It was an ordinary evening on the streets of London, with people going back to their home after a hectic day at work, cars moving on the roads, the traffic signals blinking, it was busy as usual... On the far corner of the road, stood a girl, hands covered in soap, lost deep in her own thoughts.

"Aurora, Aurora !!! ", someone called,

"Where did she wandered off again, oh there you are... I asked you to wash the dishes, didn't I? So, move your lazy ass and complete the work now!!!", a women in her late thirties, barked at the girl..

"Sorry madame Laura, I will do it in no time !!", said the girl with a smile on her face.

The girl ran to the kitchen and started washing the plates...

Well that was her life now, she is Aurora Thorne. An orphan living in the 'St. Joseph Orphanage, London'. She has been living at this orphanage since she was just about a year old.

12 years ago, a sweeper(street cleaner) had found her crying in the bushes, while cleaning the streets in the morning. The baby was covered in blood because of the thorns in the bushes around her. He had taken her to the police, and from there she was shifted to the orphanage after being treated completely.

Since then Aurora has been a permanent resident of this orphanage. The then warden of the orphanage had given her this name. Not by putting much thought to it, 'Aurora' because it was morning time and 'Thorne' because, well she was covered in them when they found her.

Aurora is turning 13 this year, in the past 12 yrs she has been used to live in an environment where nothing is permanent. Everything that's true today may not remain same afterwards.

Most of her childhood friends had found themselves new families and had shifted there. She was one of the oldest children here. Meaning that, Aurora had more responsibilities than the kids. Hence, she had a lot of work to do throughout her day.

Well, but not everything is as simple as it looks from the outside; same is the case with Aurora, she has a secret well hidden in the depths of her heart. A secret which is the reason behind her fear of traffic, the reason behind some of her nightmares and the reason behind her maturity, which is way more than her age...

Sometimes when she's alone, she thinks about the day. Something that happened or may be will happen in about 30 years in the future... Aurora may have some problems to remember dates for her history exams, friend's birthdays, but she can never forget that one date, which has been etched in her memory. The day that changed her life forever...

1 November 2023 *

It was just another normal day in the mundane life of Anu. She woke up to the sound of alarm, got ready, ate her breakfast and left for the college.

Just like everyday, on her way to collegeAnucalled her parents and chattered about her plans for the day. Everything was normal until that sound...

Anuheard a loud bark of a big black dog from across the road while crossing it. That moment of distraction caused her to forget about checking the road for other vehicles, and suddenly she was hit very hard by something enormous just crashing on her. She was thrown away at the far right end of the road.

AllAnucould feel was pain throughout her body, her head felt like it was about to explode. All she could hear was chatter and screams around her and amongst it all, her mother's voice, "Anu beta, hello...Anu"

Just before loosing her consciousness Anu thought whether this was how it felt to be dying. And having spent most of her life immersed in the wonders of wizarding world, for the last time all she could think of was, "Death is but the Next Great Adventure..."

1 November 1981 *

AsAnu slowly gained her consciousness again, she felt a strong shot of pain in her head. She tried to open her eyes, but couldn't see anything around her due to the tears in her eyes.

She tried to say something, but all she could manage to say was just some blabbering. She felt her mouth dry and bitter, quite different in a way she could not put in words.

Anurealized with a shock that teeth were missing from her mouth!!! She tried to move her hands, but found them wobbly and really small than what she was used to...

All this commotion made the nurse aware that she's awake. The nurse came near, picked her up and cooed her to help her calm down.

"Shhh baby, everything's fine... You're safe now...Go back to sleep baby"

This was the moment when Anu realized that she was somehow in the body of a baby. With a lot of efforts, she finally managed to open her eyes and saw a motherly figure smiling at her...

The Present *

When Anu had first found out that she was somehow reborn (if you can call waking up in a body of a baby as a rebirth), she had tried to gather as much information as she can at first.

For one, she was in London and not in Mumbai, India. For second, she was already one year old, but could not remember anything about this baby's previous life. She was found on some random street and then from there she was shifted to this orphanage.

But later when she got the hang of everything, she realized that she had left her past life behind her forever. She was miserable for weeks, all she did was crying for her loved once, crying for her family, friends, crying for her dreams...

It took her a lot of time to get accustomed to her new name, face and identity. But she had no other choice than to accept it. For months she thought that she had just been reborn and had a chance to at least see her family again from far afar. But her dreams crashed on her when she found out the date and hence the year in which she was living. (December 1981)

At first she thought that, she must have heard it all wrong. But unfortunately, that wasn't the case. After knowing the date, she felt a sort of numbness, not knowing what to do.

For a silly moment, she even thought that she may have somehow shifted to the wizarding world, the world of Harry Potter. Now that Aurora think of it, she laughs at herself for being so much hopeful.

"Aurora", she's now used to being called it. It's been ages since someone actually called her by her real name. Though she's used to this new life of hers, she can not just find the reason of her being in this world.

Aurora just doesn't feel like she belong here. Call her hopeless or what, but she was actually waiting for a letter when she turned 11. Not waiting really, no, she was more than hoping that she would get it...

But come on magic doesn't exist in real life, does it...

But who can blame that poor soul for hoping in her life. Anyways, with all these thoughts keeping her company, she had managed to finish washing the dishes in no time.

Now it was almost dinner time so Sam, another one of her companions in this orphanage was waiting for her just outside the kitchen. It's both of their assigned duty to gather all the children in dining hall.

Aurora had her dinner and went to sleep not knowing that her life, once again, was going to take an interesting turn and all her questions would be answered soon...