Book one of Thunder God Series: Rise

by TheMadDalek

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 shaped body. He now had too long a spine, legs that felt like they bent in all the wrong ways, something itched terribly on his back between his shoulders, and there was a sense of extra-ness at the tail bone.

1. Behold, Trouble

Edit: in response to a guest review, I am already on AO3, you can find me there as TheMadDalek

;)

I'm updating there too. Only doing Rise there right now (its been there since 2016 but its been updated as of 9/19/19 same as here) will post others there later.

Author's Notes:

LONG AN

REJOICE! I HAVE RETURNED!

Okay, first off, this is a rewrite of Thunder Goddess: Rise.

Sooooooo sorry it took this long to update. After posting the last update I kinda lost my motivation to write anything, mostly because some really bad shit happened with the family and it killed my creativity. By the time I got it back I wanted to do a rewrite instead because I didn't like how the old version was going (it happens after looking back on something after a while and just not liking it). Planned on posting the rewrite by July (2019). Start of June hit hard with a computer hardware failure that is only just now fixed.

As for the story, a lot of it is just moving some events around, adding more detail and changing a lot of what happens in the beginning. I had wanted this to be a huge political thing where there are plots on top of plots and shit happens everywhere, but as this Series has always been a set up of an eventual multi-crossover story line involving "Reasons", I guess that would be too much. If I planned on it being only Temeraire world involved through out it would be fine, but this is only the beginning of the journey and I don't want to use up all my cool ideas in the start and run out mid series.

A lot of the story will be familiar in the beginning chapters but I want to focus a bit more on the Harry/Temeraire friendship so I will be changing some of the 'Harry going off on his own' plot that is still in play.

If you're reading this only to get an update on my other story (Shimmerscale) it's being overhauled and has a new name (The Thing under the stairs) and it's going to be a long while before you get anything on it. I have it mostly plotted out but the chapters are not completely finished and I want it done/complete before I post it. It will be a series and stories broken up by years (year 1, year 2...etc)

Not going to say much more about Rise aside from a few key points:

Harry will not be rash (after his dragon form matures)

He will not have any magic that is not directly related to his main gift...which is manipulating storms, so warming/cooling charms and anything that can help with his storm abilities he will keep.

NOT SLASH, nothing against it but I can't write intimate relationships to save my life and this Harry isn't gay anyway. Still has Luna in it but situation is different.

You'll find out the rest when you read it.

Pairings:

Mostly Canon, but I will not be focusing on relationships aside from friendships.

Warnings:

Will contain mild child abuse (canon HP events through 7th year), language, violence, gore, and severe spoilers for everything except The Cursed Child, I'm ignoring that book entirely, I'm so sorry if you liked it.

Also, Harry will be old and although not super wise, he will still be a deviation from the Canon Harry we've seen in the books, which most FanFiction has anyway. He will be less likely to just run headlong into trouble once his new body catches up to his mind. I've read too many of the 'Harry gets a do-over' stories with a super childish Harry but he's suppose to be old and powerful and it just seems like (even if he has an adult body) that he never grows mentally. Very Sirius Black in a way.

Harry will seem to be an OC because of lack of HP Magic in full as well as his personality tweaks but I hope I can keep enough of his 'Harryness' to make it work, even if he does seem kinda Dumbledore at times.

Temeraire verse characters may be OOC in speech, mainly because I might forget to leave out/add in words or ways of speaking when doing their dialog. I have not done a fic in the Temeraire or any verse really that has the older, more proper way of speaking. Just point it out if you spot some dialog that needs fixing and I'll try to make it fit more with the story.

References to sexual acts will be made and are there because life happens and it is part of world building, the world itself would be without depth if all the characters were seen as untouchable in some way, even in matters of the heart. Intimate acts will not shown, I'm rubbish at them, don't ask for any.

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. I'm just borrowing the verses for a bit.

Although Rise isn't really a multi-crossover fic itself, it is part of an eventual multi-crossover series, so I may bring in references to other fandoms, such as recalls, names, places, items, quotes or abilities in THIS story. This isn't a guarantee, however, just a warning in case I decide something might work in the story during writing. I will say that it has some Hobbit/LOTR elements to it when it comes to Harry's dragon self and MAYBE a couple of character names not related to Harry but that's pretty much all the Hobbit/LOTR stuff in this story.

In this case I do not own any of the stuff I would be referencing and it would belong to the people who do own it.

Also, I will not be using any language translators or trying and failing to use languages I am not able to speak myself, this means that all languages will be written in English for the reader.

Rating:

M - Just to be safe. Lots of battles, deaths, sicknesses, foul language and other nasty things that earn an M will be here. Actually the whole Series is M so yeah, get ready for that.

Wow, an awful lot, if rather important, stuff to read before you get to the fic! But just two more things:

1. If you find something that needs to be fixed (spelling, historical fact, canon event/information), give me a shout...

2. I do not have a set time to update, too much happens in real life for me to say "Yes I will get this chapter out on this date". It is also for fun and helps me with my writer's block on the rewrites of my other stories.

Chapter One: Behold, trouble...

It really was quite warm where he resided right now, so comfortably warm in fact that if it weren't for the oppressive feeling he was getting from his current place of resting, he would have very happily gone right back to sleep for a few more hours. Pressing down on him from seemingly impossible angles, the walls, floor, and ceiling of his current abode were forcing him to curl into a very tight ball, head between his legs, just to be able to breath, and that was becoming difficult now too.

Harry didn't like this strange new situation; Not. At. All. It felt very much like a live mouse trap going very horribly wrong and he really wanted out of here immediately, to escape into a wide open space and stretch himself to his full size so as to work out all the very painful kinks he was just now becoming aware of.

How he had gotten in this mess was a huge mystery to the old wizard as he didn't remember going into a small space at all. In fact, the last thing he did remember was leisurely walking down the grand staircase in Hogwarts, heading toward the feast he was sure was still in session...

No, wait, that wasn't his very last memory. He HAD been walking down the stairs, that much was correct, taking in the sights and remembering all the times he trekked this very same path as a young man so many years ago...

But this time on the last landing before the ground floor, he shifted his foot wrong and misstepped, tripping on that long and tattered scarf Molly made him almost a century past...and he fell. The loud crunch of landing at an angle on the stairs, the severe pain lancing through his body when he hit a stair edge right in the center of his back. The way his neck gave under the full weight of his body when he finally came to a stop, landing on his head at the ground level...

The memories stop there after the sense of the castle's bond to her Headmaster seemed to fade into nothingness and Harry could only imagine it is because he had died. 'And quite spectacularly at that' he thought sarcastically, wondering which poor soul had found their beloved Headmaster's body crumpled at the bottom of the stairs when he didn't show up for the evening speech they all expected before bed.

