setting the scene

a/n: so here i am with the next chapter of this...trilogy spinoff coronavirus fic. i hope you enjoy, and PLEASE stay safe, stay healthy, and do your part to prevent the spread if you're able! ily!

(March 15, 2020 - continued).

"So Els, coronacation to the Bahamas, how about it?"

"It's not happening, at least for me," said Elsie, sighing. He could see her in her room via his phone, and Luke could tell that she didn't look happy. "As soon as I got back to New Rome, my parents told me how dangerous the impact of the Coronavirus could be due to what they heard. Long story short, I have literally been quarantined inside my house. I can go out only for my daily jogs and necessities, and I haven't even done anything wrong. Now I'm going to be coddled and sheltered for gods knows how long! And all that's online is people being really paranoid about everything, it's giving me anxiety."

"Solution," said Luke easily. "We're still going. I'm just going to have to sneak you out, love."

"There's no way you're going to be able to," said Elsie, but a grin was playing on her face. "You see, my mom's in the house and won't leave."

"But you said you could go out for your daily jogs," pointed out Luke. "So...I could arrive in the morning, grab your luggage from your window, you could go out for your jog, and -"

"It would work," said Elsie, in thought. "Once they find out I'm gone, though -"

"They're not going to find out you're gone. You know me, Els, I always have a plan."

Elsie's eyes widened slowly. "You didn't," she whispered in both awe and horror.

"I have a) your Polyjuice from last year, b) a friend, and c) money to give her," he told her bluntly.

"You're crazy. Have always been," stated Elsie bluntly. "I'm not sure it's a good idea?"

"You want to be quarantined there for who knows how long?" asked Luke, raising an eyebrow, and Elsie shook her head vigorously. "Believe me, I know how protective they can be of you."

"Get me out of here," she said emphatically. "If I bring hand sanitizer and maybe some masks...we'll be fine."

"Of course we will, Els," said Luke assuringly, blowing her a kiss through the screen.

"I miss you already, Al," said Scorpius.

"We can just floo to each other's places whenever," said Al easily. "They can't stop us from seeing one person."

"Luke was like I'm going to plan a coronacation to the Bahamas," snorted Scorpius. "The Bahamas! And he's probably going to take who-knows-how-many people with him! If he gets away with that by using his stupid "I'm of age" card, but I can't floo to your house, I'm going to be pissed off. I don't exactly know my parents' reaction yet…I feel like Thals is going to attempt to do a bigger hangout, too."

"I can't see in any universe your mum denying you to come here," said Al succinctly. "Our mum and dad says we can go to friends' houses and go out in the streets for air, but we can't go out to public places without permission. They've talked to Auntie Mione about how to best handle the situation without going paranoid."

"Watch James and Lily go anyways," snorted Scorpius.

"I have a feeling they're going to keep more of an eye on those two," said Al. "As for me, well...I'm the trusted one."

"Ah, I love being the middle one," said Scorpius, stretching. "With them having to worry about our siblings and all, we're going to be getting away with so much time together during this Corona break."

Al smirked. "I can't wait," he winked.

Scorpius ended up blushing, and he wasn't quite sure of why.

"Charlie, mate," said Luke to his close friend who was older than him by a year, Charlie Jackson, on the phone, wanting to see if he'd be open to coming on the coronacation. "Some of my Hogwarts friends - you know them already - and I are planning a coronacation to the Bahamas for the break. We'd leave two days after tomorrow, you in? I'd Apparate to New Rome to get both you and Els."

"Whoa. Elsie's allowed?" asked Charlie in surprise. "She's sixteen, I doubt they'd let her travel alone with her eighteen-year-old boyfriend and a bunch of older guys even without this Corona business."

"Hey, seventeen in two months. And not exactly," said Luke quickly. "But I have a plan for her."

"Well, I'm not sure if I'm allowed, but to be quite frank - I don't give a shit," said Charlie simply. "I'm nineteen, a college freshman. I may be at home, but I have somewhere to go besides there. Also, I need a vacation, to get away from all the panic, yeah? So yes, I'm in."

