“I’m assuming that you have heard by now?” Lily asked.

Dumbledore’s blue eyes met hers. “Voldemort has returned from the dead, or never died, as I believed.”

There was a serious air about the headmaster as he shuffled the papers, his eyes blue fire as he flipped through them. “How do we stop him?” Lily asked.

He didn’t answer, his flipping growing faster and more intense as he passed by report after report. Each contained news more dire than the last, from the breakouts to Voldemort’s return. No, He-who-must-not-be-named, she could no longer think of the name. Old habits die hard, but they would have to, or Harry may die in their place.

At last he finished, and Albus Dumbledore stared off into the distance. His eyes grew blank and empty, almost like a glass left under the noonday sun, slowly but surely draining away into the air. The fire in them had fizzled out, and for the first time in her life Lily saw him slump. The silence in the room grew, not interrupted even by the shuffling of papers or the drawing of breaths.

“We cannot.” He said at last.

She almost didn’t believe it at first. She pinched herself beneath the table, wondering if it was all a dream. The pinch hurt. She looked into those eyes, those blue twinkling eyes, and saw defeat. A cold, helpless defeat. It was not the look of a soldier losing a battle, but that of a general ordering a surrender, knowing he had lost the war. It could not be more unfit on his face.

A million thoughts spun through her head. “We cannot? Surely…” She found that she had no words, and her mind failed her. “How?” She finally asked. “How did he come back?”

“I must say that I cannot know for sure, but I am rather certain he has created a horcrux.” Dumbledore said. Lily gave him a quizzical look.

“Horcrux?” She asked.

“Dark, powerful, and evil magic. It involves splitting the soul, and trapping it within a container to anchor the caster to the mortal world. As long as the horcrux persists the caster is immortal. The only known wizard to use such a technique was Herpo, whom wizards named the Foul. If Voldemort truly has a horcrux he cannot die permanently, at least until it is destroyed.” Dumbledore said.

Lily gasped. “If that is true, we must search for it! Find it so that it may be destroyed.” She suggested.

Dumbledore shook his head. “Only a foolish wizard would hide the key to their immortality in a place we could find, and Voldemort is anything but foolish. I would not be surprised to find it hidden away somewhere beyond Britain, perhaps buried in the ground in the darkness of a massive cave, or even draped with chains and tossed into the bottom of the seas. No, unless he wishes it so our chances of finding such a thing are slim to none.” He explained.

Lily covered her head. “Can you fight him? Best him in a duel?” She asked, hoping for the answer she knew she would not receive.

“Could I? Perhaps. But he would come back. With his death eaters gaining power so quickly he would be back by the month’s end, and I cannot come back from a loss, unlike him. If I were to duel him at every opportunity I would be dead by the end of the year, perhaps faster.”

Lily’s heart sank into her stomach. “Is that all we can do then, watch as he destroys us all?” She whispered.

Dumbledore sighed. “It seems so, but perhaps not.”

“You have a way?” Lily sat up, her eyes gleaming.

“Perhaps, but you will not like it. None of us will.” Dumbledore said, moving his reports aside. He began writing, quill scribbling away on parchment as Lily watched. The others began turning black, filled with too much text for Lily to read. She grabbed one and squinted, scanning the contents.

A gasp of horror escaped her lips as she covered her mouth.