. Harry had no idea what that he had the full attention of every dragon in the room and basically everyone but the human in leather that didn’t speak the language.

“Yes and no. I don’t think it’s possible to break their oaths and purge the corruption outright without killing them. From what I understand, it might not be possible at all on this world. But what she did do was free their minds for a time. I, I’ve had to stop one of them from killing himself so far, after he got the wounds on his friends treated he broke down and all the things he’d done, the things he’d been forced to enjoy caught up with him. When they found out that their reprieve was temporary, they became desperate, all four of them.”

Alira, drawing attention to herself by stepping forward broke in with perfect Darnassian. “We have searched for a way to purge the corruption of the old gods for a very long time. We have found nothing but the freedom of death mortal.”

Sighing, Harry shakily stood up and looked her in the eye at his full height. “Did you ever try great amounts of distance from the corrupting agent and then overlaying that oath with a stronger one?” That did indeed get everyone attention.

Swinging around and stomping towards him, the Blue dragon began demanding, also in Darnassian (Hey, learning a new language can kill good amounts of time in a constructive way. Dragons have a shelf life of roughly ten to fifteen thousand years so they have plenty of time to kill.) “What are you talking about, what oath? Are you saying you’ve found a way to free sentients from the grip of the old gods when we’ve been failing for ten thousand years?”

Looking the agitated dragon right in the eyes Harry responded. “I don’t know if you have the same traditions, but my people have a way to bind people to honor agreements with magic, some stronger ways involve using blood as a binding agent. We found out from the Twilight Dragons that when they were in their eggs, they were tortured mercilessly until they gave in and gave a binding oath to accept your enemies as their gods simply to escape the pain.”

All five of them looked more than a little sick at that. No just individual ever condones the torture of children. “We almost didn’t figure it out in time, but it turns out that not all oaths are equal. The intent behind them matters, like my godfather said, love is stronger than hate. Not to mention that an oath given at gunpoint isn’t as strong as one given in good faith, add in the distance, a physical binder of blood, and that portal apparently doing something to keep the evil on this side...”

Alira jumped forward into Harry’s face. “With all that you were able to free them? You mean we don’t have to kill them anymore?!”

Quickly suppressing a wince, Harry responded. “They’re free of what was binding them before, but now they’re bound to me instead. Given that Elune apparently sent them to me specifically, they made the choice to use the binding ritual. I haven’t heard complaints yet, but they’re not completely free, and I’m not sure if they ever will be. Also, now that you’re close I see that you’re still damp. I’m going to step back and make a quick call with my mirror if you’ll excuse me.”

Flipping open a seemingly simple mirror, Harry was heard calling out a word in English before seeing a teenage girl’s face show up. A few rapidly said words and Ralion’s face was showing quickly. Ƥ: “Ralion, tell me quickly why you wanted them to stay out of the water.” Harry was focused enough on the mirror that he failed to notice the green snout looking over his shoulder.

Even through the mirror Alira and Harry could tell that Ralion was drooping, ashamed of himself. “The water was supposed to be an obstacle to make them detour around or try digging a new tunnel! They were supposed to notice what was wrong and avoid it! It’s not the first time we’ve set traps to slow them down!”

“Ralion. What was in the water?”

“I’m so sorry. Nineteen standard crystal vials of Faceless blood from one we ambushed and killed.” Five drakes serving under the Wyrmrest Accord hissed violently in shock. “If any significant amount of that blood were to come in contact with them for long or be ingested, it would slowly infect them like a plague. I’m so sorry my Lord.”

A voice in English came back as the image on the mirror swapped to the bushy-haired teenager again. “Harry, is everything all right over there? The dragons here are looking depressed and guilty again.”

“I think it will be okay in the long run Hermione, but we might have five more joining me for the same reason as the others are staying. Can you alter the barrier around the portal so there’s room for five drakes and myself to stand, but keep it sealed? I’ll see you when I see you, I might be here for a while.”

Turning around, glad the room had stopped spinning, Harry saw that Alira was actually crying into the Night Elf’s lap, while the human rogue and werewolf(?) with a rather large rifle were standing near the only entrance looking confused. The other four dragons were just looking despondent. He focused on the entrance again when a, well he wasn’t quite sure what it was except that it was sort human shaped with very broad shoulders, an extra knee, with one bending in the opposite direction of the upper one did, some kind of tail and wearing chainmail came back and said something to a dragon that was waiting near the door.

When that dragon’s wings drooped just a bit, Harry figured he knew what the news was. Never the less, the drake moved forward resolutely. Nodding to Harry as he placed himself in the middle of the group of dragons. Đ: “I’m sorry friends. Malaru confirmed the water we swam through and some of us drank bears the taint of the old gods. From everything I know we’re now doomed to walk the path of Neltharion in his descent. If it’s any consolation, I think the mortals are safe; carrying them above the water seems to have spared them. They’ve been hunting faithfully with us since we first struck at the Twilight, so at least we won’t drag them down with us. I don’t really know what else to say.”

Harry waited for him to finish before speaking, trying to give them some hope. (He knew what it was like to have no hope.) “Life on my world isn’t perfect.” He started with, gaining their attention. “There’s still evil and I have human enemies that want to destroy me for their own power. But on the plus side, as far I know we don’t have evil gods corrupting our people’s thoughts. I’ve been planning on moving the other drakes into a hidden chamber, and make it so they can hunt in the nearby forest at night. There will be plenty of food for all of you, and I think if you let me I can keep you from falling into what you fear right now.

“I can’t make many promises, but if you let me I will do everything I can to help you. To keep the horrors of your world away from mine I’m planning to use a spell that should remove this cavern from everyone’s memories and keep others from finding it. I think I can keep my world safe until the portal fails. I wish I could give you a lot of time to make a decision, but I can’t. Use the stone if you wish, as far as I can tell, Ralion, Vespiona, Caliona, and Talion are intelligent creatures horrified with the things they’ve done as slaves to evil. We’ve been discussing a lot of things so far. Think it over please, I have some stones to set up.”

As Harry pulled out a small case from his pocket that had an expansion charm on it, and took out a few simple ward stones Hermione had carved to encourage living things to stay away he was surprised when the Blue drake walked over and began examining them. Preempting any questions, he started speaking in Darnassian. “It’s already a forgone conclusion mortal. I doubt you noticed, but Siara, the elf priestess was asked to use her mind arts on you before you came through. Nothing invasive, but enough to tell us if you were lying. I’m curious about these glyphs, I’ve never seen scripts like them before.”

“I think they’re Old Norse, I haven’t studied them, my friend on the other side carved them for me. At times I regret not choosing to study Ancient Runes, that class would certainly be more useful than the one I went with.”

Letting out a loud sigh as he took one of the ward stones and examined it carefully, the dragon responded. “Mortal, if I’m going to fall into your service, you should know I won’t accept a leader who is lazy or uneducated. Between the five of us that will be coming with you, we have a good deal of knowledge and over two hundred years of experience in this world. If you want to learn, there is much we can teach you, but it will take long hours of study. I assume you are a user of magic?”

Receiving a nod the drake smirked. “Then I do have much to teach you young one. My name is Aurogos of the Blue Dragonflight, and I spent twenty years as a student of Senegos before the Nexus War. Here, you can set up these stones, I need to prepare a report for these mortals to return to Wyrmrest Temple with. Last thing, there was a female Red dragon abducted by the...”

“Valistraza. As far as I know she’s perfectly healthy inside some kind of pink stasis sphere. And if she wants to stay, I have no problem granting her what protection I can. I’m told she was trying to flee Azeroth on her own, and the Twilight group convinced them to travel with them. Tendrion, the drake that seems to have been free of the darkness, made a deal with her that the whole group was honoring.”

“Why on Azeroth would a clutching female try to… Oh. I suppose that does happen at times. Her mate?” At Harry’s downcast eyes he had enough of an answer. “That explains what she was doing traveling alone in that state then. We never did find out a good reason.”

