Thunder Goddess: Rise

by Nathair Bhinse

It was completely the wrong shape for a human and Harry was not an Animagus, so was very used the shape of a human, and therefore clearly aware of his very much not human body. He now had too long a spine, legs felt like they bent in the wrong ways, something itched and rubbed on his back near his shoulders, and there was a vague sense of extra-ness where his tail-bone was.

4. Opinions

Author's Notes:

Longer chapter this time. Still working on filling in the chapters, which is surprising easy right now, but I don't know how long the muse will keep. Also taking a crunch course in Korean (to become fluent as fast as possible) so I will have to spend most of the day (for the next month or so) doing the lessons and stuff, which in turn means less writing.

Still no Beta, so if there is any misspelled words, sentences that don't make sense, or ways of speaking that are missed/added, please let me know. I read over these a lot before posting them but I don't always catch an error.

Thank you to all reviewers! I am happy you are enjoying this story so far and hope you stick with it as time goes on. Things are starting to move ahead now.

Disclaimer:

I don't own anything to do with the Harry Potter universe, J. K Rowling has that honor. I also don't own anything to do with Temeraire, that wonderful Naomi Novik does.

Extra Notes:

'Parseltongue', ‟Normal Speech and spells", "Other Languages aside from English or Parseltongue" 'Thoughts', *events, like sounds that are not speech*

Chapter Four: In which dragons have opinions...

Marseille had been a very nice city to see from aloft, even if only just long enough for the few dragons and their crews - who were escorting Harry to Paris - to get their orders. Harry was asked to land outside the city by a few miles, making sure that the people of said city would be safe from any possible attack that she might unleash upon it if she wasn't as docile as she appeared. But she refused, of course, as she wanted to see at least one city of France before the fighting really began; she had no idea when she would be allowed near any of France's cities while she was here, if at all, for she knew they - the French command - wanted her shipped out of the country to help bolster the numbers at a few of the war fronts nearby. Harry had ignored all the escort dragons' attempts to make her land, ignored the worried young men on her back and the shouting people from the ground when she flew over Marseille. But she couldn't ignore a large Parnassian when he tried to force her to land by nearly sitting on her in flight. With a huff of irritation that was directed to all the people and dragons involved, Harry turned toward where the crews were indicating - a field that was very large and being used for dragon holding already - and landed in the middle of a group of drably colored dragons that were a little on the huge size. Eyes, both dragon and man, locked onto the serpent dragon as she touched down with a soft 'whoosh' of air, making the escort dragons around her sound much like a herd of elephants when compared to her near silent landing.

Clotaire, who had taken a spot in the back of the crowd due to space problems, stood up on his hind legs to look at Harry again with appraising eyes, his crew slid off him with the help of ropes and chains, not at all bothered with the fact that it would be much easier to just have him lay down for them to disembark; indeed it seemed this was the norm for Clotaire's crew with how calm they were. Luna took only a few moments to speak with the other Captains of the escort, each Captain taking her words to heart, giving her little pats on the shoulders or kisses on the cheeks before they left to tend to their respective dragons. Clotaire's Captain herself finally made it to Harry and tilted her head to one side in wide eyed contemplation as Harry regarded her with a kind smile.

"You know, I do believe you remind me of someone, pretty one. Though I cannot remember who" she suddenly said, in perfect English, while keeping her voice low enough that none of the other dragons or crews heard her.

Harry gave her a draconic grin and laid down as gently as possible for something her size. "Oh, I know, Luna. I am a very hard person to remember, too many Wrackspurts around, I suspect." she answered back, grinning even more when Luna's eyes only got wider with joy and no little confusion. The Captain just stared at her for a moment, looking the dragon over again and again, from nose to tail and back once more, before sighing "Oh, I do not know who you are, will you tell me, please?"

Harry just shook her head and smiled some more "You showed me the Thestrals. Told me I was not crazy, in fact, I was just as sane as you were" the dragon then chanced a look over Luna's shoulder, to notice that the shape she saw hovering was in fact Clotaire; the dragon having come to check on Luna no doubt.

