Sunday, April 12, 2020, was Easter Sunday and at 11 A.M. Hogwarts time, a Hogwarts Easter Egg Hunt was set up on the Sloping Lawns. Headmistress McGonagall had mostly set up the 2020 Hogwarts Easter Egg Hunt so that the Sloping Lawns were divided into sections based on house and year. The only exception to this was that James Sirius Potter, being the only fifth year Gryffindor, was assigned to the first year Gryffindor group with Devon, Hugo, Ainsley, Stephanie, Samantha, and Lily. A total of five eggs per person were hidden in each group's section of the Sloping Lawns so that if everyone were equally skilled at Easter Egg Hunts, everyone would get five eggs. These eggs were plastic easter eggs that snapped open in the middle and had Easter candy hidden inside. Some of these eggs were in classic Easter pastel colors such as pink, yellow, orange, blue, and green while the others were in house colors. These eggs all had Easter candy hidden inside of them.

In Devon's, James's, Hugo's, Ainsley's, Stephanie's, Samantha's, and Lily's area of the lawn, the exact center of it, Headmistress McGonagall had hidden seven eggs in each of the classic Easter pastel colors of pink, yellow, orange, blue, and green, as well as seven eggs each in the Gryffindor colors of scarlet and gold.

Devon, James, Hugo, Ainsley, Stephanie, Samatha, and Lily all met on the Sloping Lawns wearing Easter themed tee shirts, shorts, and slide on sandals that Stephanie's younger sister Courtney had sent them for the occasion.

The tee shirts, shorts, and slide on sandals were matching sets with white backgrounds with patterns of eggs in the classic Easter pastel colors of pink, orange, yellow, green, and blue.

"That was really nice of your sister to send these shirts, shorts, and sandals to us for the occasion, " Lily told Stephanie in appreciation.

"What it makes it better," added Stephanie, "Is that I didn't ask her for anything. She offered to send me these for us of her own accord. I thought it was an awesome idea for us to wear egg themed outfits for Easter and all the love in the world to Courtney for both the fantastic idea of wearing these outfits for Easter and for her generosity in providing them."

"I look forward to the day I meet Courtney," smiled Lily.

"For now," said Stephanie matter of factly, "It's almost hunting time."

The nanosecond the eleven o'clock hour hit, Headmistress McGonagall blew her whistle.

Devon, James, Hugo, Ainsley, Stephanie, Samantha, and Lily all took off in seven different directions.

To his delight, Devon was the first Hogwarts student in any group to find an egg after a mere ten seconds and ten nanoseconds as he headed due west from the exact middle of the lawn to find one of the Gryffindor gold eggs clearly visible in front of him.

"I got the first egg," declared Devon deliriously, "Given my love of Hogwarts and being a Gryffindor student here, it's fitting that my first egg is a Gryffindor gold egg!"

But no one replied. There simply wasn't time to chat during an event like this and Devon himself was soon back to hunting for more eggs.

About a minute and a nanosecond later, James, who had gone due east, saw a lump of grass that he just knew had to have an egg hidden in it.

James bent down and used both hands to smooth out the grass. Sure enough, a Gryffindor scarlet egg was buried in that chunk of lawn.

"Perfect," exclaimed James, "I'm a very bold wizard and scarlet is the boldest color egg we have available to find today! What a special start for me!"

Hugo, meanwhile, kicked an egg with his left foot by accident one hundred seconds after heading due north, and then picked it up.

To Hugo's delight, his egg was green.

"Well," smiled Hugo, "As a herbology lover and earth lover, that is a fitting first find for me."

Ainsley, who had gone due south, followed Hugo's green find with a yellow find of her own.

"Aw," cooed Ainsley, "Yellow is my favorite color and I love all shades of it. I'm delighted to have started my collection with yellow."

Lily had taken a southeastern turn and another twenty seconds into the hunt, she saw a little tip of pink showing in one piece of grass.

Delighted, Lily calmly retrieved the egg and said, "Beginning with pink is right up my alley!"

Samantha had gone southwest, which she claimed to be her favorite direction, and Stephanie had gone northeast.

However, neither had any luck.

As the Easter Egg hunt continued, Devon, Hugo, James, Ainsley, and Lily continued to find various eggs while Samantha and Stephanie remained empty handed.

While they had all gone different directions to start, they all went different paths at various times and occasionally crossed paths, though they did not compete against each other for eggs. If one of them saw someone else had beaten him or her to an egg, he or she accepted it and moved on.

The techniques for finding eggs were pretty standard across the Hogwarts Easter Egg Hunt: look for tips of color in the grass, look for chunks of grass where the eggs might be hiding, and pay attention to your feet in case you kicked something, it might be an egg.

When Lily snatched up the thirty fifth egg, which had been another case of her spotting a tip of pink in the lawn, all of the eggs in this group emitted a five second screech as they had all been magically programed to screech for five seconds starting the nanosecond the thirty fifth egg had been claimed.

Devon, James, Hugo, Ainsley, Stephanie, Samantha, and Lily all reconvened in the exact middle of the Sloping Lawns where they had started to see how they had done.

Hugo and Lily had been the most successful. Hugo and Lily, who had both always been excellent at search games, had hauls of ten eggs each.

