"Long ago," began the blue dragon, who had introduced himself as Kalecgos, "there was a great war between the dragonflights. We lost most of our number, and we never truly recovered. My father, Malygos, went insane from the tragedy of the war, and when he recovered, he blamed magic-users for the...deterioration of magic. You are aware, of course, that magic is always changing?"

Harry frowned in disbelief. This had certainly never been covered at Hogwarts, nor had Hermione ever mentioned magic changing. "Err...not really, no. Magic is...something you're born with, and you keep at it until you get better at controlling it."

Kalecgos studied Harry. "I see. In your world, it is static. Powerful, but stagnant. Here, magic is as volatile and flexible as the very winds. There are certain...focal points and ley lines that encircle the world, points of extremely potent magic, and if they are altered, it can be catastrophic. Only the most powerful wielders of magic can affect a change in the ley lines, and my father had such power. He felt - and perhaps rightly so - that the misuse of arcane power was to blame for the war of the dragonflight, and so he set himself against all magic-users and began to destroy them. The others - " he whuffed and nodded towards Alexstrasza - "had no choice but to stop him. He was utterly destroyed."

Harry wondered what all this had to do with him or why he was here, but Chromie picked up the story, now humorless. "Magic is vital to the fabric of spacetime. You study magic; you are what we call a mage. Mages place a very high importance on the ability to move from one place to another instantly. They call it teleporting; I believe you are familiar with the concept?"

Harry nodded. "We call it Apparition, but yeah, I can do it."

Chromie narrowed her draconic eyes. "I know you believe that it is only an effect of magic. Perhaps you think of yourself as a wave of light, sent along a beam, as a lighthouse illuminates the way for a ship. Know this - it is an effect of space and time, that you are replacing yourself with a copy of yourself at another place and time, and that every time you do so, something must fill the void. If you constantly teleport to different places, the effect will be spread out and will naturally right itself *ahem* in time, but if you find yourself repeatedly visiting the same location, such as your home or a large city, the effect is magnified exponentially. Particularly when there are a large number of mages in one place, the very threads of reality can be altered."

"When Malygos began to disrupt the ley lines, he also began to send waves of magic throughout the multiverse. The Bronze Dragonflight oversees all of the major, minor, and useless timelines in existence. I have seen some of the results of this disruption. There have been some attempts at interference before, but now the lines have been so altered that some of them are beginning to overlap. Histories and futures are merging. Fantastic machines are appearing to primitive tribes. Races of creatures that died out ages ago are resurfacing. This Withering of time must be stopped! We might slow time down or stop it for a while, or even sidestep it a bit - this will shatter it!"

The green dragon, who called himself Itharius, spoke next. "Human, in your world dragons are but dumb animals, little more than lizards that can breathe flame. Yet here, we are protectors of the world, charged with safekeeping the land and all who dwell within. We of the Green Dragonflight revere all of nature, both in its beautiful splendor and in its savage cruelty. Nature bears neither good will nor ill; it simply continues. There has been war, and strife, and corruption, and each time we have fought with our lives to protect it against all enemies. But this is different. Here, there is no enemy to invade us, no destruction to prevent, no corruption to reverse. This is a slow end to all we hold dear - all that exists, in this universe and in all others."

Harry was completely lost. He had no clue why he was here, or how these intelligent dragons had known who he was, or how they had summoned him, but he was not in a position to say anything. But he had had enough. "Please, I don't mean to be rude, but what does this have to do with me?" he begged.

Alexstrasza the dragon disappeared, and in her place appeared Alexstrasza the elf. "You are here because you are the only one who can save us."

"Years ago, we, along with another of the short-lived races, banded together to defeat our brother, Neltharion, who had gone mad. It does seem to be a particular vulnerability we share, does it not? Yet if you only knew the burden placed upon us, the tremendous strain we suffer constantly, you might understand."

"This defeat came at a heavy cost. We each gave a portion of our essences to aid in the battle, and the toll exacted was our immortality. No longer are we ageless; we are as frail and fragile as any of the short-lived races."

Harry was puzzled. "Short-lived races? What do you mean?"

"When one does not age, one does not measure the length of one's life. There are several races that live in Azeroth, each with lives as short as a breath of wind, and it is only through these others that you will be able to save our world," explained Alexstrasza.

"But how is magic involved? Not even all the wizards in the world put together could destroy the whole world. Put a dent in it, maybe, but we'd still have a world left. How could this be happening?" asked Harry.

Alexstrasza looked at the other dragons, and for the first time, Harry thought he could detect a look of worry on the dragon's face. "You are right, Harry Potter. Even had Malygos succeeded in destroying all magic-users in the world, it would have only affected our world. But the Bronze Dragons have been noticing that in certain timelines, there is a darkness that follows them from portal to portal. It is...a power nearly beyond our ken. You would not be familiar with them, but we suspect that the Old Gods may be involved. Corruption follows wherever they roam."

Harry was definitely disturbed, not in the least because he didn't have a choice; without the dragons he had no idea how he was going to get home. He also had no clue who the Old Gods were, but they definitely sounded unfriendly. And he was hungry; he had missed lunch, and he didn't know how often dragons had to eat.

"What do you need from me?" asked Harry shortly.

Alexstrasza sighed. "You, among all humans, possess the most magic we have ever encountered, and that is no mean feat. But the twelve short-lived races must be united. Each of them possesses an aspect of humanness, something that sets them apart from the others. It is not physical appearance or personality, but something innate, something hidden. You must discover what these aspects are, and bring a token of what they represent."

Harry was absolutely perplexed. "Why can't you do it?"

Chromie spoke up. "If a gift is required, it isn't a gift - it's payment, and for someone to give payment to a dragon means a dragon would be in debt, and this is a violation of the laws of our world. It is not allowed. The tokens must be freely given, Harry, or else the magic will not be potent enough to stop the Withering. The tokens will represent the talents that all the races possess - a small part of each of them, including humans. Bringing them together is the only way to get the world to repair itself. When you have gathered the twelve tokens, we'll each cast our spells over them. Hopefully that will be enough to stop the Withering."

Alexstrasza resumed speaking. "This is your charge, Harry Potter. Bring me twelve items of the essence of Azeroth. Your reward will be the continued existence of everything and everyone. The fate of the world depends on it! You must not fail your quest!"

Harry looked, bemused, at the elf; she had implored him so desperately that he could almost see the exclamation point at the end of her sentence floating above her head. He did not have a choice, though, not if he wanted to return home. He sighed.

"I accept."