Ten-year-old Harry Potter was sitting in the middle of the couch with Hermione and Daphne, while Susan and Hannah shared the loveseat. Story was sitting on the ground in front of Daphne and Tracy and Nev were in two of the recliner chairs. Dudley was lounging on the other couch. This scene was the norm every weekend since the children spent almost all of their time together. Monday through Friday was spent learning different things like spell theory, history, etiquette for young Lords and Ladies, languages, and other useful skills. They would practice physical fitness every afternoon as well. Morgan stressed keeping in shape and Duke Greengrass agreed, sometimes joining them along with his brother and sister-in-law, Hermione's parents. Saturday and Sunday was normally left for time to relax like children. Scenes like the above were the norm in the different households they stayed in. Dudley had changed dramatically over the years, including shaping up physically along with his father. Some times Piers and Dudley's other two friends would join them, but only occasionally.
Currently, the nine children were watching a history documentary, which surprisingly was keeping all of their interest. Granted, it was on the Founders, Helga specifically for this episode. Just as the commercial break started, Petunia walked into the room carrying little Hope, Dudley two-year-old sister.
Hope Lillian Dursley had been a pleasant surprise for all. Vernon doted on her left and right. The other adults joked she had him wrapped around her little fingers; he would agree before leaving the room to go spend time with her. She was named after the hope they all shared for a brighter future and in remembrance of her Aunt Lily. Duke Greengrass and Kate Greengrass were her Godparents. That way if anything happened to her parents she would be protected in both the magical and non-magical worlds. They were prepared to do anything and everything they could to keep her safe from those like Dumbledore.
When Petunia had everyone's attention and Hope had crawled into her favorite cousin's arms, Petunia smiled at the children and said that lunch was ready. Sitting with Hope in his arms, Harry thought back to some of his favorite memories from the past few years. One of the strangest, but happiest from when he was still five was the first time Dudley defended him on the playground. An eight-year-old wanted the swing he had been using and made his wishes known. Normally Piers and them would laugh at Harry, but today they were all surprised when Dudley stepped up and pushed the bigger boy back telling him to not mess with his cousin. Everyone on the playground was shocked by this change of attitude. Through the duration of that week, more people approached Harry to be their friend now that Dudley wasn't hurting them for talking to Harry.
Another great memory for Harry was the first time Hermione and he could communicate telepathically through their bond. Even though they were married in the magical world, they just acted like best friends since neither of them was ready for a relationship on that scale. Anyways, Harry had been doing his math homework when he was stumped on a question. Out of nowhere, Hermione started to help him solve it. He said thanks and was about to continue on with the next question when he realized Hermione was at her house not as his house like he was. They both quickly realized that they could communicate through their minds. The adults were all surprised except Morgan who just smiled indulgently at the pair saying that the bonding was strengthening due to how close they were. Both Harry and Hermione were happy even though her parents were a little worried that the bond was growing too quickly. Morgan quickly reassured them that everything was okay.
Another magical family they met was the Weasley family. Harry had been eight at the time. Harry liked all of the children except Percy at first, but could at least respect were the rule loving boy was coming from, even if he didn't quite agree. The funniest thing was when Fred and George went to introduce themselves.
"Hi all! I'm Fred"
"And I'm George!"
"Its nice to…"
"… meet you!"
"Don't mind Percy"
"He just has his wand stuck up his…."
"Fred and George enough!" yelled their mother.
After watching the twins bounce their introduction back and forth between the two of them, Harry had a glint in his eye. One that anyone who knew him would have recognized on James Potter as the prank planning eye glint and smirk. And thus the fun began.
"Hi! I'm Harry"
"And I'm Hermione"
"We are really…"
"… happy to meet you and…"
"…interested to get to…"
"… know you all better…"
"… over the coming years!"
Everyone was amazed with the act, especially the twins who asked how Harry and Hermione could do that. Harry and Hermione just shared a smile and said together "Trade secret!"
This of course caused the twins to pout and everyone else to laugh. Percy surprised everyone when he said, "The pranksters have been pranked" with a small smirk. This just caused Harry to salute him while the twins stood there with their jaws hanging till they both smiled and shook their heads patting Percy on the back for the first time they had ever heard him make a joke. He continued to loosen up over the years, but never fully got over his love for rules. He became much easier to get along with a would in the future help the twins, Dud, Daph, and Harry with many of their pranks for years to come.
Meeting the Wealsey's had another affect. Before hand, none of the girls and Nev played Quidditch so Harry and Dud didn't know of it. This of course changed when Ron started talking about his favorite team: The Chudley Cannons. This got Harry and Dud interested since both loved learning new sports. They later tried playing and fell in love with the sport. They were able to get Hermione, Hannah, Susan, and Nev over their fear of brooms and or heights. The Greengrass sisters just didn't like flying at all. Tracy just tolerated quidditch preferring to just fly around for fun. Many pick up games occurred over the years with Harry playing Seeker, Dud and Nev as beaters. Hermione, Hannah, and Susan preferred Chaser. Tracy would sit at goal, but really wasn't good. The opposition was Ron the keeper, the beater twins, Charlie the seeker and the chasers were Percy, Bill, and Ginny who though nervous around Harry, didn't act like a love-struck fan girl ever since Hermione sat her down and explained about the love bond. She eventually accepted the role of sister of Harry Potter.