Hopefully they weren't too traumatized by it all but that was a weak hope at best.

Harry became agitated as he started wiggling around in his small unknown place of waning safety, looking for a comfortable position and taking note of the extremely odd feeling of his tightly curled body.

He froze.

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 shaped body. He now had too long a spine, legs that felt like they bent in all the wrong ways, something itched terribly and rubbed on his back between his shoulders, and there was a vague sense of extra-ness where his tail-bone was.

'What is going on? What happened after I died? Did I actually die or did someone transfigure me for some dreadful reason? Or...No, I couldn't have...'

A mental checklist started getting violently ticked asHarry went through anything and everything he currently knew just to make sure he wasn't inhabiting some poor student's pet like Voldemort had with Nagini. 'Would be my luck to tap into such a strange ability right before I die' But his mental quill came to a screeching and messy halt when he noticed a few extra languages stuffed in his head that he hadn't a clue about before.

The first was fluent Chinese, or at least he figured it was fluent, he knew nothing of Chinese before except how it sounded and this really didn't make any sense to him now with his supposed death. He also knew a smattering of some strange rough tongued language he didn't know the name of. French, now he did know some French before thanks to Fleur wanting to teach him something of her homeland, but now he appeared to be fluent in it as well. English of course but that was something he already knew, as he couldn't remember hearing it the whole time he's been in this stifling place.

An incomplete version of the Black Speech still floated around in his head as well, though it was only considered incomplete to Harry more because the 'real' words of the language that existed in the Tolkien books were few. The rest he had to learn from fans of the series who made a believable and passable script for speaking. Many words still didn't exist but Harry had always filled them in with a few Parseltongue words he remembered or rather thought he remembered. Not all of the snake tongue was hissing, some had very Mordor speech overtones and it just fit to drop them in.

His wife had made fun of him for trying speak a fake language for no other reason than his Marauder blood thought it might be amusing to spook some poor dark wizards with it. Seeing as it was pretty terror inducing all by itself, if you couple that with some Voldemort esque flare, you got a pretty good chance of scaring off the weaker class of baddies without breaking a sweat.

Speaking of Parseltongue, it seemed to make a grand reappearance, but he instinctively knew it wasn't being forced on him from a taint, this was something he gained in this new body, which may or may not be a good thing.

On top of all that were snippets of information about something called a Harnessing, and that he, Harry, was expected to do his duty for his country once he was old enough. 'What on earth is going on here? What is an Aerial Corps? Well something to do with flying I guess but to what purpose?'

Other things fell into place slowly and by now his mental quill was throughly done with all this absolute nonsense, violently dropping itself into the mental inkwell with a childish huff and gave up at the same time Harry's brain seized.

There was a huge war going on, one that involved more than just a few groups of people. This was more like whole countries!

And Harry was a part of it by way of being a future member of this 'Aerial Corps'. It appeared that Harry was in the hands of the French going by the conversations happening outside his prison, which was a shock as he was an English wizard! He also had a sibling nearby that they were keeping an eye on, and this was a worrying thought as Harry had no siblings.

Harry was so very confused...

So with all the things he's taken stock on, Harry could be sure of a few things:

He was in some kind of warm, killer container that was slowly crushing him into mush, and the air in here felt more like a thick mucus in his chest than proper air.

He was very much not a human anymore, and somehow not dead either even though a tumble that nasty would kill a wizard more powerful than him.

He knew too many languages that he wasn't used to knowing more than a few words or phrases in to get by with, aside from the ones he learned on a lark.

He was being transported somewhere important by people who spoke French and were obviously doing so illegally or were being hunting by unsavory types, their conversations gave that much away with the need for secrecy being a repeated topic.

Whatever he was being transported on was not fit for the 'Harry's approved travel methods' list. Tossing him this way and that so roughly, he had a sick feeling he was being moved by sea or a bad job of air transport.

A muffled voice not far away from where he was held grabbed his sudden attention, causing him to wriggle much more violently in response. Harry couldn't catch any of the words in the speaker's hast but the tone suggested extreme excitement.

'This can't be good' He thought grimly; extremely excited people were a thing Harry tended to avoid at all possible, mostly because it was normally his presence that got said people so excited and Harry hated dealing with them.

He pressed his back and head against the walls and ceiling of the small area in the hopes of getting a little relief from the pain of their hold, even going so far as to attempt a rotation in it to get an idea of its shape. The fact that it was domed on the top and bottom was nice, but further manipulation was impossible and the area didn't provide the space needed to make a full rotation, proving it wasn't domed on the sides. All this moving about appeared to be of no use, the prison stood firm in the face of his prodding. He was suddenly so very tired.

In part, it seemed to be way too small now that he had time to think about it, he was sure it was bigger earlier...but how much earlier? How much did he really remember about this place?

Flashes of his time in the prison and some vague thoughts that seemed to almost repeat the ones he had before about his last memory and the new languages...so it seemed he had been gaining consciousness off and on and sometimes had enough wits about him to actually realize something was up. But at no point did he really start questioning things until recently.

Harry tried to rotate in the small space again, this time there was no room to do so. It was as if the container had shrunk to almost half its original size since he started attempting his escape...wait. Something was different now, the more he prodded at his mind the more he realized that the excited voices, him attempting to escape, all that was separated by a blank space in his mind that had only a snippet of language stuffed in it.

Had he fallen asleep after trying to rotate and then forgot? It was seamless, his memory of pushing on the walls and then suddenly it was too small. But the feeling refused to go away and if he thought hard he could 'see' the gap between the times, Harry was sure that he had blacked out again and was now picking up literally where he left off last.

And now new people with different excited voices were speaking.

Something inside him snapped, fear and anger welling up in a way that it hadn't since he was an angsty teen being mentally attacked on a daily basis by a madman with a snake fetish set on burning the world for shits and giggles.

Harry kicked out in frustration, forcing the walls to bend outward with his movement but they didn't break. This wasn't making any sense at all! He some how escapes being dead permanently but wakes up in a much too small for him place, in a non-human body, surrounded by people who were excited about some stupid thing or another while he was in real danger of dying in here!

A sharp crack signaled the start of a successful exit and the sudden chilly air and lack of voices was a tell-tail sign Harry had been noticed. The hole was too small to see more than a bit of light and some brown grass under his prison from the position he was stuck in, but the fresh air was wonderful on his skin and in his lungs, the old thick air gurgled in his chest and nose with each new breath. This new air smelt of salt and fish, old wood and sweaty bodies, but to Harry it was a heavenly mix of smells after all this scentless heavy air. But no matter how many breaths he took, it still felt like he wasn't getting enough while still in here.

