A/N: Hello everyone. Loads of thanks to all those who read, reviewed or added this story This chapter is more of a filler or let's say talks about the happy time spent by the kids in holidays. I love describing happy moments.

Yeah thankfully no one noticed, though I didn't give much of a chance, that Ayesha went to orphanage alone. My mistake. Ayesha lives in an orphanage, alright, but in India. She couldn't have been able to go to India from London all alone. So, here is the explanation.

Ayesha went to her flat her Nanaji had in London to wait for Lara (I have explained this character in this chapter). She had hardly waited for one hour when Lara arrived in the flat with the help of a portkey. They had half an hour before the portkey would activate for the return journey. Lara called up Ayesha's Nanaji – Rahul – to tell him about her reaching there safely. After half an hour, the portkey started glowing. Lara and Ayesha touched it and felt a tug at the navel. After what seemed a lifetime, they landed in Ayesha's home in India. Lara had her car with her and soon they were driving back to the orphanage.

On with the chapter now.

Chapter 11: Holidays

Ayesha was sleeping peacefully; she was not an early riser, so when she heard something pecking at her window, she was clearly annoyed. She pulled her sheets over her head in order to avoid the noise. But when it did not stop she peeped out from her sheets and squinted at the window to see what was making the racket … okay noise. She saw a bird striking it's beak at the window pane. Which bird is it? she thought, owl! … OWL

She bolted to the window, opened it carefully and let the owl come in. Thankfully, it did not flutter around the room; it simply flew to Ayesha's bed and slumped there. Ayesha glanced around the room to see anyone disturbed by this little commotion. Seeing no one as much as stir, she let out the breath she was holding.

Ayesha noticed a parchment attached to its leg and removed it carefully. She then cupped her hand, put water in it and let the owl drink water. She also fumbled through her trunk, as quietly as possible, for the packet of sweets she had received yesterday from her Nanaji, took out a few and fed the owl. While the owl was eating the sweets, she opened the parchment. Her eyes immediately went to the bottom of the letter and there it was – Ron. What else to expect of him. Thick head, she smiled. She read the letter quickly. She quickly wrote a reply and waited for the owl to recover from the fatigue.

Her thoughts wandered to her friends. Hermione had called Ayesha to invite her to her place. Harry and Dudley had also called her to tell her about their Switzerland tour. But only Ron did not have the brains to think that she lived in a muggle orphanage. She knew she couldn't blame him as she had hardly told them anything except a telephone number.

Dispelling all these thoughts from her mind she looked at Errol, which looked much better now. She tied the letter to Errol's legs. It nipped her hand affectionately before flying out of the open window.

Lara was a kind but strict matron. She was in charge of the orphanage where Ayesha lived along with seventeen more kids. She was a catholic. She had started this orphanage some twenty years ago when her husband and her only boy, ten year old, had died. This morning she was busy supervising breakfast preparation, when Ayesha entered the dining hall and slumped into a chair.

"I heard some noise from your room today, early morning," Lara said, sitting across Ayesha.

"Oh –er– actually a bird was d-doing that," stammered Ayesha.

"I see," said Lara, staring at Ayesha for a moment, "So, why did you open the window?"

Now Ayesha was clearly at loss for words. She looked down at her toes and mumbled, "GotaletterfromRon."

"Didn't get that."

"I mean," said Ayesha, still looking down, "I got a letter from Ron. He doesn't know how to use telephone, so he used the usual way."

Lara was quiet for a moment before she ordered Ayesha to look up. Ayesha obeyed.

"You do realise that it's for your own good that I don't allow you to have your usual methods of communications."

Ayesha nodded.

Lara continued, "It's okay this time. Not your fault. Be careful next time. I hope no one saw that owl."

Ayesha smiled and said, "No one; everyone was sleeping. I checked that before letting the owl in."

Lara was a muggle but she knew about magic. Ayesha's Nanaji – Rahul – was Lara's childhood friend, so he had told her everything about his world.

"So, when's Rahul coming?" asked Lara.