Leaving Harry to his work, setting the aversion wards and preparing for casting the Fidelius, Aurogos walked over to his pack and prepared his people’s version of a memo. One plus was that with enough mental discipline one could prepare an entire report ahead of time and simply will it directly into the golden metal disc. Normally the devices were color-coded for the different Flights of dragons, but this one was special, marking it as very important. After a few moments of running his magic through the device he sealed it by turning an inner section clockwise until it locked and drew out another, more plain version.

Switching to the language known as Common, a descriptive if uninspired name, he addressed the Night Elf priestess Siara Moonshadow. “This is my last report to the Wyrmrest Temple. I’ve made it Aspect Eyes only, please ensure it is given directly to either Alexstrasza or Ysera and they understand to only view it in private. This second disk is less important, but it’s fair that we give it to you. My group was infected by a trap left behind, and we’re going to follow in the footsteps of the Black Flight if we stay on this world. There’s hope for us on the other side of this portal. You have all proven loyal and skilled and we regret parting ways.

“I ask you for anything you can spare that might prove useful to us on the other side, especially any gems or such that improve mental focus. Any plant seeds or metals or even worked items would be helpful. Enchanted bags would be greatly appreciated, books you don’t need or can replace even more so. When you reach Wyrmrest Temple, present this second disc to the quartermaster for reimbursement and the agreed payment for our hunt. Thank you again mortals. And, we wish you luck in all of your pursuits. Remain safe, brothers and sister in blood.”

That said, he bowed low to the Human lurking in the shadows, the Night Elf priest leaning against the cavern’s wall, the Worgen and the Draenei shaman preparing a totem to burn away the corrupt water a few tunnels over on the way out. They bowed low in return and began emptying their traveling packs for anything useful. With the continual introduction of bags even larger on the inside than previous versions, (And the fact that the standard enchanted backpack standard to all adventurers across the world can hold other a number of enchanted bags within it.) this would take a while, but be rather profitable for those heading to Earth.

Praise the Titans for mortal packrats! The Blue thought as he rejoined the discussion in Draconic. As he had surmised, it was the conclusion that, while not happy about their options they really had no other choice. A leap in the dark was preferable to the fate that awaited them here. Alira and Dalistraza were discussing the impressions Siara had shared about the young man, as when the subject matter turned interesting, she started taking a deeper look at what kind of person he was. Brave, loyal, and smarter than he thought he was but with deep insecurities stemming from something about his family and not really having the strength that came from a family, clan, or Flight.

Well as far as starting points, we could have done a lot, lot worse. It doesn’t seem like he would sell us out or use us as slaves against his enemies. The Blue drake thought as he watched the teen begin drawing a series of symbols on the walls of the cave. He was referencing several sheets of paper as he went, and it looked to be a rather complex spell, so the teen might have some real potential.

.........

Back on Earth, Hermione had decided to keep busy. She had used the mirror given to her to speak with Sirius about the ritual binding, and their conversation had started to rabbit-trail quickly. The young woman found that whatever had happened to Sirius recently, he seemed altogether more coherent than the man she had met spoken to her third year or over the summer. His intelligence surprised her, as did his eclectic mix of magical knowledge.

“You have no idea the work that went into some of the Marauder’s pranks Hermione. Grades don’t really matter outside of school, just your NEWT scores really, or OWLs if you don’t make it that far. I think we got a better education learning what we needed to accomplish our goals than we ever did in the classroom. Heck, it’s not like they teach you to become an Animagus in class, and even Wormtail managed it eventually. Classes are all right for most students, but there’s so much more to learn. Honestly, the learning behind the pranks is most of the reason I was hoping Harry would follow in his father’s footsteps. If this war gets anywhere near as bad as the last one, I’d keep Fred and George as close friends. They aren’t smart so much as they’re clever and I promise they’ll come up with some useful things when they need to.”

While they waited for word from Harry, Sirius promising the mirror would switch to the new ‘call’ as soon as Harry tried contacting her, Hermione Granger enjoyed what was almost a lecture on facets of magic not taught at Hogwarts. Eventually house elves came up, and when she made her views known, he countered with a different argument.

“Hermione, something I don’t think you realize is that different species aren’t human. I don’t say this to denigrate them, but while they might be similar in some respects, if you expect them to share your beliefs, your way of thinking, you are going to be disappointed at best, or end up dead or worse. Take house elves. Do you know what happens to them when they’re free, truly free? You don’t, or you wouldn’t be trying to free them.

“Originally, house elves were a creature that took delight in chaos. They never really cared if humans were hurt, but they had a need to see other’s lives shaken out of the ordinary. They didn’t always mean for people to get hurt and die, but that doesn’t change the number of deaths they caused. Eventually wizards rounded them all up, but one of the greatest of that time implored the other magicals to allow him to attempt to alter them before they were all killed. In the end, he was successful and changed their need for chaos to a need to serve.

“He altered their purpose, which is no easy feat. It turned out, however, that the creatures were actually drawing energy from the results of their actions, so for the creatures to remain alive they draw a small amount of magic from the people they bind themselves to. Maybe you read that squibs aren’t allowed house elves? That’s because the drain is enough to kill them, and then the elf usually commits suicide or goes insane.”

A number of thoughts ran through the teen’s mind. “So the muggle myths of gremlins...”

“Probably true accounts that survived the Statute of Secrecy. Either that or there’s a few of the original creatures that escaped, but if they did their numbers are so low they haven’t been a significant problem in a long time.”

After that exchange, the call ended. Hermione had been given a lot to think about. Later, she had spoken to Dobby and the small creature had affirmed what Sirius had said. After Dobby mentioned wanting to be Harry Potter’s Elf someday, Hermione decided to try to hasten that as much as she could since the little guy already seemed to be lacking in stability. Though he did seem to have a great deal of purpose in aiding Harry. After some thought, she decided Sirius’s advice of not trying to hold non-humans to a human standard was very sound.

.........

It took just over an hour for Harry to finish drawing all the needed symbols on the walls, floor and ceiling of the cave and just a little longer for the other humanoids to finish going through their bags. Apparently used to carrying everything he owned with him at all times, the Draenei Malaru had a significant amount of gems with him. Harry learned when he asked asked, (Through the Night Elf that was already finished sorting her items.) that the Draenei Shaman was cutting them into shapes that would improve one’s mind and spell casting by a small amount. There was a serious pile of items ready to come with them, even a good bit of foodstuffs. Harry found he could read one of the books, it was a manual on some of the priestly magics and looked rather interesting. It didn’t take much longer for the man with blue skin and hooves to finish the last peice of jewelry he had the items to craft, apparently the gems would only give a benefit if they were set in a special slot.

As Harry had been preparing for his spell, the dragons had asked if the jewelcrafter could create an item for the young human. After some discussion, a necklace made from mostly from pearls and a little mithril wire was produced. It didn’t look like much more than a simple necklace with two gleaming gems; one yellow and the other red. It was a small simple pendant would look at home on a man or woman. Alira explained to Harry as she handed it to him it was a magical item that should provide a minor boost to his mind, spell power, and precision.

Harry felt a small surge as he looped it around his neck and startled badly. He got laughs from everyone when he jumped, but apparently that was a normal reaction for first timers feeling an item binding itself to them. It would now serve no other until many years after he died. (Assuming the item survived his death.) Apparently a quirk of the materials it was made of, the item would also soak small amounts of pure water through his skin. It wouldn’t be enough to prevent dehydration, but it would slow the process if he couldn’t get water when he needed it.

