'Dragons, why does it always have to be demons or dragons?' Harry's thoughts were the only thing that distracted him from the stupidness of his potential actions, stepping into the cave with a trembling Nash'ala at his side.

"Harry, are you sure this is a good idea? Shouldn't we have gotten some reinforcements? I mean, if this is a true dragon as you say then they are powerful enough to destroy small armies by themselves..." To give the Naga credit she hadn't taken the out he had given her at the cave entrance, after all as long as it was the large dragon in charge Harry now had another translation charm that he could use temporarily if his other plan didn't work.

"And if the dragon can do that, I would prefer not to worry about the dragon thinking we are here to kill it with the allies we bring. No, best to do this with the two of us, just stay right by me so that I can apparate us out of here if I need to..." Nash'ala nodded and Harry could feel the trust emanating from her despite her fear, though she did surprise him slightly when she grasped his free hand in her own.

"There, now it should be ea..." Nash'ala was cut off by a deep and echoing roar from further inside the cave, her face paling even as she gripped his hand tightly.

"The dragon... It knows we approach. 'Come human, I know you have sensed me. Don't make me come to you...'" So the dragon could talk, whilst this could make things easier for him to work out the dragon's motives, it also made it infinitely more dangerous than the dragons from his own world.

Talking belied intelligence, and given the now almost oppressive magical presence on his psyche, Harry knew that such intelligence meant that the dragon knew it was powerful and how to use said power. Still there was no outright hostility he could sense yet, boredom and impatience featuring prominently in one of the most complex emotional ranges he had ever sensed.

"Well, let us not keep the dragon waiting. Are you sure you are okay with this Nash'ala? It's not too late..." She nodded but didn't say anything else as he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

They were almost through the cavern that seemed to be an entrance to a cave complex, several smaller passages breaking off from the main tunnel through which they could see light, pale though it is. It took another minute for the pair of them to finish traversing the tunnel, which opened up into a large cavern that was at least 30 metres high, the light they had seen earlier pouring in from an area on the right of the cave, which seemed to be where the cavern breached the surface once more.

"Harry, the eggs..." Harry knew what she was trying to imply, the dozens if not hundreds of eggs that littered the room in semi organised clutches an obvious indication of the dragon's sex, assuming that they were anything like his dragons.

Harry was more concerned by the area of darkness at the back of the cave, it was where he could sense the dragon's magic and the light entering the cave should mean that he should be able to see at least something inside those shadows. Almost as if she had heard him there was a trembling on the ground, followed by another as his eyes finally caught the movement he had been anticipating, though he couldn't help what must have been a look of shock on his face as he saw how large the dragon actually was.

"Hungarian Horntail, you have just been demoted to oversized lizard..." This dragon was easily three or four feet taller than the Horntail he had fought in the Triwizard tournament and much more heavily built, horns on her head twice the size of Harry if not more so. It moved forward with the kind of confidence that only came with proven arrogance, black scales shifting almost silently against each other as feelings of amusement shifted across it's mind.

"Harry!" Nash'ala's panicked hiss was joined by her grip on his hand becoming painful in it's intensity, the Naga almost frozen in terror as she tried to hiss more to him.

"B-black dragon, Onyxia..." Harry looked a little confused, obviously the colour of the dragon was meant to mean something, as was the name but given his lack of Azerothian knowledge he was a bit stumped.

"Nash'ala calm down! What is it about this Onyxia that has you so concerned? Should we..." This time it was Harry who was drowned out by the dragon, a deep laugh punctuated with several small bursts of fire from the thing's nose reverberating round the chamber before the now named Onxyia spoke.

"Oh little human, I am surprised by the fact you do not know me by name. If you didn't already interest me by speaking the dragon tongue, that would have kept me from killing you for the moment... After all, given my past actions with humans, I thought there was quite the price on my head and that any sighting of my kind was synonymous with my deeds." So Parseltongue could act as draconic in Azeroth? That would have been useful to know about five minutes ago.

Seeing Nash'ala cast him a confused glance obviously she couldn't understand draconic, so with a sigh Harry did his best to sound confident as he tried to explain the fact Onyxia could understand him without needing Nash'ala to translate.

