Stepping onto the Knight Bus, Katie cursed the coins she had to hand over to the driver before drifting to the closest seat. Letting the jolting bus relax her, she wished she could have just apparated, but after three days of no sleep, she didn't think that was very practical. Pulling out the pocketwatch that her parents had given her for her seventeenth birthday, she checked the time, simultaneously wondering how much she could pawn the watch for before scolding herself. The golden watch decorated with rubies was not something to be pawned, it was a family heirloom. Passed from mother to daughter over the years, the watch was at least a few centuries old.

She knew she was late, and she hoped David understood. Today was his first day of mini-league at the park, and she hoped he wasn't embarrassed or made fun of by the other children because she was late. He was extremely sensitive for a six year old, but he had gone through things no six year old should have had to experience.

Thinking back to a mere eighteen months ago, she knew that her hospital stay had affected him. She had been cursed by a necklace and in St. Mungos on the brink of death and insanity for several months before returning to school after Christmas. Now, looking back, her seventh year holiday at the end of her recovery had been the best time of her life. Her family had enjoyed a quiet Christmas together, ignoring the rumors of darkness rising around them.

By Easter, the Bell family had been unable to ignore the threats any longer when she had come home from Hogwarts to find that her parents had both gone missing the day before. She and David had been assured by Kingsley that they would find their parents, and they had, two days later with the dark mark floating ominously above their bodies.

The murders had been hushed up by the ministry who didn't want to alarm the public at the murder of two high standing pure bloods such as Walter and Patricia Bell. Nothing had even appeared in the papers, and the funeral had been exceedingly small, attended only by Katie, David, their mother's squib sister Aunt Theresa with her husband Uncle Harvy, and some of the Aurors that her father had worked with at the ministry. After the funeral, Katie had invited everyone back to her parent's house, no it was her house now.

The implications of her parents death had meant a multitude of things for the young eighteen year old, the least of which being custody of her five year old brother. In charge of the Bell estate, she had thought to come into quite a bit of money, but her parents hadn't planned on dying anytime soon and hadn't written a will if such a thing were to happen. Instead, according to ancient wizard custom and law, everything had gone to her brother, but he couldn't inherit it until he turned seventeen. It was a sexist law that favored male heirs and patriarchal society, but was entirely impractical and posed many problems for Katie. The ministry had sealed off all of her parent's assets until David was of age to inherit them, and now she had been left with nothing but the small amount of money that her parents had put in her Gringots account that she had gotten when she turned seventeen. Lately a large portion of that money seemed to be going toward uncomfortable rides on the Knight Bus.

Knowing that Katie wouldn't be able to support herself and her brother without a Hogwarts diploma, Aunt Teresa had volunteered to care for David in the months she had remaining at school. This way she could continue with her NEWTs in hopes that she would still join the Healer Trainee Program, and begin work immediately. This had worked out, and Katie had almost been able to forget the responsibilities that lay ahead of her during those last months of school. However, upon stepping off the Express at the beginning of June, she had come face to face with her five year old brother.

"Aunt Teresa told me to give you this," he had said handing her a note. Katie had looked curiously at the old Hogwarts trunk reading Walter Bell and the bag that he had with him. Reading the note, Katie's eyes widened. Her aunt and uncle were leaving the country. He was a muggle, and she was a squib, which was basically the same as a muggle in the eyes of death eaters. It was now becoming evident that a second war was imminent, and they were getting out while they could. Her Aunt informed her that they were leaving them with a bit of money to help for the summer, but not to try and contact them as they would be in hiding. She wished her the best, and told her to remain low profile as the war progressed. David was already an orphan, he didn't need to lose the only family he had left to him.

Looking in David's bag, she had found all of his things, plus some extra things that her Aunt had given them such as some sets of sheets, some books and photo albums, and emergency muggle money, all packed into a bag with a spacious charm on it to contain more things weightlessly. Taking the suitcases, all of which were too heavy for her brother, she had shrunken her father's old trunk and placed it in the weightless bag, allowing him to carry the smaller pack on his back. Dragging her heavy Hogwarts Trunk behind her with the family pet owl Rudolph strapped to the trunk, she had set out on her first adventure as a single parent of a five year old in London with little to no money.