Harry tried to stay out of the way as the group said their final farewells and loaded all the items into bags as Aurogos made a tally and recorded the list into the blue metal disc before locking it as he did with the other and handing it to the Night Elf. When they were ready, Harry explained that the group not coming needed to be outside this cavern and that they might be disoriented by the magic. After that, four notes were written and stuck to the mortal’s shirts, giving only needed information so they could get out safely and clear the tainted pool. As soon as they were out, Harry Potter started casting the Fidelius Charm. He’d decided to make himself the secret keeper and had taken some advice to hide both the existence of the cave and portal.

Half an hour later, a very sweaty teenager grinned at the extremely disoriented dragons, cast a silencing charm at the cave entrance and spoke a carefully considered line. “The portal that leads to Earth is itself in a cave under Stranglethorn Vale, on the most southern part of the Eastern Kingdoms on the planet Azeroth.” Harry was fortunate that only a few people knew about either the cave or the portal. He saw one of the Red drakes watch the mortals outside the entrance read the notes tucked into their shirts, shrug and move off to burn out the trap that had poisoned the drakes.

Again Harry was surprised at how expressive these dragons were at times as he saw most of them putting up a brave front for the most part, but Alira looking very forlorn with a tear leaking down her face. Stepping up to her, he touched her face gently and wiped it away. Ƥ: “I know its going to be a whole new world for you, but I give you my word that I’ll do everything I can for all nine of you to survive and thrive on it. Believe me, please.”

When she nodded her head, Harry picked up as many bags as he could carry and walked through the swirling blue doorway between worlds.

.........

Harry did not expect to see Professor McGonagall talking with Hermione in front a small fire with dinner sitting in front of them when he stepped through. After just a few moments the other five followed with Alira touching her head to Harry’s shoulder, now revealed in the light as beautiful creature of emerald scales and tan fading into a shade of red on her wing webbing. The additional armored plates and around her talons also bore tan with a bit of red on them.

Seeing that his best friend and their Head of House had noticed him, he spoke to them. “Hermione, see if you can make the room detect any dangerous diseases or anything else you can think of that might be tagging along with us. Then purge it if you can.”

Nodding Hermione closed her eyes for a moment concentrating. “I don’t think there was anything the room could get rid of other than a few mold spores. Good thinking though, want me to open the barrier?” At a positive response she brought the barrier that was around the portal down, then up again after they all walked though.

.........

Minerva McGonagall had been quite off balance since the meeting with Sirius yesterday. After she signed the contract with Sirius, she’d soon received a rather good book on Occlumency and had been brushing up in her quarters every spare moment. At first she really wanted to ignore Sirius, but performing a broad detection spell on herself for mental spells had given a positive result. When she’d contacted Sirius this morning after that very surly elf had delivered a mirror and some simple instructions he had assured her that it was pointless to remove the compulsions before she could prevent new ones. Not to mention disastrous if the perpetrator found out they were on to him before they were ready.

When she had asked about what he meant he’d responded “Imagine if the people all around you were spelled to believe that you’d switched to the Dark Lord’s side of the war with no evidence and that they needed to silence you. And worse, your mind would be rifled through and the traitor would know we were on to him.”

That had convinced her to instead study hard and make some plans to help Harry, who for whatever reason was a central figure in the war. After Harry had stepped through the portal, Hermione had contacted the Professor with the mirror now in a pocket, apparently horrified that the call phrase was “Here kitty kitty.” After checking herself for tracking charms, she had gone to the seventh floor of the castle and was looking at a strange painting when a door appeared behind her and Hermione ushered her through.

As Minerva understood it, this room would become anything they needed, and she was just slightly concerned when the door disappeared behind her. Summoning all her powers of student intimidation she had asked Miss Granger where Harry was and what trouble he was embroiled in this time. Her composure as a stern Professor slipped mightily when she was interrupted by the three dragons that slipped out of the shadows and took up protective positions around her student.

She was more surprised when Miss Granger told her they didn’t speak English, and that they must not have liked her tone. After Hermione got them to calm down and showed her Head of House to a seat, the room became much more well lit and proved to contain a rather odd collection of items. Though the large bed, swirling blue oval, and steaming pool were enough to ask questions, the forth dragon coming up to the other three and conversing in some language she had never heard before immediately got her attention.

Miss Granger introducing her to the four dragons was a strange experience, and what odd names. Over the next hour, Hermione served tea brought to them by an elf she wasn’t familiar with and explained the situation as she knew it. Harry was apparently dealing with something on another world just then. Usually Minerva would have scoffed at that, but this was Harry Potter, a boy that drew trouble to him like no one else she had ever met.

In the end, Minerva McGonagall was only a little surprised when Harry led five more dragons of new colors out of the portal and gestured towards the steaming pool as a few more brushes appeared out of nowhere. As he joined her at the table, she could see the boy was covered in sweat and seemed dead tired, though he was perking up a bit. “Mr. Potter, trouble seems to have found you again. May I ask what you have been doing just now?”

Though tired and sweaty, the boy had a wide grin on his face as he set down an empty glass of water. “I just cast a Fidelius Charm on the cave on the other side of the portal. It took a lot out of me, but it’s stable.”

Looking at the dragons for a moment he hissed briefly at them, and got a response in their rather rough, growling tongue. The colorful newcomers moved into the pool, seeming to revel in the hot water. The boy nodded and then said a sentence in another strange tongue. The dragons that had assembled around him seemed to relax and settle down, but they all choose to sit rather close to the boy as most of them watched the others, now over in the steaming pool used the brushes to clean each other.

“Before you ask, that was a language called Darnassian, and it seems I got it jammed into my head Friday night. I’m fluent, but apparently I speak a very old dialect. Oh, Hermione? After the dragons are finished, have the room vanish the water and brushes, okay? Thanks. Do you two mind if we eat? I’m starved.”

“Harry, was that the Secret?” Hermione inquired. The boy in the middle of adding a large quantity of pasta to his plate nodded. “I suppose putting the secret in English might not make sense, but I still have no idea where it leads, other than apparently somewhere with dragons.”

As soon Harry finished chewing his slice of garlic bread he responded. “I thought that might happen. How do you feel about learning ‘elvish’ when we have time Hermione?”

Minerva could see the girl was shocked as she nodded and the boy went back to consuming as much food as he could, though he retained good etiquette while doing so. The boy was certainly eating like he had been doing a lot of spellcasting. He was still eating, putting to shame the polite amounts of food she and her star Gryffindor were consuming when the new dragons were finished bathing. Harry hissed something at them, and when they exited the pool, both pool and water and all vanished, then a new pool formed and a system of very strong shower heads appeared for a moment before they struck the poor dragons from all directions for a few moments. All that water soon vanished also, leaving dragons that were dry walking over to them through the clouds of steam that had been created. Harry set his food aside, finished for now.

Her eyes saw that the first four dragons were clearly nervous. They hadn’t touched their food yet, despite looking thin around the ribs. After several moments going back and forth Harry introduced them one by one, apparently in two languages.

“This is Alira of the Green Dragonflight of Azeroth, (Gesturing to a lithe Green dragon with tan on her wings and underside.) Aurogos of the Blue Dragonflight of Azeroth, (Motioning to the larger and rather more muscled scarred Blue dragon with a beautiful azure hue to his wings and tail club, with a darker blue on his main body. And are those runes? It looks like it’s hide was tattooed...) the siblings Dalistraza and Senastrasz of the Red Dragonflight of Azeroth. (Here Harry indicated the two Reds, mostly covered in crimson scales save for the webbing of their wings and their underside which were white. Dalistraza had a much more feminine build while Senastrasz bore both muscles and scars.)

“And this is Stine (Here he motioned to the last of the second group, a Bronze dragon that seemed to be built for speed rather than strength. He was covered in Bronze scales, with a light brown for his wing webbing and underside.) of the Bronze Dragonflight of Azeroth. And this is Ralion and his sister Vespiona, and Caliona, (Here he indicated the two drakes with dark purple scales, then the dark blue one.) Twilight Dragons of Azeroth formerly associated with the Twilight Cult of Azeroth.