"Tomorrow morning," replied Ayesha, grinning widely. "His family's going today for the trip. Oh … it's going to be so much fun."

Lara smiled; she surely deserves to be happy. She got up to go to kitchen and ruffled Ayesha's hair, saying, "I know."

After breakfast, Ayesha helped Lara with some household work. She also told her about her whole year. There was so much to tell as it was not possible for Ayesha to write her back lest it should draw unnecessary attention. The whole day passed with a blur and soon it was time to go to sleep.

"Good morning, Ayesha."

"Mm.. m…" mumbled Ayesha and turned her side on bed.

"Good morning, Ayesha."

"I … want – to sleep – more," said Ayesha, yawning all the while.

"Oh, come on, Ashu. Wake up."

Upon hearing 'Ashu', a nickname given to her by her Nanaji, Ayesha bolted up. "Nanaji!" she screamed, happily, making many to stir in their beds. She stood up on her bed to hug him.

"Sshh," shushed Rahul, hugging the girl.

"Namaste Nanaji," said Ayesha, still in her Nanaji's embrace.

"How's my daughter, eh?"

"Fine. But, how come you're here this early? Weren't you coming at nine?" asked Ayesha.

"Ahh … you ask too many questions …" said Rahul, smiling at her grand-daughter, "You've grown a bit, I must say."

"Full two inches," replied Ayesha, proudly.

"Ha ha," laughed Rahul, "Yes, yes. Okay, now get ready. We'll leave soon."

"Give me fifteen minutes," said Ayesha, rushing towards the bathroom.

"Meet me downstairs with your trunk," Rahul called after her, smiling.

Rahul was in his late fifties, but looked a lot younger than his age. He was tall, with black eyes and short black hair. He was a wizard and brother of Ayesha's father's mother. His relation with Ayesha was not that of Nana, but Ayesha had wrongly started calling him that and now it was more of a habit. Presently, he was the Head of Research and Development Department in the Ministry of Magic, India.

Rahul went downstairs and found Lara in the dining room, reading a newspaper. She was unaware of his presence; after all he was here three hours earlier. He went and covered her eyes from behind.

"You think I won't identify you, Rahul," she laughed.

"Does nobody else do this to you?" Rahul asked in mock anger.

"Ha – ha … yeah kids do this, but I think I need not tell you the difference between their hands and yours," Lara replied.

"Alright," he said as he took the chair across her, "How're you?"

"I'm fine and great. You also look okay – okay." She laughed at the glare Rahul gave her. "So, where did you send your family, eh?"

Rahul shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "Well … they all wanted to go to Trivandrum, Kerala. I'd already been there … some assignment. So, I just convinced them to go ahead without me." He finished giving her a sheepish grin.

"They still have problems accepting her?"

"Oh yes. They'll always have, though it's beyond my comprehension. You know, I feel guilty … having to meet Ayesha like this and having to leave her in an orphanage when she's a big family, but …" He trailed off, sighing. "What would've Ashu felt if she'd been alive?"

"Prejudices … that's all I can say," she paused for a while before adding, softly, "You miss her a lot … Aishwarya, I mean, isn't it?"

"I miss them all, Lara … I miss them all … Aishwarya, Sanjay, Gauri." He paused for a moment, reminiscing the past. "Ayesha has same curly black hair as Aishwarya. Ayesha reminds me so much of her, so much so that I gave her the same nickname - Ashu. She was very beautiful and very intelligent. She knew hell lot more magic at that age than I know at this age." He ended with a sad smile.

Lara held his hand and gave it a small squeeze. "I know. Sometimes, looking at Ayesha, I feel I'm looking at your sister – Ashu."

"Sanjay was more of a friend … in fact, best friend. And Gauri … you couldn't meet her … she was a remarkable woman … mature beyond her age. I always felt fatherly love for her … maybe because I don't have a daughter. Ayesha had the best parents in world, only --"

Rahul felt choked with the emotions. He was silent for some time before he got up from his chair and stood by the large and only window in the dining room, staring out. "I couldn't save my Aishwarya. I couldn't save her son and daughter-in-law. I couldn't save her grand-son. But I'll not lose her grand-daughter. I'll protect Ayesha with my life. I'll protect her, no matter what."

