Author's Note: The muse has been all over the past couple of months. The reviews encouraging more of this story were a primary cause of that. Good encouraging reviews revive stories put aside as well. Fortunately at least one story got a chapter done, finally. I had quite a bit of fun creating all the families and a street where due to the interactions of the wards and the increasing number of magical children to power them by there is an incredibly large baby boom. I advise anyone moving to this particular Privet Drive to be prepared for very large families.

I'll give a bit of a plan for where this story is going at the end, but before I go on to Chapter Two, I'd like to thank several people for their help on this chapter: Joey Zoot, Unicornzvi, Brad Coleman, Alysson deMerel, Peter Rubinsteine, and Shalon Wood.

Chapter Two Diagon Alley

Somehow Petunia Dursley had separated her family from the crowd that had gathered around them, and after a brief chat with the auror who had taken charge of the scene around the ashes of the late Defense Professor, managed to get a bit of a lead on them, heading down Diagon Alley. It was enough of a lead and they were moving fast enough that they all reached Gringotts before many could take action spotting on the passing Boy-Who-Lived. Full pairings were in force, but as they reached the bank, Dudley and Noel split, allowing Harry and Bradley to take position right behind Petunia.

This wasn't the first time that Petunia or any of her children had visited Diagon Alley, so the gapping at the wizarding world was kept to a minimum. Usually though she only had two or three of her children, nearly always including Harry, accompanying her. It was, after all, where the conservatorship for her nephew met. Until today she'd managed to keep her visits on the sly. Apparently no one had really expected him in Diagon Alley until today, his birthday. They'd waited for his arrival, and ambushed the group. It was most unfortunate that neither Remus nor Alberforth were available to join them for the meeting with Ite'wold. One adult was not enough to handle all those who had wanted to meet her nephew, even before the fact that Petunia had brought all of her children along.

Upon entering Gringotts, Petunia noticed that all her children were looking around the ornate bank lobby. It seemed that Primrose was a bit scared, based on how she had moved closer to Lily. The others seemed to be taking the goblins in stride, as Petunia stepped up to a free teller. She looked at the inscription on the front of the counter and said, "Teller Grafphar, I am Petunia Dursley, guardian of Harry James Potter. We have come to see to his finances through this bank. Everything shall be in order for this review, else the amount withdrawn today shall be a great deal larger than what is required for his school supplies." Petunia smiled with a big open smile, showing her teeth.

"Madam Dursley, Account Master Ite'wold awaits you in Conference Room Nineteen," Grafphar replied. "Hahmer, show the Dursleys and Mister Potter the way."

"Primrose, show Grafphar and Hahmer your fierce smile," Petunia said, addressing her youngest, before they could move to follow Hahmer.

Primrose looked up at her mother made an off-center smile before turning to Grafphar and making her best open smile, showing her teeth. "Mummy says that goblin pies aren't good, why is that?" she said innocently looking up at Grafphar.

Grafphar dropped from his high seat, and bent down slightly to look the four-and-a-half-year-old right in eyes. Unlike her earlier fearful moves, Primrose kept her eyes matched on Grafphar. "Because no one can catch a good goblin to make good goblin pies," Grafphar said, with a perfectly matched grin.

"Oh. I guess they should just eat cake," Primrose said, still looking at Grafphar with the same open smile.

"Oh yes, let them eat cake," Grafphar replied, stepping back and looking up at Petunia "Petunia Dursley, even your youngest is ever bit as impudent as you were when I met you as a young runner. May your enemies flee your smile without even the shirt on their backs."

"I see you remember, Grafphar," Petunia replied. "I shall look forward to the day when you rise to account manager, though I do hope Ite'wold doesn't go soon. He has served gloriously."

