Worlds Apart

Chapter 4. Some Goodbyes Are Forever

Harry and Ron were already seated in the dining room when Hermione rushed in. They had been doing their homework, which seemed to take forever, as Hermione's mind was just not on the job. When they went to the dining room, it was getting towards the end of supper.

"You're in a hurry," Ron noted as she began shovelling a big piece of steak pie onto her plate.

"Luke's leaving tonight, and I want to catch him before he goes," she replied.

"Oooh, so what's going on there then," Harry asked.

Hermione blushed a little. "Nothing. I just wanted to ask him something, that's all."

Harry and Ron watched as Hermione gulped her meal down. They had never seen her so determined to get through a meal so quick, especially as it was her favourite dish.

"Take your time," Ron said after a couple of minutes. "You'll end up with indigestion."

Hermione ignored him as she shovelled the last of her pie into her mouth. She jumped up and ran out of the dining room, still chewing her food.

"We'd better get after her," Harry said.

"When I've finished my meal. Its rhubarb crumble for pud, and I don't want to miss it," Ron exclaimed as he put another forkful of mash potato into his mouth.

It was getting dark as Hermione dashed out of the front door and ran towards a light just beyond the school gate. Luke had fixed a maintenance floodlight to one of the blast tubes sticking out of the wing-tip cannons so he could work on getting the new parts programmed in as soon as he could. As she approached, she could hear him talking to someone.

"Okay, no problem. I shall stay here tonight, and I should be ready to lift tomorrow." He had his flight helmet on and was talking into the pickup.

She could hear another voice, but this was very feint. Luke replied to the voice.

"Sure, that should be fine. No need for an evac, so you can stand the shuttle down. Skywalker out."

He saw her running towards him, and he took his helmet off.

"Who were you talking to?" she panted.

"My command ship," he replied. "I deposited a distress satellite in high orbit before I came through the atmosphere. It would have normally transmitted the location of the ship when it crashed, but because the systems on the ship stopped working when you put it in your castle, the satellite sent back messages to say my ship had been destroyed."

Hermione had stopped panting and looked at Luke. "Now that you have the ship working again, the satellite told your command ship that you are stranded?"

"That's about the size of it," Luke said, turning to look at his ship again.

"So are they sending someone to rescue you?" she asked.

"No. The rescue ship is up there," he pointed towards the sky, "but I have told them not to send anyone down. I should be ready to lift tomorrow night as some of the new parts need a lot of work to get them reprogrammed."

Hermione was relieved.

"How come no one can see it then?" she enquired.

"It's cloaked."

"Cloaked?"

"Yes. Larger ships have the ability to make themselves invisible, in the same way as Harry's Invisibility Cloak makes you invisible. That Tie-Fighter was a prototype, and it looks like they were trying out a cloaking system for new ships. That would explain why the assassin didn't just knock me out of the sky when he followed me down. When he is cloaked, he cannot fire."

"Can your ship cloak itself?"

"Nah, its power systems are too small, and the design is too old. It needs all the power it can get to fire the cannons." He patted one of the blast tubes. "Would you like to see the rescue ship?"

Hermione gasped a little.

"If it's cloaked, how can you see it?" she asked.

"You can, if you know the frequency of the cloak and the security codes. Here, look. I'll show you."

He took his Macrobinoculars from an open cargo bay and walked round to stand behind Hermione. Feeling him standing so close made her go weak again and her breathing quickened a little. He pressed a few buttons on it, then put the device to his eyes and scanned the sky.

"Okay, there she is," he muttered and put the binoculars to her eyes. "Can you see a small rectangular shape?"

"Yes I can."

"Okay, now take hold of the binoculars with both hands."

She moved her hands onto the case, and he placed her index fingers onto the zoom controls. When he touched her, she felt a bolt of electricity flow through her. Her heart raced, and she could hear the blood pounding in her head.

"Now, press this button," he whispered into her ear. He could smell the scent of her hair and it felt so soft against his skin.

Hermione pressed the control and the ship grew in size until she was able to make out a large rectangular mass of metal, floating silently in space. The ship was bristling in antennae, communications dishes, and what looked like massive weaponry. Beneath the ship, there were a couple of fighters like Luke's, seemingly glued to the hull. Four more fighters of a different configuration floated alongside the ship in close formation. Below the ship, a large door opened and a smaller vessel moved into the landing bay.

