I do not own nor possess any right over Harry Potter and World of Warcraft, all rights belongs to their rightful owners.
AN: So I've waited the end of the week-end to have a couple of reviews and almost everyone asks for a sort of daily/weekly release. So that's what I'm going to do.
I'll release a chapter on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Three chapters a week looks good to me but please comment if it should be slower or faster, I'm interested in what your opinion may be.
Also, I'm very thankful to those who have given back comments and feedback, so keep it coming.
Just something that I forgot in the first AN, I started writing this before the Dragonflight expansion came out so stuff that happens in the story may not fit with what happened after it started. The story is quite straightforward so don't expect big schemes or I don't know what, it's more of a relaxing story for you just like it is for me.
Thank you for your patience and good reading.
Crossing the little chain of mountain that separated Harry from the large forest spreading till the horizon took more time than she expected, almost half an hour spent flying straight when she finally reached the first trees.
Flying as a dragon had far more advantages than when she was human. She was completely impervious to the temperature changes, the few birds that roamed the sky didn't even dare come close to her and the massive flaps done by her wings gave her a feeling of power. Sure, she wasn't as fast as a Nimbus 2000 but the feeling of flying by herself was so much more worth it.
But even these great sensations did not help alleviate her mind from all that happened since she woke up. She was still a dragon, still female and still lost in an unknown land. She would need to either find someone willing to speak with her or at least a map to figure out where she was, for it felt like this was not her world anymore. The landscape was completely different, the trees and the mountain themselves felt different and there was a feeling in the air, a magical presence unlike any that she ever felt before.
It probably was the case when she woke up, but her panicked mind had been too occupied to notice it and now she could only marvel at how much magic saturated the world. Everything around her echoed about magic, even the very plants and the earth. Like if the world itself was filled with magic.
This pushed Harry to try calling on her magic once more, even if she was never talented into wandless magic, but this proved fruitless. The only thing she got was that the magic in her had changed, not too surprisingly, and it was now far wilder, as well as hot. Like a flame moving in all directions. It wasn't out of reach, she could feel it but for some reason her magic refused to obey her, almost as if it was partly sentient, which it normaly wasn't.
Overall, this short time spent flying didn't provided much for her thoughts, only that it confirmed that she had changed not only on the surface but also inside. Never had she heard of anything capable to change one's magic into another. You could destroy one, weaken or empower one but changing its fundamentals were unheard of.
But now was the time to focus back on reality. Looking down from her high point of view, she looked for two things in priority: first a source of water to drink and see herself and second a place to hide. There was no doubt that dragons were seen as dangerous creatures here too if the reactions from the people she met earlier were the normal ones. Hiding would probably be a necessity.
She must have been a solid five hundred meters high in the air so most of the ground was revealed to her, at least all that wasn't hidden by the canopy. A first sort of massive chapel was standing in a little closed valley, with half of its ground burned and she could see some sort of humanoid creatures mixed with an ugly wolf roaming around, fought by a few soldiers in armour and even one or two people wearing simple cloths and armed with the crudest wooden hammer she ever saw.
This was nothing to the shock of seeing a woman wearing a simple deep purple dress and a staff literally throwing fireballs at one of these creatures.
"What? How?" She stopped, hovering in the air, and looking in awe at this woman casting spells in a row.
The people around her didn't even seem fazed by it, they just kept fighting and Harry even saw a man lift his hammer before it was engulfed in a golden light as he swung it in a creature's face. There was clearly no worry about the Statute of Secrecy, they were casting magic non-stop until the last of the creatures fell.
Her curiosity was pushed to its limits, but she managed to restrain herself, she couldn't allow them to see her. It is with a heroic effort of will that she managed to move away, leaving the abbey and its massive walls behind her to continue toward the forest, not without a last glance and a sad sigh.
Continuing further revealed a large stone tower far to her left, right in the middle of the woods. She prayed that the soldiers there wouldn't think about looking up for she would be instantly noticed, standing like a massive black stain in the sky. Further, straight in front of her, was a crossroad consisting of two buildings where four roads joined, fusing together at the centre. One was going toward the abbey, another went toward the stone tower, a third seemed to go in the opposite direction than she came from and the last was going all the way up to a massive city that stood far away, taking up all the space available between two small mountains.
