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I don't own Harry Potter or Strike Witches...Damn!

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Chapter Start.

The next week and change was some of the worst that Hermione had ever experienced in her life. Worse then the polyjuice disaster that had landed her in the hospital wing at Hogwarts for several weeks or stint she spent as a piece of statuary.

The reason? Plain old boredom.

Hermione had always felt compelled to be doing something, to the point of being almost ADHD. And once she got going on something she was also a bit OCD about finishing it. So being stuck in bed after having a doctor tell you to basically not think for a week was, to Hermione at least, a form of torture.

But Hermione was able to find one form of entertainment during her forced break, namely watching Harry and Lynette flirt with one another when they thought no one was watching them.

Or try to flirt with each other. Harry was and had always been an incredibly shy person and Lynette, while more out going, was almost as bad herself. Combine this with their young age and the near constant teasing from Wilma and Mrs. Bishop meant that the young couple's romantic moments were fairly rare. Lynette had confessed to Hermione that this was starting to get on her nerves. Hermione thought that it was a bit of an understatement, because Lynette had near saint level patience. For her to express that something was getting on her nerves meant that she was actually well passed that point already.

But now she was allow to doing things again she needed to focus on other things, like catching up with Harry and Lynette in her Striker training. This actually wasn't that hard all things considered, Lynette was to the point of doing short hops while she got used to the Fire Moth's handling before Adolfine would start showing her how to do aerobatics.

Poor Harry STILL hadn't figured out how to get the magic engine to start. Once started he could keep it going for a bit but would loss control of it shortly after the starter's magic ran out. It had gotten to the point that even Wilma, who would tease anyone about anything, wasn't teasing him anymore and everyone was putting their heads together to figure out what was going on.

This led Hermione to her current predicament as she watched Harry fail again and heard numerous curses from both Harry and Wilma over the Fire Moth's final coughs and sputters.

"I thought I had it that time!" Harry grumbled as he slumped slightly in the stand. Wilma gave Harry a comforting smile and a shoulder rub while they waited for the striker's magic engines to cool down. Hermione watched this and felt her frustration growing. It had never been this hard for Harry to learn spells back home, even though he had a habit of over powering them ...a...bit. Hermione felt as though a live wire had just poked her bare bottom, could it really be that simple. They were from a different dimension and the magic's may have been more different then she'd first thought when she and Harry had learned to use magic this world's way.

This train of thought led to Hermione having another brain wave, a possible way to help Harry with his problem.

"Sgt. Bishop?" Hermione asked as she approached Wilma and Harry. Observing military courtesies was the only discipline that Adolfine insisted on while they trained.

"Yes?" Wilma asked as she looked up.

"Could you please let me have a shot, I may have figured out the problem" Wilma regarded the girl who was fast becoming like a little sister to her with a calculating look. Hermione was still recovering from her little incident last week no one wanted her to push herself yet. But if all she was going to do was start up the Fire Moth a couple of times then that should be okay.

"Okay but be careful and don't push yourself too hard" Wilma warned as she pulled herself from the striker and let Hermione slid in. Hermione's magic reacted to the presence of the magical engine as her cat ears and tail appear.

"Hey Hermione what's up?" Harry greeted as Hermione slid in behind him.

"I think I may have figured out your problem" Harry gave Hermione a raised eyebrow in response.

"Why am I not surprised?" Harry asked incredulously. Hermione just smacked him over the head for that.

"Alright Harry just try to follow my magic like you've been trying with everyone else" Hermione said. When Harry gave her a nod Hermione started pushing her magic both into the striker's magic engine and into Harry as well. Harry seemed surprised for a moment before a large smile split the boy's face, only to be replace a second later by intense focus as Harry went to work making his magic follow and imprint on the paths that Hermione's was highlighting. Hermione keep the Fire Moth's engine running for a couple more moments before she shut it down.

"Did you find the way this time Harry?" Hermione asked. Harry turned to look at his friend and gave her a predatory smile.

"Only one way to find out" Harry said as he started concentrating. The Fire Moth's engine coughed several times before it chugged to life and started running steady. Harry, Wilma and Hermione's victory shouts were easily heard over the motor noise though.

"Keep her running steady for a minute Harry, then shut her down and do it again" Wilma ordered as she and Hermione switched places again "we have a lot of make up work to do".

"Yes Sergeant." Harry said happily. Soon Harry would be back where he belonged, and deep inside Harry would swear he felt Hedwig celebrating as well.

Neither of them was meant to be ground bound.

When Lynette and Adolfine came back into the hanger Harry was starting up his Fire Moth for the fifth time. As it roared to life the two new comers felt their jaws drop before Lynette let out an energetic cheer and Adolfine gave Harry a standing applause.

"How did this come about Sergeant?" Adolfine shouted over the chugging of Harry's Fire Moth.

"Not entirely sure ma'am, ask Hermione she figured it out" Wilma called back as she released the restraints holding the Fire Moth in the stand and started directing Harry as they rolled out of the hanger. Adolfine and Lynette parked their own Striker before turning to interrogate Hermione.

