Summary:
Harry Potter / Warcraft Crossover. A Weapon. A Hero. And now… a loose end. Harry Potter resolves to destroy the enemies who betrayed him on his terms, only to find all his plans torn asunder when he's summoned to a new world plagued with the enemies of his own.
Disclaimer
I don't own Harry Potter in any way. JKR has those rights... Also, Warcraft is owned by Blizzard Entertainment, etc etc.
*Author's Note *
Inspirations: The Black Scorpion by etincelle047
The animagus idea came from a story I read a long time ago that I can't possibly remember the name of. It was about how animagus could force their change to a specific animal, and Pettigrew attempted to prank james by making him a rat, but of course James caught it and turned it around on him. That's where the 'forced' transformation idea came from.
Chapter First Published: 2013-03-20
Chapter Last Update:
Chapter 10 – Leeroy's Revenge
"What the hell happened to this place?" asked Harry as he stared out across the burned plains and hills of another land he thought quite appropriately named: the Burning Steppes.
"The Dark Iron Dwarves happened. They're the dwarves who dwell underneath Blackrock Mountain. Years ago, they fought a massive three-way war against the Dwarves of Ironforge and Grim Batol. Their sorcerors managed to heavily curse Grim Batol, so badly in fact that the city was abandoned, which rallied Ironforge even further to avenge their sister city. Facing huge odds, the Dark Irons attempted to summon an elemental being to fight for them," said Onyxia.
Ysondre continued the story, "Unfortunately, they summoned an avatar of one of the former Lieutenants of the Old Gods… Ragnaros, the Fire Lord. Blackrock Mountain instantly erupted, leveling territories for nearly seventy-five miles in every direction. The ash cloud fallout was even further. Now Ragnaros is partially free from where he was imprisoned within the elemental plane, and exists somewhere deep beneath Blackrock Mountain. He's enslaved the Dark Iron Dwarves to do his bidding, and he mindlessly sends them out to engage Nefarian, who controls the upper levels of the mountain."
"Which is where we're heading," said Jessir in a cheerful voice.
"Wonderful," said Harry, as he looked back at the group behind him. They had two squads of Night Elf archers, three members of Tyrande's priestesses known as the Sisterhood of Elune, along with Harry's group.
And two Dragons.
He was still not used to that, even though it had been a two weeks since Ysondre had joined and almost five since they met Onyxia. In the time he had been on this new world, he had heard much about Dragons. Now that he had been in close proximity to two of them for so long, he could make a genuine observation of fact about them. Dragons were gossips.
The endless talks of who backstabbed who and which consort now was cheating on which mate seemed rather out of character for such noble creatures, but the evidence to the contrary was right in front of him. Only now, the discussions revolved around Onyxia's plans for a future mate and the lack of good potential in the Black Dragonflight.
"So do we just walk right in the front-door?" he asked, if for no other reason than to break the silence they found themselves in as they travelled.
"There are few entrances to this place, and any secret passages that did exist at any point in time are likely to be destroyed within months due to the constant earthquakes and lava flows," said Onyxia. "It's best to go with what we know is reliable and safe in this case."
The information made sense, but it certainly didn't seem smart to Harry at least. The trip here had not taken long. Onyxia teleported Harry to a safe, unobserved position near the very shadow of the mountain, and from there Harry was able to make portkeys for everyone. That was not to say the trip to the ramp leading over the lava fields had been without incident.
They had encountered numerous Dragonkin fiercely loyal to Nefarian, and some had sniffed the air and recognized the scent of Onyxia upon the buxom blonde travelling with the group. Cries of 'traitor' and 'whore' rang out, and though Onyxia put on a good face, Harry could tell the words had cut deep. Even now, hours after their last battle, her withdrawn face caused Ysondre and Harry to cast worried glances at each other.
"Hey," he placed a hand on the dragon's humanoid arm as the group walked ever closer to the southern entrance of the monstrous mountain.
It was a sign of the trust and building relationship between the two that Onyxia gave a quick half-smile upon seeing Harry next to her.
"I'd meant to keep this a secret for a bit longer, but I figured now would be a good time to tell you if it brings a smile to your face."
At her suddenly changed mood, Harry knew his train of thought to be a good idea. "On my world, people have the ability to turn into animals. It's a long process to learn normally, if you do it the proper way. There is a way to 'force' the change though, and even pick the animal you want to change into. Problem is, it becomes permanent, and if you don't have the magic required to undergo the change, you eventually lock yourself out the chance to become any other animals forever."
"My parents both chose this method when they did it. My father became a stag, my mother a tiger. I have all the ingredients to make the potion that forces it, but never had an animal species that interested me, nor the patience to do it the proper way."
Harry looked straight at Onyxia, "Would you want me to choose a dragon form?"
Onyxia actually tripped. She looked up once she regained her balance and stared at Harry in disbelief. "You can gain the ability to turn into a dragon?" Then her mind caught up to the rest of the conversation. "No, Harry. I can't let you do that. You can't throw away your chance to be something else… something greater just to become a dragon."
"And what's wrong with being of the most powerful and beautiful things on this planet?" he asked with raised eyebrow.
"Why would you do this?" she asked quietly. It sounded strange to Harry to hear her talk like this. She had not been this reserved in weeks… not since their first meeting at least.
"Well, there is always the chance my first and only true form would be a rabbit, and wouldn't that be embarrassing?" he said, making Onyxia snort at the idea. But then his mood shifted, "Because I can. Who knows, maybe someday I'll be able to fight alongside you in the last battle where we make you the Aspect of Earth."
Onyxia merely blinked at that before she shook her head. She leaned in and kissed him squarely on the lips. She looked at him afterwards for a long moment, like she really wanted to say something, but in the end shook her head and gave him a smile and walked off.