She looked at the ship for a few seconds, watching the door close on the landing bay. Not that she was interested in it, but because wrapped in his strong arms, her whole body felt like it was on the verge of collapse, and she liked it. She wanted to stay here forever, wrapped in his arms. Between the sound of the crickets making their evening music and the soft hum from the fighter's computer systems, she felt so safe and relaxed. After a while, she lowered the binoculars and turned her head to face him. He still had his hands on hers. They looked into each other's eyes and started to lean in towards each other.

"We can't do this," she whispered. "We are alien races to each other. But, but ..."

Their lips met. Hermione's senses exploded as she kissed him and he gladly returned the kiss. Dropping the binoculars to the floor, she put her arms around his neck and held him tightly as he wrapped his arms round her waist.

"What's all this then?"

They both leapt away from each other at the sound of the voice to see Ron standing at the front of the ship. Harry was behind him, bent double with his hands over his mouth trying to stifle his sniggering. Hermione ran past them back towards the castle and Ron could she her eyes were sparkling with tears. He gave Harry a kick and he stopped laughing.

"HERMIONE! WAIT!" Luke called, but she had disappeared into the darkness.

Luke went round the other side of the ship and slumped down onto the grass.

"Don't beat yourself up about it," Ron said as he walked up to him.

Luke's mind was racing. He was a Jedi. Married to the cause. But no female had made him feel the way Hermione did. Never before had he met such a personality. He had visited the best worlds, and he had visited some of the worst. But this planet had a girl who had changed the way he saw people, and that disturbed him. The Jedi is not just a club for the fortunate few. It was a way of life. If you needed to die for the cause, then so be it. Nothing should get in the way, and relationships are a serious taboo that must be avoided at all costs. But Hermione kept leaping back into his mind. He was ten Earth years her senior, but she seemed to be the same age as him. He was in trouble. He had just one more day here, or did he? He thought about all the ways of staying here. He could send the ship up on it's own and have it self-destruct: make it look like an accident. The fleet would move away, and he would be remembered as a hero after saving the royal ship. But that was a bad idea. R2D2 would log that the ship was unmanned as he should and the rescue ship would pick up the databurst, given out by the fighter as it lifted. They would know it was a decoy and he would be hunted down like a deserter.

"Sorry about making you jump," Harry said as he came round the ship, rubbing his shin.

"That's okay," Luke replied.

"I didn't know about you and Hermione," Harry said. "Do you have girls like that on your planet?"

Luke looked up at the castle and could make out Hermione's scurrying form as she disappeared through the front door. "Yes, er, no. Not quite like her, that's for sure."

"Yeah, I'll bet," Ron replied, sniggering.

Luke chuckled. "A bit fiery by all accounts."

"She's a good friend, though, you have to admit," Harry added.

"She certainly knows her stuff," Ron said.

Luke looked up at the castle again and wondered what she was doing at that moment.

*

Hermione crashed into the girl's dormitory and threw herself onto her bed. She was crying uncontrollably into the bedclothes as Lavender came in.

"What's up, Hermione?" she asked and sat on the end of the bed.

Hermione carried on crying as she turned her head towards the other girl.

"L-Luke's leaving tomorrow," she spluttered.

"Oh," Lavender said. "You have a weak spot for him, don't you?"

"I-I don't know what you mean," Hermione sobbed, and sat up.

Lavender handed her a tissue and she blew her nose on it.

"He did let Ron know where that assassin had hidden you, and in a way saved your life," Lavender whispered. She paused a little before continuing. "I saw you and Luke down near the ship a few minutes ago."

Hermione turned her bloodshot eyes towards the other girl and her sobbing subsided a little.

"You saw?" she asked.

Lavender blushed. "Yes, you lucky sod. What was it like?"

"Well, we've all kissed boys, right?" Hermione said, finally stopping crying. "But kissing Luke was, well, like having the most powerful Incendio Charm attack you. Every part of me burst into flames. It was the way he kissed!"

"Comes of snogging aliens," Lavender said, and they both started to laugh.

*

Harry and Ron walked back up towards the castle. As they reached the front door, they turned to look at the ship bathed in the light from the maintenance lamp. Luke had his arm inside one of the engine casings and without warning sparks flew from the side of the engine followed by a small bang, making Luke jump back. He started to shout something that did not sound very nice at R2, who bleeped indignantly back.

"Life's going to be much quieter when he leaves," Harry muttered.

Ron's mind was on Hermione. He felt bad about jumping out on them like that. She always had a rough time with him and Harry always winding her up. This time though, he felt that not only had he overstepped the mark, he had jumped over it, with racing brooms attached to each foot.