Lara got up and stood behind Rahul. She placed her hand gently on Rahul's shoulder. They stood in silence till it was broken by Lara.

"Why do you think Ayesha's in danger? She's safe. Voldemort doesn't know about her."

Rahul replied, still staring ahead out of window, "I don't know but I always have this feeling that he'll know one day and then he'll come after her; either to get his only family back or to get her out of his way."

Lara stood beside him, held his hand and said, "He'll never ever get her. We won't let that happen."

Rahul nodded and smiled back at her. Just then they heard footsteps down the stairs along with clinks of trunk. Soon Ayesha was standing at the door of the dining room, panting and holding her trunk.

"I … a-am … ready," she said, while holding her breath," – Nanaji."

"Good," Rahul turned towards Lara. "I take your leave now. I'll see you soon." He hugged her and turning towards Ayesha said, "Let's go, then. I'll take care of that trunk."

Ayesha ran towards Lara and gave her a hug. Lara kissed her on forehead and asked her to take care of herself. After that, Lara went to the door to look for sign of any kid while Rahul took Ayesha's hand in his. When Lara nodded at him, he winked at her and with a pop, he was gone.

It was Harry's birthday and at present he was busy opening up his presents. His gifts were more or less similar to Dudley's, who had also got a Nimbus 2001. Harry had got a gift from someone stranger. There was a note attached to it that read:

To

Harry Potter

A very happy birthday, Harry. You don't know me but I knew your father and mother; we were friends in the school.

I hope to meet you soon.

Remus Lupin

P.S. Hope you like the gift.

Harry eagerly tore open the gift. It was an album, containing photographs of his parents during their school time, marriage and of young Harry. Harry hurried downstairs to show the photographs to rest of the family. Petunia was quite shocked to see the photographs waving and smiling at her, whereas Vernon found it quite funny. Harry and Dudley spent rest of the day speculating about Remus Lupin and tried identifying him from photographs. They even called Hermione, Ayesha and wrote a letter to Ron. Hermione knew the name but couldn't recall where. Ayesha and Ron knew nothing about him, though Ron did promise to ask his father about him.

Ayesha was having loads of fun with her Nanaji at her own home, where she had lived for one year with her parents. She felt attached to and repulsed from this place, both at the same time. This place held some of the sweetest memories she had and also the nightmare that woke her up so often in the middle of nights.

Only a month was left of her holidays. She had told everything to her Nanaji about the school, but she still hadn't told him about the incident that had happened at the end of the school. She didn't know how he will react. Finally she decided to tell him in the evening when he would be back from work; he was always worried about her security.

Rahul entered the house and found her grand-daughter slumbered on the sofa. She was doing her school homework before going to sleep. Rahul went to his room, got fresh, made two cups of tea and sat beside Ayesha. As if on cue, Ayesha woke up at the same time.

"Oh … when did you come?" asked Ayesha, yawning, "I must have dozed off doing this History essay." She pointed to a five-inch essay.

Rahul smiled, "At least you could write this much. I could never go beyond a paragraph without falling asleep. It always took me four naps and two hours to complete one History essay."

Ayesha grinned at him. She took her tea from Rahul and started sipping it slowly. "How was it at work?"

"Usual work. How was your day?"

"Mine was great. I talked to all my friends and we decided to meet at the Diagon Alley on the third last day. You'll come with me, won't you? I told all of them about you and they want to meet you." Ayesha finished the sentence anxiously.

Rahul was silent for a moment. He looked at Ayesha; she was looking expectantly and anxiously at him. He liked teasing her. "Well … I can't promise you --"

"It's okay," cut in Ayesha sullenly, "I understand."

"You really do?" asked Rahul, now smiling. "I was about to say that I can't promise you a Nimbus 2001. I don't know the whether the model is good or --"

However, Rahul couldn't finish his sentence as he was engulfed in a bear hug by Ayesha.