"She can understand Parseltongue Nash'ala and I can understand her, so I won't need you to translate for me as we first thought. Do you wish to head back?" The offer was obviously tempting to the Naga but in the end she shook her head and merely slithered back slightly, in an obvious sign of deference to the dragon in front of her.

"Interesting, so you have a bound Naga with you to translate for you. I can only assume that means you do not speak the common tongue, as the Naga do not have any other useful languages, other than the one you seem to speak to us both in. A language that can speak to both Naga and dragons as if it were their own language... I might yet refrain from devouring you if you keep making yourself this interesting human..." The dragon was eyeing him with more and more interest each second, taking another step forwards and lowering her head even as he wondered what she meant by Nash'ala being bound. Harry had to admit he stiffened at the movement and raised his wand slightly subconsciously, bringing forth another burst of amusement from Onyxia.

"As much as I would like to see your magic fight against my own in battle, I think we both know that I would crush you fairly quickly human, you are in my domain now." Obviously she didn't know about his Earth affinity then Harry thought. But she was right, in a straight up fight she could just overpower him given how much magic she had available to her. Not that he would fight fairly of course, but if the dragon was prepared to be peaceful for now, then so would he.

"Good, you are not as stupid as the rest of your kind would make you seem. Now human, I think you should explain to me why you came to my home by yourself, most people dare not approach a whelp by themselves and I know you could sense my power long before you arrived..." Given the way the dragon had acted thus far, Harry could tell that she was using him to alleviate her boredom as much as she was actually interested in what he had to say.

'Better make myself as interesting as possible then. I can find out why a dragon this powerful is hiding out in the middle of a godforsaken swamp, pretty much by herself, later...' Given Nash'ala's fear of Onyxia and the dragon's own words, Harry could tell that this was the kind of dragon that would carry out her earlier threat of eating him without a second thought, another dangerous fact to add to his growing mental bestiary page for these Black dragons.

"Well, I think I should first introduce myself to you and give you a bit of information as to why I am quite different to the humans you have encountered on this world Onyxia, it will help you understand why I require Nash'ala here to translate for me most of the time. It will also make it clear why I did not recognise you upon sight as you seemed to expect..." At Onyxia's nod, that seemed to imply both permission and a demand for him to hurry along, Harry quickly began to speak.

He was now quite adept at explaining about the Terran's and their plight, though he kept talk about their numbers and location on Azeroth quiet for the moment. Given Onyxia's 'slightly' hostile attitude and seeming desire to 'test' his magical abilities, that information may spell trouble for them later, if she did decide she wanted to have a proper battle or just to wipe them out. Onyxia's boredom had long since faded, and was replaced by a mixture of interest and what could only be described as derisive pity, something she made clear when she interrupted his discussion about the end of the Burning Legion's invasion.

"Did the Titans not leave your world with any defences against the legion? Where were the Dragons you had told me you encountered during your childhood? Even a dozen of them would have made quite the difference in your fight..." It was strange Harry had to admit, the question could easily be taken as a supremacist attitude mixed with a opinion that the Terran's had been weak, but it instead felt like she was trying to link his world to her own in some way.

"The only Titans that I know of had been part of Terran mythology more than 2000 years ago, defeated by a group of 'gods' that I think were just powerful mages. So I doubt they were the same Titans you speak of. And the dragons of my world were nowhere near as powerful or intelligent as you, certainly none of them that I know of were capable of speaking or using their innate magic..." Onyxia's face twisted slightly and Harry was worried he had said the wrong thing, but then she gestured off to the side where four much smaller dragons were stood, occasionally snapping at each other out of obvious impatience.

"Sound rather like my 'guards' that my beloved brother has given me, it is almost as if he wishes me to go mad with boredom and go on a rampage given how stupid they are... Not that I would do such a thing human, so don't look at me like that. The last thing I need right now is to so brazenly gather the attention of the world after my previous work."

"Not that I wish to seem to uninformed, but this is the third time that you or Nash'ala have referenced events that I have no idea about. Perhaps you would do me the honour of elaborating slightly so that I can better understand?" Onyxia looked at him almost as if she were confused, before gesturing at Nash'ala.

"Would you not prefer to have your little servant explain to you what she knows?" There was a strange trepidation in Onyxia's voice at this, Harry could tell that for whatever reason the dragon was not used to having her word taken as it was. Deciding to see what a little faith might produce as well as to warn her of his emotion sensing abilities, Harry shook his head before doing his best to smile lightly at her.