"Well, any minute now..." said the excited voice Harry identified as the rapidly speaking person from before, though he was sure it would sound different and not so muddled once he was out of this oval box or whatever it was. Maybe it would turn out that it hadn't been the rapidly speaking person, but the one they had been gibbering to. There was some shuffling of what sounded like shredded paper or the dried grass Harry could still see and more light, this time a flickering kind, could be seen just outside of the box. It cast an eerie pinkish glow into Harry's world, illuminating tiny gray vein like shapes in the box's walls.

Fear flooded the wizard turned beast as the thought that boxes don't have veins flitted into his head. A hand landed softly on the wall he could see with the eye facing that side, and gently tapped the box with one finger without lifting the hand at all. Harry gasped deeply for breath, lungs feeling heavy with what he now knew was not a heavy air, but a thick fluid. It had been nice beforehand when he was just waking up, now the same fluid truly wanted to suffocate him and it started to leech out of the prison from the hole he made near the bottom and into the grass like some 50's horror movie monster.

Harry became very aware of his body now, almost as if the consciousness of this beast was waking up and melding with his own. Instincts were becoming hard to ignore as he noticed his arms were trapped, pinned to his sides by strong thighs; the overwhelming feel of claustrophobia he hadn't really ever experienced to the fullest suddenly set in.

"Go get Gregory! The beast is almost hatched! Wait just a moment longer, little one, your Captain is coming!"

With a giant huff of utter disbelief and terror, Harry pushed out with all his might at the walls he was now quite sure was the shell of an egg. No way in hell was he going to wait two more seconds, never mind the minute or two that this Gregory would need to get here. The egg was getting way too small and Harry was sure his lungs would collapse from the angle he was sitting in if he didn't hatch now!

More and more of his mind was being overtaken by the alien feelings of this body he called his now. Many immature ideas and emotions flitted between the more stable thoughts of the elder wizard. It was making this whole ordeal much harder and more traumatizing than it needed to be.

Letting out a small moan of despair at the thought of being a magically enhanced lizard of some sort - for surely he wasn't a snake or a bird, there were too many limbs for that - Harry gave one more great push against the egg, sharp cracking noises greeting his efforts, and he ignored the shouts of horror as he tumbled triumphantly out into the greater world in a slimy mess of tangled limbs, sticky eggshell bits and loud breathing.

Laying on his back and taking great gulping breaths between coughing up mucus, the first thing he noticed about his new home from his upside down position was that there were six men in the room, dressed in very dated uniforms and looking quite ruffled at his sudden appearance. Harry dismissed all but one of them as a threat without really looking at them, but the last looked like he was a seasoned soldier like Mad-Eye Moody, and therefore a major threat. Harry tried to roll over slowly but failed dismally, his sticky body clinging to everything it touched like fly paper and making his movements jerky and quick as he tore free from the ground. The larger bits of egg shell fell into eye view and Harry had the vague sense of feeling awed by the shiny cream color that was broken up every so often by veins of light gray; it looked like a beautiful piece of broken marble.

Finally he rolled upright and gave himself a thorough shaking off, mucus, hay, shell and dirt flew off in every direction, heedless of where it might land. He did managed to keep his eyes on the older-than-the-others man throughout it though.

'Ah, and I've given him a hyphenated title already, how terribly dreadful' he mused, tilting his head the right way up after his shake in order to better see what was actually happening. A quick look over told the wizard that all these men had an aura of a kind that commanded respect, and the older one definitely, in Harry's opinion at least, deserved it.

A more through look about made another tick on his mental list go *shhhiick!* as he took notice that this room seemed to be part of a large old ship, like the kinds wizards still used even though they were so very outmatched in the modern world. The sounds and smells of the salty sea and fish, stale wood and overworked people as well as the size of the room, and the materials used in making this vessel were strong indicators of this sad truth.

Plus it was rocking about as if in the beginnings or endings of a storm, so either it was an old ship on the sea or he was in some kind of flying contraption going over an ocean.

'Knowing wizards as I do, either is a great possibility. Maybe even both, a flying boat! How ridiculous!'

Though now that he really looked about, it appeared it was actually a smallish room made larger by gutting. Most the outer walls were lined with some kind of metal and the interior ones must have been knocked in to give it a more open floor plan. The floor itself was covered in large amounts of hay, sailcloth and dirt, and had a few metal rings bolted into it with some thick straps of a make Harry wasn't sure of the name for trailing away from them. A huge crate whose side was pulled open sat just behind him up against a wall, probably to prevent it from sliding around over much, and it was to this crate that the straps attached. It was lined with hay and tiny bits of the cream and gray marbled egg shell, plus most of the left over egg that Harry fell out of.

Turning his head from that sight, he could see that claw marks raked the parts of the un-sailcloth covered floor where his feet still scrabbled for purchase on the smooth wood.

Now was the time for Harry's brain to truly kick in and decide that the room and people could very well wait while he checked out his new form; identity is very important you know. While still keeping the strangely dressed folk in the corner of his eyesight, Harry turned his head back to look at his body, starting with the rear and moving up.

Harry took in the strange sight of a long blackish gray, reptilian body with rather large for his size wings and a long thin tail that ended in a strange three pronged sort of shape, almost like the Fleur-de-lis, but sharp instead of rounded off and they stuck straight out instead of curling. The wings were folded tightly to his sides and were a lighter gray than the main color scheme seemed to be. They were not quite bat like in shape, having too many spines in them which made them look more like fins than wings, but they were definitely for flying. The wings were situated just above his forelegs on a pair of strong looking limbs that ended in three fingered paws on what Harry would call a wing wrist.

The membranes started at the upper chest and the shoulder of the wing limb, stretched across from there to his wing wrists like a bat, and then extended all the way down to his hips, which were pretty far back on his near serpent like body. He was almost all wing right now! The wings tapered off toward the tips, getting smaller the further away from the body it got. Very much a glider look but Harry had the distinct impression that he would be able to fly on them not just glide.

Looking down at his forelegs next gave Harry an odd feeling when he noticed that his forelimbs were shorter and slightly smaller than the hind limbs. Where as his 'legs' were long and good for running like a greyhound, his 'arms' looked like they belonged to a corgi. With this in mind Harry figured his extra wing hands made since now, as they were on limbs strong and long enough to be used for running, which his forelegs were probably only good for climbing and grappling. The feet and hands got the look over next and showed that he thankfully still had five fingers and toes, though the feet and hands were a bit different from the ones Harry was used to as a human; these looked like a cross between human and rat in design but thicker in shape almost like paws, which made for some wicked climbing tools.

There was also a thin webbing between the fingers and toes, which indicated he might be a pretty good swimmer or they were used in the air.

All the digits, on hands, wings and feet, were tipped in small sharp gray claws that he was sure would be thick and deadly once he grew a bit.

