Sasha had dragged his feet about registering as an Animagus for quite some time; over a year, to be exact.  He'd had a valid reason and, for the better part of a year, the reason had been a powerful motivator.  But, as time went on and the tumult seemed to settle, fear of Azkaban quickly outweighed the previous motivations. 

Avoiding Azkaban was proving to be a decent motivator.

He'd finally resolved to register.  Though her reasoning was probably less solid than his own, he'd assumed Moira hadn't bothered with registering, either.  He'd decided that he needed to drag her along.  He still wasn't sure if it had been altruism or spread-the-annoyance that had prompted that decision. 

Standing in the lift, Sasha gazed up at the pair of circling airplanes and watched as they deftly avoided careening into each other.  "I vote we go to Honeydukes after this," Sasha voiced without taking his eyes off the airplanes.  He hadn't really anticipated how nervous he'd feel about going to Level 2.  He'd been to the Ministry before, of course, though usually Level 5 was his destination.  Level 2 ... Well, for the last few years, he'd always figured he'd only wind up on Level 2 for reasons relating to Malvivicus.  Or necromancy.  Or, any of the various mistakes he'd made over the last few years - none of which was destined to end well for him.  It wasn't until he'd stepped on the lift that he realized how much his subconscious had accepted going to Level 2 meant his luck had finally run out. 

Maybe that's why he had decided to drag Moira along.  Chances were good he would have backed out in the Atrium without a partner in crime. 

Definitely, no pun intended. 

"Do you think there will be anyone we recognize?" Sasha asked Moira as the lift doors clanged open and he stepped out into the corridor.  "How do we figure out where we're supposed to go?"

Moira definitely had a less solid reason for not yet registering as an animagus. In the simplest terms she just hadn't bothered with it. Registering was out of her way and required a certain amount of effort that she had decided to exert elsewhere such as school and – of course - magical creatures. Being dragged along by Sasha wasn't as much of an inconvenience as he might think, however. This way at least she could let him do most of the talking.

“Honeydukes wouldn't be a terrible celebration for surviving level 2. If we do survive that is.” Perhaps it was the time they had spent together but Moira could practically feel Sasha bristling with tension. She couldn't help but tease him a little.

“Tis possible. Quite a few people in our year decided ta join the ministry didn't they?” At least that was what she had heard being talked about during their last few months at school. Jobs.

At his question about figuring out where to go she looked to him with a slight tilt of her head. “Assuming there's no signs there's only one way to know. We ask someone.” Hadn't she heard somewhere that in general men hated asking for directions? Her Uncle Duncan certainly did. He would rather be lost for three days before he 'lowered' himself to asking someone where he was supposed to go. She wondered if the people who worked at the Ministry would have chosen to let her uncle wander around lost whilst laughing at him or taken pity on the burly Scotsman. It was probably a good thing he never stopped by the Ministry.

Primly dressed in her Auror Trainee robes, Raine Almasy sat behind the desk at the Law Records Reception and was doodling on a stray bit of parchment as a clock on the wall slowly ticked away her morning shift. It was customary for level two's new hands to have a go at various bureaucratic tasks amidst their more specialised training, though most of them considered it drudgery compared to the excitement of the Duelling Arena or the observation space. Nothing interesting ever happened here.

All she'd done this morning was receive wizards and witches who needed to check in to enter the records room, or sign out records that were being held in reserve for investigations. Librarian work, give or take meticulous knowledge of recent crimes.

The reception entrance gave on the corridor that led directly to the main foyer - even so, it took Raine a few moments before she noticed her friend's figure from afar. Schlawkward! What was he doing in the Ministry? And was that McBoid he was with? A wry smile lit up her face and she drew a memo sheet from the desk, which folded itself up into a little airplane right away.

Knowing Sasha, he would probably wander right into the detention cells by accident. Raine threw the plane, waiting a moment for a group of solicitors to pass, aiming straight at the former Ravenclaw. "Sasha!" she called out and ignored a rude glance from one of the Aurors passing by.

Sasha had to conceded Moira had a point; there were bound to be some former classmates roaming the Ministry Halls.  What a strange thought.  Not too long ago, they were all in (relatively) similar stations in life: students.  Now, they were likely to wander into one another as they made their way along very separate paths.  Ministry officials.  Magical animal handlers.  And, well, student. 

So, maybe they all didn't progress at quite the same rate. 

