0. Harry

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The only reason he had gone into the music shop that day was to buy some replacement guitar stings for his own. He's gotten quite a use out of the older ones and some strings have even broken off because he played his guitar from his deceased grandfather every day, multiple times in fact.

When he walked into the shop, a bell signaling that he was there, he was set on walking over to where the packets of strings were displayed, paying for them, and then leaving. As always, the trip to the music shop was never just a quick visit for Harry. 

Even though he had his own guitar at home, one that he wouldn't give up for anything in the world, Harry still enjoyed looking at all the different ones the shop had. He couldn't help but smile to himself when he saw a father place a guitar in his son's hands, showing them how to hold it. That's what his grandfather had done for him since Harry's father wasn't an active part of his life. Harry could easily say that getting that guitar was the happiest moment he could remember and he always wanted to remember it.

It was a bonding moment that Harry wished he could have had with his own father but he knew it would never happen for him that way. His grandfather was where Harry received much of his musical influences from. Whenever his mum would drop him off at his grandparents' house, his grandfather would play old vinyl records on his record player and Harry would be on the floor in the front room listening to the music with him. When his grandfather passed away, Harry was the one who his grandfather named as inheritor of his record and record player. Whenever he listened to a certain song, Harry was able to remember his grandfather and the days they spent together.

For his sixth birthday, Harry's grandfather brought him to a music shop and told Harry that he could pick out whatever he wanted. Straight away, a young Harry Styles ran over to a stool in the corner of the room and pointed over to the few guitars that were displayed. His grandfather had chuckled at him with a shake of his head before picking one up and setting it in Harry's small arms. Harry was sure his smile was never that large and bright again.

The days in the front room had changed when Harry's grandmother passed and then his grandfather got terminally ill just a few months later. Even though Harry was heartbroken, he knew that his grandfather still wanted to hear music. When he wasn't playing for his grandfather, Harry was sat up in his own room for hours teaching himself with the lesson books he had also gotten from him. He played songs until his grandfather passed.

Then he found a healing in playing his guitar, feeling some sort of connection to his grandfather that no longer made him feel like he would miss him everyday. Harry always loved music and playing instruments because it was something he could share with the man he looked up to in his early years of life.

Now, at age 17, he played to a different crowd. On the weekends when he wasn't going to school he would go into town with his guitar in its case and sit on the pavement, playing and singing the songs he grew up learning. Singing was something more secretive to him until his mum walked past his room and heard him singing as he taught himself a new song to play. She told him he had a beautiful voice and was sure that his grandfather would have loved to hear it. He sings in public, hoping that his grandfather would be watching over him, being able to hear songs in the same peace as in his front room.

His grandfather wasn't the only reason that Harry spent more time than he probably should in that music shop.

There happened to be a boy a few years older than he was who had a love for guitars and music. That boy also happened to be quite attractive to Harry so chatting with him about the same interests he had gave him this happiness that almost reached the level of when Harry was matched up with his old guitar.

His name was Niall and he was always happy whenever a customer would walk into the shop, who he also ran with his best friend, Louis, who was more into keyboards and pianos than Niall was. The other could still play guitar, thanks to Niall's teachings. Niall also taught music lessons at the shop, mainly keeping to the string instruments.

Harry found this out one day while he was chatting with Niall about who he thought was the guitar playing legend. Once Niall got to chatting it was often impossible to get him to stop, not that Harry ever wanted him to. He could chat with Niall about music forever if he had the chance. As the blond with his natural brunet roots was telling him who he looked up to as guitarist, the bell had rung and Niall looked over Harry's shoulder to see that it was a girl about ten years of age, walking in with her purple electric guitar being carried in both of her hands. Niall greeted her and then apologized to Harry for having to cut their conversation off because his scheduled lessons were starting up for the summer since school was now out.

Somehow Harry came up with a plan to hang around with Niall more often. There could be a scheduled time set to be able to chat with him if he signed up for music lessons. He's never told Niall about his grandfather because they've only been chatting a few times so the subject never came up. The only thing Niall knew about Harry was that he had a guitar. He never asked how long he's been playing it. So, that next time Harry came into the shop he signed up for lessons on Niall's sign up sheet that hung on a bulletin board.

When Niall read over his name after greeted him that day, his voice had sounded excited about getting to show Harry the real way to play a guitar. It was meant as a little joke and Harry just hoped his cheeks and ears didn't burn red from the fact that his music shop crush could be just as happy to spend time with Harry as Harry wanted to with Niall.

It wasn't just something easy because Harry didn't exactly know how to make himself become bad at playing the instrument he's been playing for the past 11 years. His fingers had memorized each note and moved along the instrument's neck and strings like it was the most natural thing in the world. He played like one of those people who didn't need to be taught a thing. All he could do was hope that his fingers wouldn't betray him and mess up by playing perfectly.

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