No of this belongs to me, at all. The characters and setting were all created by the creative genii of J.K Rowling and Josh Whedon. Even most of the situations have been thought up by other people.

The last chapter of Harry Potter has been written and is in a safe somewhere.

This chapter is long, and doesn't say anything very dramatic. This story begins the Saturday before Halloween. The 27th of October 2001. Halloween is the Wednesday night.

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Sirius lugged the suitcase onto the bed of the dingy hotel room. Dumbledore's instructions and supplies had included American Muggle money. Sirius didn't like it. It was worse than English Muggle money, which he had at least gotten used to. He had too much trouble figuring out which bits of paper represented which amount of money.

He was dressed in Muggle clothes, which chaffed. And he was nervous about the fact that he couldn't hide his wand. It was nine o'clock on Saturday morning, so he left the suitcase where it was and stalked out into the street.

The Magic Box was at one end of the main street. He pushed the door open and stalked into the empty shop. The shop assistant came from behind the counter to greet him.

"How can I help you?" she asked, brightly.

"I'd like to see Rupert Giles, please," he said.

She was pretty, but too happy for him to stop and chat too.

She frowned at him and turned around. "Giles!" she shouted.

An older man stuck his head around the door at the back of the shop. He stopped frowning when he saw Sirius.

"Anya, if my customers like you, they'll come back to the shop to see you, and then they'll buy things," Giles said as he walked up to the stranger.

Anya plastered a grin on her face, turning back to Sirius she said, "Thank you for coming, here is Giles."

"Rupert Giles," Giles said, offering his hand.

"Sirius Black," Sirius said, shaking it.

"No, you're not," Anya said.

Giles took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He trusted Mr Black to stand up for himself. Which he did.

"I most certainly am," Sirius shouted, glaring at Anya.

"Then who's the ratty little man?"

"Who?" Sirius asked sharply. Giles gave up speaking to raise his eyebrows.

"The ratty little man who betrayed, ah, Lily, Lily Potter, I think her name was, anyway, it was a while ago and the papers had said Sirius Black, so I just assumed that's who it was. Of course, the police get lots of things wrong. The number of people I've killed, ha. But I don't do that any more."

"You knew Lily Potter?" Sirius demanded.

"No," Anya said, oblivious to Sirius's anxious look. "She was betrayed by this ratty little man. And she wanted vengeance on him. So I went, because I was in the area, and I didn't like the look of him at all, he wasn't at all as handsome as you. But she was dead before I could get her to wish anything. It wasn't a very creative death either."

"Anya," Giles said, noticing Sirius's darkening look. "Can you keep an eye on the front of the shop?"

"You're a Vengeance Demon?"

"Retired. Well, I had my powers stolen. So I own this shop now, or half of it."

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Giles finally managed to asked, after Anya had gone and Sirius had turned his attention back to his countryman.

"I'm looking for my son," Sirius said. "Dumbledore sent me here to talk to you."

Giles stopped before he could put his glasses back on.

"You were Mariana's boyfriend?"

"Seventh year at Hogwarts. I had no idea until, you must have written to Dumbledore. He wanted to get me out of the country, the Aurors and the Ministry are still after me. Where's my son?"

Giles could imagine the man in wizards' robes. The effect would have been intimidating. But in the faded blue jeans and sweatshirt, he looked more like a stray dog.

"Come into my office, please," Giles said, trying not to laugh at the man's indignation. He wasn't as scary as most of the things Giles lived with.

"Sit down."

Sirius sat. He was looking at everything in the office. It was full of odd knives and book he didn't like the look of.

"Interesting stuff you've got here," he said.

"Thank you," Giles said.

"Why am I here?" Sirius asked.

"I assume you knew that," Giles said. He wasn't sure he liked this man, however Anya knew him.

"Where's my son?!" Sirius demanded.

"I don't know right now. Somewhere between his house, Buffy's house and here. He'll come by eventually. We didn't expect you to come by so soon."

"As I said, Dumbledore wanted me out of the country. Things are little tense in my house just now. And the Aurors are after me."

"Why?"

Sirius blinked. This man was vetting him. He was the adult in his son's life, he was looking out for him. Sirius knew he was a suspicious man, and probably wouldn't trust himself if he were in a similar situation.

"Do you know of the Fidelius charm?"

"I'm aware of what it does." Giles said, suddenly intrigued.

"Long or short version?" Sirius asked. He had worked out what to say if he ever needed too.

"How short can you make it?" Giles asked.

Sirius smiled.

"At Hogwarts I was part of a close group of friends, we called ourselves the Marauders. There were four of us. James, me, Remus, and Peter. We were fighting a powerful dark wizard by the time we were twenty. Lily and James, and their son Harry were in danger from the wizard. Dumbledore wanted to perform the Fidelius charm. James and I discussed it. They wanted me to perform the charm. They were being tracked closely. Remus was the most likely suspect as the spy. We knew that everyone would assume I was keeping them safe. So, we asked Peter to perform the charm. Only Lily, James, Peter and I knew. When he betrayed them, everyone thought it was me."

"Except Anya," Giles said.

"Well, she thought it was me. But she saw Peter in Lily's mind. How did she do that?"

"It's a demon thing. You can ask her about if you want. How do things stand now?"

"Harry survived the attack and was accepted at Hogwarts. I discovered the Peter had disguised himself as a rat and was at Hogwarts. When Voldemort rose, Peter would be able to kill Harry. I escaped from Azkaban, found a way into Hogwarts to kill him. Remus was there. I met Harry. He helped me escape after the Ministry took me back into custody. They were going to kill me. Anyway, I've been on the run since then, Wormtail, Peter, escaped back to Voldemort. Voldemort's back, so he's after me too as a way to get to Harry.

"Do you believe me?"

"I do. And I trust you."

"Then tell me about my son."

Giles and Sirius were facing each other close across Giles's office. Sirius was leaning on his elbows, fiddling with the sleeve of his sweater where his wand was hidden. Giles began to see something of Xander in his nervous stand.

"He's a carpenter. He's doing well. He has his own crew on a building site. Anya's his girlfriend," Giles said.

Sirius grinned, knowing Giles was hoping for a different reaction.

"His name's Alexander Harris. Xander. The rest you'll have to talk to him about. I like him. He has a very nice way of looking at things."

"Hey, Giles?!"

Buffy pocked her head around the office door.

"You said training this morning. Part of the get Buffy out bed before sunset deal? Oh, hi, who's this?"

"This is Sirius Black," Giles said. "Is Xander here?"

"The whole gang," Buffy said. "I wanted them to investigate possible causes of the evil lint and that day in the shop. But I think they're just here to chat."

Giles wasn't convinced about the evil lint so he let that comment slide. He turned to Sirius.

"Do you want to come and meet the whole gang?"

"Are they at all like Anya?" Sirius asked cautiously.

"Anya is the worst," Giles admitted. "Unless Spike's here. Or Willow's had coffee. Or Dawn's had too much sugar."

Sirius sighed, but prepared himself to follow Giles.