Sasha pursed his lips as much at his own inner musings as at the recommendation to seek directions.  "That's a potential," he said, though with little indication he planned on taking that recommendation in his voice.  "What if ..." Sasha, indeed, turned and started to make his own way without help from the locals.  He had been to the Ministry before, after all.  On a number of less-then-pleasant occasions. 

The last time being when he picked up the last of his sister's things from her desk, he remembered with a slight pang. 

"I'm sure there will be-" Someone called his name.  An airplane glided through the air and landed primly on his shoulder.  He unfolded the blank memo sheet and looked back in the direction of the familiar voice and it's origin.  See.  No directions needed!  Sasha grinned down at Moira before making his way over to Raine. 

"Allo."  He offered.  "I - We really should have expected to run into you.  Given, ... I mean .. it's still weird running into classmates out in the real world."  He glanced between Raine and Moira, hoping he wasn't the only still finding that weird. 

Sasha was beginning to walk away... intent that he'd find it on his own. Again her earlier musings about her uncle circled her head, except this time with Sasha in his place. Moira had just decided she'd follow him for a minute before stopping to ask someone anyway when a paper plane landed on Sasha's shoulder. Looking to where it came from she recognized the red curls and face that accompanied it almost immediately.  She hadn't socialized much with Almasy back at Hogwarts, though.

Moira looked and stared up at Sasha's grin, rolling her eyes behind his back as he walked away, following behind. He was lucky their now former classmate had been working in this section and more so that she had spotted him. Maybe his luck was starting to turn now that they were no longer at Hogwarts. A voice in the back of her head disagreed.

“Hello.” She greeted after Sasha, then he went on about it being strange to run into former classmates outside of school. “I suppose?” It wasn't like meeting them in the corridors after all. Raine, of the three of them, had a proper job now. Moira didn't consider working for her family's business at home a job as it were. She'd always done it.

Looking back to the Auror in training she added, “It's a good thing we did, anyway. He was determined to get us lost.”

Her aim was true, and she caught Schlawkward's attention promptly. Raine smiled at her two former classmates as they approached the records desk - it was nice to see Sasha again! McBoid was.... well, one of many Hufflepuff's she never really cared for, but that probably wasn't poor Moira's fault. Set fire to enough things and you sort of limit the number of friends you can make at Hogwarts. At least that never bothered Sasha.

            "...weird running into classmates out in the real world."
      "I suppose...was determined to get us lost."

"A lot of us are here in the Ministry-" Raine shrugged, "- I bump into someone from school every day. But I really wasn't expecting you!" she gave Sasha a pointed look before glancing around to make sure none of her superiors were about to catch her chatting on the job.

Not that they could blame her. It was a really, really boring job. "Are you two here on business?" she looked between the witch and wizard curiously. "I'm here for all your records and registry needs, or so they tell me that I should be."

Sasha's gaze tracked between Moira's patient look of "playing along" and Raine's casual shrug.  Apparently, he was the only one impressed with running into familiar faces at the Ministry.  Somehow, that wasn't as much of a surprise.  "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"  Vague muggle cultural references.  It was his favorite, and perhaps least effective, means of dealing with unexpected turns in casual communications. 

"And, I wasn't determined to get us lost."  He defended.  If they did get lost, it would have been little more than an unintentional side effect. 

"Are you two here on business?  I'm here for all your records and registry needs, or so they tell me that I should be."

Right.  Business.  "That's actually what we're here for," Sasha confirmed.  "I -"  Sasha glanced at Moira.  Animagus transformations were a uniquely personal endeavor; it hadn't taken Sasha long to figure that out.  Despite that being what they were there for, it still felt wrong to 'out' someone else.  After all, she could always change her mind about registering; he'd leave it up to her to commit to the bureaucratic obligation. 

"That project we were working on a ways back?  I need to register."

"And, I wasn't determined to get us lost."

Moira made a noncommittal sound when Sasha defended himself against her statement. He could believe what he wanted.  When the simplest course of action was to ask for directions and one decided not to, that was more or less a determination to get lost. She couldn't exactly fault him, of course, as she was terribly stubborn against the simple answers in other situations.

She glanced back at at her friend. He had not included her in their reason of being there and instead left it up to her. For probably the first time, she considered the choice in full.  She had already been prepared to register so her final decision didn't take more than a few moments. She didn't take part in any illegal activities. Moira had no reason to hide.