"Great," said Luke simply. "I'll see you Wednesday, yeah?"

"Wednesday," said Charlie in agreement.

(March 16, 2020).

"Alright, family meeting," said Lina, as the five Malfoys were seated together in their entrance hall. "We need to figure out how to best handle the Corona situation, which I would like to clarify one last time, is not because of beer -"

"Quarantine," said Draco, without skipping a beat. "It'd prevent us from getting it, and us from spreading it. Flower and I can't help our jobs, but other than that-"

"No!" cried Lina, Luke, and Thalia at the same time, appalled.

"Draco, we are not quarantining this family together! I'd much rather have the house in one piece!" exclaimed Lina.

"And I have plans," said Luke in a matter-of-fact tone.

"What kind of plans?" asked Draco, raising an eyebrow.

"My friends and I are having a coronacation. Why not enjoy the break? We're all going to the Bahamas, I thought I said this yesterday?" said Luke, without skipping a beat.

"And how many of you would be going?" asked Draco, humoring the whole idea.

"Miles, his girlfriend Rebecca, Eddie, his girlfriend Stephanie, Anthony, Henry, Charlie, Elsie, and I," he listed casually.

"That is literally nine people, Luke!" hissed Draco. "Along with your underage girlfriend, there are already many consequences that can result from that, I doubt Frank and Hazel would approve - let alone the accommodations! I highly doubt all their parents will let them go anyways, and even if it was just you and one other person, we can't be going on vacation during these times! Are you crazy? We should barely leave the house, let alone go that far with that many people! Traveling's so dangerous! Do you know how easily the virus could spread that way-"

"Surely...we don't need to go that far?" asked Lina. "We don't need to restrict them from their plans... if they're careful with the sanitizer, and caution -"

"Dad, chill, we're Apparating," said Luke. "See, mum has the right idea, we'll bring sanitizer if it makes you comfortable -"

"Lina, surely we aren't approving this?" said Draco sharply.

"Well... I'm Switzerland on the topic currently," she said. "I mean... how do I know it isn't just you being extremely paranoid, Draco?"

"He is, mum," assured Luke. "He's being extremely paranoid, there is no harm in it -"

"Well, I have my reasons not to completely trust you that it'll all be well either," Lina said, turning to Luke.

"Why not?"

"Because, Lukie, you are me and I am you," said Lina simply. "Don't you think I don't constantly resist the urge to grab my girls and go to the Bahamas too? I could really use a tan, you know."

Draco looked horrified. Were there any sane people in this family? He cast a look at Scorpius, who looked as if he were completely zoned out.

"I don't think he should go," said Thalia in a sweet tone. "After all...who knows if he'll come back?"

"Thalia, if I don't get to go on my coronacation, you don't get to hang out with your little firstie friends," retorted Luke acidly.

"I plan on actually staying in London!" she retorted smugly, as if that solved all problems.

"Thals…" sighed Draco gently, "I don't think hanging out with a group in public places is a good idea -"

And now, Thalia, along with Luke, looked extremely annoyed.

"What do you think about this, Scorp?" asked Lina gently.

Scorpius was still zoned out, and Thalia leaned over, snapping her fingers in his face. "Earth to Scor! Earth to Scor!"

"Oh, uh...all I ask is that I can see Al," said Scorpius.

"Done. You can see him via your phone," pointed out Draco, and Scorpius gave him an annoyed look.

"I mean I actually want physical contact with him," stressed Scorpius.

"Done," said Lina quickly, talking straight over her husband.

"What?" exclaimed Luke furiously. "So he's getting away with what he wants and I can't?"

"Flooing to someone we know's house versus going to stay who-knows-where across the Atlantic with gods know who are two entirely different things!" said Lina defensively.

"Well...actually...I'm still not sure if…" Draco started hesitantly.

"Oh, can it, Draco!" snarled Lina, annoyed, leaving the table and stalking off. "Family meeting over! I will now be making the decisions on plans, as your father seems to just refuse literally any social contact!"