"I prefer to hear things from the people who were directly involved, you have yet to try and deceive me with anything you have said thus far from what I can sense. So why should I not get your perspective, rather than a third or fourth hand account?" It was subtle, small enough that he almost didn't catch the slightest of grins that came over Onyxia's face, before she sat down with a heavy thud and roared to her guards.

"Leave us, make sure no one can disturb us until I tell you otherwise. Not even my brother should he 'deign' to visit me for once." This was obviously a big deal to the other dragons as they seemed ready to object, though Onyxia sent them on their way very quickly with a gout of flames.

"They think I do not know that they report everything I do to my brother, this undoubtedly will get back to him as well but that is not a concern. Nefarian cares only for the eggs and the power they will bring him, which is why he sends guards even if he can't persuade me to join him in his blackened hellhole of a domain. But until he manages to get another female black dragon to grow to maturity without being eaten by her kin, leaving to start her own plans or killed trying to plot against him there is no fall back option for him. Still, you wished to know of my history Terran and I imagine my familial matters are not of concern or interest to you. What do you know about the Sundering of this world?" Nefarian would be Onyxia's brother Harry presumed, and from the sounds of it there was little love lost between them.

So for the next two hours Onyxia spoke of the history of Azeroth and her place in it, Harry deciding quite quickly to use the translation charm Susan had taught him so that Onyxia could speak in common, otherwise Nash'ala would have been bored stiff. The charm was a less versatile and effective version of the rune supported link he and Nash'ala shared, requiring more power to apply, especially against a creature with Onyxia's innate magic resistance, and could only be used on someone a certain number of times before it lost it's effectiveness.

Harry was surprised to hear of the sheer number of world shattering events that have occurred or nearly occurred on Azeroth, many of them due to or influenced by members of the black dragonflight, he could now understand Nash'ala's almost instinctual fear as Onyxia described her father's fall into madness and the slaughter that followed. Onyxia's role seemed to be very passive in the fighting, only occasionally having to kill groups of adventurers that came after her, in revenge for her flight's actions.

But seeing as he could detect no deceit when he asked her to clarify that she had not actively taken part in the war, he decided to take her word for now. Onyxia was a schemer and a consummate plotter and she made that clear from the start, telling stories of how she would infiltrate the various races of the world and plot and scheme her way through their ranks. Given her earlier boredom and impatience, Harry got the feeling that she did such plots to give her something to do other than hide away from those who hate the black dragons, of which there were more than enough.

"I do not claim to be 'misunderstood' or whatever rhetoric I could try and use to make you a compassionate pawn of mine, I will be honest with you Terran as I have been all this time. You mortals have such a short life span that to me the rise and fall of your kingdoms are often just a minor distraction, whether I intervene to help sustain it or to bring it down matters little in the scheme of my life. Though since the Legion's return I have made a few mistakes that will irritate me for some time..."

"I am surprised to hear you speak of mistakes, many immortal beings that I have encountered are very prideful in their belief they can do little wrong. What happened?" She growled at him slightly for his amused comment, though it was a lot less intimidating now that she had transformed into a regal looking and rather buxom raven haired woman after Harry had offered to cast the translation charm on her.

"There was, no there is, a human Kingdom on the other continent of Azeroth known as Lordaeron. Just after the invasion of the Orcs in their first war on Azeroth, I decided to integrate myself into the Kingdom, despite everything that my flight has done I do not want to see this world fall to the Legion and their minions." Her tone became quite cold at this point, and Harry got the feeling that the anger that he could feel was very much aimed at someone who was still alive at this point and had probably accused her of just that.

"So I went to work as Lady Katrana Prestor, daughter to a house that my father had created as an alias. I worked with the King to create the first true Alliance, which then retook the lands the Orks had managed to take, including the city of Stormwind and the lands that went with it. During this time I met the young Prince who was to inherit the throne of Stormwind, Varian Wrynn. And considering the damage done to the city and the surrounding areas when the Orcs razed the place along with the general incompetence of his nobles and advisors, I offered to accompany him back to Stormwind to help rebuild." There was more to this than she was saying, even Harry could work that out, but she was talking now with the kind of passion that is difficult to fake, even more so given his abilities.