Noticing that he had fallen behind the rest of the group, Harry raced to catch up. They were about to enter a fortress after all.
-o0o0o-
Occasionally, while on Azeroth, Harry felt that the indigenous people were insane. Multi-mile high trees with cities in them. Space ships that ran on magic. Giant walking humanoid bulls who enjoy picking flowers as their livelihood.
It was nothing compared to putting multiple fortresses and a full-fledged city inside an active volcano. And then fighting a war against each other on top of that.
Their path for today's task was clear at least. Up for Dragons, down for the Dwarves' city and Fire Elementals. They had let Tyrande know to spread the word that the Alliance and Horde were expected to clean up the Dwarves, while his group would take care of the Dragons. Their group of juggernauts was not going to be a panacea for all the troubles of this war-torn world. Peace was something you fought for, so he expected all of them to get involved.
Harry had apparated back to the Black Dragon's outpost they had set up with Onyxia right before they entered the mountain. He gave them warning, that they may soon have eggs arriving in the hatchery over the next few hours, and to be prepared to receive them.
Orcs from the Blackrock Clan were immediately upon them as they began their ascent up into the Black Dragonflight's territory within the mountain. They were firmly entrenched in crumbling hallways that were no wider that three people. The halls were pale shadows of their former glory, and looked to be once carved with highly ornate motifs. Because of the size problems, Onyxia and Ysondre had no room to use any of their more devastating moves or their true forms.
"Is there nothing we can do to speed this up?" asked Harry aloud after peaking around a corner to find another half dozen grey skinned Orcs peering from behind their cover. Arrows and fireball bursts quickly hit the space his head had just been.
"We cannot use dragon fire, yet I still may be of some use," said Ysondre as she strode forward. She extended her hands, and if Harry didn't know better, he would say her eyes opened underneath the blindfold she wore. A white cloud seemed to expel from her body and slowly move forward. Harry moved to look around the corner, but was held back by the Green Dragon, who despite having her eyes now closed, seemed to look right at Harry, "Not yet, let the Moving Dream perform its work."
Twenty seconds, and six groans and thumps later, and the entire hallway was full of sleeping Orcs. Jessir moved forward, slitting the throats of each one. Once upon a time, Harry might've thought this was an underhanded tactic and immoral, but he had long since lost his 'honor' when it came to fighting wars. If you're alive, and the other person was dead, that was good enough for him to sleep at night.
It meant you were winning.
Onyxia was their best resource as they moved through the mountain. She was old enough that she had actually been there when it had once been a completely Dwarve-controlled fortress. Now, the Dwarves had been pushed back into their mining area at the base of the mountain, which they had since retrofitted into a city. Blackrock Spire itself had been their original city and royal palace, before Nefarian and the Blackrock Orcs of the First War took over.
They moved through the rooms, quietly taking out resting groups of soldiers and Dragonkin. It was slow and tedious, but they were making progress. That is until they encountered something that Harry at least had never seen before
A Fire Elemental.
A large room had six sorcerers channeling power into a barrier that kept the elemental at bay. There was a fairly simple runic array on the ground, that seemed to be sapping strength and heat from the elemental and diverting it elsewhere. Harry thought it quite likely they were using this elemental as a power tap to warm the various eggs in the fortress.
Harry returned his gaze to the sorcerers, whose meditation was so deep that they didn't even hear the large group enter the room. Using hand signals, Jessir designated each person to take a sorcerer to kill, while Onyxia herself walked up to the barrier to battle the fire elemental
When they were all in position, Jessir gave a signal, and the throats of six Orc warlocks were slashed, and the bodies hit the floor soon after.
The barrier was two ways apparently, though quickly weakening. The dragons surrounded the elemental, since they had a much higher immunity to its flames even in a human form.
Harry had not taken on many pure elemental beings. The closest he could say that he had ever been to one were the Infernals from the Burning Legion back on Earth, which were humanoid looking monstrosities made of rock that were animated using demonic Fel energies.
Harry's thoughts were interrupted by the barrier breaking and the Fire Elemental roaring in triumph and laughter, "Thank you for freeing me, fools. Now let me repay you by charring the flesh from your bones."
The elemental turned out to be all talk, as freezing Arrows from Jessir and the Sentinel archers, ice magic from Disidra, and good old fashioned brute force from Onyxia, Ysondre, and Arko had the elemental's energies dispersed in seconds. Half of the Night Elf reinforcements granted to them by Tyrande didn't even bother to fight.
They were joking about how easy the servant of Ragnaros was to kill when everyone heard Jessir gasp. They approached the next room and were all shocked by what they saw. A Hatchery.
Filled with Dragon Eggs.
Harry looked at Onyxia, who had tears in her eyes. But the tears were short lived, as anger replaced them. "These whelps will not grow up to serve Nefarian or be experiments."
"How many are there?" asked Harry, who stood in the back and didn't have that great a view.
"Easily over a hundred," said Jessir, who was watching for patrols in the room. "We can portkey them out. It's doing it without attracting attention that will be the problem."
"Times like this I wish we had a rogue," said Arko. "Could just sneak in and portkey them all out."
Harry looked at her incredulously. He walked over and tapped his wand on her head rather forcefully.
"Hey! Err, what?" she blurted out, as her entire body slowly turned invisible from the Disillusionment charm.
"Rogues don't have anything on me," said Harry.
The rest of the group smiled at the implications. Harry realized he had not really utilized the disillusionment charm in front of the Dragons or Night Elf troops yet, so they were quite appreciative of the possibilities.
"Let's get to work. My rookery watchers are getting lazy anyways," said Onyxia with a glint in her eye as she stared at the room of eggs.
