Pulling up to the house, Steven could barely contain his excitement. There was snow on the ground, and the house was lit up.
"It looks like your father got home early." Steven's mother smiled. "Let's not keep him waiting."
The girls jumped out of the car as soon as it pulled to a stop.
"Daddy!"
"Last one inside's an icicle!"
"Aw, there's snow in my boots!"
Steven chuckled to himself as he opened the trunk to get out his and Tom's luggage. He hadn't realized how much he had missed everyone. Steven's mum came to help them pull out their trunks.
"These are heavy, Steven. Did you bring home all your books?"
"Well, not all of them. I brought some candy…" Steven looked at Tom, worried. "Tom, do you think every-flavor beans are okay?"
Tom shrugged, pulling his trunk towards the house.
Steven gave his mum a half smile. "I brought some magical candies to share, if that's okay."
"Of course! The girls will be so excited."
They brought the trunks up the lane to the front door. Steven's family lived in a suburb of London where all the houses were connected to each other and all looked the same. But the familiar rosebush under the window set Steven's house apart from all the others. He could see the christmas tree through the front window, and felt a rush of excitement mixed with a bit of regret that he hadn't been there to help decorate it. Steven's mum opened the door, and Tom and Steven pulled their trunks through the door. Steven turned to see the girls jumping on their father, who was sitting stiffly at the kitchen table, still in his suit from work. When he saw them, he immediately stood up.
"Margaret." That was weird. Steven's father never called his mum by her full name. "Margaret, I need to speak with you. Alone."
"Oh Jack, can't it wait a moment? Steven's friend from school is here visiting us."
Steven's father held out his hand to Tom. "How do you do?"
Tom took it. "Quite well sir. Please don't be put out on my account."
Tom released his hand, eyes flicking between each of the adults. Steven could feel the it too. The tension between them was tight as a fiddle string.
"See? The boy doesn't mind, do you son?"
Tom slowly shook his head. Steven's father took his mother's arm, and lead her into the other room. He had hardly glanced at Steven.
"What do you suppose that's about?" Steven asked Tom.
Tom shook his head again. "I haven't the faintest idea."
Steven felt a tugging on his arm. He looked down to see Jamie tugging on his shirt sleeve.
"C'mon Steven, come look at all the presents!" Jamie pulled Steven towards the christmas tree.
Steven shrugged at Tom. "Duty calls."
He pasted a smile on and headed back towards the tree. Krissy had opened his trunk and was inspecting all of his belongings.
"Hey nosy, back off!" Steven knelt down and tried to close his trunk, but Krissy held it open.
"What're these?" she asked, holding up a galleon and a knut.
"They're wizard money."
"It looks like you stole them from a pirate chest."
"Do you have a pointy wizard hat?" asked Janet, bouncing over.
"Yes, I do actually." Steven pulled out a black pointy hat and put it on.
Janet giggled. "You look silly!"
"Well, we only wear them on special occasions."
"Does he have one?" Janet asked, pointing at Tom.
"Erm… yes?" replied Tom, clutching the handle of his trunk a little tighter.
"I wanna see!" Janet ran over to Tom, and Steven saw him tense up.
"Guys!" whined Jamie, saving the day. "We have to show Steven the presents, remember?"
"Oh yeah!" Janet ran over to the tree, and Tom relaxed. "We got your friend a present too!"
"You… you did?" Tom asked, sounding confused.
"It's long," said Janet, pulling out a long box and shaking it, "and it has rattly bits in it. We've been trying to figure out what it is, but nobody knows."
"Maybe it's a chess set!" said Jamie.
Krissy rolled her eyes and went back to inspecting Steven's trunk. She pulled out Steven's wand. "What's this? A fancy stick?"
"That is my wand, and I would appreciate it if you wouldn't play with it." Steven grabbed his wand out of Krissy's hand.
"Hm. Looks like a normal stick that someone's whittled down into a fancy shape."
Steven felt a little defensive of his wand. "It is not a normal stick. This is a beautiful willow wand with a unicorn hair core. Mr. Ollivander told me so."
Krissy raised her eyebrows cynically. "Unicorn hair?"
Janet dropped the present she was looking at. "Ooo, I want to see the unicorn hair!"
"You can't see the unicorn hair, it's inside the wand."
"Can we break it open and see it?"
Steven clutched his wand to his chest. "You can't break this! This is a magic wand, it's the only one you get."
"If it's magic, then do some magic with it." Krissy folded her arms expectantly.
Jamie looked up from the presents, interested.
Steven looked around at his sisters, worried. "I… I'm not allowed to. I can only do magic at school."
"If you can only do it at school, then what's the point of it?" Krissy sniffed.
Steven was quiet. He really did want to show them something, even if it was something as simple as lumos. As he thought, Janet snatched the wand out of his hand.
"I want to do magic!" She ran across the room with his wand, pointing it at a lamp. "Abra cadabra, turn into a cat!"
Jamie ran over to Janet and yanked the wand out of her sister's hands just as Steven jumped to his feet.
"You can't just grab other people's things, Janet!" Jamie said. As she spoke, orange sparks burst out of the wand tip, then disappeared.
Janet's eyes widened, and Krissy's jaw dropped. Jamie, Steven, and Tom stood frozen, staring at the wand.
"Are… are you a wizard too?" Janet asked.
Jamie dropped the wand and Steven ran to pick it up. He cradled it back to his trunk and stowed it away. He had always thought that if there was another witch or wizard in the family, it would be Janet. But Jamie?
Just then, Steven's mother walked into the room, her face pale and lips tight.
"Mama! Did you see what Jamie just did?" Janet asked, jumping in front of their mother.
Their mother shook her head, and sank down onto a couch.
"Not now, dear." she whispered.
"Is something wrong, mum?" Steven asked.
Their father walked stiffly into the room and their mother looked up at him.
"We have to talk about this with everyone, Jack." Steven's mum looked at Tom. "I'm sorry you have to be here right now, Tom."
Tom awkwardly shuffled from foot to foot.
"I can go…" he motioned to the front door.
"No no, it's quite alright, son." said Steven's father. He took a deep breath, and licked his lips, as if trying to find a way to put this delicately. "I'm… I'm afraid I have some bad news for everyone. I've come home from work early today because… well, because they don't want me to work there anymore."
The room was silent.
"So… Daddy lost his job?" asked Krissy.
Their mother nodded. "It's happening everywhere, dear. It's all very complicated, but there just isn't a lot of money to go around right now."
Their father cleared his throat. "We don't have a lot of money ourselves, in fact. We all will need to make some sacrifices, or some changes. We might have to move, or change schools. I'll do what I can to find more work, but things look pretty bleak, I'm afraid."
Steven mind spun. Change schools? Did that mean he wouldn't be able to go to Hogwarts anymore? And what about Jamie? If she was a witch and couldn't go to school, would she just never be able to use magic? And if Steven didn't go to school, did that mean he could use what he'd learned, or was his whole time at Hogwarts a waste? He had known that all of this had been too good to be true. It really may have all been a dream for all it mattered.
"Will we still have Christmas?" asked Janet.
Their mother smiled. "Yes, we are still having Christmas."
"It may be our last extravagant Christmas for a while, but everything is already bought and paid for. So we had better enjoy it." Their father looked sternly at each of his children, who all nodded. Then a twinkle shone in his eye. "Besides, we can't just call up Santa Claus and tell him not to come."