"During the rebuilding I saw the opportunity to force Varian to rid himself of the worst of these nobles without him coming off as an oppressive king, as well as a chance for me to harden him into something less idealistic and naive as he was in the days of relative peace after the second war. I manipulated the council of nobles into ripping the stonemasons off, who had been fundamental in rebuilding Stormwind. And they naturally started rioting to make their displeasure known, whilst Varian was off on one of his trips to the other areas of his kingdom."

"Varian comes back, pacifies the rioters without or with very little violence, becomes the hero of the people and further cemented in his power base. This then allows him to lessen the power of the nobles without substantial backlash as they are the ones who nearly caused a civil war?" Surprisingly Nash'ala was the one to offer this guess at Onyxia's plan, the young Naga flushing slightly as both of them turned to look in her direction.

"Not far off, but I overplayed my hand with the second part of the plot, which was to have the rioters threaten the royal family. This should have forced Varian to take a firmer handle on the situation and be more decisive in putting the riots down, growing a backbone for the future." The 'but' was almost palpable as Onyxia paused for breath, Harry couldn't feel sadness but there was a certain level of regret in her voice as she spoke once more.

"But my agent, either due to incompetence or his own personal agenda, went too far and the rioters ended up killing Varian's young Queen." The pieces began to fall into place for Harry at this new information, Onyxia's words about humans making a lot more sense now even as she continued.

"Varian and I had managed to subdue most of the previous riots before that point but after the Queen's death things escalated too quickly for me to stop. Varian fell into a depression that I could not pull him out of even with my magic and one of the stonemason leaders, Edwin Vancleef who was also my agent, fled the city with many of his supporters to start up a criminal organisation known as the Defias brotherhood."

"But how does this, and correct me if the things are unrelated, lead to you hiding in a cave on the other side of the world? Even with the Queen's death I doubt that you were involved in anyway that could lead back to your alias, especially with your ability to change form as you can obviously do." Onyxia looked at him with the kind of disbelief that could only be generated when someone believes a story that the teller was expecting to be laughed at for.

"Y-you actually believe me when I say that I didn't want the Queen dead? And though not directly related it was at that point that I realised I was not the only one who was trying to subtly influence the future of Stormwind. Someone clever enough to use my unmasking as a dragon as the excuse for every wrong or bad event to have occurred in Stormwind since the Second War and beyond. I wouldn't be surprised if there are still things that I get blamed for there, and I haven't returned in almost 10 years..." Someone clever and devious enough to outwit a dragon, as well as lead the people of Stormwind to dance to their unknown tune, not good news for Harry to have for his future travels there.

That was if Onyxia was telling him the truth of course, Harry knew well enough from dealing with people like Blaise that there were more than enough ways to lie that could befuddle or just bypass his abilities. But he had a name to follow up on now, even if he didn't want to try asking Onyxia to submit to some veritaserum, this Vancleef sounded like a much, much easier way of confirming the story one way or another.

"You do realise I will need to verify this Onyxia, my people have ways of making sure that people's accounts are all they say they are."

"You claim such magic Terran, such enchantments and abilities were rare even before the Sundering here. I would need you to explain the tests before I submit to them of course. Whilst you seem to give my story far more understanding than I could have honestly expected, it has also given you quite the valuable reason to wish me ill at the same time. My head would definitely make you a hero in Stormwind and the other Alliance nations, and therefore your people's arrival to this place much simpler."

The offer was unexpected and honestly Harry was surprised she would even broach the subject, but perhaps having someone believe you, even tentatively after being accused of so much can make someone more open to compromise, even a black dragon.

"I will do so at some later time, I do not have the items required with me and I will need to wait for the rest of my people to come across to this world for me to be able to acquire them. So the next question I suppose, is where do we stand with each other? I assume that we have moved past the whole you trying to eat me thing now?"

"Ha, you are obviously not one for subtlety Lord Potter, and consider this free advice before you look at me like that, lest you tempt me into trying to eat you again. The humans have a penchant for titles and other such meaningless hereditary methods of retaining power. Going to them as a lord or some other titled leader will make your position stronger than approaching in the same manner you did with me."

"I notice that you did not answer the question Onyxia, or is it just the fact that your guards have returned which prevents you from answering?" Harry's observation brought focus back to the four large drakes, who seemed surprised that he had noticed their return despite their ponderous and earthshaking footsteps.