It was the middle of a London June rainstorm when they exited the station. Being unable to put a water repelling charm on herself and her brother in front of the muggles, the two had been soaked on the long trudge from the train station to their destination that Katie still hadn't decided on. After wandering through London for several hours, they had arrived fortuitously at a cozy muggle tea shop where they had warmed up and dried off over a few cups of tea and some cookies for David. Cajoling the waitress out of a copy of the muggle paper, Katie had set about looking through the ads for an apartment.

The elderly shop owner had popped over to see how the siblings were doing, asking what they were looking for in the ads. Seeing the two waterlogged siblings pouring over the paper had made the woman curious. Katie hadn't paid much attention to her brother striking up a conversation with the woman as she had been busy trying to convert pounds into wizarding money to decide how much they could spend on a flat each month.

She had been interrupted from her mathematical dilemma when the woman had addressed her with the question, "Are you really looking for an apartment then? For the two of you? Your brother David here said that your parents died a few months ago, and he's been staying with his aunt, but now the two of you are starting off on your own because she had to leave the country with her husband?" Katie had nodded, too stunned that David had been that open with the woman in the few minutes she hadn't been paying attention to him. He was a very shy child and didn't talk much, although this woman did have a very nice look to her. "I have a small flat upstairs I'm trying to rent out. My daughter lived there for several years but she got married a few months back and I've been looking for a respectable person to put up. I don't want some stranger up there when I come in to open shop in the morning, and I want someone I can trust. You have a very trustworthy quality to you and you obviously need some help. Would you like to look at the place?" asked the woman. Katie's eyes had widened at the good fortune.

"Why yes, it's not every day that something like this falls into your lap!" said Katie. "Katherine Bell, but you may call me Katie," she said holding out her hand for the woman to shake.

"Maggie, Maggie Patterson," said the woman with a kind smile. "So do you attend school Katie?" she had asked as she led them to the back of the shop behind the kitchen while they dragged their luggage.

"I'm going to be working at a hospital as an intern, I'm training to be a doctor," replied Katie, grateful she had taken a year of muggle studies and knew that they didn't call them healers. She had accepted the position at St. Mungo's the week before Easter holidays.

"You're much older than you look, I would have only taken you for about twenty, but already through med school huh?"

"I'm eighteen, I er… graduated early," replied Katie nervously as she didn't want to lie about her age to the woman and then have it found out that she was so young. The woman seemed pleased to find that Katie was quite smart too.

Seeing the flat, it had been perfect for the two of them. The main room consisted of a small kitchen and living room area. It had a few bright windows, and looked clean if just a bit old looking. Mrs. Patterson told them that they could have it fully furnished as she didn't need the furniture as long as they took good care of the things. There was a small bathroom, an office room which Katie knew could be converted into a bedroom for David, and a bedroom for herself where she could keep her books. It was small, much smaller than the large country home she had grown up in, but it would do for now, and Maggie offered a great price of three hundred pounds a month if they kept it nice and didn't cause disturbances in her tea shop.

Katie was jolted from her random thoughts as she realized she owed Mrs. Patterson the three hundred pounds for August. She would need to go to Gringots and get it tomorrow, but tonight would be better if she could. However, she had been working long shifts at the muggle bar where she had found a job recently. Working In the bar Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights supplemented their income in a way that her job at St. Mungo's couldn't. They had long since run out of the one thousand pounds that her Aunt had given her with the paying of the first month's rent combined with the cost of a seven AM to six PM daycare for David. Between daycare, rent, and the cost of food, they were just making it after just over a full year on their own living above Maggie's shop and somehow surviving through to the end of the war. Unfortunately for the Bells, the end of the war hadn't been the end of their problems.