“This is Talion, (here Harry indicated the final creature, a Black and brilliant orange creature) a Black Dragon, who claims his only association as a member of the group started by Tendrion. Professor, they’re going to be staying here on this world now with the others, because of what awaits them back at home.”

Without being asked, Alira had carefully stepped over to the first group of dragons and was gently peeling back the bandage over the least active dragon’s throat. After wincing at the wound that was just starting to bleed again, she slowly raised her claw, glowing with green light and touched the wound as it slowly receded into healthy flesh. Every eye had been on her as she worked, and she shirked back when she noticed the attention.

Minerva noticed that when Harry walked up to her with what must have been comforting words she leaned into the awkward attempt at a comforting touch he gave. After a few moments she started running her forelimbs all across the once injured dragon, then the other three before giving obvious good bills of health with a few caveats. (Years of dealing with Poppy allowed her to understand that much even with the language barrier.)

When the Green joined the rest of them at the table, she saw the other settings and shocked all three humans when instead of a dragon, there was a purple humanoid with long backward flowing ears, forest green hair, and softly glowing green eyes ringed with small tattoos inspired by vines. In fact, her whole group suddenly changed forms.

A young man with powder blue hair and almost crystalline blue eyes along with the young woman with long red hair and soft, motherly features proved to be the most normal. The other Red dragon had shifted into a similar, but different variety of elf, shorter, with lightly bronzed skin. Senastrasz’s ears were more vertical than horizontal and the only thing that would mark him from being different from a normal elf was his striking red eyes.

Stine, on the other hand, could possibly draw more attention to himself in his humanoid form. Instead of the upright, four limbed forms of his fellows, he had become a smaller version of the local centaurs, only instead of being meshed with a horse, he had a humanoid torso with orange and black striped fur and a cat’s head with extra long ears atop an orange tiger. After a few exchanges in their respective magical tounges, Harry, seemingly very amused, pulled out his mirror and told it “Paddy.”

When Sirius answered the mirror, Harry after checking he couldn’t be overheard, started sweeping across the room with the mirror. “Hey Sirius, just as an update we’ve collected more dragons here at Hogwarts, but I’ve just found out their species has the ability to turn into a humanoid form at will, sort of like the animagus transformation we use. It’s not so hard for them to learn really, but what it does take is for them to find a shape they like.

“You have Alira, the Green dragon, whose form is a Night Elf. And yes, I spoke to one of them on the other side, she was pretty, about seven feet tall, and at least a thousand years old. Aurogos and Dalistraza both take a human appearance, which would fit in fine most places. Dali’s brother Senastrasz is a different kind of elf, you can notice the height, skin tone and ears. Last, we have Stine, who apparently thinks these cat-people called Tol’vir are cool.

“These guys are staying cause they’re in a similar boat, having fallen into the liquid evil that causes the same problems the others had. So, we have four dragons that can fit in with a bit of work, and one guy that will attract more notice when he’s not a Bronze Dragon the size of a horse. Anyway, just wanted to let you know what was going on, have a nice night.” After that Harry hissed a bit and everyone came up to the table that now had enough chairs and places.

Dobby seemed to be on to something with the liver stew and hearts. In fact, the stew was so nutritious the kitchen elves were working on getting the seasoning just right and adding it to the general menu. Spicy grilled (also sometimes fried, smoked, and baked) hearts, sadly, were still going to be a dragon only dish. As were the seasoned bones. Poor Minerva was wondering why she hadn’t been served any of the interesting looking white dumplings in sauce until she saw one of the purple dragons, apparently getting a few etiquette tips from the green dragon with a gentle bearing, crunch into what she realized was a piece of bone. Ah, well I would have to say that they are predators. I certainly can’t imagine them as anything but apex predators. Our cook must be that crazy house-elf that’s so adored of Mr. Potter.

.........

During the dessert course, a sweet layered cake that the Stine and the dragons in their natural forms skipped, but everyone else found to be very good, Harry decided to broach a subject he had been thinking of since before casting the Fidelius. “Professor, what would be involved with dropping divination? I’ve found there’s nothing really worthwhile for me to learn in that class.”

“You would have to add another class Mr. Potter, and catching up to your fellows would be difficult.”

“I was wondering if I could self-study or join the third-year’s rune class. I’ve realized my laziness led me to wasting that elective slot, but in my defense I really had no idea what any of the classes were about when I made my decision. After finding out a bit about what runes can do I’ve decided that seems like a much better use of my time.”

“Hmm, I will speak to Professor Babbling. Her feelings on Professor Trelawney will likely help you there. Self-study will be needed to catch up with your yearmates, but a good way to prove you are serious about the subject would be to spend some time with the younger students until you progress past that year’s materials in your private study. I will let you know sometime tomorrow. Now, what are your plans with these creatures going forward?”

“My first goal is to keep them safe, and then get them speaking English as quickly as possible. Right now, they can understand Parseltongue and I can understand Draconic without much trouble, but that isn’t good enough. Also, now that I know they can take different forms like this, I’d like them to learn that skill. Was the reason they’re here at all explained to you already? I’m glad I don’t have to explain it then.”

Standing, Harry stepped back a bit from the table moving to stand next to the various drakes that were sitting together at the other end of the table. “Dobby, I promise to pay you back as soon as I can, but can we get five more of those silver goblets? The style doesn’t matter but the metal does.”

Dessert left the table and one by one, old silver goblets started appearing on the table. Harry decided that he liked having plausible deniability just in case his little friend was also a little thief and helping himself to precious metal drinking vessels.

(Those fears were unfounded. Although Dobby did have to recruit help to secure these goblets from the Room of Lost things. There was simply a vast amount of objects that had piled up in the last millennia that were no longer owned by anyone. In fact he had heard about there being even more dragons in the pink ball, so he’d asked the other elves to help him find all the silver items in the room, if needed they would be reforged if needed. Not counting the silver coins, there was a rather large quantity already there.)

Ƥ: “I don’t know how long you five have until that evil starts tearing at your minds. From what I understand it will start small and gradually strengthen until you’re nothing like you are now. I propose that we get this over with now, if you are willing.”

Seeing Alira look so downcast he walked over to her and rested a hand on her shoulder trying to comfort her. He really didn’t know what to say so he just stood there and kept up a bit of human contact while he spoke again. “Ralion, I want your group to explain the ritual you shared, all right? Let me know when they’re ready. I think we need to move you guys tonight, and it’ll be a long one before we have the Chamber set up. I want you four to start learning the shapeshifting trick, having a human or near-human form would make things easier.”

Harry moved over to the open area in front of the portal, Hermione holding the silver knife from last night as she came to stand before him. He was surprised when just a few moments later Aurogos stood before him in his natural form holding one of the silver goblets. At Harry’s surprised look, he simply shrugged. Đ: “Our memories are excellent. I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

Once more, the ritual played out, and Aurogos joined the House Potter. Stretching his form out, he looked at his left front palm for a moment. “Hmm, the ritual healed the cut, I wasn’t expecting that. To be honest, this really doesn’t feel bad at all. Did you know that magic often contains an impression or taste of the one from whom it originated? I’ve served under an Aspect whose touch felt arrogant, cruel and mad my Lord. From what I can sense of you life here won’t be awful.”

Turning his head to where the others were grouped he called out. “Alira, you should go next. You’re worrying needlessly.”

As soon as the silver once-cup settled around the Green Dragon’s forelimb, Harry found himself in a very powerful hug. Through the other three rituals she refused to let go of him, eventually ended up wrapped around him she fell asleep. After Dalistraza, the last to complete the ritual, finished poking at the silver band that now decorated her forelimb with a talon she leaned in close.

