The blood curse epidemic – what was known in the Muggle world as COVID-19 – had taken something from just about everybody. Sometimes, that something was untangible, like a feeling of independence and freedom, the sense of being safe in your community. For others, something tangible and precious had been taken. That something was the lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals, both magical and Muggle alike. Back in the States, the numbers were at nearly a million.