The long body was mostly covered in thickish pointy scales on the top and sides but his underside had soft plates almost like a snake belly, going from small at his chin (his wing hands inspected this), to wide at the barrel chest, then thinning out at the belly and waist to get even smaller as they ran to the tip of the tail. These plates were the same lighter gray as the wings but both the plates and the wings were still dark gray overall, they only looked 'light' compared to the deep raven black of the rest of his body. Though the tops of the wings were the same black as his body, it looked like only the undersides of everything were a little lighter, including the inner arms and thighs.

Smatterings of light gray and white spots were thrown all over his body, looking like so many tiny twinkling starts, giving him the appearance of carrying the night's sky on his hide.

Small ripples of cobalt to royal purple danced over all his scales - no matter the shade of color - once the light hit it, giving off an iridescent shine that captivated the newly hatched dragon; for that was what Harry now possessed, the body of a rather lean baby dragon of an unknown to him breed.

Now he was curious what his face looked like and he quickly looked around for something reflective. Spotting a bucket of water nearby under a hanging lantern, Harry rushed over, tripping over himself a few times because he stood up to walk like he normally would as a two legger and then remembered that he was a hexapod now, and dropped down to his wings and hind legs, keeping his forepaws tucked up to his body to prevent damage to them. Reaching the water with only a little scraping and sliding, he peered down into the rippling surface. It was hard to make out the details very well but he could see enough to get a general idea; the fine bits could come later.

Resting almost awkwardly on a thin serpent neck, the head was long and heavy looking, with strong jaws that appeared almost like a cross between an alligator and some kind of prehistoric dog. A very pronounced under-bite with visible fangs in the front that pointed upward was framed by a thick lower lip. A thin smattering of silver bristly fur ran from the back of his lower jaw to the tip of his boxy chin, giving him a thick goatee and though it was very small right now, Harry was sure it would grow to epic Dumbledore proportions by the time he reached adulthood if it wasn't kept in check.

His oval eyes were smallish and were almost facing forwards but still offset to the sides and had a silver-blue overlay to the dark whatever color they were. The black pupils were reminiscent of a toad, sitting sideways instead of vertical and were an odd combo of wide and thin in places.

Small, thick and nearly pointed ears sat a little behind and slightly under his heavy eyebrows and had almost no movement to them at all, forcing Harry to tilt his head around while flicking the ears in order to focus on a sound better. They could almost lay flat so at least he could show displeasure that way if he wished. His nose was strange, with the nostrils very close together and the nares toward the top of his nose were wide, but they extended down to a thin slit like a cat halfway to his thin upper lip. Nowhere in nature had he seen such an odd configuration before now. There was a patch of thick deep blue plate like scales between his eyes that started almost at the tip of his snout and ran up to the crown of his head, widening out as they went up and stopping just behind the brows, breaking up into a lot of very small yet strong round scales of the same color.

A small pair of horns rested at his crown and curled upward and back a bit, with the bases set wide on his head behind the brows, coming closer together at the midpoint and then heading away from each other again as they moved towards the tips. They like the claws were gray, and would be truly impressive once they lengthened out a bit. Right now he was lucky to see the shape at all with how short they were.

No other frills, spines, horns or spikes were visible, but a tiny line of the same bristle on his lower jaw could be seen trailing from just behind his crown to - and yes he looked back quickly to check - just before the sharp and pointy fleur-de-lis started. All the same length until it got mid back where it was a bit longer like a mohawk, but then it shortened again to the tail. With a little experimentation he discovered that he could either lay them all flat or stand them up like a porcupine.

Harry opened his mouth to see exactly what kind of chompers he had and almost gaped at the positioning of his teeth. Aside from the longer and thicker, closely spaced front bottom teeth, the rest were short and placed much like the teeth of a constrictor snake, none were hollow with holes so he didn't think they would be good for injecting. But even so this would be a massively terrible bite to receive if you didn't have thick scales. Long non-forked tongue like a giraffe and no visible place for venom like sacks or pockets so unless he breathed fire he had no ranged attack. Though there were two tiny little prongs set at the back of his mouth on either side of the roof, like tiny thorns that felt a little metallic and vibrated when Harry ran his tongue across them.

All in all a very fine little dragon, though it was a very odd breed and for some reason Harry got the feeling it was not a natural breed at all. Something just screamed 'made up' at him as he gazed upon this odd sight, like some great being had watched a ton of movies or read too many dragon books and plucked all the good bits off of many different dragons and slapped them down on this one with a flourish. It didn't look bad or poorly designed, just not something he thought would evolve on its own.

'Maybe some godly sort drew it up on a board and said, yes, this is good, lets have this one, it looks cool'

The long tail and neck made for troublesome maneuvering due to the ingrained need to stand up in order to walk about, and Harry fell over again when he backed away from the bucket to observe his surroundings better. The old wizard was sure that the watching humans were no longer silent because of pure awe, but more now out of humor at seeing a small dragon try to stand up and walk as a man does. Though small was not really true, Harry just now noticed he was at least two and a half feet long without that tail, much bigger than Norberta had been when she hatched all those years ago.

It was so weird being something that wasn't human and of course being in a strange environment he was sure wasn't a normal wizarding vessel. He wasn't even sure they were wizards, no wands could be seen, only swords and even a single shot pistol! And it just looked wrong altogether. Harry wished he could have been at least a bit human shaped and had some inkling of where he was and how he got here, then it wouldn't be such a shock all at once.

But even now, with a great panic coming over him about his situation, the instincts of the dragon were trying to assert themselves; it was fine, he was a dragon, and he belonged here. He learned most of what he needed to know in the egg through listening, the rest would come later. That was all there was to it.

But his mind kept going back to the obvious WRONGNESS of this whole issue, the shape change he could live with eventually, he did take a ride in Nagini's brain for a bit with Voldemort when he was a teen, it was the fact that even while he panicked internally and kept his eyes on the outdated (or was he the one temporally misplaced?) people standing watch, he could tell that something even more important than a possible time and body swap had occurred; his magic was gone!

Well no, that's not true, he could still feel something of his magic in him, but it was limited and more concerning than that was the lack of magic he felt in the world as a whole. Being a powerful wizard could allow you feel the ambient magic in the world, and there was a void like aura here in this one. It was totally without magic or at least any kind Harry was familiar with.

It was like a black space where stars used to be. Where he at one point could tell even the faintest touch of magic by the warm buzz that floated around him, now it was as if the world had gone cold and silent; no embers of that comforting feeling were left to be had.

So this whole situation was starting to give Harry a better idea of what kind of mess he was currently in. Having dragons on ships and in an Aerial Corps, especially obviously Muggle ships and Aerial Corps, where normal people interact with dragons on a daily basis almost, with no magic in the air at all...

A movement from the group of watchers had Harry snapping his gaze back to them, eying carefully the 'Mad-Eye Moody' of their number and the device he carried with him. It looked like a mass of leather and metal buckles one might attach to a horse.