"You don't have to promise me anything," said Ayesha, all smiling and happy.

Suddenly Ayesha realised her promise to herself about telling him about her meeting with Voldemort. She looked up at her Nanaji and found him looking at her curiously.

"Er – Nanaji," she started cautiously, "there's s-something I-I didn't tell you." She was looking down at her toes.

"Yes?"

She narrated whole of the incident from going past the trapdoor till getting up in the hospital and Dumbledore's talk. Rahul listened to everything quietly and grimly. Ayesha dare not lift her head to meet her Nanaji's eyes; she never had hidden anything from him. She finished and kept looking down, waiting for Rahul to say something. However, when he did not say anything even after some moments, she slowly lifted her head and found him pacing up and down the room. Few more moments passed this way.

"So … he knows now," Rahul said finally.

"No. Dumbledore said -"

Rahul raised his hand to quiet Ayesha. "He will know eventually. He might not have a body but he has got his brain with him. He'll figure out … soon." He was silent again.

"I am sorry, Nanaji," said Ayesha, hanging her head down.

Rahul came to her and lifted her head with his finger under her chin. "And why are you sorry?"

"I … I should've been more careful around him. I-I --"

"No Ayesha. You need not be sorry because you did nothing wrong. You'll have to face him one day … as his grand-daughter. I never expected it this soon … I-I just don't know what to do …"

He slumped down on the sofa and buried his face in his hands. When he looked up after some time, he had a very determined look on his face.

"Ayesha, you need to learn … beyond your curriculum, so that the day you face him again, you can defend yourself better. You'll have to promise me to be careful in school and to tell me anything and everything you find suspicious in school. Okay?"

"Yes, Nanaji," she replied, "I'll not hide anything from you, never."

Rahul nodded absently, still lost in his thoughts.

"Er – Nanaji, I wanted to ask you something," asked Ayesha, hesitantly.

Rahul was brought out of his musings. He looked at Ayesha and nodded.

"Nanaji, do you think that Dumbledore is right about the connection between me and him?"

"Yes," replied Rahul, softly, "but that's not the only reason. Many generations back, a squib was born in the family. His father decided to transfer some of his magical energy to him so as to save him from the shame of being a squib. He made a potion and gave it to his son. Though that was not enough to make his son a wizard, the process led to some genetic changes in the generations thereafter. With varying degrees, every older member of our family can pass on some magical energy to a younger one."

"But Voldemort doesn't belong to our family. I mean he is not a Sharma."

"No, he isn't," said Rahul, "But once a child was born, the connection was set between the kid and his/her parents. It didn't matter then, whether one of the parents was a Sharma or not. In your case, the connection is two-way as Voldemort withdrew energy from you. The connection was provided by the blood-relation and his advanced magic and your vast magical stores made it two-way."

Ayesha sat their in silence trying to comprehend the meaning of all this. Not all of this was making sense, so she left it at that.

"So what do I do now?" she asked.

"I'll teach you how to control the connection," replied Rahul, "But all that tomorrow. Right now let's go and have dinner."

They had their dinner and then went to sleep. Ayesha fell asleep the moment she touched the bed, but sleep was a far away thought for Rahul. He was thinking about the connection between Ayesha and Voldemort. He needed to do something about it. He decided to talk to Dumbledore also. He will protect Ayesha … from Voldemort.

Rahul's anxiety was somewhat reduced by Dumbledore's assurance. Rahul started with Occlumency for Ayesha. He knew she was too young for this but that was only part of what could prevent the connection between Voldemort and Ayesha. Ayesha, on her part, found Occlumency quite interesting; she decided to tell others about it as well. She had also started meditating; Rahul told her that it would help her in Occlumency. Within a week she started feeling calm and peaceful. Rahul instructed her to continue with this even in her school and approach him whenever she faced any doubt. Thus went by the month.

