Disclaimer: I've wished on my birthday cake for five years, and guess what? I DON'T OWN IT! J.K. does, and so does the WB. I do claim Elladora Prewett's… back storyish.

Elladora Prewett:

The Brewing of Lies

Chapter One

Being babysat, and Diagon Alley

"Ella, what did I tell you about your hair?"

"To change it when we have company?"

"And what did I tell you about today?"

"Um… that your old friend was coming over to take me to Diagon alley?" I offered meekly, and Aunt raised an eyebrow.

"Then why is your hair still red?" She asked, looking at my dark auburn locks. I gulped.

"Sorry, Aunt Andromeda, I'll change it immediately." I said bowing my head. Aunt seemed satisfied with this, and went to answer the door because someone had rang the doorbell. As soon as she had turned the corner out of the sitting room I stuck my tongue out at where she had gone.

"Then why is you hair still red!" I badly mimicked her before frowning, and with a dizzying shock of concentration I turned my long red locks to a completely different colour. But it wasn't the colour that Aunt was meaning me to change it to.

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Remus sighed before he pressed the doorbell button. He wasn't sure why he agreed to baby-sit Andromeda's little girl, though he had a feeling he was thinking of the money. After all he could really use that five galleons an hour. But he was a bit afraid, seeing as Andromeda had been very eager about dumping her daughter on him for the day, which included taking the girl to Diagon Alley for school supplies. Just think about how poor you are, Remus, think about that 30 galleons at the least for this job…

Just as he had decided not to think about how horrible the girl could be a woman with fading brown hair, and accusing eyes that told you that you were wrong, and always would be opened the door with a smile. "Ah, Remus, right on time!"

"Good morning, Andromeda." Remus smiled, hoping his worry about how rotten the girl would be didn't show.

"Come in, come in!" Andromeda stepped aside to allow him to step in, which he did. It was a very large, rich looking house, and it seemed most things were just there to impose on visitors. Including a large chandelier that was directly above them, and although it was daytime they had the candles lit. Now Remus knew how Andromeda could afford those five galleons an hour. He almost felt a bit ripped off, in fact.

"So how have you been, Remus?" Andromeda asked standing at the doorway to the sitting room where Remus thought he saw a glimpse of a girl who seemed to be mimicking someone.

"I could be better…" He said regretting how he sounded, as if he thought he was being ripped off.

"Oh, Remus!" Andromeda chuckled. "What could ever make you say that?"

"Oh, it's just so hard to find a job where they don't mind…" He searched for a good term. "My kind."

Andromeda seemed to be thinking for a moment, and then to Remus' shock said, "How about I make you my girl's permanent baby-sitter for when she's home for the summer, and Christmas holidays?"

"I-I…" He hadn't even met this child yet, and here was her mother trying to hire him for a permanent baby-sitter! And after all, how bad would a child need to be to need a permanent baby-sitter at all? He gulped.

"Shall I take that as a yes?" Andromeda seemed awfully eager again, and Remus' worry increased. After all, this girl is Sirius' second cousin… Remus gave a mental shudder. But there was no way that this girl could be worse than Sirius Black, after all he'd been sent to Azkaban!

"Err…" He just reminded himself that he really did need the money, and said, to Andromeda's obvious delight, "Yes."

"Oh, thank you, Remus!" She cried with happiness, and Remus heard a girl gasp from the sitting room.

"Your… well, yes…" Remus smiled, and was a little frightened about how bad this girl would be.

"Well, lets go into the sitting room now, shall we?" Andromeda turned around, and walked into the room, and with a long sigh Remus followed her in. His eyes widened slightly at the sight of the girl. She was relatively average looking for an eleven year-old, with a heart-shaped face, and twinkling eyes. It was her hair that shocked him though, her hair, which was reached just above her shoulders, was pink.

"Wotcher, baby-sitter!" The girl said with a smile.