From above she could see that many people were gathered at this crossroad, even if there didn't seemed to be any specific reason for it. Most of them were riding on either horses, griffins or hippogriffs but some other creatures were just far too weird and unique for her to identify. Some were either alive or mechanical, others made of light or darkness and in such a variety that she quickly got lost trying to identify each of them.
"What is this place?" She wondered amazed.
Even if the mounts could be described as odd at the very least, the riders were as different as them. Some were humans or werewolves, some dwarves, others were even smaller than dwarves and with crazy hair colours. Some were standing higher than anyone else, with pale purple skin and extremely long ears. One was a complete unknown to her, goat horns, with hooves for feet and blue skin. There was even a panda wearing clothes sitting on a large turtle.
"How could I have never heard of this place before? So much unknown, so many magical creatures…" She said to herself in awe.
She remained there for a little while, observing them talking and quickly going around with people always coming and leaving. It was almost an utopia, a place where people of all places and races gathered without any animosity. Well, it was almost true as some of them seemed to have duels, but no one died in the end, always healed by someone around or themselves. This was a place that Hermione had wished to create for so long, sadly one that was still highly impossible today in England.
Harry could only wish to be allowed to go down there and ask the thousand questions popping in and out of her mind, but the sound of her wings quickly reminded her that she was not in for a warm welcome. Some of the people down there were even riding smaller dragons than her, with halters, saddles and everything needed to ride. And she had absolutely no wish to end up like that.
Letting out a big sigh, she turned sideway towards a small lake that rested a bit between the crossroad and the tower. Losing altitude, she saw that the small islands on the lake weren't unoccupied as some sort of fish-like creatures were gathered around, standing on two legs, and armed with either sticks or their claws and living in huts installed on stilts. As she got closer, she heard them talk in an indescribable way, like if fish had been given the ability to talk out of the water. They weren't like Merpeople that could be conversed with and lacked their human features. And she simply couldn't understand any of it.
Still letting caution lead her way, she slowed down on the opposite side of the lake, the furthest away from these creatures as well as the road where she had seen a handful of people tread on.
Stretching her claws out like she did with her feet before when landing on a broomstick, she dug a bit in the earth as her claws tore with strength through the dirt and grass, wings flapping quickly to bring her to a stop. She might not have been a great flyer yet as a dragon, but she judged her landing as very passable, maybe even good considering it was her first time doing it as a dragon.
"Phew! That took a while." Harry said as she brought her wings to her back, them being a little sore and letting them rest after the first time flying under her own power.
Looking down at the water in front of her, she took a couple of steps toward it and leaned down to see herself in the water.
The dragon in the reflection was completely unknown. Two light black horns were curved backward and went up again to finish with sharp tips. A long muzzle, both sleek, refined, and dangerous, wide, powerful at the same time, with a few teeth showing off on the sides. One single horn right above the nostrils, slightly pointing backwards. Lastly three smaller horns ran backward right beneath the two big ones along with some skin linking them together. All her face was covered in black scales except underneath her chin where they turned orange all the way down her belly to the tip of her tail. Powerful muscles easily showed themselves all around her face, around the lips, cheeks, and the eyes.
These were what shocked her most. Her famously green eyes had been replaced by a powerful red, burning with intensity and cut with a golden pupil slicing it vertically. A red that matched without a doubt the one from the orb.
"Is that really me? Am I still me?" Harry asked herself in a whisper, still looking at her and getting a glimpse at her maw.
Opening it wide, she saw the dozens of teeth, big and sharp, ready to tear through flesh like a knife through butter. The rest of her maw was a fiery red and a glow seemed to pulse far down her throat, with a powerful heat wave coming out as she exhaled.
"I'm really a bloody dragon… and a pretty cool one." She said admiring her new features, most of which gave a terrifying appearance.