"So, you speak English too, then? Are you an English spy? An English dragon that has gone rogue?" he asked in a low hiss, his eyes narrowing in immediate dislike at the perceived threat to his nation. Harry bristled at being called a spy again.

"Enough with the spy nonsense! I am no good at spying, Snape would have probably been able to tell you that me just being in proximity to a spy would blow their cover. Besides, you speak English but are not a spy." Luna's eyes twinkled suddenly "He speaks English because I taught him, silly. How else was I to keep my English up?" she addressed Harry, a small smile gracing her mouth as she turned to her dragon. "This is Harry, you remember Harry? I told you about him when you were little, but he is not a wizard anymore...or a him" Luna sounded very amused with the last, smiling even more when Harry gave a mock pout at her jest, though the dragon did look a little uneasy at Luna telling anyone about her having been a human before.

But Clotaire suddenly flattened himself out on the ground, staring wide eyed at Harry and mouthing "Truly?" in French. Harry nodded and sighed "And I would like very much if you could keep it to yourself?" The other dragon nodded happily, inching closer and firing off question after question under his breath without pausing.

Can people really turn into animals?

Could humans really fly on sticks?

Quidditch sounds wonderful! Can dragons play?

on and on it went...

And suddenly Harry wasn't so alone anymore and felt like she was back home again.

Her tale to Luna was exciting for both the witch and her dragon, filling Harry with fondness at how much like Luna Clotaire was when he wasn't acting like a Malfoy wannabe. The many adventures of Harry the dragon, which is what Luna was threatening to call the story she was going to write about the sea dragon's voyage when everything settled down, though it would be considered fiction, with names and breeds changed to keep the secret of course.

It was soon learned by the wizard turned dragon that Luna had been reborn here just like Harry had - though not by falling to her death, but by walking through the Veil of Death willingly when she was old; curious about the voices on the other side - but when she came out on the other side, she had been an English child already a few years old in life rather than new born. She was taken in by a French Aviator after the village she was living in was attacked by a French patrol. The Captain of the lead dragon had felt terribly responsible for the orphaning of Luna, and took the then four year old girl in as his own, his dragon falling in instant love with the girl the second she laid eyes on the little human. Luna had then lived with the Aviator wherever he went, learning the ropes of being a member of a dragon crew and then at twelve years of age, she had gotten her chance to Captain a dragon when her adopted father had been shot and killed in the middle of a battle. Luna took control of his dragon, Claudia, a Fleur-de-Nuit, and lead them to a victory over the rebelling dragon crews of a local Covert. The rebellion had been over the direction the country was being taken in, with only a few people really feeling angry enough about it to rebel, but they were enough for a nasty fight.

Claudia was mortally injured in the fight, surviving only a few days after the battle before finally giving in. It was a sad time in Luna's life, leaving her parent-less - aside from the many in her adopted father's flight who had helped in the raising of the girl - and now dragonless with Claudia's death. It was two years later, while serving on another Fleur-de-Nuit, that Clotaire had hatched for her. Though he had been meant for another, Luna's own lieutenant Charles, in fact was the one who was to receive the hatch-ling. But as Clotaire chose Luna and not Charles, and wouldn't take another handler once he had, she was then in control of the beast, making the slightly older Charles her lieutenant in the hopes he would get his chance to win another try later.

Charles had not taken to loosing Clotaire very well at first, but after only a few weeks serving on him, had changed his attitude and started putting his all into his work. He and Luna were fairly good friends now and he rarely gave her any problems unless it was necessary; they have served together almost a year and a half now.

Harry was sad but impressed with Luna's story, finding that much had changed about her friend and yet not much at all. She still believed in the imaginary critters she used to talk about in the old world, and had even found one of her beasts here, her crumple Horned Snorkack, which turned out to be a type of lightweight dragon, though not named a Snorkack. Harry was happy the witch was here, and that she had her abilities still, but was worried about the loose lips she and her dragon seemed to possess, especially around the other Aviators.