DING!

Harry's new brain woke up and understood at the sight of the harness what was to come next, all those different people, the faint memories of before the French (and even during this relatively short trip with said French) suddenly kicked in and the information about the harness, a Captain and the basic duty of all dragons slotted into place. He vaguely remembered getting a taste of the thoughts earlier during his hatching but Harry figured he could be forgiven the forgetting of such just because the the whole event was quite traumatizing. Especially since he was now technically a French dragon which meant, if what he was remembering from the egg was true, he would be under Napoleon.

'Well bother...temporally and dimensionally displaced. And turned into a dragon...lovely' Harry thought, backing up a bit, flailing because he again forgot he couldn't walk upright on his hind legs anymore and bumped into a crate with another egg sitting in it. This crate had the top pulled open, though only just, as if someone had popped it just enough to check the egg inside but not enough to pull it out. The wizard-turned-dragon only took a quick glance inside to see the egg shape and acknowledge its existence, the size and color was very much like Harry's own 'The sibling they spoke of maybe?'

It didn't matter right now if it really was blood related or not. Right now the only thing Harry was focusing on were the no longer quiet people and the approaching 'Moody' wannabe, who was raising the harness up and speaking in a soft voice.

"This will not hurt, I promise. Pray, remain calm, once we put this on then you will be fed. You can even go on deck and see the sky. Now that sounds quite splendid indeed!"

It did actually. Really the whole thing sounded good except for the 'you belong to me and I belong to the government so we're both screwed' thing that the harness represented. The wizard in him balked at being under anyone's thumb again, the dragon part was confused as it had always been told this was a thing to look forward to. The two conflicting parts of him then united and did a stupid thing.

They spoke, because apparently talking dragons were a thing here. Go figure.

"But that means I become your dragon does it not? That I then serve the Emperor?" Harry blurted out without really meaning to, that damn young dragon brain taking over for a second and damning him to sounding like a rebel, causing most of the people around him, save 'Moody' to tilt their heads as if unsure how this idea of serving was a bad thing.

'Moody' (and damn he really needed to know this guy's name and fast!) slowly lowered the harness until a part of it came to rest on the floor with a soft metallic 'clink' and nodded, his face taking on a calculating look. "Yes, that is indeed what this means. Do you not want me? Is that it? Was there another voice you heard in the shell that appealed to your instincts?"

He didn't even sound the least bit upset when he asked, in fact he seemed like it was just business as usual, like such a thing happened so often it wasn't even a problem. Which Harry's new memories supplied was a huge possibility, as some dragons would choose their own Captains even if one had been selected for them. Not always the case, most were happy with the one assigned to them but it did happen that a dragon took to another better than the one the corps put to them.

"It is not you in particular that bothers me, no, it is the idea as a whole that bothers me" he answered, still pressing himself back away from the man with the harness and darting his eyes around for an exit in case things got nasty. One of the crew behind harness man was suddenly looking ill and he whispered to his fellows not quietly enough for Harry's new ears.

"Excellent, we hatched a disloyal feral beast. We will be the laughing stock of the empire if we take it back!"

Something in Harry bristled horribly at the comment and he snarled, curling his very flexible lips and showing his numerous sharp teeth off at the speaker and his groaning friends. He puffed up like he had seen many different breeds of both serpent and dragon in his home dimension, hoping to convey his supreme displeasure to the world, fur and scales standing on end in unison. It worked a bit too well.

All of them made various noises that reached the 'eep' level of sound effects and turned around, high tailing out the room and down a hallway, leaving figurative smoke behind in their hast. Soon it was only 'Moody' and Harry left in the room and the awkward silence made the dragon feel a bout of ridiculous embarrassment for no reason at all in Harry's opinion.

"I am very sorry for snarling at them so, I did not mean to frighten them away! I was just so very angry at being mocked!I am not feral, I simply asked a question! Do you not also have to be loyal to someone first to then be disloyal? I have sworn no vows that I remember." and why did his thought patterns not match his speech? How the hell does that even work? He sounded like some of those old Headmasters on the walls of his office back at Hogwarts. He didn't think that way so why did he speak that way? Perhaps the dragon part of him was just separate enough to have it's own personality? Hopefully that melded with him soon, this felt too much like possessing a body with someone just barely hanging in there poking their mind out to try to take back what is their's every so often.

'Moody' looked stumped at the queries and waved off the apologies with a large hand once he snapped out of his daze. "No, you have done no wrongs dear one, they are the ones who should give the apologies. And yes, it is true that you are to be a dragon in service of the Emperor, it is a grand thing to be sure." the man then held up the harness again and made a motion for Harry to approach. "Pray let us finish this before they spread any lies about you my dear. There is no need to panic the rest of the crew over a silly bit of leather and a misunderstanding"

Well, if all else fails Harry could jump overboard and fly away once he knows how. In no way was he bound to these people, though a sneaky thought - that Harry was sure belonged to the dragon in him - told him that picking a Captain was permanent and yes he would be bound to them. Harry politely reminded it he was a wizard too therefore he wasn't bound to be anyone's war mount thank you very much and could do what he wanted and to kindly shut up.

It didn't but Harry was learning to ignore the little voice that was now outraged at his callous dismissal of what should be an instinctive need. With slightly wet steps through the mucus he had discarded in his escape from the egg, Harry cautiously moved closer to the harness and lowered his head to accept it, making the man holding it sigh softly in what Harry knew to be relief. Just before it landed on him though, the dragon locked eyes with the man and gave him the look that had Auror trainees, Hogwarts students and Dark Wizards (because these baddies earned their capital titles) freezing like deer in the sight of predator.

"But you must know now that even as I allow this harness, that I will never serve anyone. I will work with them, yes of course, as an equal does. I will also take orders if they are right, but I will not serve as one would expect from a servant, I stand as a free being. A dragon is not a slave" and yes Harry was quite proud of being able to use that last line in proper context. He loved the series when it came out on telly, never really having noticed the books till it was long over. Then was amused at the differences between the two; quite an example of 'that happened differently on page'.

Harry wasn't really sure where this sudden need to assert himself came from, as he was in his later years quite a bit more subtle and mellow in going about delicate things as this. This was more a Hermione knee-jerk reaction like with S.P.E.W, and dear Merlin if he didn't suddenly miss his dear friend and sister-in-law terribly at that thought.

The words and tone Harry used had the man looking quite shocked, the trademark look that Harry had bestowed on him during the speech, however, had no effect at all. The respect meter was rising higher but so was the 'oh dear, one of those' meter.