"I hope she is okay," Ron mumbled.

This took Harry by surprise. "Since when had you become sensitive to Hermione's feelings?" he asked.

"Well, it was her face. She was so upset."

"I know what you mean."

"I shouldn't have done it, though," Ron muttered.

They turned back into the castle and made their way to the Gryffindor Tower. As they entered the common room, they could see Lavender speaking to Ginny. Ginny ran over to Ron and started to hit him as hard as she could over the head with a cushion.

"You horrible, horrible, gargoyle," she shouted as she hit him even harder. "What do you think you were doing, sneaking up on Hermione like that?" She pulled back her foot and kicked him as hard as she could on his shin.

"OW! YOU LITTLE-" he yelled as he fell to the floor, but Ginny had drawn her wand.

"Say one more thing Ronald Weasley, and I'll give you a bat-bogey hex that'll take your head off!" Ginny was pointing her wand right at Ron's nose.

"It's all right, Ginny," Hermione said as she walked down the stairs from the girl's dormitory.

Ginny put her wand down, and gave Ron's good leg a kick. Harry had backed away as he knew Ginny was the master of the bat-bogey hex and he didn't fancy getting caught up in the crossfire.

"S-sorry, Hermione," Ron stuttered. "I didn't mean to sneak up on you like that. I thought you were just talking."

Hermione put out her hand and helped Ron to his feet. Ginny was sitting on an armchair, her arms folded, with a smouldering look on her face. She was still holding her wand.

"It's okay, Ron. I'm glad you did interrupt us when you did. I don't know where we would have ended up," Hermione said as she let go of his hand.

Ron turned to Ginny and stuck out his tongue. Ginny responded by sticking her tongue out even further and stomped up to the girl's dormitory. Hermione followed her up the stairs and changed to get into bed. She pulled the curtains tight around her, and curled up into a ball, wrapping herself around her pillow. Life is so unfair, she thought. Am I falling in love? If I am, I don't want to ever do it again, because it hurts too much. She started sobbing again, but very quietly.

The evening wore on and Luke had completed the installation of more parts from the Tie-Fighter. R2 had checked them over and from the readouts on the console in the cockpit, everything looked good. Luke jumped to the ground and wiped his hands on a piece of cloth. He was glad he had work to do that had taken him until quite late otherwise he would have had to think about Hermione again.

"R2, can you shut down the systems please. We'll run some simulations through her in the morning to check everything is working okay," he said.

R2 responded with a couple of chirps and the maintenance floodlight dimmed and went out. Luke made his way back to the castle and bumped into Lavender as he climbed the stairs to the teacher's dormitory.

"Is Hermione okay," he asked.

"I think so," Lavender replied. "She was more upset about being seen kissing you more than anything else."

"Good. I shall see you all in the morning then."

Luke got back to his room and lay on the bed. It was past midnight, but his mind was just not for sleeping. After a few minutes, he decided to do some meditation. Sitting on the floor cross-legged, he concentrated on emptying his mind, his eyes tightly shut. As he did, images came into sight. He was seeing the past: his flight from Tatooine in the Millennium Falcon, the first Death Star battle, finding his sister. An inner peace flowed through his whole being, and he dropped into a deep sleep.

*

It was quite late when Luke finally awoke, got dressed and went down for breakfast. As this was Luke's last day with them, Dumbledore had agreed that lessons could be suspended for the day and that Luke could tell them all about his life as a Jedi. This embarrassed Luke a little, but he agreed and for most of the morning, he stood on the stage in the Great Hall in front of the entire school and told them his life story: his escape from Tatooine, his Jedi training, The Force, Princess Leia being his sister, meeting Han Solo and his insane Wookie, flying in an overpowered, over-gunned crate called the Millennium Falcon. He explained about the Jedi, the dark Sith lords, and how he found his father. All through the talk, the students sat staring at Luke as he waved his arms about and told them up to the point where he had stumbled across their school. When he had finished, the crowd cheered and Luke took a deep bow. By now, it was lunchtime and the tables were becoming covered in food.

A little while later, Luke caught site of Hermione as she sat playing glumly with some peas on her plate with a fork, her head propped up by her other arm. He had finished his meal so he got up and walked over to her. When she saw him coming over, she turned her face away from him. For once in their life, neither Ron nor Harry made any comments about what was going on. She was glad of that at least.

"You okay?" Luke asked as Neville moved over to let him sit next to her.

