The Anger.

Reaching the right room, after Harry gave the password, 'Muggletum', they entered.

Harry had with him a couple of sheets of parchment with the list of known magical Houses down to the recognised Houses as they appeared on the large board at the back of the meeting room. He'd left the names of the Heads and Heirs from the lists.

Daphne went into the office and returned with their new ledger on which they'd had the attendees from the first meeting enter their names. There was a lot of room for newer members below.

Harry grabbed one of the desks at the rear of the U-shape and spun it around. Pulling a seat around he sat and placed his list upon it, before drawing out quill and ink. Looking at the list on the wall he didn't notice anything different from the previous week.

Taking care, he then wrote down the names on the vacant spaces for the Heads and Heirs for each House. It amused him when he wrote his own name as Head of House Potter, and again as Heir for House Black with a '(P)' after it for 'presumptive'. Of course, also onto the list went the names for Daphne, Neville, Susan and Hannah. Others from their year cohort were Theodore Nott, Draco Malfoy, Millicent Bulstrode and Ernie MacMillan. Other years that Harry recognised included Cedric Diggory, Marcus Flint, Charlus Warrington, Mungo Bole and Oliver Wood.

Once he was finished, Harry stood, spun the desk and chair back around, and took the list to the front. Offering it to Daphne, he said, "Ever noticed just how many of the Heirs of all these Houses are currently at Hogwarts; especially in our year group?"

"I think you'll find it's because a lot of people went into hiding the last couple of years of Voldemort's reign," said Hermione. "What would that have to do with it?" asked Daphne.

"Well," blushed Hermione, "They were in hiding and they had nothing better to do so - they - you know!"

"Oh!" said Daphne, suddenly in understanding. "Oh, my!" she exclaimed before suddenly blushing.

Then the two girls broke into laughter.

Frowning at them, Harry asked, "What?"

"Harry," blushed Daphne again. "They were in hiding, and they had nothing else to do, so they - practiced making babies! I guess, as they wouldn't have had access to the right potions, some of that practice wasn't so much - practice!"

And both girls broke into laughter again.

"Ah!" said Harry, understanding. "You mean to imply they had sex a lot." "Harry!" both girls squealed.

"You don't have to say it like that!" said Hermione.

"Why not?" asked Harry. "It's completely understandable, after all."

After a few moments to let that sink in, he said, "Plus, many back then didn't have heirs of their own. For the Great Houses to ensure the continuation of their lines, in case Riddle and his Death Eaters killed them, they wanted to ensure they had heirs. I dare say many of those heirs would have also been homed, during that time, in other houses with other families."

"I..." said Daphne. "That actually makes a lot of sense."

"Of course, it does," replied Harry with a shrug. "On top of that you have the whole thing where nature abhors a vacuum. I could almost see where there was a - magical imperative - where heirs were born because magic, itself, wanted to ensure the continuation of the lines.

"Then, after Riddle was destroyed, many couples were driven to reproduce. There were so many killed during the war that repopulation of the magical species was a priority. I bet you'll find there was a baby boom, as the muggles call it, starting from within a year after October 1981. And, starting with next year's cohort, each Hogwarts Year is going to increase in size for a while."

While he was talking, Harry took the parchment with the list of Houses, Heads and Heirs on it, and made over two dozen copies of it.

"That.. explains a lot," said Daphne.

"What do you mean?" asked Hermione. "It explains why there's so many kids running around Diagon Alley these days," replied Daphne. "And, by that, I mean kids younger than us. Even Mother and Father have commented on it."

"It happened all throughout history," said Harry. "After the end of the second world war, there was what the muggles call a baby boom. Even the government got in on the act and encouraged it. They used to say, 'One for him, one for her, and one for Queen and country'. So, they were encouraging new families to have at least three children per couple.

"So many kids were born they had to, first, build new hospitals with large maternity wards; then new schools for the number of kids to be schooled within; then new secondary schools. In later years, these children became known as the 'boomers'. "Starting twenty years later, on the cusp of the 1970s, it happened again as the children of the first boom married and had children of their own. Plus, as they were children in many cases of above average-sized families, they had large families, too.

"The next generation, the children of the children of the original boom, are all of age to marry right now. That means we can expect an increased growth in population of the muggle world starting from about now."

Hermione piped up and said, "My parents had me in their thirties. That's considered a few years after the norm for muggles. And my parents are children of children born during the war; a few years before the boomers. The collective term for children like me is 'saddler'. That is, I was born during a period between the booms when population growth was quite minimal."

"I expect that's why there's not so many muggleborns coming through Hogwarts, at the moment," said Harry. "A decade ago was a quiet period for - making babies - in the muggle world."

"I need to write this down," said Daphne quite bemused. "Mother's been looking into why there's not so many muggleborns coming through of late. It's part of her research she's doing on behalf of the Ministry and Saint Mungo's. I think this would be considered a 'breakthrough' in her research."

"Alright," said Harry. "We've little to do until the club starts. How about Hermione and I give you a hand writing all this down so you can send it to your Mum?" "Yes. Please," said Daphne, a little relieved. "I doubt I could properly explain it."

"In the letter I have to write to my parents, anyway," said Hermione, "I'll see if I can ask them to get the summary of records of children's births over the past half a century from the United Kingdom General Registrar Office. They have the records for all births, deaths and marriages as far back as the mid 1800s. It will show the numbers in exact detail."

"The muggles record all that?" asked Daphne.

"Yes," replied Hermione. "From those, together with the numbers they record from emigration and immigration, they have the basis for planning government services into the future. They know how many new homes need to be built; roads and services installed for those new homes; and planning for new hospitals, schools, police stations, fire stations, et cetera. And that's only the beginning of it.

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