Authors note: Sorry about the long update time! School has kept me busy, but only two days left! woop! Thank you to nixglen and mesaATlien for my gorgeous banners! I will put them up on my profile page soon and then you can all see them! Thanks to the ultimate genious Morphox as well just for being herself!

Chapter 21: Another babysitter (part 2)

Harry stumbled back slightly and collided with Sirius' leg. Sirius bent down and set his godson back onto his feet.

"Hey!" Sirius greeted excitedly.

Remus came out of the lounge to see what was going on.

"Nymphadora!" He exclaimed.

"Do NOT call me that!" Tonks said threateningly.

Harry whimpered slightly and moved to stand behind Sirius' legs.

"This is Harry" Sirius introduced twisting his torso round and lifting Harry into his arms.

Harry immediately hid his head in Sirius top.

"Harry, this is my second cousin Nymphadora Tonks though I think you should call her Tonks unless you want to be hexed into oblivion."

This sentence certainly didn't cause the soothing effect Sirius intended, hexed into oblivion? Harry certainly didn't want to be left alone with this woman!

Harry wrapped his arms around Sirius' neck tightly.

"We are going to have so much fun!" Tonks exclaimed pulling two large bags into the house and dumping them on the floor. She also set another box gently on the floor next to it, it was a very unusual box which seemed to have too many holes in to be used for anything.

"Send a patronus if you need anything or if anything happens" Remus instructed.

"Whatever" Tonks waved this off impatiently.

"You have learnt patronus's, haven't you?" Remus asked anxiously.

"No, but they can't be that hard right?" Tonks answered dismissively, catching sight of the men's disbelieving faces she quickly added "we won't need anything anyway, but if we do then I will just floo you"

The godfathers didn't seem to be that reassured and even Sirius was having second thoughts about the appointment.

"How did you get out of your lessons?" Remus changed the subject quickly.

"Oh Sirius persuaded McGonagall that he really needed me, she believed him after all you are going out with her so she cant really refuse can she?" Tonks answered. "So… are you going?" Tonks was impatient to be left alone with Harry.

"What? Oh yes, sorry" Remus said dazed.

He reached over and kissed the top of his godsons unruly hair.

"See you Har" He whispered.

Sirius attempted to put him down but Harry just tightened his grip and refused to let go.

"Come on, Harry" Sirius pleaded. "I have to go"

"No!" Harry exclaimed. "I want to come with you"

Sirius softened "You can't Harry, but we will be back before you know it"

Harry shook his head obstinately and kept his vice like hold on Sirius' neck. Sirius sighed, he guessed Harry wasn't as happy about the idea after all.

"We are going to have much more fun than them" Tonks exclaimed. "You wait until you see what I bought with me!"

"What have you bought with you?" Sirius asked suspiciously.

Tonks merely shook her head, "Only me and Harry can know that!"

The box suddenly began to rock and then with a slight touch of Tonks' hand was still again. This only seemed to prove Sirius' suspicions.

Remus was looking more alarmed by the minute, knowing Tonks it could be anything. She thought that everything was cute and didn't seem to mind if it was dangerous, funnily enough she got on very well with Hagrid. But Tonks now had Harry's attention just as she had intended.

"What is it?" He asked shyly.

Tonks put her finger on her lips. "We have to wait until they have gone" She said secretively.

"But I don't want them to go" Harry protested.

"Then you won't find out what it is" Tonks answered, her eyes twinkling.

Harry thought this through, he really didn't want his godfathers to leave but he did want to know what Tonks had brought with her, it sounded really exciting and he knew his godfathers would come back…

To Sirius' relief Harry loosened his hold on his neck and slid to the floor. He hugged both of his godfathers legs and padded over to the strange girl, he took hold of her hand and looked at his godfathers expectantly. They soon took the hint, they fled gratefully out of the door before Harry could change his mind. Tonks certainly knew how to care for children!

