Disclaimer: Still don't own HP, but I do still own the characters you don't recognize.

A/N: Eh, sorry for such a huge delay. Not sure anyone is even reading this thing. Review if you are, please!

When the four siblings had apperated into their new home they blinked. They felt a bit uncomfortable and out of place.

"I'll get Yelsnore to take your trunks to your new rooms." Al moved his hair out of his eyes. "You can go back to the old house and wait for me."

"Uncle Al, if you don't mind Aly, Maggie, and myself aren't going back." Conner told him. "Katie will go and make sure everything we forgot is brought back." Albert looked his nephew and nodded solemnly. Al went to find Yelsnore while Conner and his younger sisters started to climb the stairs. Katie watched as they disappeared from view without another world. She turned around and grabbed a handful of floo powder and said, "Number 9, Headson Lane." Katie closed her eyes and felt herself be spun about and then she was still.

She wiped the soot off of her clothes and studied the room for a moment. Katie wanted to cry. Her father was dead, her mum was more than likely going to be declared creditably insane or homicidal, and she was leaving her home. "I'll be able to live a good life now," she said to herself as she stepped into her old room. The first thing she looked at was her bed and it's frame.

The frame was made from oak and had several knots in it. Some might call it ugly but Katie loved it. In bold, crooked letters on the head board it read, "Kat" with stars around the name. The base board had stars, a quaffle with a broom. The latter had been added when Katie became interested in Quidditch. Katie was near tears, and thought about her father.

Henrik Bell always called his oldest daughter Kat. Never Katherine, Katie, or Kate, it was always Kat. Even when she got in trouble she was Kat to him. After she was born Henrik spent months carving her future bed frame by hand. He wasn't use to woodwork and it took him several tries to get everything perfect but after six months of working hard his project was done. His wife laughed at him but he didn't care, he just wanted to do something for his daughter.

Katie didn't know the story of her bed till she was eleven, when her father found her laying in it crying.

"Kat, what's wrong?" Henrik pulled his oldest child into a comforting hug. She continued to cry. "Did someone hurt you?"

Katie sniffled and shook her head. She wiped her nose on her sweater's sleeve, "The other kids wouldn't let me play with them."

Henrik sighed and began to tell her, his story, "You know, I made this bed frame…from hand." Katie looked at him confused. "It's true; I wanted to do something for you. I wanted you to be able to look at it and be proud that I made it, not by magic but by hand. I wanted to prove your mother wrong. She told me I was foolish for trying. But I did it. It took a very long time, but I did it."

"Why didn't you tell me, before?" Katie asked.

"It doesn't matter." Henrik looked away. "Kat, I want you to go out there and show those kids you are not a quitter. Eventually, they'll come around and let you play with them," He told her. "and Kat, I love you."

"I love you more."

"No I love you more!"

"No you don't. I do." Katie giggled and ran out of the room, before her father could respond.

"Katie? Are you alright?" Katie looked up and saw Al.

"I think so. I was thinking of my dad." Katie sighed, and Al sat down on the bed, patting the space next him. Katie did as she was asked; Albert wrapped an arm around her.

"I'm going to tell you something, and I know you're going to be mad but I'm sure you'll find out soon enough." Katie looked up at her Uncle and nodded for him to continue. "There is a portrait of your father in the Manor."

"Why didn't you tell me before?" Katie asked, hurt. She deserved to have known sooner, right? She had lost her father and soon after her mum wasn't her mum anymore, yet there was a portrait of her father which she could talk to. And she just found out about it now?

"I wanted to, honestly, Kaya, but Henrik didn't want me to. He said it was too soon and you kids would get attached and forget that he is in fact, dead." Al told her softly. He understood the pain. He had lost his only brother and almost his nieces and nephew. Most days, he just sat in front of that portrait and talked to his dead brother, missing what he'll never get back.

Katie wiped her eyes, trying to keep them from tearing up again and responded, "I do know where you are coming from but it hurts still, you know?"

"I do." Al said. "I suppose we need to get all this sent to the Manor, don't we?"

Katie nodded.

XxXxXxX

Back at the Bell Manor the kids were unpacking their things and trying to get their rooms the way they felt comfortable with.

Conner was scowling at his posters of various Quidditch teams, and his pictures of friends and family, when his oldest sister knocked on his door.

