your rainbow will come smiling through

(a/n from original author.)

some notes:

1. the minor character death is harry's mother. i made up a new family for harry for this purpose. i never describe her but if you need help imagining someone other than anne, this is how she looks: she's tall, wiry, with blonde curly hair. her name is flora. the accident is never described in-depth but there is a hospital scene focusing on harry in a waiting room. if you find this triggering but want to read the story, the hospital scene starts when there's a crescent moon emoji and the sentence starts "harry is sixteen".

2. there are throwaway comments from harry about his stepfather's drinking and an occasional smack. nothing is described in-depth.

3. i have not gone to school in england and thus don't know if the university of manchester or oxford have the programs talked about. i also have no idea about post graduate programs at oxford but it's Not Really That Important to the plot so just bear with me and suspend your disbelief pls.

4. huge thanks to my betas and best friends and . love you both, thanks for being the best cheerleaders i could ever ask for!! also big thanks to the mod for putting this all together and giving me two (2) extensions lmao, u the real mvp

4. title from from the 1950 disney classic cinderella

5. this work is completely fictionalized and i have absolutely no affiliation with the people mentioned. please do not talk about or send this story to any of the people mentioned.

OKAY THAT'S IT, hope you enjoy!!

-

On the morning of Harry's first day of his last year of school, he cooks breakfast with all the lights off. Eggs, bacon, sausages, rye toast. It's better with the darkness and the soft light coming in from the windows. They're open, the breeze ruffling the curtains; Harry can feel it on his skin. It's relaxing, calming, quiet. It's what Harry needs to start a new school year.

"What the fuck is that?"

Harry doesn't even turn around. He knew the rye toast was going to cause a meltdown, but it was his chosen rebellion of the morning. The bacon, he muses, should surely make up for it.

It doesn't, of course, and Harry spends the morning of his first day of his last year of school getting screamed at.

It's fine. He barely even hears it anymore.

When he shoulders his bag and leaves the house thirty minutes later, it's to a chorus of insults and don't forget you have the night shift tonight, as if he could. It's been his life for the last four years. He's pretty sure Dave only gave him a day or two off after his mum died before he was scheduled for another gruelling shift.

He managed it, though. He did his schoolwork on the counter in between serving customers and studied his eyeballs off during his ten minute breaks. He graduated, he got into school, he makes some money. It isn't all terrible.

Except for when it is. Like this morning.

Harry's car starts, surprisingly, because he was definitely expecting it not to. It feels like that type of day. His drive is uneventful, the ringing in his ears reaching a crescendo that dies instantly when he pulls up to Liam's house. He's already standing there, a concerned look overtaking his welcoming smile.

"You look haggard," is his opening remark as he slides into Harry's car. Haggard, while totally an insult towards Harry, would be an accurate adjective for his car. It was his mum's, before, and she had gifted it to him merely a month before the accident. It might be old, almost broken and definitely haggard, but it's Harry's. Only Harry's, and he loves it.