“Thank you for being kind to her my Lord. Alira is the youngest of us five, and the most unsuited to war. She was in training to be a Broodmother before she was pressed into service, and she never had the temperament for battle. I think if we had been facing any enemy other than Tendrion’s group she’d have been long dead. I remember when fighting that group more than once he either spared her or made the others to spare her.

“She’s become a dear friend, so please take care of her my Lord. She really hasn’t been the same since the first Twilight band we were chasing down left us in a cave with two dozen dead whelps, so we’ve been trying to offer what comfort we can. My Blue friend was right that we can sense a lot of what makes you, you, my Lord. That’s why she’s trying to wrap herself around you right now. I don’t think she’s really felt safe in years.”

Ultimately disentangling himself, he saw that Hermione had demonstrated an expansion charm on an old trunk and after a few tries Aurogos had crafted an enchantment that would allow a second trunk to both be expanded and shrunk for easy carrying. Dobby had brought the personal brooms for Harry and the Professor which went into the trunk, and given a few spare items, a ladder and simple furniture had been transfigured in the interior space.

While the Room of Requirement was a nice temporary hiding place, it was felt that a place with a ready escape route was needed, just in case everything went badly. Harry quickly explained what he’d been told about the Green drake while the humans watched the two groups of drakes begin to hesitantly interact. When they were nearly ready, and Alira had woken up, Harry repeated the same commands he had with the first group. He got agreement from the drakes that there was nothing onerous or objectionable there. He got a hug from Alira he only broke because they needed to get going.

After the room provided a confirmation that their leaving would not destabilize the portal, and Dobby promised to make sure that the House Elves knew to stay away they prepared to head down into the Chamber of Secrets. Harry would use his invisibility cloak, walking alongside the Professor to Myrtle’s bathroom while Hermione would ride in the trunk with the drakes and all the items they had with them. She found herself cautiously examined by the green dragon but when she offered a smile she found herself embraced by the creature’s elfin form until Harry brought them out. Luckily she was already sitting comfortably on the transfigured couch at the time. Between the warm embrace and gentle rocking of the trunk she found herself enjoying a pleasant nap for the entire journey.

Outside, Harry “required” the room to lock itself so that it would only open for him, preserving the safety of all involved while the portal slowly bled off energy. (Aurogos agreed with Harry’s initial supposition that the portal would need to bleed off slowly or else explode violently. His guess was that it would take at least a year, and then he started planning out addition ward schemes for the other side.) Outside and invisible, Harry talked to his Head of House as they strolled along. “Thank you for agreeing to help us Professor. This is already the most helpful any of the staff has ever been. I have no idea what shape the Basilisk will be in, but now that I think of it, it was very cold down there so maybe that has slowed the decay.”

“It’s possible Mr. Potter. It’s also possible that the creature’s own magic has slowed the process. We won’t know until we get there, it could be anything from a skeleton and pile of goop, to a fully preserved carcass. Did no one ever point out the potential value? I can’t imagine anyone preventing you from claiming it for yourself after killing it.”

“I suppose I’ve just learned to keep my head down as much as possible. Hey, do you think Olivander could have used any part of the snake for wands?”

Minerva was silent for several moments as they passed by several students making their way from the library to Ravenclaw Tower.

“It’s possible. To be honest, the most common wand cores in this country happen to be the most readily available. Unicorn hair and dragon heartstring and fairly easy to acquire, so they get used in many creations. I know in America Thunderbird feathers are common wand cores, along with some other native creatures. If anything of that carcass is salvageable, Olivander would likely be very interested in acquiring pieces for his craft. Have you thought of a cover story for your absence these last few days? Unfortunately, people have noticed.”

“Professor, after seeing that expansion charm in action, I’ve found myself very curious about the limits of such expansion charms. I also find myself wondering, hypothetically of course, what the results of the power surging through the castle could have had, if I had been revising in the common room in an expanded space, say a mouse hole, that I had found and made into a cozy little study room for myself?”

“Hahaha, Mr. Potter, are you saying that your cover story is that you were lost in an enormous mouse hole this whole time?”

“If the story is at all plausible, yes. It’s believable for the students doesn’t and doesn’t paint me in a terrible light. To be honest, if you tell people the space was so large I had been using my broom for over a day and hadn’t found my way out it will even make people think before they try using the spell for something similar. You can say you went looking for me and when you asked the elves they mentioned the new space in the tower needing to be cleaned.”

“Well, when all that power surged through the wards it really could have done any number of things in this case. I will have to add to the announcement that you were quite lucky the expansion went outward instead of inward. Two students in a normal mouse hole would be more than cozy.”

“Let’s go with that then, to be honest it sounds like the kind of thing one should expect at a school for magic. Ah, we’re almost there. Let me check the map before we head in, it’s probably empty save for a certain ghost, but I’d like to keep this out of the rumor mill.” After taking a moment to check the map as they drew close, he decided they were fine. “Professor, the way down is a slide, would you like your broom now?”

Soon both teacher and student were dismounting their brooms at the bottom of the tunnel, having come across the giant snake skin and were moving towards the cave-in. Minerva was trying very, very hard to not think about how a skinny little twelve year old boy had faced a creature that had shed that skin. After a quiet stroll, they came to the cave-in.

Turning to the pile of rocks, Minerva first cast a few charms to give her an impression of how stable the rest of the ceiling was. (During the last war, she had been called on many times to search rubble for survivors, a job that got much easier when the rubble obeyed your will.) After but a moment of thought, she began swishing her wand back and forth and smiled at the impressed face of her student as he observed. Quickly the debris turned into spiders before climbing back into the ceiling, there melting into a single mass that prevented further collapse, flowing into the various cracks like water and solidifying as stone. In only a few moments the hallway was clear again, the Professor taking a moment to wipe a few drops of sweat from her brow. “Impressive bit of magic, wish I knew how to do that. Suddenly Transfiguration seems like a much more interesting class.”

Smiling as she checked the stability of the rest of the tunnel, her charm returning a yellow color with a bit of green mixed in, (Suggesting the structure was stable for the time being but would need some structural work soon.) she started to speak again.

“Mr Potter, your godfather requested I begin giving you additional lessons, including using transfiguration in combat and some of the preparation for the Animagus transformation. He thinks you have enough power to use transfiguration for combat, and given that you’ve successfully cast the Fidelius, I would agree. Combat transfiguration is all about making everything that exists your weapon; it requires power, quick reflexes, and creativity. If you apply yourself, I think you can manage that very well.”

“Professor, I can’t imagine Umbridge letting that happen, and since the staff policy is apparently to let her do anything she wants...” Harry trailed off, idly rubbing the scars on the back of his hand, now covered by his sleeve.

“It’s true that foul woman would attempt to prevent any lessons, she’s going after you because the Headmaster is far out of her weight class. But if you were to earn some detentions with me, well that is another thing entirely. A professor decides what punishment a student requires, and if I find you’re not putting enough effort into your assignments, why perhaps you might require remedial lessons. Ah, another door. It seems Salazar Slytherin was a rather egotistical man after all.”

Indeed, with a bit more light the door Harry had last seen as a terrified twelve year old looked even more impressive and imposing with additional light; it wasn’t possible for the door to have more snakes carved into it.

“Professor, last time I was here the Basilisk corpse is just beyond this door. By any chance do you know a spell for cleansing the air?” It turned out the bubblehead charms caused a strange sensation at first, but it was much better than what could be behind that door. Ƥ: “Open!”

Now getting a little more used to hearing parseltongue, Minerva only flinched a little as one of her favorite (Not that she would admit that favoritism to just anyone.) students opened the final door into the main cavern of the Chamber of Secrets. It was truly a grand hall, though it had fallen on hard times, caked in grime and most of the apparent inbuilt lighting charms having failed long ago. The structure resembled a cathedral colored in green and silver, it must have been beautiful when it was new.

