Sirius awoke to the sound of an owl tapping outside the window. Pulling off the letter, he recognized his cousin Andromeda's handwriting. Finishing the letter, he started hyperventilating. She was asking him to babysit her five-year-old daughter; he had met her once, when she was only 6 months old, and it wasn't very enjoyable at all. She'd spit up on him, twice, and was going through a biting stage; he still had scars.

Shocking even himself, Sirius said yes. Only an hour after sending his reply via owl, Andromeda and her daughter, Nymphadora, Apperated into the entranceway of Number 12, Grimmauld Place. Sirius came in to greet them, and Nymphadora replied by kicking him in the shins.

Andromeda's smile faded as she reprimanded her daughter, who replied with a seemingly sweet, "okay, Mommy," but turned to Sirius and scowled. Andromeda turned to Sirius and said goodbye, then to Nymphadora with a sharp, "be good." Sirius doubted she would listen.

As soon as the door closed, Nymphadora turned to Sirius and said, "first of all, don't call me Nymphadora. My dad signed me up for karate, and I'm always ready to practice. Second of all, I'm not five, I'm five and a half. Third of all, my mom might not have mentioned this, but I'm allergic to broccoli."

Sirius' eyes widened. Surely the Andromeda he knew would have warned him if her daughter had any kind of allergies. Then he remembered how she was a metamorphmagus. "What happens?" he asked, with a doubting tone.

Nymphadora smiled and said, "I break out into hives. Big, huge orange ones!"

"So in other words, not a real allergy?"

"Fine, I'm only really allergic to bee stings."

Nymphadora frowned with the injustice of being able to eat broccoli. She vented her feelings by running around the house, screaming, "you can't catch me!" She quickly tripped over the troll-leg umbrella stand and promptly started to cry.

Sirius didn't know how to stop her from crying. He started to panic and found himself saying, "if you stop crying, I'll give you a cookie."

Nymphadora's face broke into a smile. "Yay!" she shrieked. "Cookie, cookie, cookie!"

Sirius scooped her up and carried her into the kitchen. He sat her down and handed her a chocolate chip cookie on a napkin. "Thank you," Nymphadora said sweetly, as she started to eat her cookie. Once she finished, she wiped some chocolate off her face and continued her circles around her house, this time with the sound effects of her shrieks. Matbe he shouldn't have given her sugar...