"I understand where you are coming from with your words, though I do not understand quite where you get the notion you are a slave-" andhere Harry cut over him with a smooth retort that even the dragon brain seemed happy to render "It has been pointed out that the Captain owns the dragon, like one owns a horse, or some other form of pet...or a slave. That in turn if you were to serve someone then I too must do so but I would have no choice as you would own me, like property. I would have to follow your lead no matter my own feelings on the subject"

The overall emotion was smugness at getting that out into the open, to challenge this idea that was whispered into the egg. This truth that he, Harry, was suppose to just accept because he was a beast, a thing less than human and so had no rights but what little was afforded to keep the peace.

But the truly dismayed look on the man's face caused Harry to deflate internally, realizing that perhaps not everyone in this era had the same idea. 'Perhaps the voices were the exception instead of the rule? Well I didn't want to hurt his feelings, dear Merlin I feel like a complete tit now'

"The bond between dragon and Captain is so much more than that my dear, I do not know who has been telling you such lies, comparing such a partnership as an aerial pair shares to one of a master and slave, indeed going so far as a mere pet!" here he shook his head and quickly lowered the harness on an unresisting and completely chastised Harry, as if the man thought if he did it quick enough Harry would hold off on any more sensational ideas.

"I am Gregory LaCroix, former Captain of Alexandre, who until recently was retired. Alexandre has passed now, bless his soul, he was my grandfather's dragon and then my father's dragon after him. Then he was mine until the dragon became too old. The corps has decided, in these dire times, to Captain me to another dragon and assigned me to this ship. We are transporting two eggs you see, well one now, and in the case of one hatching before we made landfall, it was thought to be wise to have an Aviator on board."

The man, Gregory, then leaned over to finish buckling the harness on Harry's large frame, tutting the whole time and mumbling about the fact that he was 'rather large for a hatchling, this harness might be a tight fit'. He seemed rather confused about Harry's breed as he was sure the egg the former wizard hatched from was an imperial like it's sibling.

"At least we were told you were, the eggs look the same and the other was said to be a gift for the Emperor himself! Strange that you do not look at all like you should. Perhaps they mislabeled the eggs or there was an aberration in the blood, not that such a thing is exactly terrible of course!" he hastily added at the sharp look Harry tossed him. Gregory then grinned down at the sight Harry made in his much too small harness. "Still a truly fantastic creature, I do not know of another Captain anywhere who can lay such a claim"

The dragon in Harry preened happily at this. The wizard in him struck a regal pose and then felt foolish for being so damn happy about it all. 'Oh well, when in Rome and all that'

A loud thump and some angry shouting from the hallway on the other side of the room brought Harry out of his thoughts and into a fight or flight reaction. He darted from his previous spot next to Gregory straight over to the open crate in the blink of an eye, burying himself under the extra hay as best he could and tossing his egg shell out onto the floor. Peeking out at the intruder with narrowed eyes, nose flaring slightly, lips parted to bring in the air around him. Humorously he didn't feel the need the flick his tongue in the air but he still had the instinct to take a 'taste' by opening his mouth a tad and inhaling sharply.

Harry let the angry words flow over him as Gregory tried to both calm Harry and see to the shouting crewman who was almost on the pair of them.

"English ships are pursuing us! They are gaining quickly and our sails are against us again! We can not get them in working order!"

Well that didn't sound good. English ships was all well and good and would have been gladly welcome, except as of a few moments ago he was a French dragon now and if captured would be a prisoner and not allowed to go anywhere. This would not do at all, no sir not at all. There was a whole world out there that was familiar with dragons, so a dragon flying where ever he pleased to sightsee wouldn't be too horrible a sight. At least he wouldn't be locked up for being seen at any rate, so being thrown where ever it is that POWs are thrown in this time, would certainly put a damper on his plans to explore.

Harry knew they had to figure something out and it was obvious this crewman wasn't a threat. Slowly the shadowed dragon seemingly oozed out of the hay and waddled up to stand next to Gregory once more, tilting his head at the other man in curiosity.

The newcomer looked down at Harry and then laughed at the sight of the harness on the young dragon. "So he is in harness then, good good, we at least have him to look forward to if we make it out of this alive and uncaptured" he then nodded back toward the hallway and motioned at the other crate "If we are fast, we can use the distance between us to cover you making your escape onto the decoy, being smaller and obviously not a warship, they will most likely ignore you in favor of us, at least long enough for you to meet up with the other fleet. I do not know who they have out here right now with the rotation as it is"

That sounded like a plan, but with Harry's luck, it was probably going to go pear shaped rather fast. It would be his sorry luck that the English ship or ships, whichever was the case, would follow the decoy BECAUSE they would think important things would be on it. Then again nothing gained if you don't try.

Gregory nodded sharply and looked Harry over just as the dragon opened his mouth "Is this ship we are on an obvious French navy ship? Or could we pass it off as a merchant, or even a whaling ship and it's escort?"

Both men looked flabbergasted for a moment before Gregory recovered enough to give an answer "This vessel is clearly a Navy ship, but the decoy has no such markings. We could take some of the supplies off this ship and move them back to the other, make it appear we were offloading them to the warship...It is risky, and we should get both yourself and your sibling on board the other first before we try this extravaganzic ploy. It might work if we break away quickly once we notice the approaching ships. Trading ships and crew do not care to get involved in battles and most turn tail at the first sign of violence"

A really good solid plan then. Bet it goes mushy and rotten within a few minutes of enacting it.

Harry nodded more to himself than the Captain and glanced over at the other crate, his eyes wandering over the whole of it and deciding that the egg should be smuggled off without the crate. No sense taking the damn box when the egg is what was important.

"Well, I do not feel all too glad of the thought of being captured by the enemy so early into my life. Perhaps we should go? Though I think the crate should stay, take the egg alone or else we shall be slowed." he said, tilting his head toward the crate while the two men tried to hammer out the details of their escape.

Harry's words only fueled the fire of an already determined Gregory, the man quickly tore the lid from the crate and pulled out the marbled egg, holding it tightly to his front while the other man started helping him wrap it in some sailcloth from the floor. Orders to dump the box overboard as soon as they could came from Gregory and once the egg securing was completed, Gregory made for the hallway and hatch, motioning silently with his head for Harry to follow.

The dragonet did so without hesitance, rushing down the hallway and once in the hall Harry pretty much cut everything but the sliver of daylight ahead out of his memory, only the sun had any right to be noticed after all this filtered light and periodic darkness. It seemed to take ages for the pair of dragon and Captain to make it to the hatch but soon enough Gregory was zipping up it like an expert and Harry followed clumsily with his four funky legs missing a rung sometimes and two awkward wings banging into everything in sight.

Finally he slid onto the deck with a huff of relief and Harry had to take a breather. The sight that met him made his heart ache and fill with horror.