"Yep," she said and stared up at the ceiling, her lower lip trembling, her eyes started to glisten. "NO I AM NOT!" she yelled as she slammed her fork on the table, making everyone around her jump. She got up and ran out of the hall.

Luke looked at Ron and Harry, who just shrugged. He followed her out of the hall and chased her up the stairs. She had almost reached the Fat Lady's portrait when he grabbed her arm.

"WHY DON'T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE," she cried. "YOU'RE BREAKING MY HEART AND I DON'T KNOW IF I CAN COPE WITH IT! YOU'RE JUST MAKING IT WORSE!"

"Sorry, Hermione," he said. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen.

"I know," she whispered and sniffed loudly. He was glad she had stopped shouting.

"Sometimes I wish I was just a normal person," he explained. "Being a Jedi was the only thing I wanted to do all my life. But now, I don't know."

"Don't say that," she said, sounding a bit shocked. "You have a job to do. The last couple of days have been great, but we will part later on, possibly never seeing each other again. That hurts." She wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "But I will get over it, somehow."

"When I got hit, I thought of what damage my ship would do to the Federation battle-station if it blew up. I had no idea that the consequences would be much worse if I landed on another planet. Blowing up a battle-station is nothing compared to breaking a girl's heart."

He looked at her puffy eyes and saw the hurt in them. He wanted to whisk her off to the command ship, show her off to all the other pilots and take her dancing. But it couldn't happen. She looked back at his eyes burning into her. She couldn't stand it any longer.

"I have to go," she whispered and turned to the Fat Lady's portrait.

Luke watched her say the password, and disappear into the common room. He stood looking at the portrait for a few seconds before turning and making his way back down to the entrance hall. The Great Hall was starting to empty now and Harry was waiting for him by the front door.

"Did you catch her?" he asked.

"Yes, and I think we cleared up a few things," Luke replied quietly.

Harry followed Luke down to the ship. R2 had already run the simulations and he whistled at Luke as he stood next to the little robot. Luke took out a small box from his belt and the whistles from R2 were translated on the screen.

"Thanks, R2," he replied. "Could we lift soon, even if the navi-comp is still not right?" R2 whistled a negative reply.

"How long then," Luke asked. R2 blurped and cheeped, and the answer indicated about seven hours.

This left him a little time to explore the castle properly and to clear thing up once and for all with Hermione. Ron had joined them by now and was panting a little after his run from the castle.

"Luke," Ron panted, "can I have a go with your blaster?"

Luke thought about this for a moment before handing the weapon to him.

"Be careful. These can blow holes in freighter plating," Luke warned.

Ron raised the blaster and fired at a log across the field. The bolt blew a hole in the side of it.

"Wow," Ron said and squeezed off a couple more bolts.

"Okay, okay," Luke said. "What about having a bit of a shooting competition?"

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"Well, I saw you shoot some arrows from your wand. Lets see who is the most accurate."

Luke took his blaster back and squeezed the trigger. The bolt shot from the gun and chopped off a small branch. Harry and Ron raised their wands and shot arrows at the log, chopping off some more branches. Their blasting attracted the attention of some other students, who started gathering around to watch.

"That's two hundred and sixty two to us," Ron said after a few minutes, "and six to you."

"Gettaway," Luke said, laughing. "There is no way you beat me!"

Hermione walked out of the castle and saw the crowd gathered down by the front gate. In front of the crowd she could see Luke standing up, firing his blaster, with Ron and Harry lying down firing arrows from their wands. She was glad that Parvati had talked her into coming out. Maybe I should have some fun for once, she thought as she made her way down to the gate.

When she reached the group, Harry made one last blast and the log finally fell apart. They all cheered and Harry stood up and jumped up and down. Luke holstered his blaster and shook Harry's hand as Hermione came up to them.

"Well done Harry," she said. Then she turned to Luke. "Fancy getting beaten by a wizard."

Luke blushed a little. "Thanks, Hermione."

"What for?" she asked as the group dispersed.

"For coming out."

"You can thank Parvati for that. I didn't want to leave the dorm, but hey, I'm here now."

"Actually, there is something I have to do before I forget," Luke said. "I have to get rid of the Tie-Fighter, unless you guys want to play with it."

"That's not a good idea," Harry said. "What do you propose we do with it?"

"I shall vaporised it. I could just shoot it up with the cannons on my fighter, but I need to be sure and get the lot."

