Disclaimers, etc, see part one.

Author's Notes: Hello Second reviewer (ME). I started this story a while ago, and it was recently deleted because it did breach one of the upload conditions. It doesn't any more, but these chapters are reposts. Once I have to start writing again, it will be slower. (But hopefully not too much so.)

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Xander and Anya arrived at the Ministry of Magic half an hour after Giles. It took Xander a moment to dust his cloak off and resettle it on his shoulders. He still couldn't work out how to move in it properly. Anya was having no trouble, she was already staring wide eyed the opulent foyer.

"This is better than even that palace in Russia," she breathed. "Hallie said that it was the best thing she had ever seen. Mind you, she'd only been in the business about twenty years then. Xander, close your mouth!"

Xander followed her order automatically, but he was still staring at the marble floor, the counters, the bustle of men and women in cloaks, the fire places, the statue that appeared to be gold.

Anya tugged him over to the 'registration' counter and set him in line in front of her. Xander didn't think that was fair. She'd had a thousand years as a professional woman. And she managed to wear her pink robes and dark blue cloak with much more professional ease then he would ever have.

The witch in front of them was sent to have her wand weighed and Xander stepped up to the counter.

"Name?" the wizard asked gruffly.

"Alexander Black," Xander said.

The wizard didn't react and the quill in front of him wrote the name on a piece of card. Well, Xander thought, it's hardly an uncommon name.

"Reason for visit?"

"To register my birth," Xander said. It sounded a bit ridiculous, but he had until twenty-five for a legal registration.

The wizard waited for the quill to finish writing before he handed the card to Xander, told him to catch the lift to the births, deaths, marriages and permanent realignment office. Xander stepped out of the queue but waited for Anya to explain that she was Anyanka, here to testify in the case of the Ministry versus Sirius Black. The wizard didn't react to her information anymore than he had to Xander's. He merely grunted when she said she didn't have a wand and directed her to see Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Anya was quiet as they waited for the wizard on duty to examine Xander's wand and give Anya a pass for not having one. When she still hadn't said anything by the time they got into the lift with the flying memos Xander began to get nervous.

"Are you okay, Ahn?"

"What if they don't believe me?" she asked. "Then you won't be able to get to know your dad. And you'll have a house in England, you won't like that, it really does get colder than today."

"Shh," Xander said, as soothingly as he could through the nerves. "We'll cross that bridge if we come to it. And if they don't believe you, you'll be able to get Hallie to curse them for you, won't you?"

Anya seemed to brighten at the thought. Xander kissed her, glad that she was still pretty much herself.

Xander smiled as they parted ways, and waved to her. He walked through the corridors in a little daze. The offices seemed so familiar in so many ways. Except that the memos delivered themselves, and everyone was wearing robes, and occasionally said things "the Floo's down at Carmichael's, get him to walk. We can't risk him splicing himself."

He eventually found the right door and knocked once before being admitted into a cramped and dusty room with one crowded desk, a large four draw filing cabinet and one spare chair. The current occupant was a young man who looked very nervous. It calmed Xander a bit, knowing that he was the more in control.

"P-please have a seat. My name in Robert O'Leary."

"Alexander Harris, well, Black," Xander said. "That's why I'm here."

"Sorry, why?" Robert asked.

"My parents were both wizards, but I was adopted by Muggles. Professor Dumbledore has agreed to let me train at Hogwarts, but I'm not legally a wizard."

"Great man, Dumbledore," Robert said, as if by rote. "Papers?" he asked hopefully.

Xander handed over the papers his parents had given him and the letter his mother had left with Dumbledore explaining what had happened.

Robert took a form from the top filing draw and began to fill it out from the documents in front of him. He reproduced the letter with a wave of his wand. When he'd finished he handed them across the table for Xander to sign.

"Is that it?" Xander asked.

"Formality," Robert said. "The someone will run some tests on it to make sure the information is correct. We just need to make sure you want it to be. Do you want to be Harris, or Black? The adoption does still hold by Muggle law, so in America you would be Harris, even now you're a registered wizard here, because that is the name you were registered in the country with. I can put the adoption through the Wizarding records too, if you want."

"Aren't I registered twice if you don't?"

"Yes, but you would be anyway, here and in America."

Xander quickly reassessed Robert. He had seemed a bit gawky, he still did, actually, but he knew what he was on about.

"Does it effect inheritance?" Xander asked.

"In your case, no," Robert said. "Your father has no other children, has never married, and never left a will. He also never signed any adoption papers."

"Harris, then," Xander decided. It would cause less problems.

Robert wrote something at the bottom of the form.

"You can still use Black legally if you wish to, you just need to let us know."

"Sure thing," Xander agreed.

"Thank you for coming in," Roger said. He whipped his hand on his robes before holding it out to Xander.

Xander shook it gingerly, but smiled before he left.

He wandered around the floor for a while. But Anya was probably going to be longer than he had been. He felt kind of strange, like something had changed. Maybe it was just that he was where he was supposed to be, he thought. Although he know idea where he actually was. He hoped he might be able to find someone who might know where his fiancée was.

He literally walked into a tall balding man as he watched a paper aeroplane launch itself into the air.

"Oh, golly, watch it, who are you?" he heard.

"Sorry," Xander said quickly. "I just never saw anything like it before," he added, pointing the piece of paper.

"You're Muggle born?" the man asked.

Xander stepped back slowly. This man seemed to be excited by the idea.

"Yeah," he answered slowly.

"What brings you to the Ministry?"

"Ah, I just had to register as a wizard before I go to school," Xander said. He realised that that was probably too much information when the man read his name tag and his eyes widened. Xander tried to think of an explanation. Before he could say anything the man was grinning broadly, and dragging him bodily down the corridor.

"It's just fabulous to meet you. My name is Arthur, by the way, Arthur Weasley, I head the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office. You simply must explain to me how ecsalators work. Or is it escatalor?"

Xander found himself in another a cramped, although not so dusty office.

"Does Sirius know about you?" Arthur demanded.

"Yes," Xander said, he wasn't about to argue with this man. He seemed to become quite formidable in the small space.

Arthur relaxed, and seemed like a kid with a railway set again.

"So you're not actually Muggle born?"

"No, but I was Muggle raised. You didn't happen to see a woman with pink robes, here, did you? Anyanka?"

"You know her? Absolute breakthrough for us. She reckons she can prove Black innocent. Just as well it was Kingsley in today, he already knows that he is."

"I know her," Xander admitted, and nothing more.

"Circumspection's good," Arthur said. "Maybe until Kingsley brings Anyanka here, and he probably will if he doesn't go straight to Fudge with the evidence, then we can pretend that you're just Muggle born and you can explain how fellytones work."

Xander tried to remember everything he had ever heard or been told about telephones. His explanations weren't aided by Arthur butting in with extra questions and his own interpretation of the importance of eceltricity. They had moved onto screws and drills, which Xander did actually know about, by the time Kingsley arrived.