The children were all around the ages of six through eight when they first met Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout and Diaz. The adults thought it vital that the children meet their future professors. The first three had been teaching at Hogwarts for many years. Professor Cameron Diaz was an attractive woman in her upper thirties who had taken over the position of Potions Mistress after the last professor, one Severus Snape was found to be biased towards his own house. He was removed less than a year after Dumbledore was found in a coma in his office a couple years back. Snape was now Head Potions Master at a well-known supplier of Potions supplies that was stationed on the outskirts of Hogsmeade. He still didn't like the children, but wasn't as vicious towards them now that he only had to deal with the ones brave enough to venture into his shop on Hogsmeade weekends. He never said why he stayed so close to Hogwarts. Most assumed it was to be near the man who protected him, Dumbledore. That was not the reason, but none would know the true reason for many years to come. Back to Professor Diaz, she later told Harry in private that she had suddenly remembered that James Potter was her cousin through the Potter line, but had for some reason been obliviated of this information. She said the memory had come back a few years earlier. It just happened to be the same day of Harry's magical blast, but there could not have been a connection. Could there have been? Morgan was later able to confirm their suspicions that Dumbledore had removed this information from her mind so that she would not have tried to gain custody of Harry when his parents died. She had been earlier married, but later divorced once her memories returned since she found out the man she married had been set up with her by Dumbledore. Her husband agreed since he had been magically compelled with love potions to marry her as well. Neither of them loved the other, so they separated though remained casual acquaintances over the years. They never had children since he didn't want any even though she wanted them before the love potion was used. Granted, there was another man she had been in love with, but had not heard from ever since the Potter's were killed.
The many extended families all met regularly, so all of the children referred them all as Aunts and Uncles. All of the adults seemed to have shortened names or nicknames as well. It started out with a four-year-old Story calling their Aunt Amelia, Aunt Am. The name stuck, so the other children rushed to give nicknames to the rest of their extended Aunts and Uncles. Duke Greengrass was Uncle Geof or Gof as Hope called him. Katherine Greengrass, Hermione's mom, was of course Kate. The Lady Greengrass was Aunt Ana since her name was Anastasia. Everyone called Nev's Grandmother, Gram. Tracey's parents were Aunt Bell and Uncle Charley instead of Elizabeth and Charles. Hannah's parents were Aunt C and Uncle Rob rather that Cleopatra and Robert. Arthur and Molly Weasley were Uncle Art and Aunt Molsie thanks to Hope adding the 's' sound in the middle of her name. Once again, this name stuck with the others. Even Petunia was Aunty Pet. Only Uncles Vernon and John kept their real names, though Hermione would some times call her dad Johnny, which would in turn cause him to chase her around the house in retribution to tickle her yelling "Here's Johnny!" In turn, Harry, Dud, and Nev would all call Uncle Vernon 'that old fern' as a joke. He would in turn call them 'that Hairy monster', Duddles Bubbles, and Nigel Largebottom. Very mature, huh? This would of course get the girls rolling their eyes at boys' stupidity, which in turn lead to the boy chasing the girls around. The four professors quickly integrated into the family setting as well becoming Aunts Minnie, Cammie, Pom, and Uncle Filly. Giving the adults nicknames had of course become a game for the group long before hand.
No one would ever forget the day that Dudley performed his first bit of accidental magic. His parents were so proud of him and his friends were happy they wouldn't lose their friend once they went to Hogwarts. He was five still when Harry, Nev, and he were playing catch in the backyard. The ball got stuck in the tree. Harry ran off to get an adult to bring it down. Nev was over on the swing, but Dud was just standing there wishing the ball would come down. Then out of nowhere, the ball shot down out of the tree and right in to his waiting hands. It turned out his magic had been bound like his mother's had by Dumbledore. Harry's magical release just months before destroyed the binding was the assumption made by all.
Finally, Harry's eleventh birthday arrived. The party was lots of fun for all involved; they used the new swimming pool behind the Dursley's home. The Greengrass family purchased a few sets of fine robes for Harry since he would soon be taking over his Potter Lordship. Hermione's family got him some nicer suits and a weightless bag from Hermione. The Longbottom's got him a Nimbus 2000 broomstick. The Davis family got him a broomstick maintenance kit and the Bones family got him a chest plate, wrist guards, and seeker gloves since Harry preferred that position even though he could play all but keeper very well. The Abbot's him a complete quidditch ball set since their family was heavily involved in the assembly and retail of those sets both leisure and professional. This set was just a leisure set, but would be no less enjoyed by all. The Dursley's bought all of his Hogwarts books and a new racing bike since someone, not mentioning names *ahem* Neville *cough cough* rode his bike into a tree on accident and many of the parts were beyond even magical repair. Since it was a double birthday for Nev and Harry, everyone got the same gifts for Nev except the Nimbus 2000 came from Harry and Nev's grandmother gave him his Scion to the House Ring along with the official robes that went with them. Soon the party was wrapping up and Harry began getting robed up to go to Gringotts to claim his Lordships officially. Duke Greengrass and Lady Bones would be accompanying him to make sure nothing went wrong.
Even though Harry already knew of which Lordships he would be receiving, he was still slightly nervous when they arrived. Waiting for him were Griphook, Morgan, and Merlin. Seeing them made Harry extremely happy since both of them had been off doing errands for the last year and he had missed them greatly. Merlin didn't hang around the families since no one still knew that Harry was the future Prince and King. Also, none knew of Merlin's existence except The Dursley's and Harry. Morgan just pretended to be Harry's mom through adoption. None liked keeping this info from the group, but Merlin felt it was necessary for the time being. He wanted all of the children to be used to Harry as another kid and not a Prince so that they wouldn't leave him or become distant once that information became widespread news. Morgan agreed as did Harry with reluctance.
Even though Harry had already heard all about his inheritance from Ragnok years before, there would still be some surprises for him once the meeting began.