Lily had seen him coming. At first sight, she had dashed up the stairs, and hurriedly stacked chairs, books, anything she could find at the door to prevent this monster from killing her child.

With a crash, and a flash of red light, the door burst open and the items fell with a terrible SMASH. Lily's eyes widened in horror as Voldemort came ever closer, wand pointed to her young son.

"Don't!" she wailed. "Please, not Harry! Anything but Harry, please..."

"Stand aside, you foolish girl," came Tom Riddle's angry, snake-like hiss. "Stand aside, now!"

"No, don't! Please..."

All of a sudden, Voldemort lowered his wand. Lily narrowed her eyes, and dropped Harry Potter into his cot. The snake-like wizard, shocked and horrified at his own moment of weakness, seemed stunned as well as the red-headed Lily.

And then, expectantly, the wand had clattered to the floor! Was Voldemort, the most evil and darkest wizard of all time, actually showing mercy?

But then Lily Potter saw the true reason of Voldemort's weakness. He raised his hand and moved them slowly towards his own throat.

"No!" Lily shrieked. She could have run, run far away with Harry, but that did not seem fair to leave him there when he had spared her and her son's life. "Don't!"

But it was no use. Tom Riddle was turning blue. He gagged, choked, even, but that did not stop Lily from trying to pry back the crushing fingers. Death, she knew, was minutes away...

And then Voldemort's eyes glazed, and he lay there in the charred room, lights shining like the stars that Lily Potter could not see.