It was second last day of holidays. Ayesha got ready quickly; she was very excited to meet her friends and tell them how she spent the holidays. She had also learnt new spells and was dying to experiment a few of them on Malfoy. Rahul had taken three days holiday from work to go to London with her.

"Ready, Ayesha?" Rahul called Ayesha from the living room.

"Give me a minute," yelled Ayesha.

After ten minutes, Ayesha came to the room with her trunk fully packed. She put her wand in her robes.

"Why we had to get up so early?" asked Ayesha.

"Because we have a very long journey to make," replied Rahul.

"But we are apparating, isn't it?"

"So?" asked Rahul, raising an eyebrow, "Ayesha, apparating is, no doubt, the fastest method, but it takes time when we have to cover long distance as long as between India and London."

Seeing the confused looks on Ayesha's face, he started explaining, "Apparition depends on various things – time, speed, number of people side-apparating with you, distance and energy. If you increase the speed of your apparition, then more energy is used which can leave you exhausted. When distance is more, as in our case, it's better to go on a medium or slow speed using more time so that you don't get exhausted when you reach there. Luckily, our family has always had more magical energy than normal wizards, so I can afford to go on fast speed even when the distance is very large and I have you side-apparating with me. Still it will take an hour for us to reach there."

"What? An hour?"

"Yes. You have always apparated within this city, so it never took more than a minute or two. But we are going from one country to another, so it will take that much time. It takes more than two hours at medium speed and fifteen minutes at maximum speed."

"I don't like the feeling of Apparition. And one hour? Gosh!"

"Relax Ayesha. You won't feel the time. Come on, now. We better get going. I also had to take care of the time gap between the two countries."

Rahul went up to Ayesha. He held her hand, looked around the house, and flicked his wand causing the windows and doors to lock themselves. Ayesha tightly held his hand with one and her trunk with another. When Rahul looked at her, she nodded and felt the sucking, vacuum feeling of apparition. She felt she would go sick, but no sooner than the thought came to her mind, she landed on floor of the flat in London. She saw Rahul smiling at her.

"Did you feel the time?" he asked.

"It was definitely longer, but didn't feel like one hour."

"Told you," he grinned, "Let me keep your trunk in the other room and then we'll go to Diagon Alley."

Rahul went to other room, levitating the trunk behind him. He came back and once again held Ayesha's hand and pop they went to Diagon Alley.

Ayesha and Rahul landed in the Apparition Room in the Gringotts, Diagon Alley. It was the only place in Diagon Alley where you could apparate. Rahul paid two galleons to the Goblin at the counter and went out into the Diagon Alley.

The moment Rahul stepped out of Gringotts, he had a very strong feeling of déjà vu. He had come here only once before with his sister when she was about to go into her fifth year. Except for her first year, she had always bought her school material from Diagon Alley as it gave her an opportunity to meet her friends before school. Even last year, he had bought all of Ayesha's material from Rose Street, Diagon Alley's counterpart in India, named after a famous Indian witch.

While Rahul was lost in his old memories, Ayesha ran ahead to find her friends. Though she was new to this place, she didn't feel scared roaming around the streets. Nanaji had told her about his experience here in detail. Soon she spotted her friends having ice-cream. She waved them and ran to them followed by Rahul preoccupied in his memories.

Everyone was there; Ron, Fred, George, Percy, Ginny, who was starting her school this year, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Hermione with Mr. and Mrs. Granger, Harry and Dudley with Vernon and Petunia. Having finished with the round of introductions, they went ahead with the shopping for school material. Ayesha got a new Nimbus 2001 from Rahul. Once they were done with shopping, they spent time in Leaky Cauldron talking and laughing. This was first trip for Vernon and Petunia whereas Mr. Weasley was asking excitedly about Muggles from Dursleys and Grangers.

It was getting dark, so everyone decided to go back. All the kids though, wanted to spend some more time with each other. Finally Rahul convinced all of them to let the kids come to his house that night and spend the next day together. He assured them that he will take the kids to station. Mrs. Weasley was sceptical about letting so many kids stay with so young a man. However, her apprehensions reduced a bit when he told her his true age and that he himself had three young boys.