-o0o0o-
"Well, wasn't that exciting," said Kudrii.
"The shyest ones are always the most abnormal," said Ysondre after the group had finished the rather straightforward theft of every egg in sight. "You all should see what this girl dreams about."
Kudrii flushed a pale grey at the implication, but was saved when someone else spoke up. "Ysondre, shall we talk about what you and I have been up to in our free time alone?" teased Onyxia, causing Ysondre to blush as well.
"Come on. Let's be serious. We've barely scratched the surface of this place and we have a long way to go," said Jessir, trying to restore a bit of order. Onyxia was giddy, if that's a word you could describe a Dragon of her normally subdued and haughty stature. The addition of so many eggs would help her flight immensely, and there was always the chance of finding more further in the fortress.
They proceeded further into the den of evil, only to encounter a quartermaster's armory. While sifting through the remains of the Orcs they annihilated, Jessir started to exclaim excitedly.
"What has you so excited. You need to remain calm at times such as these," said Disidra as she eyed the exits to ensure the exclamation did not attract additional attention.
Jessir pointed to the books that were found upon a particularly well armed and armored Orc. "Blacksmith Plans. Arko will love these. Many are types that I've never seen before."
"Cool. Anything to keep our girl happy," said Harry absent-mindedly.
He himself had been looking at some of the armor worn by these Orcs. The composition of the troops they had faced thus far had changed as they got deeper and higher into the fortress. So far they had gone from facing mindless grunts to mindless grunts who were a bit better armed. He had no doubt there would be at least one more increase in intelligence and armor rating before they were through.
They plundered the bodies like usual, and moved forward. Suddenly, Onyxia stopped them. "We want to go around the next room if we can."
"Why," asked Jessir.
"The next room is a gladiator's arena. The Dwarf kings always watched their enemies crushed brutally in it. We don't want to go up there and be seen by whoever else might be in the arena at the time," she explained. "It's a very large arena, and there is very likely to be patrols hidden inside."
They took a long way around. A few areas were blocked by bars and collapsed hallways, but Harry got them through by apparating through gaps in the rubble and then passing portkeys back through to the others. The hallways beyond the arena were packed with lounging Orcs and Dragonkin on guard duty at strategic intersections. It was some fiece close quarters fighting, but the presence of Onyxia and Ysondre was an ace that none of these foes could ever dream of matching. Eventually, the reached a literal T-Intersection.
"Which way do we go, Nixy?" asked Harry with a bit of a smile on his face.
She lightly tapped him on the head, "Left will go upwards into the main palace of the Dwarfs. Nefarian calls the area 'Blackwing Lair' now. To the Right, is likely where Nefarian has his troop commanders stationed."
"Which way then? I don't necessarily see the advantage of leaving any enemies at our backs. We've killed pretty much everything we've seen so far. It's not like the archers are in any danger of running out of ammunition."
Indeed the twenty elven archers and three priestesses had barely had to lift a finger so far. They had barely spent any of their arrows, and the priestesses were honestly bored.
"Let's clear out the remainder of his troops here. No point in suddenly fighting on two fronts when we're halfway up the mountain," said Jessir.
-o0o0o-
The rest of the lower level of the fortress provided them plenty of troops to fight, but little challenge. Numerous Dragonkin were present, and the eventual General they faced was a Dragonkin with an attack that interested Harry greatly.
Harry felt a bit put out though since it interested him the one time he saw the General use it. That was due to the fact twenty archers fired one volley and dropped him on his ass.
The General could launch a conflagration of fire at a person causing their Magical Core to temporarily catch fire and launch the person into a delirious state. There was no cure or way to block the technique, and it made Harry wonder what other sort of 'Viral' spells could be cast directly upon a person's core.
The possible implications of such a spell sent Harry's mind in directions it had not gone in years. He was sure this could be used in both beneficial and malicious ways, so he swore to be careful with his research into the subject.
"What's that?" asked Disidra a few moments after the General had breathed his last.
She was pointing towards an orb that had been behind the General. Onyxia inspected it first, before waving Ysondre over for a second opinion. Everyone watched as they spoke in Draconic whispers back and forth. Harry got a translation charm off on his group quick enough that they heard about half the conversation before the two Dragons turned back to the group.
"The next level of the Fortress contains a magical barrier. It was wise that we decided to go this first, because we would not have been able to proceed had we gone the other direction. This Orb adds a magical marking to everyone, allowing them to pass through the wards," said Onyxia.
"Everyone lay their hand upon this orb to become attuned," said Ysondre.
Harry waited in line as people slowly walked near the orb, each one placing a hand on the orb for a few seconds until a rune appeared on the back of their hands before fading in. Harry was quite fascinated by the entire process, and hoped to find whatever ward stone or enchantments were behind such a barrier. As the group walked off, he shrunk the entire assembly with the orb and stuffed it into a trunk.
In very short order, the group of thirty individuals was keyed into the barrier, and backtracked the way they came. They once again came to the T-Intersection they had visited previously, and journeyed to the left and ascended up into the fortress.
"How much further?" asked a tired Kudrii. Despite improving by leaps and bounds in the few months she had been with the group, she was still not in as good shape as the rest.
"We're almost to the initial receiving area," said Onyxia. "It was once a room where formal balls and dinners were held that was adjacent to the primary throne room."
The endless stairs eventually ended, and the group got a shock. It was another room filled with Dragon Eggs, only these weren't two or three feet tall like most. These were all as tall as Harry.
"Nixy?" Harry asked quietly, noticing the random patrols farther off into the room had not noticed the intruders yet. "Are these normal, or are these experiments?"
"I have no idea," said Onyxia in shock. "On very rare occasions, I've laid an egg this big. They almost always become extremely strong dragons. I've never seen this many of this size before simultaneously. It can't be natural."