The past two days, she had gone to healer training from early in the morning to five and then worked from six to three a.m. at the pub after picking up David from day care and dropping him off with Mrs. Patterson who was able to watch him for her in the evenings. The woman said she enjoyed spending time with him, and she was one of the few people that David seemed to open up to, so Katie accepted her offers to babysit gratefully. However, the last few days she had been taking tests during Healer Training and had spent the rest of her time studying, giving her absolutely no sleep over the past week.

Suddenly, the bus jolted to a stop at her destination. Katie realized how lucky she was not to have missed the park where she had signed David up for a fall quidditch league. He had been so depressed since the deaths of their parents. He was no longer the loud obnoxious brother who ran around the house getting into everything, making messes, and stealing wands to try magic. He no longer begged Katie to fly with him whenever he got the chance, but instead was reserved, quiet even. He opened up to Katie, talking to her, but he had made no friends in his muggle day care class, and she hoped perhaps being around some magical children his age would help him adjust.

Getting off the bus, she passed the entrance to the park and walked past the playground with its swings that looked like broomsticks and the jungle gym shaped like a dragon with the slide as the dragon's tail. She remembered coming to this very park as a small girl with her parents after they had moved from Ireland when she was seven. She had been in the same quidditch league. She passed the picnicking area and reached the quidditch fields. She could tell that the rest of the children were gone, but she saw her brother flying on her old broom at the opposite end of the field. The late afternoon sunshine was glistening off his golden blond hair that was only a shade darker than her own.

Dragging her feet, she approached the floating figure and called up to him. "Davie!" she waved as she got his attention, and he flew down to her. She felt really bad for having left him here. Didn't his coach stay until he was picked up? She was only twenty minutes late.

"Katie!" he exclaimed, his entire face brightening when he saw her. "I LOVE QUIDDITCH! I PLAYED CHASER AND THE COACH THOUGHT I WAS SO GOOD! I MADE LOTS OF GOALS AND HE SAID I HAVE REAL POTENTIAL! WE PRACTICED A BIT AFTER EVERYONE ELSE LEFT BUT THEN WE LOST THE BALL IN THE WOODS AND SO HE WENT TO GET ANOTHER ONE AND THEN WE'RE GOING TO PLAY SOME MORE! AND IT'S SO FUN!"

Katie gaped at her brother. This was more than he had said at one time in months, and he hadn't seemed this excited about anything since last Christmas when she gave him her old broom. "That's great Davie, I can't wait to hear all about everything, but we need to get back to the bus stop so we can take the muggle bus home."

"Aww Katie do we have to? Can't you just apparate us home?" he whined.

"Sorry Davie, I am a bit too tired to try, I don't want to splinch us. Besides, then you can tell me your stories on the bus."

"Well, we can't leave yet, my coach has to come back, and he said that he wanted to give me something before I left. I want to play a little longer too, please, please, pretty please with fairy dust on top?" He made a puppy dog face that he knew she couldn't resist. Those light green eyes of his were hard to resist. No wonder her father had given her everything she had ever wanted.

"I'm sure your coach is mad I'm late and will be glad to get you out of their hair. They are probably very busy and have their own family to get home to," replied Katie trying to fix her hair. She had worn it curly the night before for work and hadn't had time to shower or redo her hair so it was up in a very curly blond ponytail that was tickling her neck and trying to escape. Brushing the hair away with her hand, she put her hands on her hips to show David that she meant business.

"Ohh, hello! You've arrived," came a deep voice from behind her. Katie whirled so fast she was pretty sure that her brother had been whipped with her St. Mungo's robes. A tall burly man with messy windswept brown hair was approaching rapidly holding a shiny, well polished broom and a bright red quaffle. Katie's jaw dropped open as she stared at the man.

*Keep* tuned for my next update, hopefully next week... I REALLY appreciate reviews. Please let me know what you think. This fic is well underway and I'll be updating regularly. This is my first new story in ages. Feedback is very motivational and lets me know what you all think! Thanks! E.A.