"Oh, they don't believe me, they think it is a good jest. Just fantasy for humor, a Magician like in a circus, so long as I don't do anything suspicious to give them any idea that I'm serious, and Clotaire knows what not to say. He is very good at keeping secrets actually!" she said one day, when Harry asked her if it was wise to speak about her creatures and magic so openly here. "And if it does get to be a problem, Obliviate works wonders on them! Even dragons!" Harry had not liked that it was possible to Obliviate dragons, but was glad that Luna was the only other one, so far as they knew, that had come from their home world, so she had no fear of loosing any memories.

Lazing about at many Coverts on the way to Paris by the slow route, which would have taken at max a day if they weren't kicking it in gear and piddled around a bit, was an interesting way to waste time; meeting new people and hearing news of the war in general. A week was killed from the day of Harry's landing on French soil, till the time they finally reached Paris, because they just had to try almost all the Aviators they had at each Covert on the way to get a Captain on Harry. None so far had worked, and Harry knew the French were only putting up with her for this long because of her rare breed and the fact that she would be a very good fighter, and they were unsure if her spitting would even transfer to any offspring or they would have put her in the breeding grounds by now. But when they got to Paris Harry finally accepted a Captain, a guff arsehole by the name of Gregory LaCroix that was very much like an overly foul mouthed version of Mad-Eye; Mad-Eye had been bad enough, but this guy could out curse even old Moody.

He wasn't overly tall, standing only around five foot, ten inches, but was well built for a man at any age. His sandy blond hair was reminiscent of Remus Lupin's in color, though was long enough to only just pull back into a tail or bob, which is how he wore his hair normally anyway. LaCroix possessed the sharpest blue-grey eyes Harry had ever seen and she swore they had a unearthly gleam when the lighting was low.

And he was surprisingly not very happy to have been stuffed in harness again for someone who seemed to enjoy being on dragon back, he having served on his father's dragon, who had been in the family for at least three generations. The old dragon was still alive, but too old to fly, mostly blind and loosing more of his marbles each day.

LaCroix wasn't even sure the beast knew he was no longer at his side, spending his days napping and groaning about the weather to no one in particular. Captain LaCroix had been living semi-peacefully on his family land with the dragon until the higher ups found out about Harry, now named Murdina by LaCroix, and figured the older man might be just what they needed in tempering the highly opinionated sea dragon. Harry decided that this was the best she was going to get in this day and age without forcing a child to harness her, and took the man as her Captain, at least until she could dump him somewhere and escape if it seemed that he would be too much trouble to convince to run away with her; only time would tell if she had made a royal error in accepting him or not.

*Three months later just off Aberdeen, Scotland*

"Keep your formation tight, damn you! Is it so hard to follow such simple directions? Murdina, pray keep them in line." Harry obeyed, moving into the rear position of the five other dragons to snap at a few tails, herding the rest of the flight in the right spots. Many of the creatures were still too green to really fall in properly when told and had a nasty habit of veering off course. She sighed again for what must have been the eighty-thousandth time since they left the Covert outside Le Mans. The journey had been a long exhausting flight due to the winds that were quite heavy now with the weather having turned foul out of nowhere. It was followed by a rough landing on a dragon transport stationed with the French Navy in the North Sea, where Harry had immediately left all but her Captain behind on the ship, so she could head out for an underwater run near the cost of Scotland to get a better picture of what they were up against. These patrols were numerous over the four days of their posting, with her returning to the ship after three or so hours worth of 'spying'. Of course she couldn't dive for very long with LaCroix aboard, having to take it in short dips, with him patting her side when he needed air; the trouble with the temperature of the water was negated by her higher body temperature, or at least that's what he thought, when in fact it was Harry that was casting a mild warming charm on him every so often.

Said Captain was in fine form today, shouting at all the dragons and their crews that made up their attack group without a care in the world to being heard by the enemy. Their formation was near Aberdeen now, and could see a small patrol of Allied dragons far off in front of them, none had noticed the French on their way toward them yet, but Harry knew it was only a matter of time now as there was no way to hide all these inexperienced dragons. Looking at just how pathetic their group was acting compared to the Allied patrol they were targeting had Harry drawing on her magic very subtlety; she had not only finally come into her full spitting abilities, even if her size - which hadn't changed all that much except in weight and wing length - wasn't yet full, she had also found out what her magic could let her do now in small amounts, not that the humans had figured it out yet. Harry had learned to use her temperature alteration spells to cause storms - but not be able to actually control them - or just cloudy days whenever they needed one, but made sure to do it over a length of time so as not to make it seem like the storm just poofed into existence. This morning had been the start of her building up a storm for their patrol to use as cover, but with the unpredictable seas being the way they were and the weather wanting to do its own thing over the open ocean, she was having a very hard time getting more than a good cloud cover with a low ceiling. It would have to do though, she was out of time.