It wasn't long before Petunia and her family arrived at Conference Room Nineteen. As usual, Ite'wold was waiting by keeping himself fit by doing forms with his favored goblin picks, which Petunia knew was an ancient goblin martial art, designed for both mining and battle. As soon as he finished his current position, the picks were tossed to land perfectly in the mounts behind the goblin desk, and he did a double flip, landing in his chair, and somehow putting his suit jacket on at the same time.

"Petunia Dursley, it is good to see the battle against the drudgery and dullness has not taken you yet," Ite'wold said. "I see you brought your whole family this time, save Mister Dursley. I do hope the battle has not felled him."

"Vernon has just been promoted to Director, and is putting in long hours to clean up from his predecessor. Fortunately he has yet to require bloodstains to be cleaned from the office," Petunia said. "You were right that Robertson was inflating figures, and Mr. Grunnings was most appreciative of the discovery. Today, however, it is my turn to introduce my sister's son to the Wizarding World and his finances."

"Very well, Mister Potter, please take the center seat, and Petunia, to his right, Miss Lily to his left. The rest of you may take the bench. Hahmer, before you return to Grafphar, I believe that Miss Violet and Mister Dudley were looking at volume three of The Sons of Warban the last time they accompanied you? Mister Bradley, perhaps you can take up the reading of volume one, chapter six to your youngers in place of Miss Lily? If this is all agreeable to you, Petunia."

"It is, the Sons of Warban is a goblin classic that I wonder why is not available for purchase. Though I do hear that the last human publisher of it was burned down for the commentary text."

"Indeed. We were avenged," Ite'wold said as everyone took their places. "Now, Mister Potter, as you have reached the age of eleven, you are entitled to know more about your family's finances, and so is your sister, by virtue of your age."

"Sister?" Harry asked. "I'm an only child."

"By birth you are, but by blood, as I've previously told your Aunt Petunia, Lily was conceived as the child of James and Lily Potter, transferred in utero upon Lily's death to Petunia's womb. As such she has an interest in the Potter fortune, a trust and a dowry. For now the Potter fortune is entrusted to a conservatorship led by your Aunt along with Remus Lupin and Alberforth Dumbledore. And I have not managed to get Mister Lupin to accept a reasonable stipend for his assistance in seeing to the upkeep of the Potter Estates."

Harry then looked over at Lily. Petunia had told Lily just the night before, as she knew that it was going to come out today. She knew she should have told Harry too, but she'd put off telling Lily too long, and he'd been asleep by the time she'd sent Lily back to the room she shared with Violet. There hadn't been any time in the morning. His eyes looked at his sister, locking on her gaze. "Well, everyone does say you look like our Mum," he concluded. "You get the cupboard while I'm at Hogwarts, after Noel has his day."

"Privacy at Privet, the only privilege of a Potter," Lily parrotted back a long repeated line.

Harry smiled back at his sister. "Now what is the Potter Estates," Harry said, turning back to Ite'wold.

"The Potters are an old family, landed magicals," Ite'wold said. "The Potter Estate, to which you are the only known heir, consists of over a dozen plots of land, including one in Diagon Alley, currently that brings a good amount of rental income. There is also the royalties on Sleakeasy Hair Potion, which are the personal income of the head, having been developed by your grandfather, Fleamont. The Godric's Hollow property that you lived in until your parents death still remains Potter property, as do several other small properties currently leased for terms ending anywhere from seven to twenty-seven years from now. The Potter Estate has a modest operating balance at the moment, and as for investments, while they could be more aggressive, they are well positioned."

Petunia could tell that Harry was about to ask if he could help the family with the money, which would not have been wise at this point, so she interrupted him as his he started to take a deep breath. "Harry, as your conservator and guardian, I have made appropriate use of your family funds, well documented and signed off on, to cover your expenses. I don't want you to think you have ever been a burden, nor that we are living off your fortune. Where an expense is for you alone, it is taken care of, paid as if James and Lily were taking care of it. Otherwise, you are a member of my family, and the Dursleys do not treat family differently."