Soon, the kids were at Rahul's home. Making sure that the kids were comfortable, Rahul left the to buy groceries. He came back to find the kids well settled and chatting. Harry and Dudley were showing others the photographs of their Switzerland trip. After asking the kids about their food choices, he went to the kitchen to prepare dinner. He was midway though the preparations when Hermione came in to help him.

Once they settled down for the dinner, the conversation steered to one Remus Lupin who had written a letter to Harry on his birthday. And information about him came from the least suspected person – Rahul. He told them that Remus was friends with Harry's father, James Potter. He was one intelligent guy and must have become Prefect or Head Boy. It was this comment when Hermione recalled where she had seen the name – in the Prefect's list.

After dinner, they spent a long time practising various spells. Rahul told them about the loophole in the Ministry's detection of underage magic. Since the flat was registered under Rahul, a wizard, nobody would be detected doing magic here.

Next day morning was spent chatting where Rahul was asked all sorts of questions ranging from magical community in India to Quidditch to various spells and finally to Occlumency. Rahul advised Harry to work on it as well, though he didn't clarify his reasons for it. He also suggested various tricks to Fred and George.

They had a wonderful afternoon as Rahul magically enlarged the house, enough to make flying possible. They had a game of Quidditch with Harry, Ron, Fred and George on one side and Ayesha, Dudley, Hermione and Rahul on one side. Of course, Rahul's team won. They later came to know that Rahul had been chaser on Indian Quidditch team, which won the Quidditch World Cup in 1951. Hermione's flying also came as surprise; she proved herself a good keeper. Harry even suggested her trying out for Gryffindor team, though she laughed it away.

In the evening they went out and roamed around London. They went for a late night movie as well that shocked Ron, Fred and George to a great extent. He thought of it as all magic until Rahul explained the whole science behind it. Everyone was thrilled about roaming around London so late at night, a time they were not even allowed to stay awake till. They came back home and slumped on their bed, soon falling asleep.

Next day Rahul and Hermione were the first ones to wake up. While Rahul made breakfast for the kids, Hermione got them all up and helped them pack their trunks. They got so late with everyone having left their packing till the last moment that Rahul dropped the idea of going to station via taxis. Apparition was the only method. So he clutched Hermione's and Harry's hand and apparated at the Apparition Room at the Platform 9 and ½. He went back and brought Ron and Dudley with him. Next was Ayesha with two trunks followed by two more trips to bring the twins and rest of the trunks and two birds.

Rahul paid at the Apparition Room two galleons each and hurriedly went out. To his relief there were still good five minutes for the train to leave. The kids left to find a compartment for them in the train while Rahul waited for them on the platform. He saw Mr. and Mrs. Weasley glancing anxiously towards the brick barrier, apparently looking for the kids. He walked to them, greeted them and told them how they had come here. Mrs. Weasley wasn't happy with the apparition method but didn't say anything.

He glanced around reliving his memories when he had come to see his sister Aishwarya off to school. She was the only family member who studied at Hogwarts, other than Ayesha of course. All others had studied at Beauxebatons. He had come here for first five years of her schooling; then his own schooling had started. He was brought back from his musings by the racket the kids were making, sharing their fun time with the Weasleys.

Soon the train gave the whistle and the kids boarded the train. All the kids got motherly hugs from Mrs. Weasley. Rahul also hugged them and reminded all of them to stay away from troubles. The train started moving and kids waved them goodbye. Rahul stood there looking at the train till it was out of sight.

He was happy and content to see Ayesha all joyful, being with friends and chattering with them cheerfully. These kids had understood what his own family hadn't all these years. So much could be learnt from kids, he thought.

That was the chapter.

Nanaji is pronounced as Naa-naa-g and Namaste as Num(b)-us-te ('t' here is pronounced the way French pronounce it, i think.)

Namaste is a way of greeting in India and is generally used to greet elders and respected people.

I am using italics for Hindi words, thoughts and words requiring emphasis. If it's getting confusing, let me know. I will try some other way