Looking around, she saw a rather large form and nearly bolted from it, even knowing it was dead ahead of time. It was most certainly a fully mature female basilisk, nearly a full sixty feet long and a dark green color in their wand light. As they drew closer, there was no rot at all. In fact, it seemed as if the creature had just fallen dead moments ago. If not for the pool of blood and the venom that had eaten into the stone she’d be more worried it was still alive.

While still keeping her eyes on the snake in case it actually wasn’t dead yet, she ran through a number of charms to check the air quality. Her results indicated that the magic responsible for maintaining the air down here had failed, but it was still breathable for the moment. She watched Harry cautiously stalk around to the front of the creature, his wand held ready. She let out a breath of relief when he told her that the thing was certainly not breathing, it was just very well preserved.

Regrouping, the both of them decided to head to another section of the chamber before the teen removed the trunk from his pocket and restored it to its usual size. A rather colorful assortment of dragons soon poured forth, along with Ms. Granger. She watched as Harry told them that this place was far under the ground, but the general structure was in need of some shoring up and the air spells and lighting were mostly toast.

Minerva watched the blue dragon, a seeming leader of the second group begin directing the others to start exploring as he got a small spherical piece of gray stone from his pack and started carving it with a talon. Curious, she wandered over and watched him carve runes from a language she’d never seen before into the stone before holding it in both claws and focusing for a moment until the runes began to glow softly and the entire stone started to float out of his hands. She watched it almost reach the ceiling before coming to rest, and found the air quality was improving. Not a bad job for something done so quickly.

.........

Harry was watching Aurogos give orders to secure the Chamber. The drake had asked him before hand, pointing out he wasn’t familiar with their capabilities yet. It was a good point, not to mention Harry was more than mildly uncomfortable giving commands, luckily the dragons seemed to accept that for now. He just observed and walked around hissing open at anything that might be a door; the group’s instruction was to report any passages or rooms before going into them.

As the one with the most knowledge of runes, and magic in general, Aurogos was crafting a few basic runic devices for air quality and light; he’d be working on something to shore up the structure once they had a better idea of what all was down here.

After an hour or so, it seemed as if there was no surface exits, (Yet, anyway. Harry had gathered Talion’s ‘specialty’ was magic involving earth, or rather the moving of it. With some practice an escape tunnel should be easy for him.) but there had been a surprise regarding the Basilisk corpse, when Harry had asked if they knew how it was so well preserved. Stine had been called over to take a look, and his eyes had started to glow amber when he reached it as he spaced out for a few moments.

When he came back to the others, he would only say that his Dragonflight sometimes left messages like this for themselves and others, and after a hurried explanation to Harry regarding the charge of the Bronze Dragonflight, time travel and causality, Stine had asked his Lord not to directly order the Bronze drake to reveal certain things. After a few words with Hermione about time turners, he agreed with Stine and asked him to reveal only the parts the drake felt were safe.

Apparently, Time was less permeable here than on Azeroth for some reason, and direct travel was impossible for him on this world. After requesting a privacy spell Stine told Harry that the primary wardstone this group was going to repair was still somewhat functional when he killed the Basilisk, so using some interesting sounding magic and not replacing the stone he incorporated a bit of his Flight’s magic into the object. Because it was the same object the ward stone in the past was able to squeeze a little Bronze magic out and preserve the corpse as soon as Harry left the room several years ago.

This certainly was a surprise. Ƥ: “That explains your magic, or at least starts to. What about the others? I don’t know much, certainly not enough.”

Đ: “Of course my Lord. You might have picked up that our colors denote us belonging to a different group, called a Dragonflight or simply a Flight. The Black Dragonflight are gifted with powers over soil, rock, and magma. Talion will need some practice, as I can’t tell you if his gifts are linked to all earth or just the stuff on Azeroth. A Black Dragon’s breath is magma or what we call Shadowflame, but without the old gods that might change.

“Put simply, magic is the domain of the Blue Dragonflight, all the purposes it’s put to and maintenance of the ley-lines are their tasks; Aurogos has been studying magic for nearly sixty years. A Blue’s breath is usually either frost or raw magic, depending on the individual.

“Green Dragons have dominion over nature, and power over dreams. I’m not sure yet if this world has it or not, but on Azeroth their largest task is to maintain and protect the Emerald Dream, it’s a separate plane of existence that intersects ours, especially for sleeping minds. A Green dragon’s breath is potent poison or acid.

“Red dragons have powers over life; like the Green they can encourage plant growth but their true power is healing. As they grow older and stronger their healing powers grow with them; if your body is brought before a mature Red, odds are they can heal you so long as your soul still resides in your mortal coil. A Red’s breath is a flame that can heal, purify, or burn; it is also a powerful bane to the undead.

“The Twilight Flight is a bit different. I do know they have an ability that turns them translucent and allows physical attacks and most magic attacks to pass right through them; however this state seems to drain their strength quickly and they can’t maintain it for very long. When I’ve seen one do it, it’s been an instinctive reaction, usually to what would be a killing or maiming blow. Their breath attack is a blue, hungry flame that likes clinging to living things until there’s nothing left but charred bones and ash.”

.........

“Hello Sirius, good news on our end tonight. The Chamber of Secrets will work as a base, Aurogos already has a few runic devices floating around to improve the air, and they’re looking for the damaged wardstone to repair and improve. It turns out Aurogos knows enough about runes to fill a dozen books. So far we haven’t found any passages with surface access, but once the place has been stabilized digging one should be easy. Anyway, I’m calling about the state of the Basilisk; it’s intact, preserved by powerful magic in the state it was when Harry walked out of the room after killing it. Do you have any suggestions on things we could use it for?

“I’m assuming it’s valuable for potions or what have you, and Harry’s mentioned the dragons have started discussing the benefits and disadvantages of building something called an Arcane Guardian out of the thing’s skeleton. To quote: “Necromancy is only for those too lazy to spend the time carving runes, and no student of Senegos is lazy.” Apparently the dragons are planning on constructing golems as soon as they get settled.”

“It’s intact? Can you show it to me?” After letting him see her nod, Hermione walked over to the thing and revealed it in all it’s glory. “That is a very, very big snake. I can’t really believe Harry killed that at twelve.” Sirius paused for a moment to think.

“Okay, you want to know what to do with it? If he’d managed to kill it with the eyes intact you could harvest them for an incredible amount of gold, but since they’re toast, the rest of it is much less valuable. Venom is probably the biggest value, but we might want to hold onto that to use in the war. Blood is useful, I assume, in various potions, and I’d guess the heart for wands. If we use dragon heartstring Basilisk ought to work just as well or better. We should save the best part for Harry. Something he killed himself in defense of others, terrified but going forward anyway, at great risk to himself might work better for him than anyone else.

“You can make leather out of the hide, but I have no idea what properties it might have, it’s clearly magical though so it ought to do something. Same for the meat. I’ll start looking for more info, there’s a chance my library has something even that room you were in doesn’t. Also, I don’t know how to put it delicately, so I’ll just say it. There’s a whole branch of rituals that deal with absorbing strength from a fallen foe or sacrifice. Most of them I wouldn’t let anyone I liked touch with a ten-foot pole, truly dark magic, but there might be some that are neutral, gray magic if you excuse the term.”

“Rituals, Sirius? Like the one after the third task?!” Hermione demanded loudly, a bit of her rule-following zeal breaking through.

“Hermione, in almost every case with magic, intent decides the magic’s purpose. Some magic does corrupt, does cause a change in the user. Also, there are a lot of rituals that are truly dark; even the sane members of the dark families stay away from them because magic like that takes something from you. My grandfather Arcturus Black was a hard man, and he terrified me growing up. Even though he was part of the darkest family in Britain, I can remember the lectures he made us all sit through about knowing what rituals not to perform. He pounded into our heads never to perform any ritual with the words ‘forcibly taken’ or that sacrificed a sentient creature. Or to trust anyone that had, because those rituals are an easy path to power that curse you as much as forcibly taken unicorn blood, if not as dramatically.