Harry looked long at Petunia, and she could tell that her long standing work to make sure that her nephew was treated like all of her children had sunk in. Petunia figured she'd get something when Harry got to see his trust vault, but for now, he would listen, learn, and leave things in her hands.

VBDF

Lucius Malfoy was very careful with his contacts, for the most part. It would not do for him to get caught after all the money he'd spent keeping himself from Azkaban for being a Death Eater. That didn't mean that he wasn't above more bribery to get his way. There was very little that couldn't be greased to go his way with a bag of gold or two. Besides that, he had a very good reason to be coming out of Knockturn Alley. He owned it, mostly.

As he emerged from Knockturn Alley, he spotted a large family coming out of Gringotts, heading in his direction. It was obviously a mudblood family, given their distinct lack of robes, The riot of colors of the mother's dress was something that even Dumbledore wouldn't chose to wear, and his eccentric tastes were way out of the norm. The old warlock could get away with it, but Malfoy always thought that a good wizard should go with solid classic colors.

"Hold up Bradley!" the mudblood mother shouted as one of her young boys, far ahead of the rest, reached Malfoy.

Malfoy suddenly felt a burning sensation over and in his dark mark, just as the boy who he judged to be about seven or eight with short blond hair brushed passed him. It cooled a bit, then a four or five-year-old girl with shoulder length stringy blond hair passed on the closer side, and the mark not only burned, but he could see a small flame on his deep Slytherin green robe right above the mark.

The children started passing quicker. A boy five or six breezed by the passing of his messy straw seeming to feed the fire. An eight-year-old girl with longer washed out blond hair caused the flame to suddenly spread down to his wrist, as he grasped his cane in preparation to draw his wand, hoping to put out the fire. Then a six or seven year old girl, whose hair was halfway between the two other girls in length and color, tripped, knocking the cane out of his hands. Finally a red head who reminded him of that annoying mudblood whose death had been the last his master had accomplished passed, and his whole right arm was now in flames.

Suddenly Lucius found himself soaked as someone had finally taken the initiative to cast Aguamenti to put out the flames. But the pain and burning sensation did not stop until the mother passed along side the black haired and glasses wearing dark haired elven-year-old boy who could only be the Boy-Who-Lived.

Lucius picked up his cane as the gaggle of mudbloods headed into Madam Mulkins. His robe was ruined, his arm was a burnt mess. He had to get to a healer now. With a crack he was gone from Diagon and in the lobby of Saint Mungo's.

VBDF

Madam Mulkin's was a very good deal when it came to clothes. At least that was what Aunt Petunia had told Harry several times. This wasn't the first time he'd been to the place, but usually he'd hidden his identity more. He wasn't going to wear that damned cap anymore, though. There was a time for hiding, and that was before had gotten his Hogwarts letter.

This was actually his sixth time visiting the tailor, and had been a couple years. Most of the time it was the girls that got things to wear from the wizarding world, though all of Harry's socks and undershirts were already from the instock shelves towards the middle of the shop floor. At the moment, though he was back quite a bit further as Hogwarts robes were tailored. The ties weren't of course, but the ivory shirt of a first year, black trousers, and back robe were. He'd already selected a rather nice belt made of some sort of iridescent skin.

"Ouch!" Harry cried out as pin poked through the robe to his shoulder.

"Sorry, young man," the seamstress said. "It looks like I need to let that arm hole just a bit."

"That's okay," Harry replied. He wasn't the only boy being fit out for Hogwarts. There were a good half a dozen stations just on the boys side of the store. At the moment they were all filled. Across from Harry was a boy named Dean, and to Dean's right was Ernie and left was Justin. To Harry's right was Neville, and left Balise. "I told you Neville, it happens to everyone." Thus far, by Harry's count, Neville had been stuck a good dozen times.

"Well, I guess so," Neville said. Harry didn't think the boy had a lot of confidence in himself. He seemed to be rather self-depreciating, actually. A seamstress was already taking done with him.

