Author's Note: What if Dudley wasn't an only child. What if a gift of Lily to her sister, along with the wards protecting Harry resulted lots of children in a household full of love instead of resentment. What if the wards were more powerful the more family that lived under them, and protected more of the neighborhood as a result. What if the protection imparted by Lily to her son, also was imparted in part those new magical children ... well, the Dursley Family is a bit different.

"Wake up. Cousin wake up," Dudley Dursley said, pounding down the stairs that was the ceiling of Harry Potter's cupboard under the stairs bedroom. Harry Potter was the only Potter living at Number Four Privet Drive, in the large Dursley Family, but that wasn't why he was sleeping under the stairs. He'd asked to turn it into a very small bedroom as a way to not have to share a bedroom with his then three-year-old cousin Bradley as well as Dudley. Dudley often groused about Harry's successful move. It may have had just enough room for his mattress and a set of shelves behind it, but he didn't have to share a room with any of his seven cousins.

Harry reached back and picked up his glasses from the shelf behind him. Sliding them on he moved to open the door and get out. He had kitchen duty this morning, which was Dudley's birthday. As such, Dudley had the day off from helping. As soon as he stood up, his oldest cousin bumped into him, nearly sending him back into the cupboard. It was part of their regular morning ritual.

Harry took the apron off the hanger next to the door, and put it on over his t-shirt and boxers. Morning at the Dursley's was decidedly casual. Harry only wore a t-shirt to bed because he had to cook in the morning. The rest of the children in the household tended to come to breakfast in their underpants. Harry fired up the gas stove, and began frying up the sausage and eggs that his uncle insisted on. He looked out into the dining room and discovered that despite the fact that it was his birthday, Dudley was putting out the spoons and forks. The pile of plates were already at the end of the counter, waiting for the orders.

"Dud, it's your birthday, its Lily's job," Harry said.

"I saw her coming out of her and Violet's room. Best not to get on her bad side today." Dudley said. "Plus this is easy, and what else would I do while waiting for breakfast? I'm not going up and waking Bradley and Noel. Better to let the two little terrors that I share my room with sleep in and enjoy the bliss."

"Warning, Lily is not in a good mood this morning," Violet said, as the eight-year-old entered the kitchen. "I just want a grapefruit today, Harry. And I'll handle the drinks."

"Coming right up," Harry said. He removed the grapefruit from the fridge, cut it in half, and put both halves in bowls. He handed one bowl to Violet, and left the other on the counter for Aunt Petunia. Back to the stove, and it looked like the first batch of eggs was ready. He slid them to on to a couple plates, and started the next batch, just in time for the sausage to be ready. "Three sausages today, Dudley?"

"Yes," Dudley replied getting up to get his plate. He returned to the seat at the head of the table. On your birthday, you got to sit there. Violet gave him his glass of orange juice.

A fully dressed Uncle Vernon arrived, obviously still a bit asleep. Normally Harry would have had a cup of coffee ready for him, but his doctor had ordered him to cut back, and Aunt Petunia had promptly stopped buying it as an unnecessary expense. Harry handed his uncle the plate he'd just prepared for him.

Vernon nodded to Harry and said, "Happy Birthday, Dudley. How's my eleven-year-old man?"

"Good Dad," Dudley replied, as the two youngest Dursley girls arrived, six-year-old Iris and four-year-old Primrose. Harry poured out their cereal, and added some milk, missing a bit of Dudley's reply. "Do you have to go to work today?"

"I have to put food on the table," Uncle Vernon replied, as nine-year-old Lily entered the kitchen. Her long strawberry blond hair made her stand out among the mostly blond Dursleys. "Lily, I remind you once again, you're old enough that you should be wearing a shirt to breakfast."

"Dudley doesn't have to wear one," Lily replied.

"Dudley's a boy," Vernon said. "You're a girl who is just starting to develop. Go back upstairs and put a shirt on."

She stood there for a moment, staring down her father. Harry hadn't really noticed, but Lily did have a little bit of a mound now under her nipples. Staring contest lost, Lily stomped her foot and pounded back up stairs, as the last two Dursley children entered, seven-year-old Bradley and five-year-old Noel.