The kids, annoyed with their father, all left immediately from the table as well.

Thalia paced the room. "Dad's gone nuts, Lils! Nuts, I tell you! He's going on about some quarantine, as if I want our plans to be ruined!"

Lily took a breath. "Well, I feel like I'd be allowed to hang with maybe a friend or so, but I'm not sure if I'd be able to hang around groups of friends in public places either," she sighed.

"If we want to hang out," said Thalia in a matter-of-fact tone, "Then we need to sneak out. We need a rope so I can climb out my window -"

"Have you ever...snuck out...before?" asked Lily, unsure if how to go about it.

"Nope," said Thalia simply. "But there's a first for everything, and nobody said how long this break's even going to last."

"You're right," agreed Lily. "There was no set time we're going to get back, now that I think about it. The Headmistress just said that it would be shut down."

"Well, that's not looking too good -" Thalia was interrupted by a knock on her bedroom door. "Someone's at the door. Talk to you later, Lils."

"Bye, Thal!" she called, as the phone was shut off. She went over to open her door, and Luke was the one who knocked.

"What do you want?" she huffed, crossing her arms.

"We should do something nice for mum to butter her up," he said simply. "We both have big plans, and we both know dad's gone mental, so mum's the key if we want to go places."

"And we could start a fight between the two of them," suggested Thalia. "If we get mum to be completely alienated from dad, we'll get what we want, trust me."

"She's already on her way," smirked Luke. "She looked pissed at the end of that family meeting."

"Should we include Scor in this?" asked Thalia.

"No," he said finally. "Mum's definitely going to fight for Scor, I can feel it, but our plans are a little bit...bigger than seeing one person, aren't they?"

Thalia nodded.

"Mioneeee," groaned Lina over the phone, much akin to a five-year-old. "Draco's being annoying again!"

"What'd he do this time?" asked Hermione patiently.

"He's going paranoid over the Coronavirus!" she huffed. "He wants to put us all into quarantine, and we all seem to have plans - I mean, I certainly don't want to be quarantined, I can't stay in the same place for too long, and Luke's planning this big vacation with his friends, Scorpius - bless him - literally just wants to see Albus, and Thalia wants to be with her friend-group. I know we should be cautious, hand-sanitizer and the like, but do we really need to restrict them like this?"

"You're right," said Hermione finally, after a moment of silence. "Draco is overreacting and paranoid. But I also need to set you straight on a couple things, love, because you are underreacting - which is understandable since Draco's being paranoid and you're probably repelled by it at the moment. I'm glad you came to me. There are certain things you can or cannot do. Staying home as much as possible and social distancing is key; even if you end up getting the virus, you wouldn't want you or your kids spreading the virus to someone old who can't fight it off, would you? Even if you don't feel sick, there's a possibility you could catch it from an outside place and continue to spread it. In fact, I'm thinking of enforcing a couple things as Minister anyways."

"Well, of course I wouldn't," said Lina, frowning at the thought.

"Exactly. First of all, Scor can absolutely see Al since we all have floo, but they need to stay in someone's house and not go into public places. The advantage we have over the Muggles is that we can floo and Apparate to people's houses, while for them, they have to take a risk. I know that the Potters are taking measures as well, so his house will be fine. Now, let's discuss Luke and his big vacation, because you already let him get away with way too much, and if there is one thing I need to stress to you, Lina, it's this. No, no, and should I stress again the word no? Absolutely not. You need to stand with Draco on this one and make your decision loud and clear. Not only could he potentially bring the virus here, but if he gets it, it could spread to a lot of other people. There is a strong chance that Luke himself can fight off the virus, but other people...might not be able to."

"In that case...what would protect him and others from receiving the virus?"

"Staying home as much as possible...keeping distance while you're at work...Draco's being paranoid, but it's not that far off," said Hermione honestly. "As for the Thalia situation, she can hang out with friends but it must be at someone's house via floo, preferably yours or the Potters, as I know Lily's in that group. The group shouldn't really exceed two, maybe three, and they shouldn't stand so close to each other. I'm letting Rose and Hugo hang out using the same guidelines."