"C'mon in." Conner grunted, trying to straighten out a picture of Lizzie.

"Conner, I need you to come with me." Katie told her brother.

"Why?" Katie nervously played with her hair. "and why are you so dressed up?" Conner frowned.

"Just come with me." She grabbed his hand and led him up the staircase, and over to a large polished oak door. "Look, I didn't know about this till today. What I'm about to show you can't be talked about with Aly or Maggie, okay?"

"Katie, what's going on?" Conner asked, a little frightened. Katie opened the door slowly and the two siblings walked in to the room.

The room was rectangular in shape and was lighted by several candles along the walls. Katie and Conner both noticed dozens of magical portraits of their ancestors.

"Why are we here?" The people in the portraits watched them with interest as the two walked past them. Katie didn't say anything, but instead looked carefully for the portrait of her father.

"Katie? You're starting to scare me."

"Shush!" Katie motioned for her brother to be quiet. "I'll explain in a second, I promise."

"Katie?" Conner saw the moving portrait first. "Is that who I think it is?"

Katie turned to look at the portrait, and nodded. "It is."

Conner and Katie moved closer to each other. "Kat? Con?" said the portrait.

Katie, who had known what to expect spoke first, "Hi papa."

Conner ignoring the portrait, turned to Katie, "You knew about this, and you didn't tell me?" The portrait of Henrik Bell sighed.

"I told you I just found out today. Uncle Al told me, when we were back at the house." Katie quickly explained. "He said Papa didn't want us to know about it, yet. He let me decide what I wanted to do with the information, I told you, but we can't tell Aly or Maggie because they're just too young."

Conner groaned in frustration. "Aly is going to be bloody ticked off!"

"I know." She smiled slightly, but turned her attention back to her father. "It's been awhile, Papa."

"Too long, children," Henrik said sadly. "Al has told me what has happened to your mum. I'm sorry you've had to deal with all this hurt in your lives, already."

Conner just shrugged. He looked over the portraits details, before responding. "There's nothing you could have done."

"But alas, there was something I could have done." The man in the portrait replied looking over his teenage son. "Tell me kids, what has been going on in your lives?"

Katie glanced at Conner. He was still staring at the portrait. "Conner did excellent on his exams."

Conner broke out of his fog when he heard his name mentioned. "Katie's going out with George Weasley. You remember him, don't you?"

Henrik chuckled and asked, "Arthur's son, the twin right? The one that was always chasing Kat around? Then again both twins were." Katie blushed and tried to think of something to embarrass Conner with.

Conner nodded, "That's the one."

"Well Conner, has a pair of pink trainers!" Henrik raised his eyebrows at that.

"Only because Lizzie gave them to me as a joke!" Katie laughed at him and playfully shoved him. "Not like I wear them…" He muttered.

And so the conversation continued going back and forth until Katie became sober when she realized something.

"Papa?"

"What Kat?"

Conner was still laughing from their conversation until he heard Katie's question. "How frequent can we come back?"

The kids looked up at the portrait. "Once or twice a month." His words made Conner flinch.

"What? That's unfair!" Conner exclaimed. "You've just re-entered our lives!" Katie stayed quiet, but listened. The other portraits in the room watched the heartbreaking scene unfold.

"Con, look at me! I'm a blimey portrait!" Henrik told him, and then lowered his voice. "I don't want you to get attached to something that isn't the real thing. I want to be a real, living person, but I'm not. I'm dead." His words stung the kids, they just nodded. "I'm sorry children."

"We'd better go, Conner." Katie said silently urging him to follow her. "Bye Papa."

"Bye Kat. Bye Conner." Henrik said sadly in vane. Conner didn't say anything, but followed his sister out of the room of portraits. When out Katie pulled a key, that Al had given her before, out of her pocket and locked the room. Conner just glanced at her out of the Conner of his eyes but still didn't say anything.

XxXxXxXxX

"Conner! Katie! Where have you been?" asked Maggie when her older siblings sat down for dinner. Albert noticed their expressions.

"We went outside for a walk." Katie lied, feeling guilty for hiding such a secret. Aly noticed something was iffy with her siblings but didn't want to speak of it. They were here with their Uncle, a man who loved them, and they were safe and happy, right? Why ruin it?