This is the end
He still can't believe it, some days.
No matter how much time has passed, it still comes as a shock to open his eyes to a sky blackened by ash and an Earth scorched dry by the sun. To a dark, barren world devoid of light and empty of life.
After Yosemite erupted a few years ago the Wizarding World and the Muggle world had come together at last. What is the point of continuing to hide your existence from your fellow humans when an entire country has been destroyed by the eruptions of a super volcano, when you never see the light of the sun anymore because of the volcanic ash, when life as you know it comes to an end?
Experts in magic teamed up with muggle scientists and came to a devastating conclusion, one that shocked everyone to their cores.
The Earth is fast approaching a black hole, and the gravity from it has already started to affect Earth. The eruption had been caused by the acceleration of the tectonic plates on the Earth's surface as the gravitational pull from the black hole disrupted their speed and the directions they were moving in, and eventually the Earth will be swamped in lava caused by countless explosions from all over the world, not to mention megatsunamis caused by the increased gravitational pull from the black hole. That is, if the Earth doesn't get sucked into the black hole first.
Basically, the world is ending.
And this is why he finds himself waking up in a lifeless wasteland, where the only life left is humanity.
Today, they're going to send a group of people, a group of special people, up to live in the City. Protected by both science and magic, the City is actually a spaceship which will be sent into outer space to find another home for its inhabitants. The people who were selected are the best of mankind, the best of both the Wizarding and Muggle worlds, the people the world felt are worth preserving, and they are the ones who will travel to find a new home for their descendants.
They are humanity's last hope.
It is for this reason that Harry, the Boy Who Lived, the Saviour of the Wizarding World, packs his belongings into a Bottomless Bag, casts a Lightening Charm on it, and walks out of his house for the last time towards the car.
Where his husband is waiting for him in the driver's seat, his mouth curved into a sad smile. The seat beside him is empty: there is no bag beside him.
Behind him are his best friends, eyes suspiciously moist. The seats beside them are empty too.
Of course, one of the few "worth saving" would be Harry, the Boy Who Lived, the Saviour of the Wizarding World. Not Ron or Hermione, Harry's best friends in the entire world, or Draco, the love of Harry's life.
He's pleaded with the committee in charge of the evacuation, begged them to just let three more people on board, but they've refused. He understands the reason why; there's just no space for that many people on the City, not even for the committee members, not even for Ron or Hermione or Draco, but this doesn't mean it hurts any less.
And now Harry has to go to the City and watch as his world crumbles to pieces below him, taking everyone he loves with it.
The drive to the evacuation centre is silent. They all know that this is the last time they will see him, and the last time he will see them. They all know that they are going to die while he survives, that they are going to perish together with the Earth while he goes in search for a new life.
He knows they are happy for him, happy that he gets a chance to live even while they don't, but this still doesn't make parting any easier for any of them.
When the car pulls up to the centre, Hermione starts crying, and he feels a few tears start rolling down his face as well. They walk him to the entrance of the City, and Merlin, this feels exactly like the time he walked into the Forbidden Forest to face Voldemort, surrounded by the people he loves.
Only this time, it's not going to be him that dies.
They reach the gate, and Harry turns to face them, the three wonderful people who've made his life so brilliant, and he smiles, a watery smile.
"I...I don't know what to say, honestly, what do you even say in this kind of situations? I'm sorry we didn't get to spend the rest of our lives together, even though we defeated Voldemort. I just...I never expected it to come to this, you know. Defeating him was supposed to mean a better life for all of us, and it's just so, so unfair that we defeated him only to suffer like this-"
Hermione cuts him off with a sob and a fierce hug, and he hugs her back tightly.
Ron looks at him, tears unashamedly rolling down his face now, and he releases Hermione to give him a hug too.
Finally, he turns to look at Draco, the person he loves more than any other, and kisses him gently.
The last hug he'll ever give Hermione and Ron. The last kiss he'll ever give Draco.
"I...I love you all, you know. I..."
He swallows. It's too painful. He looks at their faces one last time.
"Goodbye."
He walks into the City with firm, determined strides, and does not look back.
OoOoO
It's been three days since he entered the City, and he's now in outer space, hovering just above the surface of the earth.
It has been unanimously decided by all the people in the City that they will stay until Earth's final moments. It will be painful, of course it will be, but they're still reluctant to leave the planet they grew up in, the planet that is their home. Many of them are like him: they've left loved ones behind, and he often sees people crying in different corners of the City.
He's spent the past few days looking down at the greyish-blue sphere that is the Earth, gazing at the rough silhouette of what he knows is Europe. He wonders what Ron and Hermione are doing know, what Draco is doing now, whether he misses Harry as much as Harry misses him.
He's never felt so lonely in his life, not even when he was a kid and Uncle Vernon locked him up in the cupboard.
He spends all his time gazing at the Earth, so that he might feel less lonely, and thus he sees it the moment it happens.
The Earth gives a great shudder, and thousands of volcanoes erupt at once. At least, it looks like thousands: many volcanoes must have erupted at once for the Earth to take on such a weird reddish hue. Even from where they are, just above the Earth's atmosphere, he can see walls of water smashing onto the shores of the continents, and he tears up at the thought of how big the tsunamis must now be for them to see it all the way from space.
Suddenly, the Earth seems to compress, before expanding rapidly, and with a giant bang, a huge chunk of the Earth (is that Antarctica?) breaks off. As he watches, this chunk floats some distance away from the rest of the Earth, before speeding up and disappearing into a dark spot, and he gasps as he realizes how close the Earth now is to the black hole.
There is another loud bang as the Moon splits into pieces, each hurtling towards the Earth's surface as deadly meteors. Another loud bang, and the Earth splits further, this time into almost evenly-sized chunks.
He watches this with fear and despair heavy in his heart. The Earth is dying, falling to pieces, and he imagines everyone he loves back home, being ripped to pieces just like the Earth is being ripped apart, while he watches, unable to do anything.
He watches the volcanoes erupting, and imagines Ron and Hermione at home with baby Rose, eating dinner peacefully, before a huge wave of lava rushes towards them and consumes them; he sees the monster-sized tsunamis, and sees Hogwarts, his first home, being buried under a mountain of water as its students and teachers flee screaming through its halls; he sees the meteors falling, the Earth splitting, and imagines Draco back at home, walking in the garden they grew together, before looking up in fear as a huge ball of flame approaches the Earth and crashes into it. He watches as the Earth dies and everyone he loves dies with it, in a series of explosions and eruptions, while he sits in the City, safe and unharmed and unable to do anything while his life goes out with a bang below him. He suddenly realises that he can't do it. He can't go in search of a new life while his old one crumbles to pieces beneath him.
He's made his decision.
He casts a Bubble-Head Charm around himself, grabs his broom and hurries towards the entrance of the City, keying in the passcode to open the door. As it opens, he zooms out without looking back; someone would have noticed the open door and would have closed it as soon as he leaves.
He speeds towards the pieces of the Earth, towards the explosions and the eruptions and the destruction. He speeds towards his death, and he speeds towards his home.
The Earth is going to die, and everyone he loves is going to die too.
He is going to die with them. His time was up, anyway, a long time ago, and it was only by luck that he beat death twice.
No more. He's going to join the people he loves in death.
See you on the other side, Draco. See you soon, Ron, Hermione. We will meet again.
Around him, the meteors fall, flaming and fast, towards the Earth, illuminating up his surroundings and painting the dark sky red.