With a small nod to herself she spoke to Raine. “As do I.” Unlike Sasha, however, she had tackled it alone and not as part of their project.

Both of them were here to register! Raine had harboured suspicions about Sasha being here but she didn't think McBoid was also on an Animagus errand. The more the merrier, she supposed. The Auror Trainee nodded her head in a chipper, businesslike fashion before drawing her wand. This was one task she'd only seen done from the other side of the desk - it was actually quite rare to have people come in to register.

A flick of the wand brought a very large, very old tome out from one of the shelves beneath the desk. It landed with a loud thump! and a cloud of dust. Raine coughed. Dust! Always dust! She wrinkled her nose, reaching for a stack of papers and some quills from a stack to her side.

"First you have to fill these up. They go into your personal MLE folder, or -" she glanced from Sasha to Moira, "- we'll make a folder if you don't already have one." The former Ravenclaw definitely had his own, much like Raine herself.

She opened the book, flipping through to reach a spot somewhere still close to the start. Name upon name and scribbled signatures went by - animagi throughout the ages. Or since 1422 anyway. The page she left open was only half-filled, with more recently dried ink. Not far above the last entry her own name had been etched.


Below it, two signatures and printed names alongside hers. "When you're done with that then we have to enter you in the actual Registry." Raine looked up from the page, frowning thoughtfully.

"I'll be first witness for both of you, and you can each be second witness for one another. Best prepare to transform."

Reflexively, Sasha tensed and glanced around the open hallway as Raine set about putting the papers and registers in order.  His brow furrowed as he dropped his gaze to the register.  As he'd grown more familiar with his transformations, it had become easy to see being an animagus as just another skill like potion brewing or long-hand trigonometry.  But, the underlying motivation for pursuing that skill still lurked in the back of his mind. 

He looked down at the form in his hand and then glanced between Moira and Raine.  "Is there anyway to, you know, do this discretely?  I mean ... is this record ... public?  Can anyone walk in and look it up?" 

He'd accepted that the Ministry would need to have access to the information, but he was very uncomfortable with the idea of anyone being able to look it up.  Sasha had told very few people of his pursuit of animagus transformation on purpose and even fewer knew the reasons behind it.  Moira knew a little bit about Sasha's abduction by Malvivicus but Raine was one of only a handful of people that knew Sasha's associations with the man had continued beyond the abduction. 

And, now she was an Auror.  Working for the Ministry.  Had any of their conversations made their way into his public record?

He took a deep breath.  "My motivations for this haven't changed[1]  I don't want just anyone having access to it.  Or, you know, to find out."

1.	Under clouds, there's not much difference - Sasha first asked Raine to help him learn animagus transformation.

Moira looked over the form as it was handed to her. It all seemed fairly straight forward. As for it going into her own personal MLE folder the young witch didn't know if she had one yet. She hadn't dabbled in anything she wasn't suppose to – nothing terribly bad anyway – unless there was one from the accident with her mum. A folder wasn't needed for that. That incident had been in all the papers. Surely there were still copies somewhere.

She probably didn't have an MLE folder.

Moira listened silently as usual as Sasha spoke about having all this done discreetly and wanting to know if the register was public. Moira didn't blame him. He'd had enough publicity already and not in a good way.
Her gaze shifted to the register and the printed names on that page. She was set to sign it though couldn't help a small feeling of finality to the ordeal.

Looking between Sasha and Raine she waited for the response to his questions.

Her expression softened a bit as Sasha posed his queries. Raine had transformed into a cat in front of a Tetrawizard Tournament audience; she would have preferred to keep her ability a secret but a snap decision had rather ruined that. What her friend wanted wasn't unreasonable. It helped to have a skill up your sleeve and sometimes you just didn't want anyone to know the sort of animal you became - because you didn't have a choice when it came to that bit.

"You really should have researched this a bit more," the redhead muttered and lowered her quill to lean over the desk with a pointed look at Sasha. "Yes the record is public. Not registering means Azkaban."

A wry smile tugged at her lips. Obviously she wouldn't tattle on him even if he did decide not to register right this very moment. But she wanted to remind him that this really was a crime for a good reason. People abused their abilities. They forgot how serious and rare it is, after getting the hang of it.

"Any member of the public may come here and request to look at the Registry, though we keep a record of people who request it." Raine smoothed a hand over the page and raised an eyebrow at her friend. "There's a cloakroom just off this reception-" she glanced at a door next to the records room, "- we can witness your transformations there. Discreetly."