The crew looked like absolute shit. Like every last one of them had been through every version of hell imaginable and managed to finally claw their way back out of the pits, only to find themselves in this new vision of never ending sea, fear, blood, pain and hunger. Not one of them aside from Gregory looked at all well, and now that Harry really looked at his Captain he realized the man was just as bad off as the rest of them. Somehow Harry had missed all the signs during his first few moments of life, not noticed how the six men he saw then, all of which were here now running about doing whatever they needed to do with the supplies for the plan, were all half dead on their feet.

They were all gaunt, pale, or of a color that indicated trouble in a human body, some smelling of a foul oder which might be sick up, perhaps stale piss or an infection. In some cases all three. Some had open sores that were in need of treatment now while others just didn't look like they had much life left in them. And yet they all moved, they all worked, they all did everything possible to get the dragons off the ship and hopefully staying in French hands instead of going to English ones.

And the ship was not so well off either, her sails were a total mess of tangled cloth, pulleys and ropes. The deck had some small patches of old blood and other questionable fluids being rewet by the spray from the sea, which made a rather hazardous situation for the people on the move, it being rather more slick than just the water.

Harry turned his head and stretched his long neck up to look out over toward the horizon where a ship could be seen as nothing more than a dark speck where the sky and sea met. But Harry knew, that through the spy glass that one of the deck hands was using to keep watch on those ships, that it would be a colorful not-speck of English origin, closing fast because their own ship, the Amitie the deckhand supplied helpfully when Harry asked, had not a single sail in working order.

He scrambled over to the side of the deck where people were dropping things over or tying ropes to themselves and jumping, quickly looking over to see the much smaller ship that had a dull 'Don't notice me, I'm boring' look about it. That was the one they were moving to, that was the one that all their hopes were riding on. It wasn't tiny, but it wasn't a warship. She at least still had working sails and Harry was terrible at telling ship types so couldn't say what kind she was. Only that it was definitely capable of moving where as the big girl couldn't.

Gregory came rushing over to Harry with a strained smile, sans egg, and started attaching a rope to the dragonet's harness while murmuring words of encouragement to the dragonet. The wizard turned dragon knew what the next step was but that didn't mean he liked being gently tossed overboard by his Captain and then lowered down to an unknown set of grasping hands. Said hands held him only long enough to get the rope off before he was dropped from waist height and shoved by a booted foot over to a clear spot on the deck out of the way of progress.

Already there was another man dropping on-board deck to take possession of the supplies being hoisted down to him on a plank attached to a rope. Many more men were rappelling the short distance between the two ship heights to the deck of the smaller vessel, some had packs of supplies on their backs, others were strapped all over with everything that could fit on them. They would off load and then jump back to the ropes and climb up to the warship and start the whole process all over again.

There really wasn't all that much to take, many of the Amitie's supplies had been lost, Harry learned, due to a very unfortunate series of events indeed. Sicknesses, holding tanks with holes in them, food going bad... Most of the supplies being loaded back onto the decoy originally belonged to said ship in the first place. It wasn't part of the escort like Harry had previously assumed, this little ship was one they encountered yesterday before the storm and they had been able to get their sails in fairly quickly so didn't suffer any damages like the Amitie did.

Gregory's head popped over the side of the larger ship's rails a few times, mostly to hand off something or another to a waiting deckhand below, but sometimes Harry caught him looking around, only relaxing when he caught sight of the curled up dragon sitting patiently for him to come down and join him. It made a spot in Harry's chest warm significantly, that this man whom had only known Harry a scant few hours, would be so worried about his well being...

Well needless to say Harry was getting quite fond of the soft spoken older gentleman. Though Harry the wizard was obviously much older than Gregory, he still felt happy to have someone watching over him so.

Harry's Captain finally jumped ship, literally, and landed with a hard thump on the deck of the little ship, simply called the Fish, and proceeded to untie the ropes he had been using to control his fall.

"We shall be on our way I should think" he said with a frustrated huff as he fiddled with the stubborn knot around his waist "Though I need to be out of this uniform presently." Gregory made a sound of triumph as the knot finally gave way and the rope plopped to the deck roughly "It would do us no good to go through all of this and give away the game with Aviator's colors."

Harry blinked at the nice purple-blue Aviator's coat Gregory was currently shucking off and handing over to a young man on standby who handed the Captain a dull brown leather looking coat in turn. The older man grunted in acceptance of the new appearance even if it was plainly obvious by the full sneer on his face that the coat was clearly below his station. Harry couldn't see anything wrong with the coat, though maybe it was a Malfoy situation and Harry had trouble with understanding the mindset of such people having never really been such himself.

A few shouts went up from both French crews. Finally they were ready to go.

And so, apparently, were the English.

Harry jumped near out of his skin when a sudden thundering boom followed by a warbling heavy whoosh sounded in the distance. It ended rather quickly with a loud splash not too far away from them and signaled the start of the sea battle by the English. The Fish pulled away from the Amitie as quickly as she could, all hands dancing on both ships decks to the tune of fear and duty as the Amitie returned fire with as many guns as she could with so few people on-board, using the commotion to cover the escape of the Fish.

Gregory grabbed a still startled Harry by the back of his harness and pulled the weakly resisting dragonet down below deck with a sharp "Stay out of sight or you'll be picked off" Harry didn't argue as his Captain rushed off to help the crew with the fleeing, instead he poked his head into a couple of the rooms he now had access to in order to find a window that looked out onto the battle. It took him almost fifteen minutes to locate it - even though there weren't that many windows - due to the constant direction changing of the Fish but by then the ship had again turned enough that he would have to find another soon. The battle wasn't going at all well for the French from the looks of it. Already the Amitie was proving to be too easy a prey for the English ship Reliant, her sad state was made worse by the closing ship's guns and even with the distance between her and the Fish, it was clear she was going to be taken soon.

And only moments later while Harry watched a new flag be hoisted, a howl of anger and sorrow went up as the crew of the Fish announced the Amitie's fate. Harry himself didn't know how to feel. On one hand they were part of the crew who was there when he was hatched and had not only worked themselves damn near to death to make sure he was safe during his egg time, but also to get him out of there when it was obvious that shit was going down after he hatched. But on the other hand Harry didn't know a single one of them beyond a face and voice.

It was a strange moment to observe the shrinking ship outside the tiny window, now flying different colors than before and know that he could still be there in the middle of all that strife if they hadn't fought so hard to make it not so. He eventually settled on righteous anger, some part of him, the dragon he figured, was very upset that his crew, even if they were a ship's crew, had been taken by the enemy.

"They gave us the time we needed, dear one. Their sacrifice will not go unacknowledged"

Gregory's voice from behind him was a welcome distraction from the sad chaos in the distance and Harry pulled himself away from the window with a heavy sigh.