"I want three sausages today," Bradley ordered.

"You barely eat two," Harry said. One of his responsibilities when he cooked was to make sure no food was wasted. With ten people in the house, food had to be stretched. "You can ask for seconds when you're done." A plate of sausage and eggs was handed over to Bradley, and another bowl of cereal to Noel. Lily returned with a half-t-shirt on just as he finished serving Noel. The next to last plate of sausages and eggs went to her.

Aunt Petunia came down last, pale faced, and obvious to Harry as having another bout of morning sickness. His aunt had throught that she was done having children, after going six straight years having babies, but last month she'd tested positive again. She wasn't the only pregnant woman on the street, Pier's mother was also pregnant with her eighth as well. There were a lot of children on Privet Drive it seemed every house was busting at the seams with them. Harry handed his aunt her grapefruit, and Violet handed her the tall glass of cranberry juice that no one else in the family drank, and she only did when she was pregnant.

Aunt Petunia added just a bit of ginger to her cranberry juice and took her seat at the table. Harry filled his own plate and took a seat at the counter, opposite Violet. Since it was Dudley's birthday, he expected some announcement about activities. The usually useless presents from Aunt Marge were waiting for Dudley to open too. Harry wondered what idea Aunt Marge would have for Dudley this year. Last month had been Lily's, and for some reason Aunt Marge had thought that Lily would be interested in needlepoint. Lily was a tomboy, and so was Violet. The needlepoint kit had ended up in Iris's hands, who had really taken too it.

"Children," Aunt Petunia announced. "I have talked with Mrs Polkiss, and for Dudley's birthday, we'll be going to the London Zoo, along with her children. Mrs. Fig will be accompanying us. We'll be going by rail and bus, so pairing rules will be as follows: Dudley with Noel, Harry with Bradley, Lily with Primrose, Violet with Iris. And no, Violet you can't switch with Harry. Attire will be jeans and full t-shirts, as well as sneakers. We'll be taking the train to Waterloo, then on the Underground to Camden Town. The bus will be the 274. We should arrive just before noon, assuming everyone is ready in an hour."

Harry knew that everyone would be ready. Aunt Petunia ran a very tight household when it came to scheduling. You had to when there was exactly one full bath in the house, though a pair of showers had been made in the back of the garage. There was no enclosure around them yet, though, so there was always a risk that someone would open the garage door when you were showering. It had happened to Lily once after a mud pie fight. That had caused one of the more memorable cases of accidental magic on her part, even better than when he turned his teacher's hair blue. Every single person in visual range had ended up wearing a blindfold, including Mister Wilson, who ended up crashing his scooter into the bush.

Harry turned to his paired younger, who to be perfectly honest wasn't all that bad of a younger to watch. That being said, a warning was warranted. "Whatever you do, don't let me see you going anywhere that you can fall into the exhibits."

Harry Potter returned to Number Four Privet Drive with his hand firmly on Bradley Dursley's shoulder. The seven-year-old's clothes were covered in dirt from his many falls at the zoo. It had seemed like the boy was doomed to fall through just about everything. Plate glass had broken, cast iron railings had split, and in one case he'd actually managed to fall through a set of wooden steps going above an exhibit. It was only Harry's rather fortunate skill with snakes that had prevented Bradley from being squeezed to death by a python.

"Dirty clothes off now, Bradley," Petunia ordered. "Harry, see to it that he takes a good bath, and then I want him in the corner until Vernon comes home."

"Yes, Aunt Petunia," Harry said. "You heard your mother, Badly." Harry caught his aunt's smirk at the nickname. She'd never use it, but Harry knew that his aunt like to create nicknames for her children. Dudley had at least a half dozen, and Lily had twice that.

As he marched his cousin into the back of the garage, he could hear Lily passing him into through the door to the house. "I'm going to get a book, and I'm borrowing your room for the next hour, Harry. I don't want anyone to bother me."