Hesitating a bit, Raine leaned back to give both her classmates a serious look. "You both know that being an Animagus isn't just turning into an animal or a handy escape plan. It gives us a tremendous advantage over a majority of people. It make us significantly more dangerous," she included herself in this subset of wizarding society, "and we can't always trust ourselves to make good decisions with that power, okay?"

It wasn't like with Werewolves, Raine thought. They were shunned. Most people were impressed by Animagi. The glamour surrounding that power was risky.

Sasha's brows hitched up slowly and he looked from the register to Raine as she leaned across the desk towards him.  The corners of his mouth twitched up in a small smirk.  "I know," he answered, nodding his head.  He was well aware not registering meant Azkaban.  "That's pretty much the only reason I'm here."  It had come down to a question of which he feared more: the past few years catching up to him one day or Azkaban. 

That quandary had delayed him from registering for almost a year.  He'd finally realized, if he ever needed to use his animagus form as a last-ditch defense, it was almost a given that the Ministry would get involved.  It would be a real bummer if he managed to escape only to end up in the wizarding prison.  Potentially alongside the very person he was escaping from.  He'd just have to hope that Malvivicus' men weren't willing to risk a visit to Level 2 of the Ministry of Magic just to see if he was an animagus. 

"As long as it isn't actively publicized or announced. Or -"  Sasha paused.  "What about media?  Reporters?  Is there anything to prevent a Daily Prophet reporter from coming, checking who has been added and then printing it the next day?"  Most reporters were bound to find more important things to write about.  There were plenty, though, like Rita Skeeter who just loved to get their hands on gossip.  "Or, are we legally obligated to give up any control over this information?" 

"I mean, tremendous advantage might be a bit of an exaggeration, though I suppose it depends on your form."  He glanced at Moira.  "Some animals are inherently more dangerous.  Or they might be ... like a mouse and easy to eavesdrop without people knowing.  Or, you're really neither of those things and ... day to day practical uses are limited."   

Sasha definitely knew about the Azkaban stipulation to not registering. That had been the main point of his conversation when he spoke with Moira to get her to go with him. How was she supposed to tell him no after that? She had no reason to.

Moira glanced in the direction of the cloakroom Raine had mentioned, briefly hoping it was big enough. A smaller room was certainly more discreet than an open hallway with other people. She wouldn't say it but, like Sasha, she also preferred to change shape where a bunch of strangers could not see.

“Some animal forms might cause more problems than help too,” she added to Sasha's statement. Being a wolf was great for traveling long distances at a leisurely pace.. Getting spotted as a wolf... that was a problem. Plus she didn't know of any animagus that could cast a spell as an animal. A well placed hex and they were just as vulnerable if not more so had they been human.
That wasn't to say there weren't advantages and dangers to being able to change into an animal when others could not. As he had said, some were simply more dangerous or practical than others. Moira could think of more uses for Sasha's form than her own.

Raine, who had been the subject of much speculation since her aunt's reveal, had mixed feelings about her friend's fears. On one hand she could understand why it would be distressing to have personal information published in the papers. On the other, she wasn't sure if anybody really cared - but perhaps Sasha had more enemies than she knew. It wasn't completely out of the question.

"In theory, I suppose a reporter could come in to check..." she mused, frowning at herself. "But it's not like people are registering every day. Animagi are rare, remember? Why would someone check the registry without being prompted?" The odds seemed low. "And they're allowed to report whatever they want, as long as the animagus isn't a minor. Then they can't use surnames."[1]

There were probably cases in which level two didn't let people publish names that were in the Register, if public security was concerned. This wasn't such a case. The witch shrugged at their sidestepping of what it meant to have an advantage.  "Listen: if nobody knows you can change or what you can change into, that's already a huge advantage. If you're clever enough you can be dangerous with any form."

She gave Sasha a pointed look, because he was smart enough for that. Moira probably wasn't - Raine suspected the former Hufflepuff probably didn't have an Animagus form of much finesse.

"Do you both need to think about this?" she tapped a nail against the open Register, half-smiling. "Fill up the forms while you're thinking. I've been registered for two years, by the way, and nothing bad has really come of it." Most people didn't even know what a caracal cat looked like.

1.	Figured this would come under Child Protection guidelines.