"Well, let's take them with," said Harry. "For now, they're innocents and have committed no crimes."
Seeing nods from the group, Harry said, "I'll make portkeys for all of them. When they go off, be ready to charge big and ugly over there."
The 'big and ugly' Harry referred to was a Dragonkin twice the size of a normal one. He was fat and corpulent looking, making Harry think of some sort of Dragon version of his Uncle Vernon. The Dragonkin had a host of magical instruments arrayed in a panel in front of him, and he was obviously monitoring the status of the eggs somehow.
"Razoregore," said Onyxia suddenly as her gaze followed the direction Harry was pointing. "That's the name of that one."
"Anything we should know about him?" asked Jessir.
"He loves fire," said Onyxia with no mirth. "He'll also be fully capable of the conflagration ability to set your magic on fire that the General back there had."
"Well, that should be easy enough to avoid," said Harry. He slowly turned and walked next to each person present. He tapped each person while muttering under his breath. Everyone there felt something wash over them, but none had any idea what had happened.
"What is this spell you cast upon us?" asked Disidra. "The elements are curious about it. They say it feels… odd"
"It's called a flame-freezing charm. It makes you immune to fire for a short time. It won't do anything about really strong magical based fire, like Dragon fire from this world or cursed fire like Fiendfyre from my world, but I would think a bit of fire from that guy should be within its limits."
Portkeys were quickly arranged for the eggs, and Harry sent a portkeyed a howler to Onyxia's base that announced a large number of eggs were about to come through. Finally, he silenced the hallway leading further into the mountain fortress, figuring there was no need to risk reinforcements arriving mid-fight.
The group tensed, waiting for the portkeys to activate before charging at Razoregore. Suddenly, every egg in the cavern glowed blue, and vanished.
Razoregore seemed panicked for a moment before he noticed the group of roughly 30 individuals charging him.
"Fools! Those eggs are more precious than you know!"
He looked like he was about to say more, when Onyxia and Ysondre transformed, since it was the first room in the fortress they could use their true forms.
They both immediately bit the Dragonkin in half.
The group stopped, stunned at the sudden viciousness displayed. Onyxia looked back at the group, The top half of Razoregore's body half hanging out of her mouth. Suddenly the corpse dropped to the ground with a loud clang of armor. Eventually, when the noise died down, she asked in her deep booming Draconic voice:
"Too much?"
-o0o0o-
They fortified their position before moving on to the next room. They realized, more than ever, that this was an infiltration mission of extreme delicacy. The foes here seemed far stronger than found lower in the mountain, and too much noise would obviously bring hell down upon them.
Immediately following Razoregore's death, Harry took Onyxia and Ysondre back to the Black Dragonflight's new refuge to ensure that the eggs collected thus far were ok. They had collected thirty-two super-sized eggs and approximately 150 maturing eggs.
They portkeyed back to Blackwing Lair and snuck towards the next room, only to even be more shocked by what they saw.
Nefarian was present, standing in front of the throne, channeling dark magic into a full-sized red dragon that looked like it had received a monumental beat-down.
"I recognize him," whispered Ysondre. "That is Vaelastrasz, one of Alexstrasza's Lieutenants. He often performs undercover work for her amongst the mortals."
"Looks like he got caught," said Jessir. "Should we step in an hel-"
But she was cut off suddenly as Nefarian noticed their presence at the door. "Ah, the Heroes, you are persistent aren't you? Your Ally here attempted to match his power against mine... and paid the price. Now he shall serve me. By slaughtering you."
Suddenly, the black tendrils of magic that Nefarian channeled into the might red dragon stopped. "Get up little Red Wyrm, and destroy them!" Nefarian faded from view as Vaelastrasz suddenly roared in pain at the ceiling of the cavern.
"Oh shit," yelled Harry. "Scatter into the room!"
"Onyxia! Ysondre! Try to knock him out," yelled Jessir as everyone poured into the room to avoid being caught in one place by Dragonfire.
The two dragonesses stormed the room and changed into their full forms again, throwing massive haymakers to both sides of Vaelastrasz's head. He shouted out to them as he fought without thought of defending himself, "Flame! Death! Destruction! Cower mortals before the wrath of Lord... No! I must fight this! Alexstrasza, help me! I must fight!"
The battle was intense. The Night Elf hunters did everything they could to fire blunt edge weapons to disorient the massive dragon and not injure him too heavily. However, without the aid of Tyrande and the Goddess Elune, they found subduing and cleansing the dragon was far harder than saving the Greens had been.
The priests were worked overtime. Every so often Vaelastrasz would fire bursts of poisonous enchanted fire that would corrupt a person's magic, causing them to explode. It was all the more frustrating since every time a person would experience the magical backlash, the red dragon would lament his apologies to the group.
So far the flame freezing charm had saved those from internal immolation, but the charm wouldn't last forever, and the group had no idea how to save the dragon from himself without killing him. All Harry had yelled was "Cover me" at the start, leaving the rest to fight on their own.
While the others fought a seemingly unwinnable battle to save the Red's mind, Harry had been busy on his own. The room was surrounded by a balcony that looked down upon the fight. He spent a considerable amount of time sneaking up to that balcony, so he would have an unobstructed view of the dragon's eyes.
He waited for a proper moment. He needed to enter the dragon right after it had received a blow to the head which would disorient it. Suddenly, Ysondre came through for him with a crushing blow that vibrated the very mountain under his feet when Vaelastrasz was sent into a wall.
"Legilimens!"
He found himself inside the dragon's mind. Thousands of years of memories bombarded him. He did his best to ignore it all and plunge deeper towards great beings actual mindscape.