Luke went over to his ship, opened a small hatch on the side of the fighter and took out a small round object.

"This is a Thermal Detonator," he announced. "I'm going to put it in the Tie-Fighter and set it off."

They made their way towards where the other ship sat, finding it uncloaked, waiting for their return.

"Stay here," Luke said, "and when I come out, get ready to run."

He walked to the fighter and climbed into the cockpit while the others stood looking at each other. After a couple of minutes, Luke jumped from the cockpit and ran up towards them.

"RUN!" he yelled as he belted towards them.

"RUN FROM WHAT?" Ron yelled as they turned to follow him.

Luke was counting down from ten and when he reached zero, the blast knocked them off their feet; the sound was deafening. Harry looked back and saw a rapidly expanding ball of light.

"That!" Luke said as he stood up.

The Thermal Detonator had done its job. Where once was a damaged Tie-Fighter with a dead pilot, there now stood a large hole in the ground. Hermione lifted her head and looked at where the fighter no longer existed.

"What are you going to do if you haven't got all the parts you need?" she asked as she stood up and brushed soil from her robes.

"Oh, I don't know, really," Luke replied and grinned sheepishly.

Luke spent the rest of the day being showed round the castle by Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They explored all the different rooms, calling on all the teachers, and were even given a guided tour of the kitchens by Dobby (who reminded Luke of a much younger - and taller - Yoda). Occasionally, someone would walk up to them and hand Luke a gift, or speak to him for a few minutes. Hermione found a small trunk for the gifts and they left them in his room before continuing their tour. They visited Hagrid's cabin and looked at the long trench cut into the ground where Luke had landed. Hagrid had already used the trench to plant some enormous cabbage looking plants that kept shuddering and letting out raspberry noises. They explored the castle grounds and later found themselves down by the lake.

It was now late afternoon, and around them all was quiet except for the giant squid, which raised its tentacles out the water occasionally, making little splashing noises. Ron had fallen asleep and was snoring gently. Harry was sitting up, talking to Luke, while Luke was lying down and pointing up at the bright sky explaining how they navigate across billions of light years of space. Clouds were gathering on the horizon, threatening to spoil the view when Hermione dropped down beside him. She had been picking some daisies to make a daisy chain, which she had draped around the top of her head. Luke looked up at her.

"How are you?" he asked.

Hermione looked thoughtful as she joined another couple of daisies together. She looked at him. God! He is handsome, she thought, and fought back a lump in her throat as she thought of what will happen in the next couple of hours. She gazed up at the sky where last night she saw the rescue ship hanging in space and wondered what it must be like to be on it.

"I think I am okay now," she answered as Ron gave a loud snort.

She looked over at Ron. "I belong here, and you belong with your people. It's a hard fact, but I will get over it. Somehow."

She continued to gaze at Ron as he started to giggle in his sleep. Harry looked at his watch.

"Time for supper," he announced. "Should we wake up Sleeping Beauty here?"

Hermione took her shoe off and rubbed her foot around Ron's face. He grunted and realised what was waking him.

"URGH! That's disgusting!" he yelled as he sprang to his feet, wiping his face with a handkerchief.

They started to laugh and Hermione put her shoe back on.

"You would have to pay a lot of money in some places for that," Hermione giggled.

They all wandered back up to the castle and entered the Great Hall. Luke had decided to sit with the three friends instead of with the teachers. He had helped himself to a big pile of parsnips, as he still had not gotten used to having so many different things to eat. After the meal was finished, Ginny came over and handed a small red book to him.

"I did all that this afternoon," she said, beaming brightly.

Inside the book were pressed flowers from all round the castle grounds, drawings of different parts of the castle with descriptions of windows, and corridors, and in the back, a wizard photograph of her.

"Thank you," Luke said. "This is really nice."

Ginny sat back down with a big smile on her face. Luke glanced down at Harry's watch. He only had a few minutes left.

"Right then," he said and stood up. "It's time for me to pack."

The laughing at the table stopped, and Hermione looked up at him. She felt her eyes prickle again. Without hesitating, he turned and walked out of the hall and noticed a silence had descended. He quickened his pace a little and got to his room quite quickly. He packed all the gifts he had been given over the day into the small trunk Hermione had left for him. There were wizard pictures of various students, a wand (not that he knew what to do with it, but the thought was nice), drawings, a couple of soft toys, and the book Ginny had given him. He placed the book carefully on top of the pile and closed the trunk. Opening the wardrobe, he took out his flight suit and took off his utility belt. Hermione was back in his mind again, as he put his flight suit on, and he tried to clear it by remembering his sister, that he was Jedi, and that he had a mission to complete. His mind cleared a little as he put his utility belt on over his flight suit. He started to check the systems on the suit and he remembered that none of the stuff worked while he was in the castle. Taking one last look around the room, he made sure it was tidy before picking up the trunk and closing the door behind him.

