The Road You Take Don't Always Lead You Home

Harry let himself in the door some weeks later and was greeted by a large garland of greenery dangling in his face. "Aack!"

Lisa poked her head into the front hall. "Oh, hi, Harry. Sorry, I guess we hung that one kinda loosely."

"What are you lot doing?" Harry asked in astonishment, stepping into the room. Boxes were open all over the place, spilling tinsel and garlands onto the floor.

"Decorating!" Kate answered, grinning. "I don't know about you, but I'm a Christmas nut. We weren't allowed to decorate our dorm, so I've been repressed for the last few years. When I realised how close it was to Christmas...and that there was all this space..."

Dean stuck his head into the room and added, "Besides, it's our first Christmas as a family. We ought to do something together."

"We've decided to combine traditions," Draco called down; he was perched precariously on a ladder. "Ron had a late-running class or something, he's not home yet, so we'll ask you...what do you two usually do for Christmas?"

Harry hesitated. "In all honesty...we go to Christmas Eve services at our church the night before."

"Anglican?" Lisa asked.

Harry shook his head. "United Methodist."

"Good. None of us have churches in our traditions, so we'll go to yours. Trees, ornaments, anything?"

"No, we never really had room for a tree."

Draco grinned. "Well, I've always had a tree, if only a little one, and so have Neville and George, so we're going to do one this year. If you've got time, speaking of, they're getting ready to go buy the tree."

Harry threw up his hands. "What the hey. Sure, I'll go."

"How are you guys planning to get this thing home?" Lisa asked as George came into the front hall.

George grinned. "There's a car out back, it came with the place. The keys were hanging in the spare room."

"Does it work?"

"It ought to."

"Can you drive it?"

"I'll think of something."

"I'll drive," Harry said hastily. "I'm not really in the mood for a wreck today."

George raised his eyebrows. "You can drive it?"

Harry fished his wallet out of his pocket and showed George the thin, plastic card with a typically awful picture. "Ron and I had an old jalopy for a while a few years ago."

"What happened to it?" Neville asked curiously.

"Did I mention that it was an old jalopy? It fell apart...we just never bothered to get another one."

"Then let's go!" George said, sounding excited. Harry rolled his eyes theatrically and led the way out back.

He stopped at the sight that presented itself as he stepped out the back door. "That's the car?"

"That's it," George said cheerfully.

"Is something wrong with it?" Neville asked, sounding suspiciously innocent.

"Talk about old jalopies," Harry muttered. "What's holding this thing together? It's pure iron oxide on wheels."

George raised his eyebrows. "Ooh, pure iron oxide. Sounds exotic."

"George, iron oxide is just the scientific term for rust. If we touch that thing it's going to disintegrate."

Neville started laughing. George and Harry both looked at him. "And what, pray tell, is so funny?"

Neville pointed. "That's not the car. That is the car. I could have told you from the beginning that this rust bucket isn't going anywhere."

"Oh, and how's that?"

"It's up on blocks."

Harry groaned and smacked himself in the forehead. "Okay, so where's this vehicle we're going to drive?"

"I think that's it."

Harry looked where Neville was pointing. "Oh, that's loads better. Come on, guys, let's get out of here."

"Is there enough room for everyone?" George asked, peering into the cab of the pickup truck. "I only see one row of seats."

"There's plenty of room," Harry assured him. "It's not a stick, so someone can sit in the middle."

"A stick? Excuse me?" Neville repeated.

"A stick shift. There are two types of gearshifts in cars--stick shifts and automatic. It'll take too long to go into now, so just trust me."

"Can you drive this thing?" Neville asked a little uncertainly.

Harry unlocked the door. "Sure. If you can drive a stick, you can drive anything, and Ron's and my old car was a stick." He slid into the driver's seat. "Well? What are you waiting for? Let's go!"

~~~

George pointed to one of the trees and said in a high-pitched, childish lisp, "Daddy, Daddy, can we get this tree? Lots of room for Santa's presents under this tree."

Before Harry could respond, a small voice from near George's waist snapped, "You can't have this tree, 'cause we want it and I've got lots of brothers and sisters who need presents from Santa. You've just got one."

Harry and Neville doubled over laughing as George blinked in astonishment at the small, highly indignant girl. "Honey, I'm just joking around. I'm too old for Santa to bring me presents."

The girl studied him suspiciously. "Then why are you shopping with your daddy?"

This query sent Harry and Neville into fresh peals of laughter. George spared both of them a withering glance before turning back to the girl. "Again, I was joking. These two characters are just my housemates--my friends. I'm older than they are."

"Uh-huh." The girl looked up at Harry and Neville, who had managed to stop laughing and straighten up. Harry had a very mature bearing about him; Neville was tall for his age and stood a half a head taller than Harry, who was in turn taller than George. "They look bigger to me."

"We're not," Harry chuckled. "Sorry to disturb you, miss." He tugged George's sleeve pointedly, and the three moved off down the rows of trees.

Once out of sight, George buried his face in his hands. "Oh, my lord, I cannot believe I just had an argument with a five-year-old!"

Chuckling again, Neville pointed to a large tree. There was still a lot of room underneath, but the tree itself was large enough to accommodate eight people's decorations. "How about that one?"

"Perfect," both George and Harry said in unison.

They paid the man running the farm and loaded the tree into the back of the pickup truck, then drove it home. Draco threw the door open as he saw them. "Good, you got it!" he called. "Ron just came in and helped dig out the tree stand, so once you get it in here we can start decorating."

Together, Harry and Neville manoeuvred the heavy tree into the living room and got it set into the tree stand. Ron came into the living room, grinning. "This is going to be fun. I used to love decorating the tree when I was little."

As they looped the lights around the tree and started digging ornaments out of the boxes, Kate started absently humming "Jingle Bells". Lisa joined in, and soon all of them were singing along.

When the song finished, Harry, looping a cord over a branch of the tree, asked about Christmas plans. "I mean, who are we going to be celebrating with?"

This question was debated for a minute or two. Finally the housemates came to the conclusion that Christmas Eve would be spent with just them--and Percy, Terry, and Justin if they would consent to come. The question would be put to them on Thursday, when they met for their weekly get-together. Christmas Day, all their extended families--parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, whatever--would be invited over. As Lisa put it, "Friends and relations can come on Christmas Day. Christmas Eve is for the family."

Finally, Ron stood on his tiptoes and placed the star on top of the tree. Dean seized the plug on the end of the lights and stuck it into the outlet. Harry turned off the light switch.

"Oooh!" everyone breathed.

The hundreds of tiny coloured lights reflected off the metallic gold, silver, red, blue, and green balls hanging from the branches. A delicate pair of glass slippers caught the light near the top and refracted it into a glittering rainbow. The train ornaments Neville had been collecting for quite some time circled the tree near the top, making a match for the real Lionel train Draco had owned ever since he was a child, the one that didn't quite fit in his regular train set but that he would never throw away. And at the top of the tree, the gold star sparkled and danced in the night.

Neville softly started singing "O Christmas Tree", and everyone else quickly came in. And the tree, the product of eight very different people working together for a common goal, twinkled and shone.