The second the door shut behind them Tonks locked it in case they came back and led the way over to the box. She opened it gently and carefully lifted the contents out. A wriggly tail, a moist pink nose and four rather dirty paws bounded over to greet Harry. It was a puppy, and a very friendly one at that. Harry gasped and began to pet it enthusiastically.

"What's her name?" Harry asked quietly, he was still quite uncertain of the babysitter.

"His name is Toffee" The young girl answered, settling on the floor comfortably.

"Where did you get him?"

"I found him" Tonks answered. "he was abandoned in Hogsmede, but you mustn't tell anyone because you aren't allowed pets at Hogwarts and I couldn't bear for him to be taken away. I hide him in my dormitory"

The whole concept excited Harry, he thought this pretty girl was the most interesting person he had ever met in his life.

"I know Sirius and Remus won't tell on me but I still don't want them to know just in case they let slip to anyone who would snitch" The girl explained.

"Can he play ball?" Harry asked happily.

Tonks nodded and so Harry and Toffee raced outside and began playing games with a small tennis ball, Tonks couldn't seem to get the rules of the games however much she watched. In fact they didn't seem to be any rules, but the two seemed very happy regardless.

It was at least an hour later that the two collapsed on the grass, exhausted. It was just beginning to get dark and so Tonks bought her two young charges indoors.

"So what's in the other bags?" Harry asked curiously.

"This one just has Toffee's stuff in" Tonks answered yanking one bag up to indicate it and then throwing it back down.

"What about the other one?" Harry had not missed the fact that she had deliberately left it out.

"Oh that?" Tonks eyes glimmered mischievously "It doesn't contain anything very interesting"

Harry found this hard to believe.

"But maybe a little interesting?" He asked hopefully.

Tonks knelt besides the bag and peeked in it, hiding her wide smile. When she surfaced her expression was totally serious.

"Maybe a little" She said carefully.

"May I see?" he asked eagerly.

Tonks seemed to consider. "Weeeeeeeeell"

"Please?" Harry clasped his hands together and blinked his emerald eyes at her appealingly.

"Maybe…" She said at last.

"Whoopee!" Harry said cheerfully and dived towards the bag.

Tonks quickly pulled it up out of his reach.

"I will go through it with your help" She said firmly.

Harry nodded and sat on the floor ready. Tonks did the same. She smiled as she dug her hand into the bag.

"I may have accidentally let it slip that I was coming tonight and everyone at school was very excited" She admitted.

Harry looked at her expectantly, what did this have to do with the contents of the bag?

"They all wanted to get you something" She continued looking down at Harry's shocked expression.

"Its full of presents?"

Tonks nodded.

Harry clapped his hands excitedly. "Well, that's very interesting not a little!" he argued.

"I know" Tonks admitted "I was only teasing"

Harry stuck his tongue out at her and was very surprised when she did it back. They both began to laugh and nearly forgot about the presents.

"How could you forget about presents?" Sirius had exclaimed when the story had been re-told to him later.

Of course being a four year old, Harry did not forget the presents for long and he was soon ripping them open. There was a vast assortment of things, toy Quidditch players, toy wands, soft toys, colouring books, small reading books, a toy castle, a big red ball which Tonks said was called a Quaffle and that Bill Weasley had taken from the supply cupboard for him and of course a whole lot of sweets from Honeydukes and pranks from Zonkos (Remus groaned on seeing them).

Harry was overjoyed and sat on the floor drawing pictures for every single person who had sent him a present. The pictures got quite smudged because Toffee spent a lot of time sitting on them and pawing Harry to get his attention. Tonks helped by thinking up topics for the pictures (which ranged from flowers to flobberworms.)

They finally finished and decided to have tea because it was 8.00 and they hadn't eaten yet. Tonks didn't think Remus or Sirius would be very happy if they came home to find she hadn't fed their godson. Harry found Tonks way of cooking very unusual but very yummy, mostly anyway.

First of all she fetched every single pan in the house and put them on the hob, then she opened every single cupboard, looked at the clock and then told Harry that they had 2 minutes to shove everything they could find in the pans.