Devon, James, and Ainsley, who tended to be average at search games, had each secured five.

Unfortunately, Samantha and Stephanie, who were both about as good at search games as Scott Norwood was at field goal kicking, were both shut out altogether.

Stephanie seemed to be taking this in stride as she had a stoic look on her face.

Samantha, however, was very upset and showed it visibly. She let her tears flow freely down her cheeks and shook her head in dejection.

With her tear rate increasing, Samantha actually started to walk away.

"Samantha?" asked Lily gently, "Where are you going?"

"To o-our c-common room," sobbed Samantha, "I c'can't stay o-out here and w-watch everyone e-else eat the candy w-while I have n-none myself. It's too painful. It hurts too much. It's too much of a bummer. This is nothing against any of you, but I n-need t-to remove myself f-from t-this situation."

"Don't worry, Samantha," said Lily kindly, "I will share my eggs with you so that you may participate in eating the Easter Candy with us.'

"Oh, thank you Lily," said Samantha gratefully, "Lily, you are a great friend to us and to me as always. I still remember how you paid for me to get something off the trolley on the Hogwarts Express when I didn't have any money on hand that day."

Lily immediately proceeded to walk up to Samantha and hand Samantha five of her eggs.

"Thank you, Lily," repeated Samantha, now transforming from tears to a broad smile and a glowing face.

"I may have "won" ten eggs fair and square," said Lily in a crystal clear voice, "But there is no reason to be a jerk about it and far less reason than that to greedy."

Hugo, now looking down at his own ten eggs, said, "I wasn't thinking like this a minute ago, but you know what? If Lily can show kindness and compassion by sharing her extra eggs with Samantha so that Samantha can have some candy, I can do the same for Stephanie."

Hugo walked to where Stephanie was still standing stoically handed her five of his eggs.

"Thanks, Hugo," said Stephanie seriously, "I had accepted the results, and I believe in handling disappointment with grace and class, but it would be extremely ungrateful for me not to accept this offer when your intent is clearly to make me feel included."

"I couldn't care less about class or grace," said Samantha bluntly, "Authenticity and genuineness are MUCH more important."

"Either way," said Lily warmly, "Let's open up the eggs and eat our candy."

When they opened up their eggs, they found that, apart from the classic Easter staples of jellybeans and peeps, most of their candy was chocolate. Everyone was cool with this, as they all loved chocolate.

"So," interjected Ainsley wisely, "Much like after Trick or Treating at Halloween, we have too much candy on our hands to eat in one day, unless we want Heavy Stomach Syndrome."

"In some ways," said James the candy junkie, "All of the candies we have here are Easter staples. However, things like jellybeans can be consumed at any time of the year. The candies here that are the most specific to Easter are the Cadbury Creme Eggs and the Lindt's chocolate bunnies."

"That sounds like a plan," agreed Devon, "We'll eat the Cadbury Creme Eggs and Lindt's chocolate bunnies today and save the rest for another time."

So, Devon, James, Hugo, Ainsley, Stephanie, Samantha, and Ainsley all ate and thoroughly enjoyed their Cadbury Creme Eggs and Lindt's chocolate bunnies.

They didn't talk much; they just quietly but happily savored every bit of the candy they consumed while enjoying each other's company in the process.

When they finally headed back to the Gryffindor Common Room, Lily said happily, "I'm glad we were able to enjoy such good candy for Easter.'

"Thank you again for sharing with me and letting me be a part of that," reiterated Samantha, "By sharing with me, you turned what I thought was a Bummer Easter into an enjoyable shared experience. The candy itself was delicious and making this Easter memory of going from bummer to shared experience is something that will stick with me, Lily."

"Everyone getting a piece of it was the best outcome," said Lily clearly, "Much like the Halloween Spirit or the Christmas Spirit, the Easter Spirit is about shared experiences with family and friends, spending time together and creating memories with each other."

...

Later that night, in the Great Hall, Devon, James, Hugo, Ainsley, Stephanie, Samantha, and Lily took their usual seats at the Gryffindor table at dinner for their Easter feast.

This feast was centered around thick, juicy ham and offered sides of mashed potatoes (with or without gravy depending on personal preference), carrot sticks, dinner rolls, and banana pudding for dessert with Coca Cola Classic to wash it all down with.

It was all very yummy.

Stephanie was on cloud nine any time she got to have mashed potatoes be a part of any meal of hers.

Ainsley, meanwhile, was delighted with the choice of dessert. Ainsley loved banana flavor, whether it be candy, popsicles, cookies, ice cream, cake, actual bananas, or, yes, pudding, Ainsley's world lit up any time she consumed banana flavored products.

But for most Hogwarts students, including Devon, James, Hugo, Samantha, and Lily, the best part of the meal was the ham, and even those who liked something else better would readily admit how great this ham was in its thick and juicy glory.

The students all ate slowly and quietly to allow themselves time to actually enjoy and savor the Easter dinner they were eating.

When it was all said and done, everyone in the Great Hall stood up in unison and shouted, "HAPPY EASTER 2020!" together at the exact same nanosecond.

For Lily in particular, this was the perfect ending.

A wonderful Easter had ended with a together tribute.