He took this moment to really look upon the man who was his Captain now. The man standing in the doorway looked to be under six foot tall, and although he was lean, he did have some rather wide set shoulders. Eyes were either light blue or blue gray, Harry wasn't sure in the current lighting, but held a certain predatory intelligence one expects from someone who deals with strategy a lot. Gregory was middle aged, maybe, Harry couldn't tell because Hermione had pointed out that times were harder on Muggles in the past and many looked much older than they really were. But even so he wasn't letting himself deteriorate like some people Harry had known (looking at you Vernon).

Short cropped, light brownish blonde hair sat proudly on his head, though he did have a receding hairline that gave him a bit more forehead than the other people Harry had seen here so far. The man had a few days worth of facial hair growth that was being well kept even in these turbulent times. The hair on his face was a shade darker than the hair on his head, perhaps the lighter tone was due to being exposed to sunlight more often?

His sunken face and dark under eyes were troubling to view though. Both dragon and wizard felt anguish at the sight of the Captain's obvious illness, and hoped that land or friendly ships would be in the near future if only to see their new friend start to get healthy again.

With a soft chuff of affection Harry walked over to Gregory, unconsciously seeking out his Captain for some kind of reassurance that all would be well. He butt his bulky head up on the man's upper thigh and hip, startling a soft laugh from the Captain, who in response reached down to rub the soft gray bristles on Harry's crown. A deep rumbling noise not unlike a large cat's purr emitted from the happy dragonet, the sound bounced off the wooden walls and filled the room with a soothing effect.

"How long until we reach land?" Harry asked in a rumbling voice, still somehow making that purring sound through his words.

Gregory looked a bit worried at the query and actually shrugged a bit, something he had started doing only after Harry had done it a few times. It was amusing really, as Harry knew people of any standing in this era didn't shrug, not unless you were a street thug and even then the shrug was used sparingly. Gregory appeared to be mimicking Harry unknowingly. "I do not know. We are hoping to meet with another of our fleets. If we try for land directly we could run afoul of some other English ships. We need protection dearly for we only have ten guns on the Fish"

Well that sucked greatly. Harry was sure something this size should have more, maybe even close to what the Amitie had and if not then only a few guns shy of it. But then again they may have put the others on the Amitie, could they even do that? Harry wasn't sure but it bothered him something fierce to be on a ship this large with less guns than the English had.

"Goodness, I have only just remembered! You must be hungry! Pray, forgive me..." here Gregory seemed to hesitate for a moment before taking a deep breath to steady himself. It was obvious that although he had been a dragon's Captain before and perhaps had in his life seen a good number of harnessing, he had never really thought he would have to take care of a young dragonet himself. He seemed very lost on what the next step should be as this was anything but a normal, controlled harnessing.

"And perhaps I can give you a name?" his voice was even softer now and Harry got the distinct impression that the man was unsure of himself being able to give a good and proper name to such a magnificent creature.

Harry dearly wanted to blurt out that he already had a name that he was very attached to but... the dragon in him whispered this was important, this step had more meaning to it than just something to call the dragon for the rest of its life. It was part of the bond and Harry felt that if he denied this request, something of their relationship would forever be broken, unable to be mended no matter how many years and how close they got. So he tried to look unconcerned and shrugged his head from the man's petting hand gently.

"If you like" he said with an air of disinterest, gazing down at the claws of one of his forepaws, lifting the limb up closer to his face in order to inspect the murder tools better.

Gregory, however, was no fool it seems as his mouth twitched in a small knowing smile at the dragonet's apparent indifference to such an important task. He reached out again to cup the dragonet's head in both hands, crouching down to look him in the eyes from a closer level, rather than tower over the much smaller creature.

"Julien, from Julianus...for the storm that herald your arrival into this world" Gregory murmured with a soft smile that finally reached his eyes.

It felt like a bolt of electricity ran down Harry's spine as his Captain named him. Not just because of the dragon either, more because of what the name represented; lightning marked him in his youth as a wizard on his brow, now it appeared storms would mark him in this new life.

Somehow, that fact didn't bother the wizard as much as it probably should have.

AN:

Okay so that's chapter 1, chapter 2 will be a tiny time skip, then chapter 3 will be a large time skip so as to get to the true action without killing character building. Chapter 2 is mostly written and will be posted in a few weeks if all things go well in the proof reading and nothing major in real life pops up again. I don't know when chapter 3 will go up. I'm hoping to make these chapters huge so that there are less chapters in each book but still a long read.

They won't all be the same size but they should still be fairly large compared to my old chapters.

So for those who are curious about the series and what crossovers are involved, and don't mind a little spoiling, here are the tentative titles and possible crossovers (the order which they appear I mean, the crossovers are gonna happen, I may just decide to swap one to another slot)

Thunder God Series:

Book one, Rise: Temeraire/Harry Potter (Set in Temeraire Verse) You are here.

Book two, The Darkest Fall: Temeraire/Harry Potter/Inheritance Cycle (Set in Inheritance Verse)

Book three, The Shadow Gates: Temeraire/Harry Potter/Inheritance Cycle/ASOIAF/GoT (Set in Game of Thrones Verse)

Book four, The Black King, Temeraire/Harry Potter/Inheritance Cycle/ASOIAF/GoT/LOTR (Set in Lord of the Rings Verse)

It depends on how the stories map out and if I can find one that fits in the slots but I plan on making at least seven books. But more may happen depending on time and interest from myself once the series takes off.

Mostly I'm keeping to verses with dragons in them or would be a good match for dragons though I'm gonna have to do a miss on anime worlds. Mostly because I couldn't do them justice but also because most anime is very heavy in extreme kinds of magic and things that seem a little far fetched or just plain odd and it could become a bit much with all the crossover stuff already in the mix.

Not bashing guys, I love me some good anime, its just not gonna be good for the crossovers I have planned.

As you may have guessed, seeing the crossovers really crossover like that XD It means that Someone or more than one someone will be coming with Harry from each Verse. Endgame is that Harry has a group of friends that will be with him during his Verse hopping, as I plan to make the baddies hard for Harry to fight, so he's gonna need friends to deal with em. I'm hoping to make the big bads actually nasty enough for their titles instead of...well, a let down like some. Also, my version of Voldemort was way more powerful and cruel than the book or TV versions of him in canon, just so you get an idea of what kind of baddie Harry was used to. My Voldemort basically just delved in the darkest shit he could find and had loads of fun using it whenever the opportunity arose.

This is not a GODLIKE UBER HARRY AND FRIENDS STOMP ALL THE BADGUYS series, this is a slow burn power build with Harry being thrown from one place to the next just after he thinks he has that world figured out. There is a reason for his world jumping and IT WILL be explained in the series eventually...But not for a bit.

Most of my books of all the series I have here for crossovers are still halfway across the country in storage (In the case of ASOIAF, all of the books are in storage) so I'm not able to fact check to get all the little cool bits right so please forgive any mistakes with timelines or events and give me a shout if you notice something not right that isn't explained as changed because of Harry or something.