Chapter Ten
Lilly was sitting on the stone steps, leaning on Ron's shoulder, while he put his arm around hers. They broke apart at a sound behind them, but relaxed a little when they saw it was Harry.
"Geez, mate, you scared us!" exclaimed Ron.
"We thought you'd gone to the Forest!" exclaimed Lilly, Voldemort's words still ringing in her ears.
"I'm going now."
"NO! Harry, you can't go! He's going to kill you!"
"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT?" screamed Harry, stunning his sister into silence. He stared menacingly at her before starting again. "You think I don't know what happened to Fred? Or Lupin, Tonks even? They were killed fighting. Either way, I'm going to die. I'd rather die before anyone else goes down for me."
"But what about me? You're the only family I've got, Harry. Now Dad's dead, I've got no one."
"Go to Molly. She's already agreed that if...well, when I die, she's going to look after you for me."
"No. I mean, I love Molly, but she's not you and if she isn't, I don't want her."
"You're going to have to learn, Lil, that you can't rely on people. Now remember, live every day as if it's your last..."
"'Cause you never know how long you've got. Mum said that."
"Yeah, she did. She was really clever. That's where you got it from, then."
He stroked Lilly's face gently, wiping away her tears with his thumb, before pulling her into a tight embrace.
"I'll go with you."
"No. No, you go with Ron and you take out the snake. Do that and we can bring him down. I love you, sis."
"I love you too, Harry."
They finally broke apart, but before Lilly could say anything, Harry was at the bottom of the steps and out of the door into the cold night air. Lilly collapsed into Ron's arms, kissed him briefly on the lips, then pulled away and began to run down the stairs.
"Lilly, where are you going?"
"To help him. He'll be killed on his own!"
"But...you promised your dad that you would stay safe."
"Yeah, but I wasn't taken from my mother and placed in the Muggle adoption system under a Glamour charm just to watch my brother walk willingly to his death. Oh, and Ron?"
"Yes."
"I don't follow instructions from hypocrites, even if they are my father(!)"
A/N : Sorry about the lack of updates for all of my stories, but it's my school exam week, so it's all kind of hectic. I'll mainly update at weekends. Please review!