Found (Harry Styles) #Wattys2017

Chapter 26

Songs:

Chasing Pavements: Adele

Ugh!: The 1975

Harry's POV

The past two days have been the most stressful in my entire life. After I had spilled the beans and told, Dallas the truth and she decided to take off. I had to take an ear full of her parents disapproval, not that I really cared much. That was until they started talking about taking her out of school for her own protection. I felt a bit of panic at the mere thought, but she made it clear that if her siblings were going to stay, so was she. After all, she was an adult, not that it mattered given her parents status, but she had a fair point.

Although my initial instinct was to go to her and be with her, I kept my distance from her. It was for the best in the long run, there was no point in prolonging the inevitable. Sooner or later she would leave and I'd never see her again. She was a princess and the eldest daughter, in the event that her mother passed away, she would take over and become the queen. I don't even think she knows that bit yet. Normally it would be the first son, but since the power is carried through the mother's bloodline, it was her who was next in line and not, Ethan. She would be the leader of The Independents and she would have to marry someone who was worthy of being her equal, and according to law and her parents, that was not me.

The only thing that gave me some sort of comfort was the fact that as of today, the boys and I are officially part of The Independents. That meant I would have a few more months at the most to spend with her, even if it was just in classes or from a distance. I'd take what I could get.

It was stupid really. For so long, I spent my time thinking of ways to kill her and now I was trying to find any little way possible to spend time with her. But, now she was the one avoiding me. Maybe I was wrong, maybe she did care about titles and what was appropriate and what wasn't.

Aside from the whole, Dallas thing, Zayn being back with us for good was the second thing that was consuming my brain. I'll admit that my not trusting him was a little out there now that he had proven himself again and again, but a part of me was still hurt that he'd left us in the first place. I was half expecting him to bolt again in the middle of the whole process of us defecting.

We had spent two days in group and solo interviews, the whole process usually took weeks, but thanks to, Leonardo, it only took two days. Because he was technically a member of the Knights, Zayn was put on administrative watch, meaning he was to have someone of a higher rank watching his every move. That was another thing. Because our systems were different, we had been placed at the lowest rank and had to work our way up again. Thankfully, Louis was still allowed to remain our group leader, but now we had to answer to, Aiden who was our new superior and put in charge of all of us.

It was now, Thanksgiving and we were invited to the family event. It wasn't a holiday we actually celebrated, but seeing how everyone interacted with each other made it worth celebrating. Leonardo and Adriane welcomed everyone like they were actually family and along the way, I learned that a lot of them were orphaned. Their parents were all agents like us who worked alongside, Dallas' parents and died in battles, but unlike, Ron, they had other family members who took them in. Charlie was the only one who still had both his parents.

I had the pleasure of sitting right in front of, Dallas thanks to, Niall who switched places with me. I kept my gaze on her throughout the entire dinner, not on purpose, well not at first, once I saw how uncomfortable and nervous she got, I just couldn't help myself. It wasn't the best thing I could have done, but it was funny to see her flustered and trying to act completely normal in front of everyone.

She giggled along with, Calliope, making jokes about their parents. Their mom seemed to take it to heart, but their dad just laughed and turned it around on them. They tried to bring up moving her away from the school, but every one of her siblings, even, Ethan protested.