"I suppose it'd be a compromise with Thals, at least she won't be stuck in her room. I can offer the same thing to Luke too, this is going to hurt him so much…and I can't quarantine with Draco for who knows how long. Someone's dying and it's not because of Corona," said Lina honestly.

"You can still go out, love, just don't stand too close to people. Take runs, they help blow off steam. And of course, Apparition to my house is always open," said Hermione.

Lina nodded. "Of course. Thanks for the insight on what to do Mione, I didn't really trust Draco. He's going out of proportion." She peeked her head out of the bedroom, eyes widening in pure horror. "You've got to save me, he's currently spraying cleaning spray around the whole kitchen and entrance hall."

"...You can come over now, if you'd like," offered Hermione weakly.

"Here, mum," said Thalia sweetly at dinner. "We made a custom card just for you, it's from Luke and I."

"Aww, thank you, loves," smiled Lina, opening the card that was personally decorated with flowers and hearts.

Thank you, mum for everything that you do for us. With you by our side, we feel like we're the most loved kids in the world. You're the best mum one could ever have.

Love,

Luke & Thalia

Lina closed the card immediately. "Alright, you two. What do you want?"

"We don't want anything," insisted Thalia sweetly. "We just wanted to show our love."

"...You two? You just want your Corona break plans, I know," sighed Lina, grimacing.

"I still stand by the fact that we all should just stay at home unless absolutely necessary," said Draco firmly.

"I talked to Mione earlier today," said Lina, taking a breath.

"Oh, did you?" asked Draco, his voice considerably brighter. He knew Hermione probably put some sense to her...he hoped.

"And we shouldn't just stay at home all the time, but according to her the more we go out to large public places, the more we'd spread the virus. Then, it'd affect other people," said Lina.

"How would us going places affect other people?" asked Thalia, raising an eyebrow. "If we don't feel sick ourselves?"

"According to Mione, even if you don't feel sick you could spread it to someone else," she said.

"But what if we just wear masks?" asked Luke.

"I just want to see Al," said Scorpius. "Surely there's no harm in flooing to someone's house?"

"It really hurts me to say it, but I don't think the coronacation event to the Bahamas is a good idea," said Lina firmly.

Luke groaned loudly.

"I knew you'd see sense, flower!" exclaimed Draco.

"Draco!" exclaimed Lina, observing the absolute crestfallen look of her eldest. "I didn't want to do it!"

"I can still go on my plans, right?" asked Thalia sweetly, batting her eyelashes.

"Sort of. You can see one or two friends at a time-" here, Draco gave Lina a look - "But you have to stay in a house, you can't go to a public place."

"Which means that I can see Al?" pressed Scorpius.

"Yes, of course, Scor."

"Yes! That's all I wanted," he cheered. "Carry on with your arguing, I'm just going to eat in peace now."

"Okay, so again. Scorpius is getting exactly what he wants, but for me it's 'coronacation cancelled,'" pointed out Luke coolly.

"Your request was much bigger than Scorpius' was," sighed Lina. "You can see friends too, love, but...you can't go all the way to the Bahamas."

Luke made an effort to not talk to anybody the entire meal after that.

"But," stressed Lina. "I'm sure this whole thing will blow over by Easter break, you guys might be able to go then instead."

Luke paused for a moment. "I suppose we could go then…"

Thalia groaned. "But if I don't feel sick, I'm not going to spread it anywhere."

"You could catch it outside and symptoms may not show up, Thals," said Draco.

"Take the floo compromise or leave it Thals, if it were up to your absolutely mental father you'd be quarantined here and not go anywhere," said Lina bluntly. "And according to Mione, the poor Muggles have no choice but to not see friends without risk as they can't floo nor Apparate."

Thalia, looking absolutely horrified at the mere thought of being quarantined in the house, gave Draco a scared look, before nodding.

"If we're going to keep the kids here, who's taking care of them?" asked Lina, raising an eyebrow. "I have Auror, and you have Healer. We have to go to work tomorrow."

