Grimmauld Place / Death Certificate please.

[huntergreen_3]

No: HPFGUIDX 112072

mhbobbin:
>>Why tell the Ministry at all about Sirius--that he was there or that
he fell through the veil? Especiallly if the Order members would
have to pretend Sirius was fighting on the DE side? Why not just
omit that information? Captive Death Eaters might tell the Ministry
about seeing Sirius but only Bellatrix was a witness--I think--to
his death. I base that on only Sirius and Bellatrix were fighting at
the time of Sirius' death.

DD is the one that is going to brief the Ministry. Does DD simply
omit the parts about Sirius?<<

HunterGreen:
I think so. Why get into it? He'd only have to explain what he was 
doing with an escaped convict and get into the whole 'trying to prove 
Sirius' innocence' thing again, which doesn't even matter any more. 
As for the Death Eaters, what would they get out of telling? 
"Oh Sirius Black was with them!"
"He was fighting with them?"
"Yes!"
"The escaped suspected death eater, fighting *against* death eaters?"

Like you said, we only know for sure that Bellatrix knows he died, 
and she wasn't captured. Lucius might have something to gain by 
proving Sirius' *death* (because Draco, as the oldest male, would be 
the 'official' heir), but if he doesn't know that Sirius died, he has 
nothing to gain by mentioning him (in fact, if he thinks Sirius is 
still alive, its better to NOT mention that he was on the side of 
good, because that might clear his name). 

As far as the issue of inheritence goes, it might be 'unofficial' 
only, with the order deciding what to do with his things. If Sirius 
left a will, I think DD would have to honor it.
I wonder, though, is there a way to detect if someone died? In the 
case of the MoM looking for Sirius, I wonder if there's some signal 
they get if he dies. That's the only way I can see the issue of 
inheritence becoming public.