“But, other rituals are benign and useful. We won’t rush into this, but I think between us we can find a ritual where a hunter takes strength from a worthy prey or enemy defeated in defense of others. Safe rituals probably won’t be a single key to Harry surviving his next encounter with the Dark Lord, but being just a little faster, casting just a few more spells or casting one just a bit harder could make all the difference. We both want Harry to survive this war. Just don’t go rushing in, check with me before you guys perform anything. Using the wrong ritual or making a mistake during one is nearly impossible to fix.”

“Wait, if there’s rituals that aren’t actually dark then why do the books...”

“Hermione, the content of those books are controlled by the same people who say I’m a convicted felon who murdered Pettigrew, and Harry is a dangerous lunatic liar. The Ministry for centuries has been trying to limit the magic people can do and how they use what they’re still allowed to.

“We don’t have time for a full lecture, but the point is that the Ministry doesn’t want its people to be powerful, or to think for themselves. They use the label ‘dark’ on anything they don’t want people to use, and it has been effective. You need to remember that for some people, having power over others is a hunger, a goal; it’s addicting and once they get a taste they’ll always want more. Just think about it, please. I think you’re smart enough to understand how the world really works, not just how it appears to work.

“One last thing before I go; I’m going to have Kreature bring you and Harry a book, and I want you to read it and learn the magic within. It’s dead useful, but you need to keep it a secret from everyone but Harry. You’ll understand when you start to read it, but I’ve found some evidence the Order has a traitor like we did last time around, but they seem more skilled than Wormtail. Have a good night Hermione, Harry looks busy so I’ll talk to him another time.”

Hermione Granger took some time to herself before rejoining the others.

.........

When most of the other tasks had been dealt with, the group prepared to tackle the Basilisk Chamber. No one had any idea what was inside, so everyone had donned a pair of thick sunglasses transfigured by Professor McGonagall and then given what amounted to a quick and dirty temporary enchantment by the dragons. (Mostly Senastrasz and Dalistraza actually. It seems that Life magic is a counter to most instant-kill spells and such. Just in case that wasn’t enough, Aurogos added a piece of magic that should reflect any possible death glares.) Harry had to chuckle at what the dragons were wearing. Glasses simply were not practical for creatures without ears, thus the ones in their natural forms wore goggles with a wide elastic band around the spikes at the back of their heads.

Harry found himself agreeing with his Professor as he stood before the statue, everyone ready to open the last chamber. Salazar did have a high opinion of himself. Stine, at the base was ready to quickly climb into the opening, the extra limbs with the retractable claws looking to come in handy. Harry agreed with the drake that the Tol’vir form was both interesting and useful; Stine apparently had dealt with a fair amount of scorn from all kinds of dragons for it as the mortal form was meant to be used for blending in with ‘mortals.’ (A bit of a condescending term, but considering comparative life expectancies not a shocking one.)

Harry however agreed that if you were going to have a second form, it might as well be one you enjoyed. In any case, everyone was ready now. Ƥ: “Hear me Slytherin, Greatest of the Hogwarts Four!” When the mouth opened and nothing exited, Stine leaped up, reaching ten feet off the floor, landing on a nearly vertical section of stone before bounding off hard stone and repeating the process before coming to rest just outside the statue’s mouth.

Stine, taking a moment to stick his head inside after hearing no movement sampled the air inside. Pulling his head back out, he looked down. Đ: “It seems pretty dead in there, the air’s awful too.”

Harry turned to his Head of House. “Professor, can you throw out bubblehead charms please?” He gestured to Ralion, Senastrasz, Aurogos, Dalistraza, and himself. During chat that had been going on while they secured the other rooms (The results had honestly been a little disappointing honestly; a private library that was emptied completely being the main source of disappointment. A bathroom and bedroom might be useful once they’d refreshed the magic for the amenities, but mostly the place was just empty rooms.) he’d learned a little about how they tended to work in teams.

There was usually an individual that could weather strikes in the front, fortified with magic or armor. (Usually both.) Sometimes groups had more agile fighters that slipped in behind the foe while the burly one distracted it. Beyond that, groups usually had a healer that would restore wounds at a distance while others cast various forms of magic or used ranged weapons (And sometimes weapons with magical shots, Harry wasn’t sure how that worked yet, but found he wanted to.) to cause damage.

Harry had learned that Senastrasz was the main ‘tank’ (Not a term in any Azerothian tongue, but it was the best fit in English for the meaning behind the Draconic used.) for the hunters, while the hunted never used the traditional formation because they were outclassed in numbers, equipment, and skills. Tendrion had apparently been a skillful leader, not losing any of his friends despite literally the whole rest of the world being against them. Senastrasz had said hunting their group was like chasing smoke and fighting shadows, which made sense in hindsight given that Tendrion was trying very hard for neither group to suffer casualties.

Now Harry was going to be part of their little formation as they cleared out a possible nest of very deadly creatures. If there was anything alive up there, the general plan was simply to burn everything, but there didn’t seem to be much chance of that. Stine still hadn’t heard anything move, and with those ears of his he really should have. As soon as his (a rather odd thought for the teen) dragons were ready, Harry levitated all four of them up, Senastrasz and Ralion disappearing into the hole first as he mounted his broom and followed quickly.

When he entered he found nothing living besides his dragons. There was a great deal of old rodent bones littering the floor, and huge heaps of clinging dust. Small stones were there, no one had any idea what they were until Aurogos found a small fragment bearing Norse runes, similar to what he’d seen Hermione working with for her runes class. Ƥ: “I’d bet that was part of a large rock with runes for heat on it. I’ve seen small rocks with muggle heating elements in them in stores for pet snakes. I guess Slytherin’s was just larger. I don’t know why it’s in pieces though.”

Đ: “Hmm, there’s some indentations in the wall here,” Commented Aurogos as he ran his hands along a shallow mark on the otherwise smooth stone wall. “I’d say that the creature was in its death throes if I didn’t already know the story. It was alive a long time, who knows what events it saw over the years. In any case, I think we should clean this place out my Lord. I can sense a good deal more magic in here than in any other room, so it seems like a good candidate for the hiding place of the wardstone.”

Ƥ: “All right, but I don’t want the mess just vanished, there might be something buried under it. I’ll call up the others now.”

They voiced their agreement as Aurogos pulled out some surprisingly handy souvenirs he’d picked up some decades before. Using a bit of magic to sift through a pile of dust, he looked over to one of the enchanted brooms and lost himself in thought for a time. Without meaning to, he began to hum a slow, mournful song in Thalassian:

“Oh, Quel'Thalas, the Golden Realm, how bright, how shining you stood.
How great, how terrible your fall.
Oh how we loved your grace and song, all your joy in life.
Oh, Golden Realm, how dark, how bleak the day they came for you.
When the dead defiled your ancient lands your children, they could not hold.
Oh, how the Elves fell, though they fought with all they had...”

Hermione looked curious, but Harry just caught her eyes and shook his head. He didn’t know the story, but the language was close enough to the one he knew that he could tell it wasn’t a happy one.

As they sifted through the piles of dust the humans and the other drakes were finding some things, so it seemed that his new lord had been prudent after all. Aurogos wasn’t clear on the value of the old scales, shed fangs and a fair bit of magically-wrought weapon and armor fragments, but more resources certainly couldn’t hurt. Finally, he saw the hints of a stone hatch under a clump of dust, and using his magic to link to the brooms had them focus on that spot.

Soon, a rune cluster in a script he wasn’t familiar with was revealed, he’d have to study “Old Norse,” whatever that was that his lord’s friend was talking about. Once he learned the new runes there would be no problems, even if he had to abandon the old stone and create something from scratch. Not that he wanted to do that, the longer a ward stone had a charge of magic going through it, the better it got; as far as he knew they never became sentient, but they often became more and more eager to please as they aged. (Also, for lack of a better term, quirky. Things like odd music playing, things moving on their own, etc.)

