The Road You Take Don't Always Lead You Home

"Look out! Coming through!"

Harry and Ron dove aside as Justin Finch-Fletchley, windmilling wildly, zoomed towards them. He hit the wall at full speed and fell back, groaning. "Ow," he muttered, looking up at them. "Hi, guys."

"I told you to stick to the rails." Dean Thomas skated over to them and braked skilfully. "You okay, Justin?"

"Oh, yeah, this is a terribly comfortable position," Justin said sarcastically.

"Get up, you." Dean hauled him to his feet. "Jeez, even Neville's managing to keep his balance."

"I heard that!" someone called in a deep Scottish accent.

The four men joined their group. Since Voldemort's defeat, desperate for any sort of normalcy in their lives, this group had met regularly, once a week, for some sort of excursion. Fishing, bowling, watching a movie or just hanging about, none of them missed a day if they could help it. Besides what Dean had once referred to as "the usual suspects"--meaning Harry, Ron, Dean, and Neville Longbottom, who had been roommates at Hogwarts--there was Justin, who shared a desk in one of the classes at Moonshine with Ron; Terry Boot, who had worked at Flourish and Blott's with Harry and in fact still worked there; George, who was the only one of his friends left alive; Percy, who would once have scorned at their childish antics but now welcomed the chance to reconnect with his brothers; Lisa Turpin, who also attended Moonshine University and had briefly dated Neville; and Draco Malfoy, who had been estranged from what little was left of his family after helping Harry and his companions in the fight against Voldemort. Lisa had also, some weeks before, dragged along Katelynn Bell, her roommate at Moonshine. Kate had grown up in America with several brothers and sisters, to say nothing of quite a few friends and her grandmother. She had thus found the solitary life at university a little unsettling, so Lisa had brought her along once to try and make her more comfortable. She had been quickly assimilated into the little group.

Justin pushed his hair out of his eyes. "Whose brilliant idea was this again?"

"Yours," Lisa said innocently.

Harry sat down and began lacing up his skates. "Does it matter? I think this is going to be fun."

"Yeah, me, too," Neville agreed. "What about you, Draco? You seem kind of quiet...Draco? Draco?"

Draco was sitting on a bench, looking completely lost in thought. Ron snapped his fingers in front of his eyes. "Draco!"

Draco jumped. "Huh?'

"Are you here?" Terry teased. "You look like you're on the moon."

Draco managed a slight smile. "Sorry. I was just...thinking is all. It's this house."

"You're mooning after a house?" Justin demanded. "I thought a girl, maybe a dog, but a house?"

Draco shook his head. "Not like that, Finch-Fletchley. It's just that I'm getting evicted from my flat. I need another place to live and I rather fancied the idea of living in a house. There's this one house...it's kinda big, but it's really nice. I fell in love with it the first time I saw it, but the realtor won't sell it to me."

Harry frowned. "Why not?"

"Well, for one thing she thinks it's too big for one person--and she might well be right. For another, it's a bit more than I can afford." Draco sighed. "It was a shame, really, but I guess I'll have to let it go."

Ron and Harry exchanged glances. They often seemed to share the same thought and the glance confirmed that they were thinking the same thing. Harry started to ask, but Lisa got her mouth open first.

"Hey, Draco, if you're looking for someone to go in with you on buying this house, count me in."

Draco looked surprised. "You serious?"

Lisa grinned. "Lord knows that in the last six years I've poured enough into that dorm room to pay for three houses by now. A house sounds like it'd be fun. Save me having to find a flat when I graduate."

Kate raised an eyebrow. "Thanks for the heads-up, Lisa. Guess I'd better start hunting for a new dorm-mate then, huh?"

Draco waved a hand. "Nonsense. The more the merrier...although I doubt your folks would be reticent to the idea."

Harry and Ron grinned at each other. Ron spoke up this time. "Count us in too. We were just talking the other day about finding another flat...around our building, if it's not one thing it's another, and more than likely it's Isabelle too."

Neville bit his lip hesitantly. "Do you...I mean...would you mind if I joined in too? I mean, I've been living on my own since Gran died, and quite frankly I'm getting to hate it."

Draco's face lit up. "That sounds excellent. What about you guys? We'll make a whole big happy family out of it."

Percy shook his head. "Thanks for the offer, but I'm sharing a flat with a colleague of mine."

"I get board free," Justin said quickly. "Besides, I don't have anything remotely approaching a job yet. Thanks, but no thanks."

Terry smiled and held up his hands. "Mea culpa, mea culpa. I appreciate the offer, but I like where I am now. It's convenient to work."

George looked at the other six people and shrugged. "Oh, what the heck. Sure, why not?"

"Yeah, count me in too," Dean added. "I mean, if you're sure this house will hold all of us."

"Cool." Draco hoisted himself up, still grinning. "Well, now that we've got that settled, let's go skate."