"I told you not to disturb me fools, or do I need to remind you of MY power..." It happened so quickly that Harry had looked away to focus on the guards for a moment, only to be bathed in the hot breath of a fully grown Onyxia as she transformed back.

The guards did not seem overly worried by Onyxia's threat, though the malevolence directed at him and Nash'ala was almost palpable in it's intensity. The largest of them, who had a large scar running down the left hand side of it's face, scoffed and gestured with a long razor sharp claw at Harry.

"We listen to your brother not you Onyxia, and he has us here to protect the future whelps of our flight until they are ready for his attention. This human is a threat to our future plans and Nefarian has said he is to be eliminated, so that he cannot tell others of this haven. So stand aside breeder and we shall deal with what you evidently cannot..." Harry almost felt sorry for the guard dragons as his insults riled Onyxia up to the point that flames burst from her nozzles with each breath, but this was an opportunity to earn some extra points with the brood mother and he wasn't one to refuse an opportunity to miss such a chance.

"I think they have underestimated me Lady Onyxia, and I do hate people underestimating me. I know that you wish to deal with them yourself for their insolence, but I think you do not wish to anger your brother for killing your guards, no matter how much they deserve it." Even as he spoke, Harry started to channel earthen magic beneath him, a magical aura quickly covering his form even as he remotely activated Nash'ala's portkey, he could apologise for it later.

"How about I show them why their arrogance is misplaced..." Gryffindor's sword in one hand and the elder wand in the other, Harry let out a grin he rarely got to unleash any more, one that promised pain even as diamond armour shifted up from the ground to cover him.

Whether Onyxia would have replied or not Harry didn't know as the smallest of the dragons shot forwards as his armour settled in place, maw open and fire spewing forth to consume him. Before the legion invasion a fully sized dragon attacking him would have unnerved Harry, but now he merely raised his wand with a grin on his face.

"Conjunctivitis!" The blinding spell slammed into the dragon as Harry apparated out of the way of the flames, the dragon not even trying to dodge the spell. It regretted that a moment later as it's eyes swelled up and inflamed, the spell powerful enough to overcome the resistance of the dragon.

As Onyxia didn't know about his earth powers yet, Harry didn't want to give anything away despite her lack of pointed hostility thus far, so it was time to revert to a more 'vanilla' method of combating large creatures. Luckily it was something he had quite a lot of experience with, twisting his wand in a complex pattern as he chanted under his breath for a moment, finishing with a burst of power that alerted all the black dragons to where he had actually gone.

Metal chains, each link thicker and longer than Harry's chest, sprung from the ground and wrapped themselves around three of the four dragons, the golden runes carved into each chain glowing brightly as they began to suck the magic out of the dragons. It was a little practised skill due to the risks involved, but in transfigurations and other visually based spells, if the caster could envision runes on whatever they were transfiguring and provide the power cost then runes could be directly imprinted without the need to add them physically.

In this case the runes Harry had envisioned were the norse runes for magical leeching and strength, the magic removed from the dragons would then be used alongside Harry's own initial input to strengthen the chains to the point the dragons wouldn't be able to break free, something he had been taught by the goblins in preparation for his attack on Azkaban in case the Darkwing dragon caused him trouble or he wanted to capture a large demon for questioning

The scarred dragon was the only one to escape, sending itself aloft with a single swing of it's mighty wings to avoid the chains that flailed ineffectually in his direction. The dragon swooped over towards Harry with incredible speed for its size, firing several small fireballs in an obvious attempt to hem Harry in place so that it could then crush him with it's bulk. With no desire to be stood anywhere near dragon fire, even if it hadn't been aimed directly at him, Harry apparated to the other side of the room once more.

So began a game of cat and mouse, Harry jumping between different points of the room and unleashing spells and conjured weapons at the black dragon whilst Onyxia looked on with obvious amusement. Whilst Harry was slightly tired from the continual apparitions and spell casting, he looked a lot better than the scarred dragon who was suffering several wounds primarily to his wings and belly from transfigured weapons, staring across the chamber at Harry with undisguised hate.

The other dragons were now subdued, their magic removed to the point their movements were sluggish at best, reduced to spectators as Onyxia finally spoke once more.

