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For 22-year-old Harry James Potter, working on the Extraterrestrial Research Station (ERS) was a dream come true. His father, James, had been one of the first astronauts on Jupiter and his mother, Lily, was the best Xenologist in the UK. Of course, poor Harry only learned this on his 11th birthday. After all, the murder of his parents left Harry in the care of his rather hateful Aunt. He grew up hearing that his parents were jobless drunkards and that "Outerspace" and "Alien" were bad words. His Aunt was Mrs. Petunia Dursley, married to equally vile Mr. Vernon Dursley, and Mrs. Dursley was of the mind that humans had no business "mucking about in affairs that don't concern them." Fortunately for her and unfortunately for Harry, Vernon quite agreed and would often declare that space programs ought to be disbanded. With a few drinks in him, he would also claim that anyone who worked for a space program was a bloody traitor that ought to be disposed of. To what, exactly, they were traitors to, Harry didn't know. He quickly learned that either escaping to his cupboard or tuning his Uncle out was for the best. However, once our dear Harry reached the not-so-mature age of eleven, he got a pleasant surprise in the form of a visitor. Rubeus Hagrid was happy to inform him that James and Lily Potter had put Harry's name down (before he was even born!) at the prestigious private school they attended, Hogwarts! Mr. and Mrs. Dursley were not happy with this surprise. Unsurprisingly. Their son, Dudley, a boy as uninteresting as one could be, had no opinion of his own and so joined his parents in their unhappiness. Unsurprisingly.
Once introduced to the world of aliens and space travel, Harry quickly became enthralled. After learning of his parents' occupations and astounding lack of drunkard-ness, Harry decided right then to grow up to work with both space AND aliens. Was this choice influenced by the urge to spite his Aunt and her awful family? Yes, but only slightly, and Harry was pleased with his decision. Learning that his parents were murdered by a disgraced astrophysicist only made him more determined to succeed, so he set his sights on the famed ERS. At Hogwarts, Harry made his first friends in Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and his fourth enemy in Draco Malfoy, who reminded Harry rather strongly of his cousin. Those seven years of schooling were full of thrills, painful classes (who made organic chemistry so difficult? Harry would like a word with them), romance with Cho Chang and Ginny Weasley, and more than one near-death experience. Despite all that, Harry wouldn't trade those years for the world. Plus, he could and would admit that Hogwarts' prestige was likely why he was accepted onboard the Extraterrestrial Research Station over other applicants. Not that Harry Potter was unintelligent, just that he was more interested in his friends than schoolwork. While he passed his classes, it was not with flying colors. After graduation, Hermione and Ron married, but Harry's infatuation with Ron's sister had taken a backseat to his career. When Ron and Hermione had their daughter, Harry got his first paid internship. When Ron and Hermione had their son, Harry was one year away from taking the shuttle to the ERS. When the Earth exploded and took everything away from him, Harry had been on the ERS for only five months and had just celebrated his 25th birthday. The other five crew members would have been on their way back to the ERS from Earth in just under an hour. Harry was left onboard by himself, as his friend and coworker Luna Lovegood had gotten very sick and was sent back with the other five on their trip for supplies.
The lack of crew members was not a problem initially, for not only is the ERS fully equipped with all necessities and needs no pilot, but the other scientists had hardly been gone two days. No, the problem came just a few weeks after Harry had watched his world explode through the main window of the ERS. Loneliness was not a new thing for Harry, but he had become used to never being truly alone after so long surrounded by friends or acquaintances. The lack of human contact and the knowledge he would never have it again...well, it started becoming hard to bear. As weeks and then months passed, he thought of his best friends Ron and Hermione, their lovely children, and of the life he and Ginny could have had. He even spared a thought for Aunt Petunia and her horrid family. Not for long, mind you, but he did. All of them, dead. Some nights he wondered if they had felt tremors in the Earth and if there was even time to comprehend that death was coming. As he pulled the blankets up to his chin each night, he always wondered if it took them by surprise or if they cried and screamed as they died.
Being alone is really quite different from being the last. Even if there were other survivors out there, how would he know? He could watch a space station float past and never know it had people aboard, what with how easy the trip to and from Earth was. There could be no one or there could be 20 persons, but It would be illogical to check every craft he saw. There was little point, anyway. The ERS would not be able to avoid the debris from Earth's explosion forever. Something would eventually pierce the hull, and he would die. Or perhaps he would become sick of the loneliness and cheerfully go out the airlock. It was only a matter of time.
