A/N: I don't own Harry Potter
This is for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Sci fi September - Before the Earth was made uninhabitable, a group of survivors evacuated the planet on a spaceship. Generations later, it's finally time to send a team down to test for habitability, but upon landing you discover that there were survivors who never left.
Word count: 619
Severus' hand clung to the metal rung of the ladder. The ship couldn't get too close to the ground, therefore, the solution had been for him to climb down and see if it was safe. He cursed his luck at having been selected for this mission.
There was nothing left of the ozone for Earth. The air shouldn't even be breathable. No, he could feel hot wind even while inside his suit. The black reflected some of it, but no all. This had apparently been a large city once upon a time. He snorted.
There was nothing left here but rubble, dust, and heat. His boots hit the ground, causing clouds of dust to fly around him. He gave the ladder a tug so they could pull it back into the ship. The rest of the trip would be on his own feet. He sighed and picked a direction to walk at random. He'd taken maybe a dozen, two dozen, steps when he felt it.
Someone, or something, was watching him. He frowned. There shouldn't be anything left down here. This was a dead world, a world that they had only just now returned to in hopes that maybe it might be habitable again. He doubted it by the amount of dust in the air. No one would be able to survive breathing this stuff.
A sound caused him to freeze. Someone had been watching him. He could hear them from somewhere behind him. Not quite footsteps, but definitely movement of some sort. He reached down and grabbed his wand. It was a nice bit of technology, sending a jolt of electricity when a button was pressed. It was also compact and easy to carry. He checked to make sure the thing was set on stun. The last thing he wanted to do was kill something. He very much disliked killing.
He could hear the thing approach him, almost behind him now. He spun, his shield spinning around with him. He nearly pressed the button on his wand when he stopped, his mouth falling open as he found himself staring into a pair of very human brown eyes.
He lowered his wand slightly, watching her. She was dressed in a similar fashion to him, in a suit that encased her entire body. Her helmet had a clear visor and he could see a filtration unit on her back. She stared at him as he stared at her. Slowly, a smile crossed her face. She laughed.
"About time you finally decided to come back, we've only been sending messages for what, thirty years now?" she asked, watching him. "I'm Hermione."
"Severus, and what do you mean you've been sending messages?"
"Simple, about thirty years ago, a ship took off because this world had become 'uninhabitable'. At least that's what the government told everyone. It was a form of population control I guess. We invented new ways to live, overthrew the corrupt government and started over. Where's everyone else?" she asked, looking around.
"What's left of us in the ship hovering above the planet. They sent me down as a scout. Out of the nearly two million that escaped, there's about a thousand of us now. Some settled on new planets, some died, some were born. You're saying that Earth is habitable again?"
"Always was," Hermione laughed. "Want a tour of our newly built city? We call it Hogwarts, since our founders followed a warty pig to the remains."
"I would love that, seeing how you survive here, before I tell my shipmates that we've been lied to our entire lives," Severus agreed. Hermione reached out and took his hand, leading him to the city that would become his new home.