He saw things he would have never dreamed of. A conflict against the Burning Legion, where a vast army from Azeroth confronted the Demons. Mythical animals of all shapes and sizes joining the fight against the Demons. He saw the arrival of more dragons to the battle, and their prompt betrayal by Deathwing. He nearly lost control of his spell as he witnessed the deaths of hundreds of Blue Dragons. He relived Vaelastrasz's pain at witnessing the screams of terror as their bodies were shriveled into desiccated husks and flung hundreds of miles away in a massive pulse of magic that crystallized an entire forest.
He pulled out of those memories, only to fall into a huge room. The room looked and felt like it was underground, but Harry didn't actually know what gave him that impression. There were high columns and a deeply ancient feel to the room. Lining the walls were five clearly outlined portals present, and each matched a color of the five Dragonflights.
In the center of the room, stood a human in red robes. He was surrounded by darkness, holding his head tightly as he occasionally took a knee and looked with glazed eyes around the room.
Harry was unsure if he could do anything at the moment, but all he knew was that the black whisps of smoke that surrounded the human reminded him greatly of Dementors, so he did the most logical thing in his mind.
"Expecto Patronum!"
The familiar corporeal stag sprung forth from Harry's hand, and leapt straight into the writhing mass of darkness. It instantly started to disperse, though not all of it left.
Harry, knowing that he couldn't leave until that darkness was gone, tried the only other thing he could think of, 'Finite Incantatum'.
A crack of light was heard, and the darkness that surrounded the man was removed. The man shook his head, and looked towards Harry before a blinding smile crossed his face. The man nodded, and Harry suddenly found himself ejected from the dragon's mindscape. He briefly saw the stone ceiling of the room they were fighting the Red Dragon in, before he heard shouts, his knees buckled, and he knew no more.
-o0o0o-
"Ugh, what happened?"
"He's awake!"
His mind slowly cleared of the fog that had hit it. He must be magically exhausted. He would need to remember that casting spells while using Legilimency on a Dragon could be slightly exhausting in the future.
When his head stopped spinning, he recognized Kudrii looming over him with a worried face. "How are you feeling, Harry?"
Not one for words at the moment, Harry reached up and gave Kudrii a deep kiss on the lips. There were a few catcalls heard in the background. Kudrii seemed shocked a first, and tried to back off, only for Harry to not budge an inch and deepen the kiss.
Finally, they broke apart, and Harry swore that he saw stars in Kudrii's eyes.
"Wow," she whispered.
"Glad you feel the same," said Harry. He looked around at those in the immediate area, "So did it work? I think I cleansed it, but it took a lot out of me."
"I am fine, Harry Potter," a refined voice said from behind him. He turned to see the same man that he saw inside the Dragon's memories. "When I am in this form, please call me Vaelen."
"Are you strong enough to join us, or do you need to leave?" asked Harry.
"I would very much appreciate the chance to destroy Nefarian. A third dragon assisting you could do us wonders. And I'm still shocked by the presence of these two. Mother will likely not believe the words from my mouth."
There were a few laughs at that, before Harry turned serious, "Did we have any injuries?"
"Just minor ones," said one of the Priestesses of the Sisterhood of Elune, named Amara. "We suffered nothing serious. The Flame-Freezing charm you gave us prevented people's magic from igniting in an explosive fashion. There were just some minor burns suffered because of it, which have already been healed. The group has already started covertly entering the next room."
Harry stumbled a bit as they caught up, and was helped by Kudrii. They followed the stragglers up into the next section of the fortress. It was easy to understand the which had paralyzed the group as they approached when they were finally able to see what the next part of the fortress contained. It was a two-level room, that was filled almost as far as you could see with Dragon Eggs. Large devices sprayed some sort of gas on the eggs at intervals, and various Orcs wandered through on patrol patterns checking the eggs.
"This is one of my father's suppression rooms," said Onyxia rather dazedly at the prospect of adding even more members to her flight. "I have not seen one of these in years. All of these eggs will be just on the border of hatching. If they're removed from this room, the will hatch in minutes. Even barely touching them would be enough to trigger the whelp's hatching instincts."
Harry looked at Onyxia, and then Ysondre, and laughed after he saw the same looks mirrored on both of their faces. Harry mock-whispered to Jessir, "Do you think they're excited about all the eggs?"
Giggles met it, but Vaelen tempered their laughter with a bit of seriousness. "Harry, I'm not sure you understand just how many of our clutches have been stolen or simply lost. To find so many of them here, brings great portents for the future. Ysondre mentioned how some green dragons are watching over their whelps at Onyxia's safe location. If she allows it, I may see if Alexstrasza can spare some of our hatchery watchers as well."
The room was cleared in sections by invisible party members and all eggs ported out. Harry was only happy he was at least able to reuse portkeys. A bit of mage water had restored his strength, and he apparated back to the sanctuary to grab handfuls of portkeys that had already been made from the last batch of eggs sent. If he had to make all the portkeys fresh it may have killed him.
With this latest flood of eggs, Harry could only imagine the sheer panic as hundreds of eggs that were about to hatch suddenly appeared in the hatcheries. He also could imagine the smiles on the faces of Ysondre and Onyxia as both of them watched over members of their flights that were previously slated to be experimented on, and felt that this trip into Blackwing Lair definitely had paid in dividends.
After the suppression room and its overseer were completely cleaned out, an intensely somber mood began to wash those present. Logically it made sense. The section next to the suppression room was the one place none of them wanted to go into.
Nefarian's experimentation labs.
Dissected whelps and dragonkin were everywhere, and the happiness that was present upon Onyxia's, Ysondre's, and Vaelen's faces was now replaced by a cold fury.