"Come on, Neville, we have a meeting at Gringotts in just a few minutes," an older woman with a vulture in her hat said. "Have the finished robes sent to Foggybottom Manor."

"Yes ma'am," the seamstress said.

"See you at Hogwarts, Neville," Harry said, cheerfully. As soon as they were all done, Aunt Petunia was taking everyone for ice cream, and he was looking forward to it. "Dean, I don't care what you say, Manchester U is not better than Chelsea."

"You finished eleventh last year," Dean replied. "You were literally middle of the table. We were fourth, and won the European Cup Winner's Cup."

"And what exactly was the score the last two times you came against us ... three two?" Harry said, as the seamstress began taking the robes off Harry. "You don't have to bring an Arsenal to beat Man U. Wait, they beat you both times last year too."

"You were right, football fans are as fanatical as Quidditch ones," Balise said.

"Just wait until you encounter an Arsenal fan, they're brutal," Seamus said. "I'm pretty sure they were the cause of that brawl at Old Tafford. They lost more points for it, at least."

"There you go, Mister Potter," the seamstress said. "They should be ready for you in about an hour or so, or we can owl them to you, if you would prefer."

"I think Aunt Petunia wanted to pick them up, but I'll make sure before we leave the shop," Harry promised. "See you at Hogwarts, guys," he said as he jumped off the stool and waved.

He found Bradley standing by the gap in the partition and immediately could tell that his cousin had been misbehaving. There was nothing like that stiff, you're staying there until I do something about you posture among the Dursleys. "What did you do this time, Brad?"

"Knocked over a mannequin while chasing Iris," Bradley admitted. "I'm not to move until everyone else is done shopping."

"Well, I'll keep you company," Harry promised. He knew how boring it got when Aunt Petunia made you stay.

"It might take a while," Bradley said. "Mum's having Iris fitted for a new Sunday best dress."

"Oh great," Harry groaned. Iris was particular about her dresses. This could take ages.

VBDF

This was going to be the last real day that Lily Dursley could go play with her cousin who was really her brother Harry. Lily was slowly coming to terms with the fact that she really wasn't a Dursley. It didn't seem like it mattered much, after all she still got the stories of the twenty-two hour labor she put Mum through. It had explained why she looked more like her namesake Aunt Lily than the rest of her sisters. Quite frankly, Lily had always stood out with her fiery red hair from all the other Dursleys. Well, with the exception of that one time when something in the shampoo had turned all the Dursley children's hair red.

It was a bright sunshiny day near the end of August, not quite record high for the day, but as Mister Gallegher often said, still hot enough burn scalps off. That meant one thing to Lily and the other children of Privet Drive, it was time to go to the duck pond.

The duck pond was mostly forgotten by the adults of Little Whinging. It was in the area reserved for development as a town park, but funding had been cut before the full plan had been implemented. A great deal of the plan for Greater Whinging had been cut, especially when the Metropolitan Green Belt had cut through the area. So it's existence had been slowly receded from most people's memories.

The copse of trees hid the duck pond, from general view. The best way to get to it was to go along the hedgerow marked the end of Privet Drive, turn right through a small gap just before Mr. Gallegher's rose garden, and then it was just a hop on to leftover small rock wall, a jump over a gap, and you were right at the pond. It was a fairly broad pond, but not very deep, and on a hot summer day, the ducks unwillingly shared it with a gaggle of children from Privet Drive who jealously guarded the secret of its existence.

When Lily reached the shore of the pond, she was by no means the first to arrive. She waved at Carrie Matthews, who at fourteen was obviously serving as the teen in charge today, as she sat on a branch of an oak tree that overlooked the pond. Despite Carrie's current condition, she was quite trusted to child mind by all the parents on the street. Lily thought that it must be getting hard for the girl to get up there with her growing belly, as she stripped off her clothes and jumped into the pond.