As he walked through the school, people said 'good bye' and he returned their comments with a smile, as he didn't have the strength to stop and talk to anyone. The walk down to the entrance hall seemed to take forever as he felt a little sad that he was leaving. It wasn't like leaving to go home just down the road; he was leaving to race thousands of light years from this planetary system, maybe never to return. He had done it hundreds, no, thousands of times before from other worlds, but this planet held someone who he had suddenly clicked with. She was waiting by the door with a small crowd of students and teachers.

"Are you all packed and ready to go," Dumbledore asked.

"I think so," he said and looked at the gathered crowd.

"It has been interesting meeting you," Snape said and shook Luke's free hand.

"Thank you all," Luke said and he could hear R2 whistling from outside.

"Time to go, then," Harry said as he held out his hand for Luke to shake it.

"I guess so," Luke whispered.

He turned to Hermione. She was struggling to stop herself crying, but she managed to blurt something out.

"We'll miss you," she mumbled.

He placed his hand on her shoulder. She wished he hadn't. He turned and walked through the front door and down towards where his fighter was waiting to take him home. The crowd walked quietly behind him and soon they were standing next to the ship. R2 was patiently waiting in his socket and eager to return to the safety of the fleet.

"Open cargo door six, R2," he said, and a small door opened at the side of the ship.

He loaded the little trunk into the cargo hold and thumbed a control to seal it. He turned to face the small crowd.

"Dumbledore," he said, shaking the Headmaster's hand. "Thank you for everything, and thank you for letting me invade your school."

"Think nothing of it, my boy," Dumbledore answered. "Think of it as a gift from one race to another."

He turned to Harry and shook his hand.

"Harry," he said, "you watch your back, but you will be fine. I promise you."

"Thanks Luke," Harry replied.

"And Ron," Luke said as he faced Ron to shake his hand. "You look after these two, promise me."

"I will," Ron said.

He turned to Hermione. He looked into her bloodshot eyes and stepped a little closer.

"Here, I have something for you," he whispered, took something from his flight suit pocket and placed it in her hand, wrapping her fingers around it.

When he let go of her hand, she looked at the object, which was a small silver cylinder with intricate carvings round it.

"When you work out how to use it, it will come in useful," he said.

She looked at the object and then looked into his eyes. "Thank you," she whispered and kissed him on his cheek.

He turned to walk to his ship, and Hermione suddenly remembered something.

"Luke, wait," she shouted. "I have something else for you."

She reached into her robes and pulled out another wizard picture of just her lying stretched out on a sofa and smiling. Luke looked at the picture for a moment.

"Thank you," he whispered. "I shall keep this one close to my heart," and he put it in his right breast pocket.

He leaned over and kissed her cheek before turning back to his ship.

"Okay R2," he shouted. "Lets get this thing fired up."

R2 bleeped back and the engines started to whine. Luke climbed the ladder to the cockpit and jumped into the seat to begin fastening his retaining straps and put his flight helmet on. He touched a control and the ladder retracted into the side of the ship.

Dumbledore shouted over the whine of the engines. "LUKE!" Luke turned to look at the crowd. "May Merlin watch over you, and good luck."

Luke looked across the crowd. "And may the Force be with you all. Always."

The crowd moved away from the ship as the engine noise increased and the cockpit cover started to close. Hermione was waving furiously with tears streaming down her face as Luke continued to look at her. She cried even more as the cockpit cover closed and Luke's face was no longer visible. Ron put his arm around her to comfort her a little as the engine noise increased much more and the ship started to lift slowly into the air: the lifting engines making small indentations in the ground beneath the fighter. Once it was clear of the ground, the landing gear retracted into the hull and doors closed over them, making the hull smooth once more. The ship turned slightly as it rose and once it was at the same height as the trees, the main engines fired, propelling it towards the horizon. The ship banked round in a gentle arc and for the first time, Hermione could see the graceful but deadly lines of the fighter as it came back towards them. It roared over the crowd before pulling up into a steep climb and disappeared through the clouds.

Hermione was still waving as the noise from the fighter decreased. "Good bye, Luke."