Harry slowly pulled up to the front of the attack group and then sharply darted up into the clouds to hide her form from the enemy dragons and crew, with minimal fussing from her Captain for breaking formation; he knew by now that his dragon had an eye for the best spots to attack from and let her do her own thing, most of the time. "Make ready" was the whispered order from LaCroix to the nearby Signal-Ensign, who relayed the orders to the rest of the crew. Harry did a quick check over the active spells on her person, which consisted of a feather lite and a scent confusing spell. The scent spell was active to protect her position in battle, which is how she could ninja her way into a war zone even with little cover. It would either mask her smell completely, or change her smell just enough to appear to be a different gender all together. Coupled with her ability to hit a lower pitch when speaking if she so desired, she could pretend to be two completely different dragons.

When the others of her flight had complained the first time about her changing scent, she had told them she was able to do this since leaving the egg, that it must be a natural ability to protect herself. Though confused on how such a thing was possible, the French accepted this boon and even made sure that both herself and her captain were able to disguise themselves at a moment's notice. LaCroix was given a dagger to shave off his facial hair if he was to engage the enemy very closely with the possibility of surviving witnesses if Harry was going as a male into the field. LaCroix had then given her another name, a code name of sorts, Julien, to use whenever she changed her scent so as to protect her abilities from the enemy; it did make it seem as if the French had two dragons of the same breed, though at first LaCroix being on her both times did cause some confusion. Now with him shaving his facial hair off every time he went out with her when she was Julien, helped some in keeping the illusion; he was one of those men that could grow quite a bit of facial hair in only two days so it worked out nicely.

Today she was Murdina, and he was unshaven and using his very pissed off persona that everyone now associated with Murdina's Captain. Julien's Captain was more quiet, his voice almost had a whispering over tone, as if he had laryngitis and could only hit a certain volume.

By now the sounds of the British dragons spotting the French patrol could clearly be heard under her as she glided above the clouds, keeping her wings and tail still to stir up the least amount of clouds possible until the time was right to strike. Harry looked down at the clouds, using her ears to pinpoint where her targets would be, circling back and forth, using the English language being thrown about to help her; it was a good indicator of friend from foe. 'If Luna were here I could have her use a marker spell, then I wouldn't have to guess' she thought sourly, knowing that the spell would make the targets glow softly but only to other magic users in the immediate area. But Luna wasn't with their group, having been sent to lead a group harassing some ships in the English Channel that had gotten too close to French borders for comfort.

'Even after all this time I still can't believe I'm actually fighting the English!' but she knew it was no use in worrying about it now. That ship had sailed long ago, she made her bed and now had to sleep in it, even if it kept rankling her fading English pride; being a dragon was making it harder to be worried about who she was fighting, rather she was now worried about when she would get to fight again. She reached up with a forepaw to rub the area from her lower jaw up to just in front of her ears and then up around the backs of her eyebrows; a small ruff was starting to come in and it itched something fierce these days, leaving her in a mood to snap and gripe more often than not at just about anything and anyone. LaCroix was very good about the whole thing, likening it to a boy getting his first whiskers, and could be caught most mornings looking proud at having such a fabulous beast, giving Harry a good rub down in the itchy places.

A shout of angry French to surrender, a snarl of protest at being boarded by said French from an English Captain, and the answering guns that followed the order, had Harry diving suddenly to break cover, bursting through the clouds with the grace of Dolphin breaching for a jump. The two Honneur-d'Or and one Petit Chevalier broke off from harassing the lead dragon of the British group, a Parnassian by the name of Victoriatus - who was the prime target of the French attack today - to allow Harry to whip in like a blast of cold air, turning on her side to allow some of her crew to drop off onto the enemy dragon below. It was minor success, with only two of the six crew members who jumped making it onto the other dragon, Harry had to dive quickly to catch the rest of the men, one in each foot, to keep them from plummeting to their deaths into the sea.