She came up next to her littlest brother Noel, who judging from the mud in his hair had already been making mud pies on the muddy south bank. "Hey Noel, why the glum face?"

"Timmy had to go home to finish his packing," Noel said as he treaded water next to Lily. "I don't want him to go. Especially since Harry's going away too."

"I know," Lily said. Noel and Timothy had been inseparable since both of them had learned to walk. "I'm going to miss Harry, when he goes to Hogwarts." She admitted it audibly for the first time. "But we're here to enjoy the last days of summer with him. You'll be able to write them both, and I'm sure that Timothy will be coming back to visit his grandparents every once in a while, as they're not moving, just him and his mother while she's at Uni."

"Yeah, maybe," Noel said, as Violet and Bradley, already stripped, jumped into the pond. They were quickly followed by their best friends, Colin Creevey and Porta Polkiss. The splash of their arrival quickly swamped Noel and Lily.

Bradley came up beside Noel, and grabbed his little brother. "No glum faces, Noel," Bradley ordered, as he spun Noel around to face him. "I'm under orders from Timmy to make sure you don't waste a moment in the pond and come out with wrinkly fingers."

"Good luck with that, boy and tomboys," Lily said, addressing the four who were now surrounding Noel. "I'm going to go get Harry and Dudley."

"See if they'll throw us around," Violet said, before Lily dived under the water and headed towards where she'd spotted Harry and Dudley swimming.

Lily came up in the middle of her older brothers, genetic and by name, inserting herself between them as they raced across the pond. Despite the fact that she was almost two years younger than Dudley, she easily kept pace with them until they reached the other side of the pond, a stroke ahead of them. "So slow boys," Lily said.

"Slow?" Dudley asked, as both of them stood up and waded into the shallow edge of the pond, to the point of where the water came up only to about half way up above their knees. It was just short of reaching Lily's butt.

"Yes," Lily replied, before giving her usual hug to both, before they could take a seat in the shallows, as they often did after their laps around the pool. The Dursley Family was very affectionate between each other. She got a kiss on the cheek from them both after she ended her embrace. "And I'm sure that you're about to say you weren't racing, just exercising."

"She's got us pegged," Harry replied, sharing a look with Dudley. Then he looked at Lily, his deep green eyes locking up with hers. "And what, pray tell, have you come over here to request?"

"Oh, nothing much," Lily downplayed, "I just think that Noel needs a bit of cheering up since Timothy's mother called him home to get ready to leave Privet Drive. Maybe some strong older brother who loves to lift things might want to play toss the little ornament?"

"He's getting a little big for me to do that, and you know it won't be just him, don't you?" Dudley replied. Lily looked at him with her head slightly cocked to the left. "Okay, enough with the look. I'll do it." He dived back in and swam back towards Noel.

"Now, come, sit, Lily, and tell big brother exactly why you've been avoiding me since Diagon Alley," Harry said, taking a seat in the shallow water and slapping the water to his right to indicate where he wanted Lily to sit.

Lily sat down next to Harry, and felt his arm going around her back, pulling her up against him. For a moment she watched as Dudley snuck up behind Noel, picked him up, then tossed him towards the center of the pond. Dudley was quickly swarmed by every kid around Noel's age, demanding their turn, and there were a lot of them. Lily mentally counted up the ones starting Nursery with Noel, Michael Stone, Caleb Adams, Albert Palmer, John Polkiss, and Fenton Creevey, could there really be six five-year-olds this year? Of course Primrose had to attach herself to that group, and get the biggest throw of them all from her big brother. Dudley said that tossing the ornaments, as he called it, helped his muscles, and he was quite strong for his age.

"Lily," Harry prompted again.

"You know I'm the only red head on the street, not just in the family," Lily said, leaning against her brother. "It makes me unique, but especially as I got my little sisters, I started to feel a bit out of place. We had some pictures of Aunt Lily – I'm not exactly sure what I should call her now – and we always said that I look just like her, and now I know why. But now that I know I kind of feel like I'm stealing from you. I probably hadn't even started showing a sign on Aunt Lily when You-Know-Who killed her."