"Um…." Andromeda seemed a little lost for words, and after a moment of silence she coughed, and picked up a clipboard that had a paper on it. Turning to face Remus, she handed him the clipboard, and said, "Sign at the bottom." She then handed him a pen advertising a potion claiming to cure acne. Remus looked down at the paper, and when he did heard Andromeda, and the girl whispering to each other.

The paper had peanut butter smeared on it, and he read the parts readable.

Rules, and Regulations:

No feeding the child anything with sugar, or (peanut butter smudge).

No helping the (peanut butter smudge) clean up messes she makes.

No trusting the child with anything involving glass, wood, standing, important, or (peanut butter smudge).

We are not liable for injury involving this job: (peanut butter smudge), and Theodore Tonks can(peanut butter smudge) be held responsible for any injuries that may come from baby-sitting the girl. Unless such injury is a result from something not involving the girl.

Remus looked up at the two others in the room, they were no longer whispering, but looking at him expectantly. He blinked. The girl's hair was no longer a bubble-gum pink, but was now a dark blonde. He sighed, figuring he had been seeing things before, and glanced down at the form, the legal form. How many people needed their baby-sitter's sign to legal forms? How many legal forms were covered in peanut butter? He wasn't sure which frightened, and confused him more.

Remembering that he needed the money he signed at the bottom of the form with a mental sigh. He heard a sigh of relief from Andromeda, and a sigh of disgust from the girl. When looking at them he saw that Andromeda looked ready to kiss or hug him, and the girl was looking at him as if he was insane.

Handing the clipboard to Andromeda he said, "Well, hello…." He tried to remember what the girl's name was, but remembered that Andromeda had never said.

"Tonks." The girl said as Andromeda said with a wince, "Nymphadora."

"Nymphadora," Andromeda winced. "Hello, Nymphadora." Both of the ladies winced.

"Call me Tonks." Nymphadora said awfully firmly for an eleven-year-old.

"Nymphadora." Remus said, and Andromeda winced again.

Nymphadora seemed to be thinking for a few minutes before saying, "How about Dora?"

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I was relieved when Remus said, "Fine, Dora it is." I sighed, and Aunt visibly relaxed. It had always bothered Aunt when anyone said 'Nymphadora'. That had been the name of her real daughter. The one who had disappeared five years ago. About week or two before Aunt had taken me in to take the place of Nymphadora.

"Well, I have to get to work." Aunt said finally, and picked up a coin purse. "Well here's the money for Diagon Alley, there should be enough." She sighed handing him the small cloth coin purse.

Remus nodded, and I sighed. The man was either desperate for money, or completely mad. Who'd be crazy enough to sign a LEGAL form stating that the 'parents' weren't LIABLE FOR INJURY INVOLVING AN ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD!

"Bye, mum." I said to Aunt's obvious annoyance.

"Have a good day." Remus said, and I smirked which I knew would worry Aunt a bit.

"Well, I'll see you both late this evening." Aunt said slowly, smoothing a wrinkle in her green healer's robes. She slowly walked out the door, and I waved at her with a truly devilish smirk when she looked at me the last time before leaving for work.

Once she was gone with a POP Remus turned to me. I said with a sigh, "You're insane."

He furrowed his brow, and said, "Why do you say that?"

"You just took a baby-sitting job where the parents had you sign liability papers." I said with a smile. Remus was a handsome man with salty-sandy brown hair, and kind brown eyes. It was rather weird seeing him wearing such tattered clothing.

"I need the money, though." He said.

"Then why don't you work for the ministry?"

"Their not very fond of my…" He looked like he was searching for a word. "My type."

"And what type is that?" I raised my eyebrows. "Completely mad type?"

"No the…" He frowned. "It's complicated."

"I'm a smart kid."

"It's too complicated to explain."

"You seem smart enough to give me a run through." I kept trying to pry into Remus' little secret.

He sighed. "Let's just say I have a 'furry little problem'."

I raised my eyebrows higher. "You have a badly behaved rabbit?"

He started to say something, but just sighed again.