"Enough! This human has proved that you cannot complete either of your assigned tasks adequately! I have had to protect the eggs from several of your attacks, despite the human deliberately not going anywhere near them! And given how quickly this one human subdued most of you, I doubt you will fair much better if a host of Stormwind does come looking for vengeance." So she caught onto that, always good to see his acts being noticed, especially as it painted him in a very good light.

"You dare try and order..." The scarred dragon got no further as Harry saw Onyxia act seriously for the first time since he had entered the cavern system, moving so quickly the scarred dragon barely reacted before she slammed him into the ground with her forearms.

"I do not try whelp, I tell you what to do and you will do it! Just because my brother gave you orders to watch me does not mean that you become my keepers..." Onyxia paused and she locked eyes with the scarred dragon and Harry suspected that whatever she perceived in the dragon's gaze was not what she wanted to hear as she bodily threw the dragon away from her.

"Get out! And tell my brother that should he try and cage me again, I will come and take my anger out on his hide personally!" So, Harry's suspicion that the guards weren't there merely to guard against intruders might be closer than he thought, though he was surprised that Onyxia let other dragon go rather than killed him as he would have suspected.

"Let them go terran, I want them out of here as fast as possible, the sight of them sickens me more each second. Then I suggest you leave as well before I truly lose my temper." At Onyxia's growled warning/threat, Harry quickly began the spell to undo that held the other three dragons in place, just because they had tried to kill him didn't mean he felt they deserved the wrath of Onyxia.

"You could have easily killed them, even Firaxion for all his posturing. Perhaps I underestimated you terran..." Onyxia's words brought Harry up short, even as the other drakes fled as fast as their depleted energy would allow them.

"As could you, in fact I am surprised that you did not tear him to pieces for what he has said and done..." His question of why she didn't kill this Firaxion was one he felt was better left implied, given what he knew of dragons in general they were very proud creatures and something such as mercy would almost definitely be viewed as a weakness.

"He will probably not live beyond reporting back to my brother regardless, he does hate it when his 'secret' plans are revealed, but... Regardless, I will now need to be prepared, though they were my brother's pawns they were at least still defending my clutch whilst I slept. I will not have that luxury until my brother now sends some replacements. Farewell Harry Potter, perhaps next time you come to me you can show me your earthen magic skills you have tried so hard to hide from me..." Onyxia was definitely not one to reveal her secrets easily as she once again avoided his question, but the offer of another visit showed that she didn't think of him as hostile at least.

The fact that she somehow knew about his Earthen magic surprised him, but his diamond armour had probably been enough of a hint. So Harry found himself in a conundrum, Onyxia had shown considerable honesty to him, or at least had used enough white lies that the truth was far closer to her narrative than it was anything else. But if she had pissed the humans of this world off as much as she claimed she had, then 4 black dragons flying away from the cave would catch the wrong sort of attention, especially with the amount of magic they had unleashed during their brief fight.

So Harry knew if he left things as they were then more people would die, either Onyxia and her clutch, whichever attackers came to investigate or both, and until he could investigate further he could not in good conscience let that happen. His hero persona kicking in, Harry turned back with slight resignation that he could in fact be doing a deal with devil at this stage.

"Onyxia, if I were to make this place much harder to find for those who might come looking for you, would you agree to a deal?" The black dragon matriarch didn't react outwardly but her emotions shifted to confusion, suspicion and... hope?

"It depends what this deal would cost me, and what protections you would offer to put in place. Whatever barrier you would use would just highlight my presence here and would fall eventually..." The idea of a straight up defensive barrier hadn't even crossed Harry's mind, perhaps it was his time at hogwarts but Harry and the others had spent quite some time coming up with his own ways of protecting things...

A/N: The big Onyxia meeting has happened at last! I am hoping that everyone won't immediately grab the pitchforks given what I have done, but I will be honest and say I don't particularly care if some people don't like my portrayal of Onxyia's situation.

Lot's of dialogue this time and I hopefully have avoided the usual trap of 'Harry meets someone and somehow manages to get them to like him straight away.' Onyxia is curious about him and what he has said definitely interests her, but by no means does she trust him...

What defences might Harry have in mind for Onyxia, I have something already planned but I am interested to see what you guys can think of...

Review and let me know what you think guys!