'This isn't going to be good,' thought Harry as he glanced at the three enraged Dragons as they moved forward in unison without any thought to their own safety and despite the shouts to wait.
-o0o0o-
Harry stared down at the latest one of Nefarian's freak-show creations they had just put down.
A freaking dog.
Except this dog had been half the size of Onyxia. The three dragons tore into the thing, leaving a mutilated pile of flesh upon the ground. Harry had rarely seen anyone in his life enter a state of full-blown bloodlust, but Onyxia and Vaelen were close. Ysondre wasn't quite as ruthless as her two brethren, but she was very close, and had had been so enraged at some points she had even opened her eyes, and they had looked anything but benevolent as they stared down her foes.
Harry thought back to the last few sections of the fortress they had battled. He internally snorted. 'Battled' was a poor description of what actually transpired. The members of the Black Dragonflight that served in this area were irredeemable. Three powerful drakes patrolled, and all there were slaughtered without mercy by Onyxia before Ysondre or Vaelen could even ponder transforming. The Broodmother of the Black Flight rampaged through the area, venting her frustrations at how badly her brother was treating the children of her flight. Vaelen had been meters behind the Broodmother, while Ysondre caught all the strays that thought they could sneak off to safety.
Eventually, the group made it up to what would almost be considered a mad-scientists display den. There were drakes, some of them still alive, callously displayed like trophies on what Harry could best describe as autopsy tables. The drakes eyes tracked them as they walked by, and everyone's hearts went out to the creatures.
Those that could be saved were ported out after Harry apparated to the sanctuary first and told them to isolate the Drakes that were about to arrive. No one knew if they were brainwashed by Nefarian to do something insidious to his enemies, and it wasn't worth taking the chance.
That left them with the puppy they had just seen destroyed.
"Just what the heck is this thing?" Harry said as he looked down on the remains of the massive two-headed dog… thing.
"Nefarian has long been trying to create an answer to the Core Hounds used by Ragnaros. This appears to be the results of his experiments," said Vaelen
"Cute puppy," murmured Harry as the others cautiously stepped up to inspect yet another beast that quickly fell to the claws of the three dragons.
Jessir, who had run ahead, quickly came running back. She seemed excited and scared out of her mind at the same time, to the point where she was borderline babbling.
"Guys, this is it. The outdoor throne room is ahead. Nefarian is sitting on this throne just waiting for us.
Silence descended upon the group, and as one, they all moved forward. It was a huge outdoor terrace, crumbling and worn. Pillars were toppled in some places, and it looked like it had been centuries since anyone had performed any sort of maintenance here, let alone entertained visiting nobles and diplomats. To their left, was a magnificent and depressing view of the Burning Steppes to the south and the Searing Gorge to the north.
And at the far end of the terrace, sitting upon a throne with a distant smirk on his face, sat Nefarian in human form.
Harry understood that the 'Being' before him was true evil after mere seconds of looking at him. He had the cruelty of Voldemort, the manipulative nature of Dumbledore, and the ambitions of both combined.
As they approached, the Dragon stood. He gave a dismissively grunt to Onyxia, who only stared back in revulsion.
"In this world where time is your enemy, it is my greatest ally," he said with a fanaticism that bordered upon insanity. "This grand game of life that you think you play in fact plays you."
Suddenly, he became cloaked in darkness. Darker than even the shroud Harry had witnessed Shadow Priests envelop themselves in while they battled the enemy in Ashenvale conflicts he had taken part in. "To that I say... Let the games begin!"
He teleported away. Instantly Harry found the urge to duck, as a massive burst of shadow magic shaped like a black flamed skull flew through the space his head had just been.
The group began to fire arrows, only for cries of pain to be heard from behind them. Apparently, Nefarian had a troop barracks above the terrace, and they were storming down two separate stairwells in an effort to overwhelm the group.
"Let me handle this! Everyone else take care of shadow boy!" he shouted at group in general.
Harry had a plan already known in his mind for dealing with enemies who filed single file down stairwells. He had planned many contingencies during the war against Voldemort, and one of them was how to overcome Hogwarts' defenses if the Dark Lord had taken over fully and Harry was forced to fight a castle full of dark wizards.
Wizards who would stupidly run down stairwells single-file just like these Dragonkin.
Harry first flung a pinch of Instant Darkness powder at the bottom of the stairs. Then he transfigured half the obscured steps to be a slide using the charm utilized by the Gryffindor Tower girl's dorm when a to gain access to the female dorms. He silenced the bottom of the stairwell landing, then summoned over two large boulders that were once part of the pillars.
A flick of the wrist later, and the bottom of the steps were covered with ten foot foot long razor edged spikes that were already silently claiming their first victims as they slid down the steps. He finished the trap by transfiguring the door frame closed, so there would be no escape.
The Wizard apparated over to the other stairwell, where he built and completed the same trap in under ten seconds. The few troops that had escaped out of the barracks were quickly mopped up by the archers.
A roar of outrage was heard from above, and Harry turned to see what had happened. Everyone looked up to witness Nefarian appear in full-blown dragon form one hundred meters above them. He was probably a half-length larger than Onyxia, who was the largest of the three dragons within their group.
The titanic wyrm began to descend, and about fifty feet off the ground, Nefarian suddenly took a monstrously deep breath, sending everyone scrambling for cover behind the pillars and the throne.
"Burn you wretches, burn!"
A massive wave of black flame washed over the entire one hundred meter wide terrace. One unlucky Night Elf archer who failed to react quick enough writhed in agony for a half second before his screams were suddenly silenced and all that was left on the ground were the melted and warped components of his armor made of metal.
"Now, let's see how you contend with the true Lord of Blackrock Spire!"