"You've got it," Harry shot back over his shoulder. He often let Lily borrow his room for a bit of privacy. He knew that every once in a while her younger sisters really got to Lily, just like his younger boy cousins got to him. Sometimes he let Dudley use his cupboard too, but most of the time he and Dudley just ended up talking to each other in the tree in the back garden or some other place. The younger Dursleys knew better than to approach when Dudley and Harry where whispering to each other. "Bradley, wait for the garage door to close all the way before you drop your drawers."

"Iris, Rosie, don't bother Lilium, you are both on the edge. You were warned about her time," Petunia said. "Find something quiet to do. Violet, you may get a small bar of Dairy Milk for yourself and give another to Lilium. You've both earned it. My younger ones on the other hand, Noel, you may not watch the telly this evening. Dudley, if you don't mind, get some trousers for Bradie."

The garage door now being entirely down, Harry watched as his cousin stripped of his clothes. It seemed that Bradley had really muddied himself up. He was even muddy under his briefs. "Looks like we're going to have to put these to soak, Brad. How do you manage to get so dirty?" He had noticed that Bradley had started to like people to call him by the shortened rather than full name. He was fairly certain that neither parent had caught on to it, yet.

"It's a gift," Bradley said, turning on the shower and ducking his dirty blond hair into the stream.

"Soap," Harry reminded as Bradley picked up one of the beige wash clothes and began to scrub.

Bradley picked up the soap and smelled it. "She got the spring scented stuff again!" he groused, before lathering up his cloth and began to scrub.

Harry watched carefully. Bradley had a reputation for not quite washing everything, and this was a regular task for him and Dudley. Making sure the younger children washed up, whither it was hands for meals or whole bodies before bedtime, had been a regular chore for them both since they were at least seven. At least Lily now handled the girls.

On July Thirty-First, it was Harry Potter's turn for a birthday morning. There was no pounding down the stairs by Dudley that day. Instead there was ultimately unsuccessful attempt at sneaking down the stairs by all of Harry's cousins. Harry let them get away with it. Not to say he didn't intend to make sure they knew they failed.

"Good Morning Dursleys," Harry said as he exited, right behind Noel.

"We failed again, this year, didn't we?" Lily said, noticing Harry's big grin.

"Dudley came down at five thirty-eight, impressively early for you in the summer, Big-D, but I heard the alarm go off at five thirty and the toilet flush at five thirty-five," Harry began. "Lily, you got up without an alarm, at least that I could hear, but your were given up by you co-conspirators who at five forty-one addressed by your name, complaining about getting up early in the summer. That's what got you Iris. Violet, I believe you were the third one done in that group, but you went back up to get Bradley, you hit the creak in the fifth step rather badly. Then back down you knocked him into the railing Now, Primrose, you almost succeed. I didn't hear you go down to the last step, when you jumped over it. Noel, were you even trying? Whistling 'Rule Britannia' as you came down."

"Harry, I hate to say it, but Noel got you," Dudley said. "He was down here when I got down here."

"Used the toilet sound to cover my descent," Noel said, the five-year-old smirking. "Then sat outside your cupboard until Primrose passed me."

"Okay, it looks like we have a winning birthday sneak," Harry said, moving to take his seat at the head of the table. "Finally. Three straight years of failures are over. Sausages ready, Dudley?"

"Just about," Dudley said as an owl suddenly flew through the window, landing right in front of Harry.

"Hello, what's this," Harry said, noticing that there was a letter attached to the barn owl's left leg. He removed it as the owl raised the leg to make it easier. "It's addressed to me."

"Bet that's the letter from Hogwarts that Mum said was coming for you," Lily said.

"No bet," Harry said, looking up to spot his aunt entering, not having the paleness of her morning sickness for the first time in weeks. "No one else would address a letter directly to my cupboard under the stairs. Good Morning Aunt Petunia."

"I see you got you letter, come on, Harry, open it and read it," Petunia said. "It's been a long time since I got to hear your mother's letter, though I suspect I'll be getting quite an echo of it in a couple years when Lily gets hers."

Harry carefully broke the wax seal and took out the two sheets of paper. Unfolding it, he placed it on the table and adjusted his glasses before beginning to read.

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, OMFC, GS, Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Wizards.

