The Writer - HS AU

Part 4

The typing stopped.

Did you... think... that would get rid of me?

The voice was still there, but something had changed. It was weaker than it had been before. It sounded almost... afraid.

"No, but it's a start."

After that day, Mr. Lamberton did everything he could to help Harry, eventually adopting him as his own. He quit his job as a teacher and decided he would dedicate his life to helping children like him who could not help themselves. He started a child's protection organization, dedicated to the rescue and protection of children. Working alongside Child Protective Services, he developed programs and techniques for teachers to identify the signs of abuse, gave them methods of drawing these children out of their frightened shells, of building trust to help them find their voice and muster enough courage to speak the truth, allowing them to escape from violent homes. He became famous for saving over 200 hundred kids from especially dangerous situations and helping to find them new homes, personally seeing to it that every one of these kids were placed with loving families that gave them all that they had previously been denied. He created support groups for the children and their foster families, recruiting dozens of well-trained, compassionate therapists to work through the trauma and re-build these fragile lives.

The last Harry ever heard from his father would be a few years later, just after his high school graduation, in the form of a letter. Sometime after his incarceration, his father had committed suicide, but not before he signed off everything he owned to his son, Harry Styles, on the condition that it would be delivered after his graduation from high school. There was enough money to easily allow Harry to pay for the college of his choice and still have enough to live while he studied.

There was one other piece of paper. A handwritten note, addressed personally to him from his father. It had only six words in it, but they were enough.

"I love you, son. Forgive me."

He hadn't called him son in a very long time.

I will always be here.

The Demon hadn't quite left him yet.

You will become me.

It still had some fight left in it.

But so did Harry. And unlike his father, he wouldn't be alone.

He knew he might fail. This act had only weakened the Demon, not killed it. It would grow stronger if left unchecked. But if he didn't try, he would definitely lose. And Harry was done losing.

"It's only round one. Let's see which one of us gives in first." 

And Harry began to type.

Fin