"Still a female thought. That might take some time to get used to." She grumbled, tearing her gaze away from her reflection.
Looking at all the evidence before her, either she was having the most realistic dream of her life and was still beside Luna or she was in a world completely different from hers. Too many things differed, like the lack of anything linked to muggles like cars or modern houses. The extremely diverse number of races and creatures mixed in one place were also completely unlikely back in his world even if some countries were close to achieve that. Some of them were different while others were completely new. Everything seemed to point toward the fact that wherever she was wasn't on Earth but somewhere else. Of course, proof would be needed to verify this hypothesis, but this was the only satisfactory answer she could produce right now. It would be impossible for such a big place with so many creatures to have remained hidden back on Earth.
"Mrglrgr!"
Jerking at the weird cry, Harry looked to her right to see one of these fish creatures running toward her all claws out. She didn't got much time to react that it was already at her foot and trying to claw her right foreleg in frenzy. Try being the perfect word for its claws didn't even dent her scales.
"You must not be very smart to attack a dragon several times your size." She stated as a fact, watching the creature attack relentlessly.
"Murrglgr!"
"Marulgrr!"
"Mrglrgr!"
In a matter a second a whole swarm of these creatures surrounded her and started doing their best to put her down. Not even coming close to harming her.
"Hey! Bug off!." She said, turning around with the intention to simply walk away.
What she did not expect was for the creatures to be swat away by her tail, sending them flying in the small lake. She had completely forgot about her new appendage, and it seemed far more deadly than she thought, seeing some blood on the spikes that ended her tail.
"Oh shit! I didn't mean to do that!" She swore apologetically, looking at the creatures she hit not break out the surface of the lake with blood tainting the water.
"MRURGLR!" Yelled another creature.
Raising her head, she saw what was probably the whole tribe coming for her, maybe twenty creatures strong and all screaming for blood. They wouldn't harm her thanks to her natural armour but she could too easily harm them. It wouldn't be a fair fight.
"I'm sorry!" She roared before opening her wings.
In a couple of powerful flaps, she found herself out of range and started to fly away, looking back at this very regretful situation that could have been avoided with great sadness. Distraught after having ended four or so lives so casually, she didn't paid much attention to where she was going and ended up destroying the top of a tree taller than the others. It didn't harmed her in any way, but she got startled and lost enough altitude to crash down on the ground.
"Ouch…."
Her body didn't seemed to be heavily injured but eating a tree head-first wasn't a nice feeling, soreness spreading through her muzzle quickly as she gathered herself. Shacking her head, she opened her eyes only to realise that she had landed right in the middle of one of the paved roads.
And right in front of a small platoon of guards, swords and shields up along with one or two already preparing spells if the lights in their hands were of any indication.
"Dragon! Defend yourselves!" Yelled one woman at the front.
"Wait! I'm not evil!" Blurted out Harry trying to prevent another fight.
"Vile beast! Your tainted words won't trick us!" Screamed another man as a first spell was fired.
"Death to the black dragonflight!" Shouted another.
A large ice-shard hit Harry straight in the shoulder and she let out a growl of pain, watching the ice piercing her scales and dig in a little in her flesh. Then the whole platoon rushed at her, all weapons in hands and ready for a fierce battle. She might have fought her way through but just as the encounter with the fish-like creatures showed, she would crush them like ants under a boots. But even if she wouldn't fight didn't meant that she would simply await for her fate.
"I have enough of this !" Harry bellowed.
The force of her shout was enough to stop them in their tracks for a second, most clutching their ears briefly, but she didn't gave them more time to recover, spreading her wings and jumping in the air, quickly putting a large distance between her and these insane people. Two arrows grazed her and another ice shard flew right next to her head but she quickly put enough distance between them to be safe, giving one glare backward as the troupe of soldiers gathered themselves, rushing toward the crossroad.
"Dammit! I know I'm not the friendliest looking dragon right now, but they won't even listen to me!" She swore.