"Dear Mr. Potter

"We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

"Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

"Yours sincerely,

"Minerva McGonagall

"Deputy Headmistress"

Harry put down the letter, and looked at the second sheet. "I think this is a supply list," Harry said, passing it to his aunt.

"Write your acceptance and give it the owl," Petunia said. "We'll be going to Diagon Alley for your birthday to get your supplies."

"How are we going to get there?" Harry asked.

"I think we'll take the train, then the tube," Petunia said. "We might come back via the Knight Bus, if it's still cheaper. I always enjoyed riding that.

Harry figured that the Dursley's presented a particular image as they flooded into the Leaking Caldron. Uncle Vernon couldn't come, as he had to work. He put long hours in as a Director at Grunnings, so that wasn't a surprise, which meant that his Aunt Petunia was leading the mass of Dursley's. Aunt Petunia had surprised Harry when she'd come down wearing totally atypical attire. It looked like Petunia had pulled out something she'd last worn in the seventies, with a garnish peach and pink flower dress instead of her usual solid color outfits. She wore a pendent that consisted of a triangle with a circle in it, bisected by a line.

All the boys had gone for their typical on a outing attire, jeans and Chelsea jerseys. The girls had pulled out similar attire, but with t-shirts proclaiming them as girl genius. None of the boys were willing to object to the description.

Harry got halfway across the room before a freak burst of air pushed his bangs aside. It was fate.

"Harry Potter!" one of the wizards cried out, and immediately he was surrounded by witches and wizards wanting to introduce themselves. One of the wizards managed to knock over Primrose, causing the little girl to burst into tears. Somehow Dudley managed to get to his littlest sister's side, but no one could get back to Harry's save Lily, who had somehow managed to remain directly behind him.

"Back off from Harry!" Lily yelled, but it wasn't enough. In fact the press of bodies got even harder around them.

"Back off, let the boy breathe," came a gravelly voice, as a tall giant of man pushed his way though. Harry smiled as the man managed to push aside just enough people to make some space around Harry. "Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts," he introduced himself. "You've grown up a bit since I brought you to the Dursleys."

"Thanks Hagrid," Harry said. "This is my cousin, Lily. Aunt Petunia and the rest of her brothers and sisters are around her somewhere." Even with the space around him cleared a bit, he couldn't see his other cousins.

"They just got pushed a bit away," Hagrid said. "Let the boy's aunt and cousins through, Crockford, Fletcher. Me beasts behave better than this. On your way to Daigon, I assume, Harry?"

"Gringotts and school shopping," Harry replied, as a man with a purple turban approached. He could also see his cousins and Aunt Petunia through gaps in the crowd. It looked like his younger cousins were probably going to reach his side first, even if they didn't obey Hagrid.

"Harry, this is Professor Quirell, he'll be your defense against the dark arts teacher at Hogwarts," Hagrid introduced. Noel was already reaching Hagrid's side, having slipped between a pair of what Harry was sure were hags.

"Not that you need it, eh, Potter," Quirell said, as he stepped closer. He was nearly knocked over when Bradley came out from behind him.

Harry smiled, remembering his aunt's lessons in politeness, he held out his hand. Just as he did so, Lily's other sisters came up beside her. Somehow all of his cousins save Dudley had managed to form a circle around Professor Quirell. "Harry Potter. I look forward to coming to Hogwarts and your class."

And just as his hand was about to reach Quirell's, the professor jerked back as if he was burnt by something. The description became quite apt, as Harry noticed a tendril of smoke raising from the man's hand. In fact Harry could suddenly smell the putrid scent of burning flesh.

"Master, save me," the Professor suddenly cried out, before he suddenly was surrounded by tendrils of smoke, coming from every opening in the man's robes. Then suddenly the man was ash, and collapsed to the floor, leaving behind a black smoke like wraith.

"Curse you Potter!" the wraith cried out. "I shall have my revenge!"

And with that the wraith departed, obviously intending to go through Harry, but something prevented the wraith from going that way, and it curved upwards, before shooting through the ceiling as if the very presence of Harry Potter and his cousins propelled it break the sound barrier.

Hagrid looked down at the ash remains of Professor Quirell. "It looks we're going to need another Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. Didn't even make a year. Damned shame, that."