"Don't try and stop me, Harry" said Hermione holding her flight helmet by the strap. She had hoped to avoid this and sneak off without Harry ever knowing but she had failed. Harry knew what she was going to do.
"I've already buried one friend this week" he spat at her angrily. "You're being selfish if you think you're the only one who is hurting over all of this. He was my friend too!"
"Ron was more than that to me" she said softly. "And you of all people know that this is something I must do." She turned away from him and started to climb the ladder up to the cockpit of her F/A-27 Ravenclaw, the production version of the experimental XFA-27. She was half way up the ladder when she turned to him and said " I will come back." She climbed the rest of the way up the ladder and clambered into her cockpit. Against his better judgement Harry Potter decided to assist his friend since childhood and walked over and unhooked the ladder away from her aircraft and took it over to the side of the hangar. She began her preflight checklist before finally putting on her helmet and hooking up her mask to the oxygen system. Strapped in and ready to go she signalled to Harry that she was starting her engines by rotating her left hand in a circular motion and he replied by giving her the thumbs up. One by one the four pulse detonation engines screached into life and blew hot blue exhaust through the rear. Hermione then signalled for the chocks to be removed from the landing gear and Harry acknowledged. As quickly as he could, tears running down his face, he removed each of the three sets of chocks from the aircraft before signalling that they were clear.
Hermione then lowered her canopy down and saluted her friend as it closed in on her, sealing her within the aircraft. Harry looked at her through the transparent canopy deep into her eyes that lay in the space between her mask and her helmet and wondered whether he would ever see them again. The enemy ace, Draco Malfoy, had killed fifteen pilots from the UPEO base at Hierlark since he had emerged like a ghost over North Osea almost a month ago including Ron Weasley. Draco was once a pilot with the UPEO but had deserted to join a terrorist group called the Death Eaters. From a secret loaction in the North Osean mountain range Draco had flown his YR-99 Forneus against the UPEO.
Harry stepped out of the hangar into the frosty morning air. He watched as Hermione taxied out towards the flightline ignoring the calls from the control tower ordering her to stop. As her aircraft made its way onto the runway she swept the variable geometry wings fully forward to achieve maximum lift. As base security raced in their patrol cars to intercept her they arrived too late as she throttled up and her F/A-27 roared as it began its take off run into the orange and purple early morning sky. Within just a few minutes her aircraft was just a dot on the horizon.
"Good luck Hermione" Harry uttered as he watched the F/A-27 disappear into the unfriendly sky.