Chapter Twenty Eight

A/N: No reviewers.

For the better part of a fortnight, the trio snuck into Malfoy Manor every day, searching through the thousands of books lining the library shelves, in the hope that they would find one that could save Harry's life. However, even with four of them searching from dawn 'til dusk, they remained no closer to finding the answer than they had been when they started.

"This is useless." Harry sighed, slamming another leather-bound volume shut. It was not the first time he had made such an exclamation, and his companions had long since stopped listening. They had enough doubts of their own without being fuelled by his as well.

"Harry, keep looking." instructed Lilly, the only one who could speak to the young man without being snapped at. However, even she was not able to return him to his task. Instead, he rose with a huff, coming to stand beside the window. Ron looked over at him, shrugging his shoulders slightly, but Lilly raised a placating hand.

"Harry, we'll find something." she whispered to her brother, once they stood side by side. "Thousands of years of wizardry, it must have happened once."

"Like surviving the Killing Curse?" the boy shot back, bitterness sour in his voice. "Thousands of years of wizardry and I'm still the only one."

"So if anyone can get around this, it's you." Lilly smiled, though her eyes still shone with sadness. It was the most she could do to pretend to believe herself. "You're Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived. You've beaten Voldemort once, you can do it again."

The young woman placed a comforting hand on her brother's shoulder, retreating to the book-laden table and plucking another volume from the pile. A few moments later, Harry joined them, re-opening his book with a rather sheepish expression.

They scanned the pages for another hour without incident before Ron whistled lowly, the sound echoing loudly through the library. "I think I might have found something."

Lilly all but leapt from her seat, leaning slightly against her fiancé's back as she read over his shoulder. She looked over the words once, twice, three times over, wanting to be absolutely certain. Then she burst out laughing.

"Ron, that's brilliant!" She pressed a joy-filled kiss to his forehead before she snatched the book up from the table.

"What is it?" Draco asked. His voice had a nonchalant edge to it, but she could see from his expression that it was forced. He cared just as much as the rest of them, even if he would be the last to admit it.

"The only way to destroy a Horcrux is to destroy the object it's contained by." Lilly explained, breathing heavily between her sentences. "For a person, that would mean death. But if we could injure Harry enough that the soul fragment detached itself from him, but repair his body before he died, he'd be fine."

"How is that even possible?" Harry asked, not meeting his sister's eye. He still did not believe that there was a way out of this awful situation.

"It's happened to you before, Harry." Lilly answered. "You were poisoned by the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, it should have killed you. But Fawkes' tears stopped the progression of the poison before it had a chance to reach the Horcrux. Maybe if we push it a bit further this time, it'll be enough to destroy the piece of Voldemort's soul while still having enough time for the phoenix tears to heal you."

"This is mad." Draco commented, shaking his head. "At most, you could only have a few seconds between the Horcrux being destroyed and Harry being killed."

"We've faced worse odds." Lilly argued, throwing her hands up to emphasise her point. She was so desperate to cling to this hope that she could not stand to see those around her beating it down. "All we have to do is make sure one of us is near him with the phoenix tears and it'll work out fine."

Harry fell silent, his eyes focused intently on the dark polished floorboards beneath his feet. His sister was the first to notice, crossing the room to him and placed her hands on his upper arms, the way he had always tried to comfort her.

"Harry, it might not be a good chance," she admitted quietly. The pleading in her eyes could be seen from a mile away. "But it's still a chance. We can't just let that go, we have to try! Don't we?"

In the space of a couple of words, she had turned from brave leader to frightened little girl, and Harry gave in to the urge to wrap his arms around her, just so he did not have to see her face. "Alright. We'll try it. You're right, Lil. If I'm going to die anyway, I might as well do it."

Lilly smiled over her brother's shoulder, then buried her face in his neck. "Thank you, Harry."

"It's okay." he answered quietly, behaving more convinced than he actually was. If Lilly could see through his façade, she did not say anything. She would not want to ruin the illusion of finally having solved the deathly problem hanging over their heads.

Draco and Ron quickly set back to work, investigating the concept of her idea further to try and find a conceivable way to bring it off the page. Meanwhile, Lilly and Harry looked out on the grounds below Malfoy Manor, the approaching mists fading the flower garden from view.

"Don't worry, Lilly." Harry instructed, every inch the older brother. "We'll find a way to make it work. It'll be okay."

"I know it will." Lilly assured him in return, smiling gently as she rested a comforting hand on her brother's arm. "It's always been fine before, it'll be fine again."

It seemed strange, for such a tender moment between brother and sister to be wholly based on lies. But for a short moment, they were content to live with their falsehoods, rather than face the harsh reality of what lay ahead. Sometimes a lie was worth it, if it gave a short respite from pain.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review!