"Alright you know how Harry and me are from an entirely different dimension?" Hermione's audience nodded to show that they understood and Hermione continued speaking "well I think that our original home's magic and this world's magic are fairly different as well."

"Are you saying that your magic is having compatibility problems with our magic system?" Adolfine asked.

"I don't think that's the case ma'am. Neither Harry or I have had anything other then what we've been told are the normal problems with learning this style of magic. And I didn't have any problems starting up the Striker." Hermione said as she adopted a thinking pose.

"I think that's because you subconsciously used your ability to help yourself out" Adolfine said. Hermione nodded at that and continued with her explanation while filing away what Adolfine had said for later thought.

"Anyway I don't think magical compatibility was the problem here. It was more then likely a problem of magical power, namely Harry having so much of it that his magic was masking the magical signatures of anyone who was trying to help him."

"In short Sgt. Bishop's and mine's magical signature was too weak to make them known against Harry's." Adolfine said, both slightly dejected and slightly impressed.

"Yes ma'am" Hermione answered. Adolfine let this stew in her mind for a few moments before an idea popped into her head. The Karlsland witch hopped to her feet and started walking to the door.

"I'll be back in a few moments, Lynette why don't you show Hermione how to do the taxi drills."

"WHAT!" Lynette and Hermione both said in shock. Adolfine give them a stern yet amused look.

"As long as you don't fly you'll both be fine and Hermione needs to start making up for time she spent slacking off" said before she turned and walked out the hanger door. Lynette and Hermione gave each other questioning looks before shrugging and hopping into the second Fire Moth and Hermione started it up.

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The rest of the day went pretty routinely from Hermione's point of view but better than the previous week. She and Lynette worked on taxing drill's along with Harry and Wilma (at least until Harry proved that he was a natural at it and they started doing short hops to get Harry used to the controlling a striker in the air). Hermione found that a striker on the ground felt a lot like using a pair of roller skates without being able to bend your knees. This made it fairly easy for Hermione to master the drills in the time before General Galland returned. After a quick review of everyone's progress Adolfine ended training for the day, saying she had something special planned for tomorrow.

The next morning the three trainees and their teachers entered the hanger to see a new machine sitting next to the striker stands. It looked a lot like the striker stands but it didn't open in the front and lacked the regular stands side compartments. It was however fitted with what looked like a striker unit that had been welded into the stand, and it had a large number of video screens, dials and gauges on either side.

Along side the strange equipment where two witches. One Harry, Hermione and Lynette instantly recognized as Major Mio Sakamoto, but the other was new to them. She was about the same height as the major with red hair, yellowish eyes and a curvy but athletic body. The girl was wearing a uniform similar to General Galland's but a different color and with different pins and medals.

"Major Sakamoto, Commander Wilcke, I'd like to introduce you to Sgt. Wilma Bishop and our three trainees Lynette Bishop, Hermione Granger and Harry Potter" Adolfine said to the two new witches as she pointed out who was who after which she formally introduced the training group to Mio Sakamoto and Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke.

"Today we're going to have a little test before we continue with our regular training" Adolfine said as she walked up to the strange machine, "this machine will allow us to see how much magic you each have to throw around. This can help us determine what your combat radius is and which striker units would be a good match for you. So who wants to be first" The three trainees gave each other a look before having a quick rock, paper, scissors contest that Lynette promptly lost and was volunteered to be first.

Grumbling about traitorous friends Lynette nervously walked up to the machine and crawled in.

"Don't worry all you have to do is the same as starting up a striker and giving it all you got for five minutes" Manna said as she helped the younger girl get situated before returning to the station and starting the machine up. Once everything was ready she gave Lynette a start signal. Lynette pushed as much power as she could into the machine for the required five minutes before Major Sakamoto yelled that she could stop. Wilma and the major had to help the now thoroughly exhausted girl out of the machine and to the bench along the side of the hanger, where she promptly pasted out.

"She be fine, she just spent a lot of magic very fast" Adolfine said when she saw Harry and Hermione's worried looks before she directed Hermione forward for her turn. But as Hermione started up everyone noticed that the machine was whirring more loudly then it had with Lynette and by the end of Hermione's five minutes it had started to smoke slightly. It was the same if not a little worse when Harry went and Adolfine decided that she'd have the equipment checked over by maintenance after she helped get the kids into the car.

After the car pulled out and started for home Adolfine turned back to Mio and Minna and asked for a report.

"The Bishop girl is above average that much I can tell without looking at the final numbers. As for the other two I think I'm safe in saying that they could be elites, by be even on a similar level to the Miyafuji family" Mio said while Minna directed a work crew to get the testing equipment packed up. Adolfine nodded her head as she thought about what the major had said. She hoped the major was right; she could always use a couple more high powered witches in the forces, especially with the way things were going lately with the Neuroi...And the higher ups in the different governments.


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Chapter End

Thank you all for waiting patiently and as always please review, it helps to keep the squirrels working.

P.S. I think you've all made your thoughts known in the poll so it will be closed by this time tomorrow. In its place I'd like to ask a question, what do you think Harry's power is going to be? I already know what it's going to be but I want to see if anyone can guess. This will be open until I put up the chapter that it's revealed in, so please take a crack at it.