"Ready, steady, GO!" she shouted.

Harry was in charge of the lower cupboards and the fridge while Tonks did the higher ones. When Tonks declared time up Harry sat panting on the floor while Tonks turned the hob on and cooked everything for five minutes. Then she dished everything up so that they had a bit of everything. Harry found that chocolate, celery, baked beans and crisps surprisingly made a very nice mixture but red peppers, mars bar, wafer thin ham, tomatoes, potatoes, cereal and carrots didn't taste nice at all.

The meal left a lot of mess but Tonks reassured Harry that with a wave of their wands Sirius and Remus could clean it up. It was 9.00 but Tonks still had something she wanted to do.

"Lets play another game!" She suggested.

Harry readily agreed.

"Okay so we have to go in the garden" Tonks said decisively.

Harry looked through the window at the pitch black outside and then back at Tonks with a look of pure disbelief.

"So you have to hold my hand really tight yeah? Because Sirius will kill me if I lose you"

Harry nodded reluctantly.

"Or maybe you should wait inside?" Tonks said thoughtfully.

"By myself?" Harry exclaimed.

"No, your right better not"

And so Tonks and Harry slipped outside and to Harry's surprise bought a hosepipe back in. Harry watched as Tonks connected it to the kitchen tap.

"Have you got a swimming costume?" Tonks asked, though it sounded slightly strange as she had her tongue sticking out as she concentrated on the muggle plumbing system.

"Ummm… yes?" Harry said in confusion.

"Go and put it on while I do this" Tonks requested.

When Harry returned downstairs the kitchen was no longer a kitchen, it looked just like a jungle. There was massive trees everywhere and numerous animals slithering around. Then there was a little stream going through it (So that was what the hose pipe was for!) and the floor was no longer tiled but was sand!

"We are going to play jungles" Tonks said with a grin.

And so Harry climbed, swung and leapt his way through the jungle for the next two hours. He also swam, splashed and paddled his way through the river and petted, played and chased the animals. The river seemed to have flowery stuff in and the more Harry swam the cleaner he got and despite the tree climbing and animal cuddling, he seemed to stay that way.

When there was a crack outside signalling one of the godfathers return Tonks quickly made the jungle disappear with a wave of her wand and scurried into the lounge where she settled both herself and Harry down with a book and tried to look as if they had been reading for a while.

"Tonks?" Harry whispered.

"Hmmmm?" Tonks replied her eyes darting from her book to the front door.

"That was fun!"

Tonks smiled at the boy "good" she replied. "That was my version of a bath"

Harry looked at her in wonder and immediately resolved to ask Sirius if he could have that sort of bath in future. A second crack suddenly pierced the air and then the front door opened and both godfathers entered.

"Sirius!" Harry shouted running towards the door "Remus!" he wrapped one arm around each of his godfathers legs and grinned up at them. They smiled and Remus lifted Harry into his arms.

"Did you have a nice time?" Remus asked.

Harry nodded enthusiastically.

"Did you?"

Both Sirius and Remus said that they had. They tahnked Tonks and attempted to give her some money but she refused claiming that she ought to pay them for letting her spend time with such a lovely little boy like Harry then she had disappeared into the fireplace armed with bundles of thank you drawings.

After a very l-o-n-g account of every little thing that had happened while they were gone Harry was taken up to his bed. When Sirius headed towards the bathroom Harry gleefully told him that he had already had a bath and Sirius had been amazed because Harry didn't normally trust anyone except his godfathers to give him a bath.

Harry was soon tucked up and Sirius and Remus had gone back downstairs. The last thing Harry heard before he drifted off into dreamland was Sirius tripping over the hose pipe.

"Who put a bloody hose pipe in the house!"

Harry smiled contentedly, it was a shame he wouldn't be awake to see Sirius' reaction to the firework in his wardrobe and the blabbering potion in the kettle and the disappearing charm on the front door key and the…

But Harry had fallen asleep.