Her plans of interacting with others were crumbling down, just because she happened to wake up as a dragon. Letting her anger settle down slowly, she glared forward until she caught sight of the very volcano she saw earlier. It gave her an idea: if she couldn't interact with others without ending in a fight, then maybe it would be better to hide far away from them.
Or would it?
"No. No, this isn't the solution. If it's anything like back on Earth, I'll soon have people coming after me. They wouldn't let a dragon roam their lands without reacting." She thought aloud. "Plus I don't know enough. Maybe they have a team dedicated to hunt dragons? Ugh! This is so frustrating!"
Taking a bit more altitude, she was reminded of the burning cold ice shard in her shoulder. It wasn't big enough nor deep enough to disable her, but it was still very annoying and painful. But she didn't had time for it now, she had to find a secured place to hide and rest.
Flying above the forest, she quickly pushed aside the idea of going deeper in the forest, thinking that there would be nothing to hide her there. She flew in circles for a few minutes, looking at the land and making decisions. Going toward any kind of settlement or the massive city was obviously a bad idea, staying near roads and rivers was also taking a risk of someone seeing her and she didn't really felt like going back into the volcano land. Harry still needed to find someone with whom she could talk to, explain herself and get some answers. Hiding wasn't the right option.
But for once luck seemed to be on her side when she noticed a large cave at the foot of a small mountain, one that was right at the foot of the forest, far away from the road and completely isolated. Landing in front of it woke up the pain in her shoulder for a moment and she turned her head angrily, caught the annoying chunk of ice with her teeth and pulled it out swiftly.
"I hate my life." She exhaled loudly as the ice-shard was spat away. Looking at the cave, it wasn't very deep nor exceptionally large, but it was barely enough to allow her to enter entirely. It was slightly damp, very dusty, and even had an old camp that fell into decay right next to it.
Going in, she let herself fall on the ground, laying down on her side with her wings and tail unconsciously warping around her as she let out a small sigh of relief, letting her sore shoulder and tired wings rest.
Would everyone react like this just from seeing her? It was likely and not a very good sign but she wouldn't something like a change of appearance define her life, that she already got too much in Hogwarts. The idea of being stuck as a dragon for the rest of her life didn't enjoyed her in the least and if she could turn back into a man that would be the cherry on top. As much as flying with her own wings appealed to her, she would probably trade it to be human again.
There was also the fact that she looked like no dragon she ever saw back on Earth. It made sense that she was a dragon of these lands, the soldiers that attacker her even spoke about some dragon thing that she didn't caught. But the fact was that they knew of what she was and thought that she was part of something, perhaps a type of dragon. They hadn't been surprised by hearing her talk, if anything they had clearly expected it and instantly dismissed her words, as if any word coming out of her mouth would be lies and pure evil.
With a tired sigh, perhaps overthinking a bit even if it couldn't hurt, Harry started feeling a bit tired and she closed her eyes for a short nap. She wasn't hoping for everything to be fixed, back on Earth as Harry Potter the human, but it never hurt to believe that it might.
Not too far away from the cave where Harry was resting, in the great Human capital of Stormwind, a messenger was bringing a scroll to a high ranking officer in the castle.
"A black dragon? In Elwynn Forest?" He muttered for himself as he read the content of the message.
"Yes Milord. She was spotted in the early afternoon, not too far from the tower of Azora." Replied the messenger.
"Let's send a request to the red dragonflight. We will need assistance to take it down; with most of the army already focused on the war, we can't spare any more men."
"Yes Milord."
A request was written then sealed, before been given to the messenger. He then quickly left, crossed the merchant part of the town before rushing to the Mage Tower. Climbing the tower, he stopped in front of a woman standing by a massive green portal.
"Greetings Master Cannon. I requires a portal for the Wyrmrest Temple immediately." Saluted the messenger.
"Sure." Shrugged the woman near the portal.
It took only a dozen of seconds for a portal to be set up, revealing the golden grounds of a temple on the other side. The message wouldn't take long to be brought to the Queen of dragons.
And Harry had no idea of any of this nor how quickly things were moving around, the decisions made and the plans being set in place, soundly resting in her providential cave.