"Your…. A werewolf?" I guessed quietly. He gave me a side-ways glance, and I figured I was right. "Am I right?"

"Err… no." He said, not looking at me, and I knew it was a lie.

"Oh." I decided to not pry there anymore. "When are we going to Diagon Alley?" I asked.

"How about now?" He offered, and I nodded. As we walked out the front door I changed my hair back to it's lovely pink, and he seemed a bit taken back. "How did you do that?"

"I'm a metamorphmagus." I smiled.

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We had taken the Knight Bus, and I was repeated thrown about, and when we had gotten off Remus' looked a tad-bit sick. Once we had established the fact that neither of us had anything to eat that morning we went into the Leaky Cauldron to grab a bite to eat.

We had, to my delightful surprise, peanut butter sandwiches with a bit of juice. He even ignored the fact that this stuff was a bit messy, even though it had been on the legal papers. Though I think that may because I smeared peanut butter on it.

After eating in silence we moved on to shopping in relative silence, until we got to going into the shops part. I knocked over all the book cases in a domino effect in Flourish, and Blotts, broke two shelves of potions in the Apothecary, knocked over three fabric racks in the clothing shop, and then we got to Olivanders.

"Ah… miss…" Mr Olivander searched my face, and I gulped. He smiled a knowing smile that made me want to spit in his wrinkled face. "Miss Tonks. I remember your parents, willow, and rowan." He then looked to Remus. "And Mr. Lupin, ash, right?"

Remus nodded, and Mr. Olivander smiled. After a bit of measuring me with a wave of his wand he handed me a wand to try. I waved it, heard a loud bang, and saw fireworks from behind the shelves behind the counter. I giggled.

"Cool." Both men looked at me with slight frowns.

"Ah, 9" Hazel with Leprechaun hair core," Mr. Olivander looks at me with a weird look. Remus blinked.

"When did your family become Irish, Dora?" He asked me, and I paled, not that I could become any paler.

"Uh…" I could've just said that my dad was Irish, but they knew Uncle Ted was Dutch, and English, not Irish like my birth dad. I shrugged, "Who knows." I said with a very fine Irish accent. The two men chuckled, and we took the Knight Bus home.

When we walked in the door we sat down in the sitting room, it was early afternoon. "So, Dora, what house do you think you'll be in?"

I shrugged, and replied with an "I don't know."

"Come on you must have some idea which house you want?"

I thought about it for a few minutes. My real mum had been in Hufflepuff; my real dad had been too. But all of my mum's family had been Slytherins otherwise, and my dad's had been Gryffindors. "I really don't know…"

"Well since your parents are Ravenclaws, what about that house?" I mentally sighed at the thought of Aunt, and Uncle as my parents.

"Never in a million years."

"What about Slytherin?"

"What house were you in?" I asked not wanting to go into the Slytherin theory.

"Gryffindor."

"Then maybe I'll be in that house, too." I smiled.

"Maybe you will be." He smiled softly.

"How old are you?" I asked, since I had been wondering all day.

"24." He answered, and my jaw dropped. "I know I look older." I shook my head.

"I thought you were still a teen!" He raised his eyebrows.

"Really?" I nodded. "Well… thank you." He smiled wider.

I really did think he was about seventeen, even if he did already have greying hair.

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Remus was very relieved when the day ended. Nymphadora was very clumsy, but not a bad child at all. She was kind, bubbly, and hadn't been any trouble at all. He was once again confused though. It seemed to him that Nymphadora was nothing like the straight-backed obsessive-compulsive Andromeda, and nor was she like the lazy bookkeeper Ted.

Remus even had the funny idea that she had been switched at birth with someone else's child. He chuckled out-loud at the thought, and then moved on to think about why Andromeda had flinched whenever anyone had said "Nymphadora" as if it was curse. Maybe Dora only acts nice to strangers, but is a devil child to her parents? It seemed plausible, after glimpsing Dora smirk at her mother.

"That must be it." He said to himself, and a witch on the Knight Bus turned to him suspiciously.