The behemoth landed, nearly knocking half of them off their feet due to the impact. Those that could, immediately engaged in battle along with all three dragons. The archers and healers spread out around in a wide circle and began to unleash ranged hell, while Harry and Arko ran up to the dragon's side to begin giving massive broadsides to the Lord of Blackrock Spire's unguarded belly.
Nefarian concentrated his attacks upon Vaelen, as the Red Dragon wore no armor, unlike Ysondre or Onyxia. But every time he moved to swipe at the Red Dragon, the smaller wyrm would easily dodge the bigger dragon's slower movements. Occasionally, the Prince of the Black Dragonflight would breath his black flames upon the three dragons, Onyxia in particular, but all seemed to be immune to his fire. He seemed to almost ignore the hail of arrows that littered his back and sides, but with the way he slowly stepped more and more gingerly, they were obviously beginning to take a toll.
The son of the Dragon Aspect Deathwing seemed to be able to conjure death from almost any direction. His massive spiked tail swung wildly while he fought, smashing many of the few remaining pillars of the terrace, making the Archers not only have to watch from attacks from the dragon, but debris falling from above.
Harry encountered another type of magic that seemed to temporarily infect a person's core, and he vowed to figure out how to cast the spell himself. Nefarian would occasionally stop and roar at the sky, sending out a shockwave of what Harry could only describe as pure fear. It had all the debilitating functions of a dementor attack sans the recollection of nightmares, and it caused anyone touched by it to ran in a delirium induced state of terror in random directons.
Harry did finally catch on to what was happening, and decided to see if he held an answer to the bellowing roars.
"Expecto Patronum!"
The familiar form of Prongs issued forth from his wand just prior to the wave's power blanketing the terrace. Only this time, no one succumbed to the effects, which was immediately noticed by Nefarian, further driving him into an enraged fury.
"Enough! Now you vermin shall feel the force of my birthright: The Fury of the Earth itself!"
Rumbling was heard from all around them as the terrace began to break apart. Boulders from high above on the spire began to rain down, coming close to hitting Nefarian as many times as they did the friends of Harry. The wizard had to dodge the boulders while simultaneously finding gaps in the dragon's armor to attack that had been made by the barrage of arrows that now covered the dragon's side.
Arko and Harry worked in tandem, one swinging their weapon and the other spotting for boulders falling to crush them. They weaved in an out of the debris like a dance, and managed to maintain the strikes inflicted upon his soft underside.
Nefarian's control over the mountain remained strong, but he visibly began to slow, leaving an opening for his sister.
"Your birthright is no more, brother!" Onyxia roared in challenge as the mountain's quaking suddenly diminished. "Dominion over the Earth will belong to me and me alone!"
Nefarian moved to strike Onyxia for her insolence, but she was faster. She delivered a massive slash and impact across the right side of her brother's head, removing an eye and almost half his snout. He suddenly fell to the ground stunned. Ysondre and Vaelen threw their weight upon his sides, nearly biting clean through his front legs as they pinned his bulky form to the terrace floor.
"This cannot be!" Nefarian bellowed while spewing blood from the half of his mouth that remained. "I am the Master here! You mortals and traitors are nothing to me! Do you hear? Nothing!"
Onyxia stepped forward, roared with her mouth wider than any had ever seen her. Suddenly she bit down on her brothers neck, severing it clean in two. The light left the black dragon's eyes, and silence reigned over the group.
A monstrous crash was heard as Onyxia released the grip on her brother's head, and she stepped back. She moved determinedly away from the corpse of her brother, transforming into her human form before she fell to her knees and began to sob upon the ground.
Harry and his smaller group rushed to the grieving dragon, while the Night Elves began to secure the scene.
"I killed my own brother," she kept repeating to herself. She lay in Harry's arms, while Jessir and Arko were to Harry's immediate right and left. Disa and Kudrii sat Indian style in front of him, giving half hugs to Onyxia. Finally, Ysondre slowly walked over, and curled herself around the six, enclosing them within her tail and offering shelter within her wings.
"Onyxia, that wasn't your brother anymore," said Ysondre. "I've known the two of you for over 15,000 years. The handsome drake that joined us as we flew over the forests outside of Suramar… that dragon died long ago, when he followed your father and mother into madness."
Onyxia's sobs had stopped, though she still did not say anything.
"Honor your brother from your memories. Not what he became," finished Ysondre.
-o0o0o-
Harry was intrigued by the 'Dragon's Horde' they found stashed in a vault between the two barracks. Dragon's on Earth, despite muggle legend, did not steal huge cache's of valuables and sleep on beds of gold. The Dragons of Azeroth didn't either, but they certainly could be considered pack-rats judging by what Harry's group found. Armor ranging in age from the War of the Ancients 10,000 years previous to recently acquired weapons, such as the deceased Stormwind Champion Anduin Lothar's greatsword Ash'Kandi. Almost every piece seemed to have some sort of history to it, though many of it would be lost to time since there was no notes or history of the weapons kept here.
Onyxia was pleasantly surprised to find an heirloom of her flight sitting there gathering dust. Lok'amir Il Romathis was an oddly shaped mace used by herself in ages long forgotten. She had returned it to her flight's main armory millennia ago when she found the idea of politics more intriguing than warfare. She could only assume Nefarian raided the depot in the mean time and stole everything. That he didn't bother to even use the weapon was the bigger insult to her. She gifted it to Kudrii, and simply asked it be returned to her flight in the future.
"So what now?" asked Vaelen.
"Now we take a rest, no?" said Jessir. "My people need to report back to Darnassus. I'm sure Onyxia and Ysondre wish to inspect the eggs we collected here, and Harry, Disidra and Kurdrii could use some alone time."
"And you need to report in with your mother," said Ysondre while looking at Vaelestrasz. "Alexstrasza will be most interested in the events that transpired here."