Draco paused for a moment, unable to come up with words. "Well...um...flower, what did we do when they weren't all at Hogwarts?"

"...Um, well, because we are indeed parents of the year, when one of us wasn't available, we literally just dropped Scorp and Thals at the Potters and let Luke go wherever he wanted," said Lina. "But, you know, now that we're hosting a semi-quarantine, we can't do that."

"We could do...part time shifts? I could try and get some set up, and you could do the same?" suggested Draco.

Lina nodded. "That could work. And as for getting food and supplies and stuff -"

"We have enough supplies," said Draco, quickly. "No need to go to the stores and potentially catch Corona from them-"

"No, we actually do not have enough supplies," countered Lina. "Look, we aren't going to die of starvation either, so if you're so paranoid, I will take care of the shopping."

"Depends, will you let me sanitize you when you come back?"

"Draco, you are this close to me changing my last name back to Quimby."

After Luke touched base with his group, it turns out that even if he were allowed to go on the vacation on Wednesday, there was literally no point in following through. While they would all be allowed to go in regular circumstances (the exception being Elsie), due to the Coronavirus, out of them all, only Miles was actually allowed to go.

"How about we go Easter break instead?" Luke asked via a five-way video chat, stretching.

"I'm down for that," said Miles in agreement. "It wouldn't make sense to go now if none of you lot are allowed to."

"Merlin, I wish. Mum thinks that this Corona thing's going to go on for the rest of the Hogwarts semester," said Eddie gloomily.

"The entire semester?" exclaimed Luke, horrified. "Of our seventh year? No. No. I refuse. I doubt it, just give it two weeks to blow over. You know how the Hogwarts flu outbreak works, Ed. Everyone's sick for a couple weeks, then everyone heals."

"She'd better be wrong," said Eddie honestly. "We haven't even planned our final prank yet!"

"We haven't done our final...anything," shuddered Anthony.

"No. She's probably wrong. My mum thinks it'll blow over by Easter break, she said we could go then," added Luke.

"Hopefully she's right," cried Anthony furiously. "Look, mates, I am not about to have my seventh year ruined due to some damn virus!"

"It'll blow over in two weeks, guys. It's a virus, not a war," said Luke confidently. "We'll go on Easter break."

They all nodded, desperately wanting to believe that the Coronavirus, whatever it was, would go away in two weeks.

(March 17, 2020).

"Mione," said Lina warmly, holding her phone. "What is it?"

"The number of cases is increasing in the Wizarding World," said Hermione in a no-nonsense sort of tone. "Therefore, as Minister, I need to take action."

"How many do we have now?" asked Lina.

"Over seventy, which is roughly equal to and even a little bit higher than the average Hogwarts year. This is definitely high when considering the Wizarding World's population in London," she said.

"Oh no, that's definitely an increase," said Lina, frowning in concern. "So what do you plan to do?"

Hermione sighed, deeply. "Well, my first implementation is to protect the employees from getting Corona and spreading it, so I'd like the various Heads of the Ministry offices to work from home and to get their employees to work from home."

"It's probably for the best," nodded Lina, before she paused a moment, her eyes widening in horror. "Wait a second...I'm a Head. I run the Auror office..."

"I wanted to give you a heads-up in advance before I made the announcement as of tomorrow," said Hermione. "I'm sorry, love, but it's the best thing we can do. Also...is there any way to possibly prevent you guys from going on Auror missions to other places unless there is a direct threat to Wizarding Britain?"

"Well...that's half the job of the Aurors, Mione," winced Lina. "Other than that, it's researching cases. But seeing as there's no direct threat currently, we can postpone missions."

"Great," said Hermione, sounding considerably relieved. "Again, I'm really sorry. I know how much you loved Auror."

"It's what you need to do. I mean this Corona thing can't go on for too long, can it? Maybe one, two weeks?" said Lina confidently.