LaCroix swore loudly at the failed attempt, both of the crew men who had boarded Victoriatus were swiftly killed by the better trained British men, leaving Harry two men short from her little family. With a roar of anger, the great sea dragon put her rescued crew back on her harness, near the belly rigging where they could climb up, and dipped her head down into the churning waters and gulped. Four huge gulps later and she was back into the game, looking like she was heavy from overeating due to the weight she put on in water. Her Captain cautioned her about giving away their main weapons so soon, and Harry had to agree with him though only just, deciding she was going to make it seem like she could only carry the water and then just dump it on the enemy and not actually be a spitter. The idea was very much like the Muggle fire fighting aircraft from her home verse, not that any of the people here, save Luna, would know.

Harry positioned herself quickly right over Victoriatus and opened her jaws wide, avoiding the guns as they fired, letting out a rush of cold water (it was only heated when she was spitting it, another good way to trick them) right on top of the poor dragon's back, drenching him with the salty water. The dragon gave out a bellow of pain, the water getting into the wounds that had been dealt by the French dragons on their run, causing him some anguish with their number. Many of his crew were washed off his back, not expecting to be caught in what amounted to a large wave while high above the water. Harry crowed victoriously at him, snapping at the tail end of the dragon to scare him more as she wheeled around, LaCroix berating her for the taunting, "Keep on target, Murdina. The fight is not yet won!" he roared at Harry, being mindful not to say her other name as she was female in scent right now. He then turned sharply, snapping out an order to the young signal-Ensign to get the group back into formation for another run.

"Boarding party, be ready!" LaCroix shouted from his spot on Harry's left side, tapping on her large shoulder to let her know to get in to position for another drop. "Ready!" came the cry from below in the belly rigging as another group, this time of four, clung to her underside. A volley of gunfire from the English dragon almost drowned out the order of "Drop!" but it was heard and obeyed. They fell upon the men below, sabers flashing and Harry watched them hit their mark, stumble a bit, and then engage the crew of Victoriatus in a fight for the Captain. Right off the bat five of the English dragon's crew were pulled off and tossed into the ocean by Peter, one of the higher ranking riflemen that was hoping to take the prize today. He was a rather hotheaded young man, but Harry figured he would probably mellow out when he had an energetic little shit of a dragon of his own to keep in line. Capturing Victoriatus would be a fast track to him getting that chance.

"HO!" and the French flag went up on Victoriatus' back, the dragon crying out in distress as his Captain was held at gun point. Three more of Harry's crew dropped down as she glided over the English dragon, keeping pace with him to make sure her people made it down safe. She was now only holding fifteen people on her own back, the rest of her crew - read sixteen more - were hanging in the belly rigging to cover Victoriatus; they didn't want any of the other English dragons attempting to take the Parnassian back. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a Yellow Reaper came barreling into the fight with a loud screech, catching Harry unaware and forcing her to move back or risk loosing her Captain to the jaws of the other dragon. Many of her own crew where caught in the Reaper's talons and pulled from their safety, crushed instantly by the impact the paws made against their bodies. The dragon avoided both the riflemen and Harry's answering snap of vicious jaws, twisting out of the way of metal and tooth, slashing at the harness on the back of Victoriatus. It was cut loose with a few well placed hits, sending the men, minus the Captain and six of the English crew, to the ocean below. Harry cried out in horror as Peter and his fellows were swallowed up by the waves, leaving nothing on the surface after the first massive wave hit. She dove, ducking under Victoriatus and slashing at his belly as hard as she could, her sharp claws raking large gashes into the softer underbelly of the Parnassian.

