On Monday, November 16th, 2020, James, Devon, Hugo, Ainsley, Samantha, and Stephanie all entered the common room to find Lily wasn't there.

A nanosecond after they realized Lily was missing, a letter zoomed into the common room that had UREGENT stamped onto it in large bold black ink.

The letter fluttered into James's hands and unfurled itself.

"This is Lily's handwriting, " recognized James at once, "The letter is stained with tears."

"Read it aloud, " said Devon gravely.

So James read out what Lily had written:

"Dear James, Hugo, Devon, Ainsley, Samantha, and Stephanie:

I woke up this morning feeling fatigued, running a terrible fever, and with a bad cough. I took myself up to Madam Pomfrey, who gave me a strawberry starburst and small can of Coca Cola Classic to test my senses of taste and smell. I have lost all sense of taste and smell and could not smell or taste them at all. When it became clear to Madam Pomfrey that my senses of taste and smell were gone along with my having a fever and cough while feeling fatigued, Madam Pomfrey ran some diagnostic spells on me to test for viruses. The bad news is that I have tested positive for COVID 19. I am now quarantined in my room and will need to stay quarantined for a fortnight. As house elves are immune from the effects of COVID 19, Madam Pomfrey has assigned a house elf to both bring me my homework so that I won't fall behind in the two weeks I will have to miss classes as well as to write out my homework for me. I will either tell the house elf what I think the correct answers to questions are or what I want to write in an essay. The house elf will have his own quill and supply of parchment for this purpose so that the teachers will never have to touch anything over these next two weeks that has been touched by me. The house elf will also keep me informed on my performance on my homework assignments. IMPORTANT: DO NOT UNDER ENTER MY ROOM OVER THE NEXT FORNIGHT UNLESS IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSACARY FOR US TO EVACUATE! I do not want to pass the virus on to any of you and I would never able to forgive myself if I did. Assuming I survive this ordeal, I will be retested in two weeks and allowed to return to normal activities if I test negative. Unfortunately, this timeframe means I will have to miss Hogwarts Thanksgiving. I am saddened that this will mean missing out on a visit for Miles, Gary, and Todd as well as the announcement of what this year's major Hogwarts competition will be. I know you guys will bring me up to bring to speed on the missed announcement once I'm able to be in your company again, but I feel terrible about missing out on the visit from Miles, Gary, and Todd, though I know they can be trusted to understand that health is more important than happiness. Madam Pomfrey has written each of them of letter explaining the situation so they won't be caught off guard by my absence once Thanksgiving rolls around. Even assuming I am able to make a full recovery, for the foreseeable future, we need to avoid making physical bodily contact with each other. This includes, but is not necessarily limited to, a need to avoid hugging, kissing, handshaking, high fiving, messing up of the hair, and belly button rubbing, In fact, we should be very careful to avoid ANY physical contact with each other so long as the pandemic is ongoing. As an atheist, I obviously don't believe in prayer. Under normal circumstances, I'd rely on the support of family and friends to get me through tough times. Now, my only option is to find the strength within myself to pull through this. Everyone has to deal with adversity at some time in his or her life and I suppose it's my time to do so. Know that I am not abandoning any of you. It is simply a hard necessity that I be away from other people over the next fortnight. Just know that I love all of you with every inch of my heart and I'll be thinking of you even if I can't be with you.

-Sincerely

Your friend, cousin, and sister

Lily Luna Potter.

James, Hugo, Devon, Ainsley, Samantha, and Stephanie all shook their heads sadly and looked slowly around at each other, all feeling totally helpless.

"Poor Lily, " said Samantha sadly, "I can't fathom how hard it must be to not only have a fever, cough, and fatigue, but to have also lost any sense of taste and smell at the same time. It's brutal."

"And the bummer of missing Thanksgiving on top of that, " added Stephanie tonelessly.

"Being sick is miserable even with mild illnesses, " piped up Ainsley sympathetically, "I can't imagine what poor Lily is going through with something like this."

"As bad as all that is, " supplied Hugo in a heartbroken voice, "Two weeks away from her circle of family and friends will be torture for poor Lily. I guarantee you that when Lily's on the other side of this, the first thing out of her mouth will be how the loneliness was the worst part."

"No doubt, " declared Devon in a gut wrenched voice, "Lily's the type of person for whom being lonely is worse torture than the Cruiatus Curse."

"It's a lowly, sinking feeling knowing that we can't help or support her, " said James bitterly, "These next two weeks will be the worst two weeks of Lily's life hands down."

After that there was a long silence. When they finally went down to breakfast they didn't eat much as none of their hearts were really in anything,

The Gryffindor Table in the Great Hall had an eerie and empty feeling to it without Lily. It was going to be a hard two weeks for James, Hugo, Devon, Ainsley, Samantha, and Stephanie, but at least they still had each other.

Lily held up reasonably well emotionally the first few days, but by the time Wednesday rolled she felt like she had hit rock bottom.

"No family, no friends, no human company for two fucking weeks!" Lily said to herself through burning tears on Wednesday morning, "Two weeks is going to feel like two decades before this is all said and done. "

James, Hugo, Devon, Ainsley, Samantha, and Stephanie weren't really dong that much better. While they had each other, knowing that the person they loved and cared about the most was suffering and that they could do nothing to help or support her was its own form of torture. Not to mention that the new normal of avoiding physical contact with each other had been hard on Devon, Hugo, and James, who were quite used to the physical touching being a big and satisfying part of their relationships.

By Friday, Lily's feeling of loneliness had amplified to the point where she just cried her eyes out until she had no tears left This hurt was far worse than all the physical pain in the world multiplied by nine hundred octillion.

To their credit, James, Hugo, Devon, Ainsley, Samantha, and Stephanie kept up with their schoolwork, as did Lily though the house elf, though none of their hearts were really in anything. Since Lily couldn't go to the library, she was forgiven of the normal Friday library time requirement, though she still finished what homework she had left.

It had been the hardest week of Lily's life. Normally, Lily felt she could fly no matter how terrible she felt because James, Hugo, Devon, Ainsley, Samantha, and Stephanie were the wind beneath her wings. Now, those wings had been clipped from her. This week reaffirmed Lily's strongly held views about family, friends, and love being the most important things in life. She had always had a deep seated appreciation for those things, but being deprived of them had actually increased her appreciation of those things and how special they were to her.

Still, on Saturday, despite still being lonely, without any homework to worry about, Lily decided she would try to take her mind off things and do some leisurely reading for enjoyment.

Lily retrieved a copy of the book The Magician's Nephew from her trunk and laid back in her bed as she got sucked away into the adventure of the first Narnia story.