"We need to eventually visit the Horde Warchief," said Harry over his shoulder as he concentrated on his work. A massive pile of ore in front of him him was slowly being transfigured into bars.
"What is that stuff, Harry?" asked Arko'narin. "I've never seen metal like this before."
"A few of the goblins we killed in the labs had this on them. Never seen a metal like it before."
"It feels foul," said Disidra as she picked up one of them and ran a finger along the edge.
"Then we'll have to try and purify it to use it. Maybe Tyrande or one of the members of her sisterhood will know something about it."
They were clearing up the last of treasure and the loot, when they all gathered around Nefarian's body.
"What should we do about it," asked Jessir. "No offense, Lady Onyxia, but we can't just leave the body here."
"Burn it," said Onyxia after almost no thought. "Leave nothing for scavengers or my Mother's experiments."
Disidra moved to add fire through her shamanistic abilities, when Harry held her back. "Let me handle it. Everyone get back."
With the group behind him, Harry pointed his wand at the corpse and shouted, "Fiendfyre!"
The cursed fire sprang forth from this wand, annihilating everything in its path. He hadn't used the extremely volatile spell in years, but the old familiarity came back quickly. The only thing capable of controlling the cursed flames of hell he unleashed was sheer willpower. Not many had the strength to do so, and Harry easily remembered his lessons as he cast the spell with a heat-sensitive portkey that would teleport him to safety at the slightest change in the fire's path. Flames shaped liked animals of his home world consumed the corpse within seconds, leaving nothing left.
He quickly subdued the flames, leaving a gaping silence in place of the demonic roar that had dominated all of their sense of hearing. All that was left of the cursed fire was an extremely heavy scent of brimstone on the air.
"Shall we go home?"
-o0o0o-
Cast of Characters:
Harry's Harem
Arko'narin – Alliance. Night Elf, Warrior. Former Sentinel of Darnassus.
Jessir Moonbow – Alliance. Night Elf Hunter. Former Sentinel of Darnassus.
Kudrii – Alliance. Draenei, Priest. Budding enchanting trainee.
Disidra Stormglory – Alliance. Draenei, Shaman. Former member of an 'infamous' guild wiped out attempting something a bit too much for them. An outcast looking for a home.
Onyxia – Black Dragonflight – Brood Mother. Most powerful daughter of Neltharian, Aspect of the Earth. Was caught impersonating the fake daughter of her father's fake human persona within Stormwind, and now has a death contract out on her head from the King of Stormwind.
Ysondre – Green Dragonflight – Lietenent of Ysera. One of Ysera's four most powerful sons and daughters. Was corrupted in battle with the 'Nightmare', a power of the Old Gods to sway the minds of others.
Miscellaneous Characters of Note:
Greta Mosshoof – Horde. Tauren, Druid. Member of the Emerald Circle, which is a subgroup of the Cenarian circle devoted to the restoration of the Felwood.
Jaelyn Evensong – Alliance. Night Elf, Hunter. Champion of Darnassus. Second most powerful hunter in the Night Elf forces behind Chandris Feathermoon.
Tyrande Whisperwind. - Alliance. Night Elf, Priest. Faction Leader of Night Elves. Mate of Malfurion Stormrage (the first Druid). High Priestess of Elune and leader of the elite sisterhood that worships her.
Cairne Bloodhoof - Horde. Tauren Warrior. Faction Leader of Tauren. Elderly Tauren who led his people from the nomadic lifestyle imposed upon them by marauding Centaurs to their settlement in Thunderbluff, where they are protected from the Centaur tribes which have plagued their people for ages.
Sylvanas Windruner - Horde. Undead, Hunter. Faction Leader of the Forsaken. Former Ranger General of the Sindorei, was killed in Arthas' invasion of Quel'thalas. Her soul stripped from her body, she was reformed into a banshee. When her mind was freed from the Lich King's control, she took control of a nearly dead High Elf woman's body, supplanting the soul inside and permanently controlling the body like a puppet.
Thrall - Horde. Orc, Shaman. Faction Leader of Orcs. Horde Warchief. Raised a slave and then Gladiator by humans after his parents were butchered after fleeing to Azeroth from Outland. Trained and educated by humans. His one true love, a human woman named Taretha Foxton, was beheaded after being caught freeing Thrall. In his grief, he called upon the elements to crush an entire city, cementing his place as War Chief.
Vol'jin - Horde. Troll, Shadow Hunter. Faction Leader of Trolls. Leader of the Darkspear Troll tribe. Only troll tribe of dozens that have joined the Horde. Almost all other Troll tribes are consumed by bloodlust and their cannibalism.
The Prophet Velen – Alliance. Draenei, Priest/Shaman. Leader of the exiled Draenei people. Formerly best friends with the traitorous Kil'Jaeden and the now deceased Archimonde before the duo joined the Burning Legion.
Raene Wolfrunner – Alliance. Night Elf Warrior. Leader of Night Elf Military presence in Ashenvale.
Lady Jaina Proudmoore – Alliance. Human, Mage. Leader of the human settlement of Theramoore. Former Mage of Dalaran and member of the Kirin Tor. Arthas's (the Lich King's) former booty call before he got all undead. Now wants Thrall's tubesteak.
Taerar / Lethon / Emeriss – Green Dragonflight – Lieutenants of Ysera. Sons and Daughters of Ysera as well.
Ysera – Green Dragonflight – Aspect of the Green Dragonflight. Guardian of the Emerald Dream and watcher of all who dream on Azeroth.
Vaelastrasz – Red Dragonflight – Son of Alexstasza, the Aspect of Life. Rescued from Blackwing Lair after being captured by Nefarian.