"No, you're not stealing from me," Harry said. "I mean Dad had already started the paperwork to set up your dowry and trust accounts. And even if he hadn't, well, Aunt Petunia may have always insisted that a Potter was just as good as a Dursley, and my last name doesn't mean anything among family, but it really does mean something. I know I'm not the last Potter, the last bit of James and Lily, in the world. I'm not alone and that makes all the difference."

"You live on Privet Drive, it's impossible to be alone," Lily said as Iris sent up a big splash in front of them as she made a diving catch for the ball that Edwin Creevey had tossed her way in their keep away game with Georgina Polkiss.

"That's certainly true, but it doesn't stop you from feeling like you are, every once-in-a-while," Harry replied. Somehow the splash had not hit his glasses. It was one of those magical miracles that regularly happened to all the children Harry's age and younger on the street. He pulled Lily into a sideways hug.

After a moment's silence, during which Lily enjoyed the close presence of her brother, finding strength in his understanding of her, she noticed that some kids were missing that she would have expected to be at the pond were missing. "Where is Piers?"

"Apparently he's been assigned the task of making sure that Dennis, Godwin, and Crispen properly clean the results of their slime fight, including washing Mr. Gallegher's DB4," Harry replied. "Piers thinks they've ruined his whole afternoon. It's the bane of being the oldest in the family. You're expected to put taking care of your youngers first, sometimes. I, at least, share the role with Dudley. You're going to have a lot more issues that we did, especially as Aunt Petunia gets closer to her due date. She really leans on the olders the last month or so."

Bradley suddenly emerged from the bottom of the pond with a handful of mud which he preceded to dump on his older sister Violet's hair. Lily could hear Violet giggle, before she dived down as well. It was obvious that the two had just started another mud fight, a regular event that usually resulted in the need for a big clean up. Fortunately the two had access to the tree house that Colin had convinced Mr. Gallegher to build. Lily wasn't exactly sure how Colin, Bradley, Porta, and Violet had arranged it, but it was their private get away, allowing them to clean up with Mr. Gallegher's back garden hose pipe instead of streaking down the street covered in mud to their respective homes.

The four loved to have mud fights. At least they were no longer involving the whole street. Lily vividly remembered her run home, and then the embarrassment of the garage door opening as she showered off in the open shower at the back of the garage. There was a difference between being exposed swimming, and one's Dad opening the door to outside letting everyone see and hear you singing in the shower.

"Wait, I'm going to have to make sure Badly gets clean, oh God," Lily realized.

"Yes, and he's going to be the oldest boy, which is absolutely no help for you," Harry replied, as Lily recalled the one time so far she'd been tasked to make sure Bradley had washed. He'd been dirty behind his ears and had forgotten to wash between his toes. "I think you can probably train Violet to help you, maybe taking care of Noel and Primrose. Bradley is going to be a pain."

"Is it possible for you to be a day student at Hogwarts?" Lily asked, her mind replaying all the trouble that Bradley had gotten into, mostly due to issues with cleanliness and roughhousing.

"It's in Scotland, Lily," Harry reminded her. "It's going to be hours just getting there on the Hogwarts Express. I hardly think that they'd provide a quicker way to go back and forth to children."

"Will you at least write?" Lily asked morosely. "I doubt Dudley will."

"At least twice a week," Harry said. "And if Dudley doesn't, you have my permission to flood Royal Mail with requests. I'll send Hedwig too. At the very least she'll steal his bacon. Now let's get back to swimming. I bet I can reach Carrie' tree before you can."

"You're on Harry."

Next up: A Death Eater tried to follow the Dursley's home. Harry gets on the Hogwarts Express, and Lily finds herself sliding into the role of the oldest Dursley. Oh, and I might get far enough for Harry to be sorted. It depends.