Her eyes widened as she realized that she no longer had to find somewhere for the kids to stay. Draco had told her that it was nearly impossible to catch a break at the hospital, so maybe this was a good thing. She had no idea how he went into the hospital every day, yet was so...paranoid.

Anyways, she was now where they were going to stay, and now she had to have Luke and Thalia under the same roof for days on end.

Shopping cart in tow, Lina entered the supermarket, surprised to find that there was less of everything than usual. It was like people were preparing for quarantine, but she thought this was definitely a bit excess.

When she went to collect Scorpius' favorite snack, there was none of it, and there was only one carton of milk. Milk, for the gods' sake!

But then she had a slight idea of where all the stuff might be going. Needing toilet paper, she reached the section, finding the section completely empty. "Shit," she breathed out.

There was a frail-looking lady who looked like she was eighty also staring at the empty shelf. "What a shame," she said to Lina, shaking her head. "People just keep taking stuff. Now I have to go to another store...and the more I get out, the more at risk I get…"

But Lina wasn't paying attention; instead she had her eyes fixed on some lady that looked maybe a decade older than herself, carrying what looked like forty toilet paper rolls.

"That lady has like forty toilet paper rolls!" she gasped indignantly.

"Forty?" cried the elderly lady, scandalized.

"Wait here," said Lina. "You don't need to go to another store...this shit is ridiculous…" She stalked over to the lady hoarding the toilet paper. "HEY! You do not need 40 rolls of toilet paper! There's a poor old lady over there, and I doubt her health can afford to go to another store!"

"I got there first," said the toilet paper lady, her voice nasal. "Too bad."

"Are you that selfish?"

"Are you this annoying? I'm not going to give up my rolls of toilet paper!"

"Your face looks really punchable!"

"My husband's a cop!"

"Technically I lead a bunch of cops, try the fuck again."

"I'm not giving up my toilet paper! I'll fight for it," she insisted.

"Fine," said Lina, already fingering her wand. She'd get that old lady and herself some toilet paper one way or another.

"Fine!" said the lady, leaving.

She looked around furtively, making sure her surroundings were empty. She then waved her wand, nonverbally summoning four rolls of toilet paper when the lady wasn't looking at her cart. She then summoned four more, and another four for good measure. She wasn't about to let her leave with forty toilet paper rolls!

"Where are my toilet paper rolls going?" screeched the lady. "I could've sworn that I had more than this -"

Lina couldn't help but snort as she heard the lady literally counting her toilet paper rolls. Counting them!

"I HAD FORTY, NOT TWENTY-EIGHT!" she screeched furiously.

Lina snorted. The lady didn't even need twenty-eight, but she couldn't take more, otherwise she'd risk getting exposed.

Before the lady figured out where it went, Lina quickly walked back to the old lady, giving her some toilet paper. "Thank you so much, dear. Bless you," said the elderly lady emphatically.

As soon as the elderly lady left the aisle, the annoying toilet-paper lady stormed towards the section, where Lina had taken what she needed and put the rest back on the shelves.

"I suppose now you're going to accuse me of stealing the toilet paper when you and your cart were all the way over there and I was all the way over here?" scoffed Lina, raising her eyebrow. "An employee came back and added some more."

The lady spluttered, clearly wanting to accuse Lina of taking the toilet paper, but had no evidence. "You're a very odd woman, you know," she spat. "I bet you're single with no life."

"Quite the opposite, lady," said Lina, rolling her eyes. "I've been married for seventeen years. And you probably counted wrong the first time."

The lady glowered at her, before she reached to grab the remaining toilet paper from the shelves.

"Oh, no," said Lina, this time deciding to fill her voice with charmspeak. "You do not need that much toilet paper. You had as many as you did before. Leave."

The lady, entranced, finally left.

Lina decided that she was done with this Corona shit already, and it hadn't even started.

a/n: so the scene is set. and now there's an idea of the characters and where they're going to stand during this whole fiasco. you'll have to read on to see what happens next! please stay safe, and stay inside for essential workers, people who need supplies, and anyone else who can't, including hospital workers such as draco in this fic! xoxo

please r&r :)

-ana