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An unusual sight beheld anyone passing by the sight of one Lily Potter, Unspeakable: a witch in The Ministry of Magic intently perusing a Muggle book with one hand and jotting down names with the other, tongue between her teeth and brow furrowed.

Daisy Potter? James is allergic.

Katniss Potter? Good, but taken.

Poppy Potter? Not huge on alliteration.

Sage Potter? Too druggy.

Fleur Potter? Too French.

Rose Potter? Like Vernon's mother? I don't think so!

Petunia Potter

Lily looked at the last name on the page a little sadly before continuing.

Erica Potter? Not bad.

Holly Potter? Has potential.

Heather Potter? Oh, I like that one! Just like Mum.

Ivy Potter

Lily repeated that name in her head a few times. Closing her eyes, she tried to imagine what her daughter might look like. The last one was a dead ringer for James, if she was anything like her older brother she wouldn't be much different. She smiled, circling the name vigorously in green ink.

I think we have a winner.

"Hiya, Lily! Whatcha writing about?"

Quickly composing herself in case Rookwood was making one of his unannounced rounds around the office, Lily looked up, pleasantly surprised to see a friendly face, Casey Price.

"Nothing." Lily muttered evasively, stuffing the book into her purse, although not quite fast enough.

"Wait… Are you pregnant again?" Casey asked curiously, eyes tingling with excitement.

"Not that I know of." Lily said. Although she enjoyed parties in moderation, she wasn't too keen on having an undeserved celebration any time soon with this crowd, while brilliant this department wasn't exactly great at throwing parties. "But me and James have been talking about having another, doesn't hurt to be prepared."

"Good thinking!" Casey chirped. "Although if all the sniping between us and Crouch's people doesn't stop soon you may have more maternal leave on your hands than you had bargained for, it's driving me mad. Just wanted to let you know me and the girls are going for drinks at The Three Broomsticks if you're interested, I'm buying."

"I'm sorry Casey, that sounds really fun, I'd love to go, but I really need to get home." Lily sighed. "James and Harry will be missing me."

"That's okay, I understand." Casey nodded. "Tell you what, how about I bring home some pound cake for you and the family for all your hard work?"

"Oh, you're so sweet, you just made my day!" Lily said. "Give the girls my love."

"Will do! Well, my shift ended two minutes ago. I'm off now." Casey said, summoning her coat and giving plopping a folder she was carrying onto the desk and gave Lily a quick hug before taking off.

"Hi, B.J., take the papers from Evans to Price before you go, please. Thank you! Happy Halloween, Lily, you give those two boys a hug from me and see you in the funny pages!"

As Lily waved goodbye to her friend as B.J. strode over, looking at the folders interestedly only to discover to his disappointment that it had been magically sealed.

"Shouldn't you be working on that assignment for Rookwood?" B.J. asked.

"Shouldn't you be getting Croaker his coffee or something, B.J.?" she asked with mock disapproval, folding her arms and raising her eyebrow.

When Lily had first met the pale, freckled intern with straw blond hair in front of her, she had initially viewed him as a shy intern who seemed eager to prove himself and didn't talk much, but seemed like a nice enough young man. However, it was when she found out what B.J.'s name actually stood for over a coffee shared in the breakroom that she felt a sort of kinship with him. After all, if there was anyone who knew the burden a name could be, it was her.

And how unlike her own son, Bartemius Isaac Crouch Junior was his mother's boy in looks through and through.

"Nah." Barty shrugged. "Croaker left a note, says he's off on a mission - something about pumpkins sprouting arms and legs and marching through some Halloween parade in Cokeworth, tried to eat all the pets in a pet store. No need to worry, though - Audrey - you probably wouldn't know her, she interns for Mismanagement of Muggle Artifacts - told me they're fine, Pumpkins didn't have teeth nor a proper digestive system, don't worry, they're more wigged out than anything."

"But that should be a simple case of cleaning up the damage and obliviating all the witnesses in the area, right?" Lily wondered.

"You'd think, but - get this -" Barty leaned in closer as if he had been longing to discuss this with someone for the past few hours - "The witch who stopped them requested they be granted citizenship and insisted they be given a chance to redeem themselves in a court of law."

Lily's jaw dropped. "No. Way. You HAVE to be making that up."

"I'm not, what can I say, fact is stranger than fiction." Barty shrugged. " Anyways, Croaker is going to examine them himself, see if they display enough humanity to spare them from the pie tin."

"Wow. What a trip. Makes me feel bad about all those pumpkin seeds I bought for tonight. Those poor unborn fetuses." Lily said. "Wait… should you be telling me all this? Couldn't this get you in trouble?"

"Lily, my friend, in order to be a glorified coffee jockey like myself, you have to be FEARLESS." Barty bragged. "After all, the last boy who went into the Department of Mysteries never came out!"

The way Barty was grinning devilishly and stuck his tongue out reminded Lily an awful lot of Sirius. Only whereas you could usually see the conviction in Sirius' eyes, something in Barty's eyes seemed to have another meaning.

"Besides -" At this Barty glanced around to see if anyone around them was paying attention and resumed in a low whisper. "They aren't exactly trying to keep this on the down low, y'know? Between you and me, The Daily Prophet has been given an "anonymous tip". After all the bad stuff that's been happening lately, the folks that pay our bills think could use something a little lighter."

"Hurm." Lily mused sardonically, processing what she had been told. "Three things: first, why is Muggle artifacts being called in, don't we ALSO grow Pumpkins? I could go to the break room and pour myself some pumpkin juice right now. Second, how slow of a news day does it have to be for THIS to be a hot story? And three, doesn't your Dad pay for your bills?"

"One, we aren't sure these pumpkins belonged to a wizard or Muggle when it was enchanted, they want things to be thorough. Second, no major attacks this week, The Prophet is somewhat hurting for stories, today's edition was pretty embarrassing. And thirdly, it's not true, I don't know who told you that but it's not true, ok?"

Barty looked visibly steely and upset at the last part, for the first time Lily had known him looked like the man he was named after.

"I was just teasing, B.J., don't get your panties in a -" Lily began but stopped. "Wait, what was that? There wasn't any Death Eater activity this week? You sure? Every week for the past few years I've had to read about something awful in the news."

"Yeah, Father has been really uptight about it all." Barty drawled. "Says it's the prelude to something horrible since it's Halloween, maybe the Ministry has killed so many of them they decided to go underground."

"But what about the nasty assault on that couple last tuesday?" Lily asked.

"Not officially a Death Eater attack by all indications." Barty said. "Key sign is no dark mark, nobody knows the spell that casts it except Death Eaters to keep it "in the family." Besides, people getting attacked for being Muggle-Born isn't really newsworthy anymore, y'know?"

"Jeez, what a world." Lily sighed. "Well, I gotta get going. Have a Happy Halloween, Barty."

"Happy Halloween, Lily." Barty replied.

As Lily walked off towards the apparition zone and was scanned by security on the way out, she prayed inwardly that Ivy wouldn't have to grow up in a world where the death of Muggle-Borns wasn't pushed aside in order to discuss talking pumpkins.

However, as Lily pulled out her list again and continued scribbling down possible names for her daughter while waiting for the proper grate, she did realize that there was a sort of comfort to focusing on something that she could control instead of the horrors that awaited her instead.

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