Harry paid no mind to the pain filled roars of the grey and white monster, or the pain that lanced her own side from the claws of the beast and the guns still on the dragon's back, as she neared the water at full speed, pulling up only a few feet from actually hitting the water and ducked her head below the sea line. Two people came back up in her jaws, spitting and sputtering salt water as she raised them up to her back, not caring if they were friend or foe. Again she dipped under, landing her body on the surface this time to get more depth with her long neck, the muffled yelling told her the two she had grabbed were in fact not of their crew, and were now POWs. She could see the crumpled form of two of her riflemen, just floating lifelessly in front of her. They were gone, there was no use in making a grab for them, but some movement from further down showed that Peter was still alive, wrapped up in the falling harness, eyes wide with terror as he realized there was no way for him to free his trapped leg. Harry lashed out with her teeth, snatching up the harness and pulling the whole heavy thing out into the air above, her long neck allowing the trapped men in the harness to hang out of the water by quite a few feet.

Weight on her neck told her the flexible full-body harness from head fin to tail base, was coming into use as her crew scrambled up to her head, three of them hanging off her crown rigging to get to the men trapped in the enemy harness in her mouth. Peter was flailing about madly in what Harry thought at first was a panicked attempt at freeing himself from the harness, but it was instead a flurry of blows he was raining down on an English rifleman, who had engaged her own rifleman in a sword fight. Her crew reached Peter just as he managed to cut the rigging that was holding the other man in its grasp, making him loose his foothold in the fight and tumble further down the harness, catching himself on a lower level. Harry was in half a mind to just let the harness go, her crewmen rescued already and now climbing aboard her again to safety, but she didn't drop them, handing them off to a passing member of her patrol with huff to the other dragon that plainly said 'they are your problem now'.

"Good work, my dear! You have done exquisitely this day!" LaCroix praised, patting her neck from his perch in the rigging by her massive head, having moved there during the rescue to act as a guide to the men who were climbing up. "We should return to the ships now, even though we go away empty handed, save for a few of their people, we have still dealt a mighty blow to the English in wounding Victoriatus so." Harry snorted at the unintentional rhyme her Captain put out, but did not obey his orders, turning instead toward where she could see two Yellow Reapers and some unknown little dragons escorting Victoriatus to safety.

"No, we will not go back empty handed, we will take a dragon this day, I will make sure of it!" the sea dragon reared up out of the water, beating her powerful wings to gain lift off the surface of the ocean, grinning privately at the groans of dismay she heard from her many crew members. "Pray, let us return to the Navy, my dear. We do not have the man power to take on another British patrol! Though you may be mostly unharmed, the others of our wing have not fared so well." LaCroix urged, pointing toward the three dragons she still had trailing behind her, the other two apparently chickened out earlier during the fight and headed back to base.

Harry snorted at the other dragons, sticking her nose in the air in a superior move she had witnessed on Malfoy more than once in her past life. "Then let them run back, I will not leave yet, Victoriatus was our target, and although I do not know why he is so important, the higher ranking men have ordered his capture and we will not fail." 'I will not be called a spy and traitor due to failure' was left unsaid but plainly heard by her Captain, who growled in frustration, ranting about her 'disobedient tendencies' the whole way back toward where the battle had taken place. They stopped on the water for only a moment, long enough to change out the crews, handing over the English soldiers they had pulled from the water and gaining a few of the less tired members of the other dragon crews.

Once they were again in the air LaCroix continued his ranting, much to the amusement of the other crew members, only falling silent when Harry went above the clouds to follow the wounded Victoriatus and his companions.

Secondary AN:

Yes LaCroix is based on Nigel Bennett's version of Lucien LaCroix in some ways, I just thought he fit the Gregory character quite well.

Ok, so I went through a lot of names, mostly looking up what fit the dragon/person and then finding out what meaning the name had if any. I was surprised when I chose both Julien and Gregory without looking them up first and then decided 'oh, I need to make sure the that name is spelled right'.

Got the French from the when I went to look up their names and this is the site I will go to from now on for some of the names if I don't know what they mean.

Gregory = French Provençal form of Latin Gregorius, meaning "watchful; vigilant."

Julien = French form of Roman Latin Julianus, meaning "descended from Jupiter (Jove)." Look up Jupiter Roman god and you will see why I was uber surprised when picking that name for Harry's code name.

And some Scottish now:

Murdina = a version of Mordag = Sea Warrior.