.........

Thankfully, the room was cleared quickly. Most had been amused at the enchanted brooms, and glad not to sweep the place up on their own. The great piles of dust had been ruled “Probably old straw, and other expected things for a snake nest.” Old scales had been expected, the small pile of goblin armor and weapons fragments had not been. There were even a few swords and a dagger still intact in their sheathes, no one was quite sure how they had gotten here, but a boon is a boon.

It was nice to have a rune master with them, Harry thought as he watched Aurogos transcribe notes on the script in his mortal form. It turned out he was confident in his ability to learn the needed runes because he was already a master in three other types, Draconic, (Aggressively defensive, unyielding before foes and dangerous to use unless you were a speaker of Draconic) Dwarven, (Runes of Hearth, Family, and the Unassailable Fortress) and Vrykul. (Runes of Warfare, The Sea, and the Well-Laid Trap) Aurogos was also at least a journeyman level in every other widely-known script of Azeroth. When they cleared the last of the dust, it was already getting late, nearly midnight.

Their plan was to accomplish as much as they could tonight, and then the three humans would take the next day off, Minerva claiming she found them during the night, collapsed the expansion and sealed the mouse hole just before the students began to rise.

Now that things were calming down for the moment, Harry asked to speak to Alira and Stine for a moment. Ƥ: “Alira, I’m still learning about you and the others, and about what you can do. Right now, we need to teach all nine of you English, and Ralion and the others need to learn how to take another form like you can. I was wondering, your powers of Dreams, could you join us together while we sleep, so that we share the same lucid dream?”

Still very cuddly, Alira looked up from where she’d been having the spines on the back of her head scratched. Đ: “Yes, but it would require physical, skin to scale contact since I’m not very powerful yet. But the sleep would be less restful than normal, if I remember some of the lessons on humans right you’d need at least ten hours of sleep to be rested, and that might not be enough when you’ve been up to so much. Dreams, even if people don’t remember them, are essential to our minds processing our days, resting and recharging for the next. We couldn’t do this every night without great harm coming to you, my lord.”

Gently rubbing her cheek, Harry revealed his plan. Ƥ: “I have an idea, and I want the both of you to tell me if you think it might work. Stine, you told me you have powers over time. Would it be possible to use them, while we are all in a group dream to speed up time only in the dream itself, so that we could have more time to teach and learn from each other? To be honest, I’m really hoping to learn from Aurogos and the rest of you too.”

This caused a good deal of thought and some rapid-fire discussion between the two. Soon, they turned back to him with what seemed like smiles on their faces. Stine spoke for both of them. Đ: “I’ve never heard of such a thing working, but with some effort we can make this work. We’ll need a small dream portal, for me to bodily enter the Emerald Dream, or whatever substitute exists on ‘Earth.’ If I enter the Dream inside a shrunken object, Alira should be able to manage a very small portal. With your leave, she’ll go to sleep briefly now to scout this world’s Dream and ensure it’s got things like air. While she does that, I will get enough supplies for a while set up in the trunk. If there are any books you want to study I can take them with me.”

Twenty minutes later, after some explanations to the others, Harry called on Kreature and added the books Sirius suggested he study. Between Hermione and Dobby the two of them added all the books they could get on the local runic magic, along with some recreational reading material to help teach them English. (Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit almost didn’t make the cut because the dragon was evil, but both were added to the trunk with some assorted works of Issac Asimov and Frank Herbert.) Professor McGonagall added a few books from her private study as well.

There was much awkwardness when Harry explained how they were going to do this, sleeping in a pile on a transfigured bed. He took a moment to gather the dragons together and speak to them. Ƥ: “I know your two groups have been at war. I know you have fought each other many times. What I want to say is something I explained to Ralion the first night he was here. My people have a dark curse that can take control of another human, being caught using it once is grounds for life imprisonment. In the past it was used to make men murder their own families, and commit all kinds of heinous crimes. When they were caught, the one who cast the spell was the criminal, and one who committed crimes under its influence was another victim.”

Harry paused a moment to run his hand through his hair and let that point sink in. “From what they’ve told me, Twilight Dragons are made from eggs stolen from other flights. Once stolen, powerful substances were poured over the eggs and magic was used to torture them into submission to the Old Gods. When they crossed the portal, enough of that darkness was pulled away so they could see the horror of what they’d been forced to do.”

Ralion and the others found themselves feeling very small and morose, so Harry walked over and rubbed their heads one at a time while trying to give a comforting smile. Comforting physical touch was alien to him, but if it worked he would use it to help them. “All four chose to swear their lives to me when the darkness in them started to claw its way back up. Talion in particular had a hard time getting through the oath, the claws in his mind not letting go easily. Each of them told me they would rather die than become monsters again, and now they will be my servants until death. As you five are as well.

“I know working together will be difficult, the war you’ve fought will be hard to put behind all nine of you. But I want you to try. While they seem less dangerous than your enemies, I find myself facing my own government and the dark wizard working to overthrow them. I need you all to put away old feuds and learn to work together. If we’re caught, they will try to kill you, if for no other reason than to cause me pain. Can you promise to give me and each your best efforts?” One by one the dragons bowed and said they would try to work together.

With a bit more camaraderie, even if it was forced, Stine climbed into the chest. After it was shrunk with a short duration charm, Alira focused hard for a moment and a small green portal formed, just large enough to stick a hand through. Stine was tossed inside quickly. While hesitant, Professor McGonagall transfigured a large bed. The old woman who had once considered both of Harry’s parents as close friends found herself shocked at the number of scars that littered the small teen. She resolved to speak to the boy as soon as possible, or perhaps just go and murder the child’s guardians.

She distracted herself by observing the blush on Miss Granger’s face as she climbed unto the bed after Harry had made himself comfortable and so had the green dragon. Harry’s skin was blemished, but his form showed the results of much physical activity. In the end, the old teacher was a bit amused at the pile, it seemed that everyone needed to be touching the green one, and Harry had used a sticking charm on various body parts to prevent them from losing contact during the night. Apparently both teens were wearing transfigured muggle-style bathing suits, though they both seemed terribly immodest to her.

.........

After some shifting, everyone was as comfortable as they could be. Professor McGonagall was going to wake them just before six am, or when the students in Gryffindor Tower started to stir. That left them a little less than five hours, which when paired with the expected unrestful sleep, should help sell the cover story. For now, Harry was reclining against a pile of pillows, Alira’s head across his chest and her breath playing across his right arm. Hermione, dressed in a different bikini than earlier was resting against Alira’s neck and shoulder, while also having her legs draped across Harry’s stomach.

From there, it was a whole mess of various dragons touching at least part of themselves to Alira. Harry needed to shift a little and eventually get up to throw sticking charms around, as no one wanted to find out what would happen if the effect of Green and Bronze magic ended unexpectedly. When he snuggled back under Alira and Hermione, he found himself drawn closer to both. Not able to complain, as he was beginning to think there was something to those theories on the benefits of physical touch he’d started reading yesterday, he just threw the last few sticking charms and closed his eyes. It took him a while to gain sleep, eventually Alira had to wake herself up and with permission use a bit of magic to force him asleep. But finally, he joined the others in the Dream.


.........

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I’ve picked out Harry’s first weapon, and he’ll be forging it himself in the future. Later, he’ll forge at least one other weapon too. I have all the materials picked out, all the whys of how they make it a good weapon. In a later chapter, the group is going to spend time in the Room of Requirement and use it to create copies of all the weapons they’ve seen, and Harry is going to decide to forge a copy of a weapon from Azeroth called the Spear of Xuen. It’s a spear with a point on the bottom in case you need to stab someone and a complex point that will both really cause some damage if it snags you and look great sparking with power.