The Reinvention of Harry Styles

Daisy stuffed her hair up into a Chicago Cubs cap and wrapped a scarf tightly around her neck to keep the cold out. With quivering hands, she put on her large sunglasses before heading out. Daisy hated being recognized as ‘Harry’s whore’ -as they called her, despite her attempts to set the record straight- and stayed at home or covered up if she went out. Yet, as she slipped on her jacket and tried to zip it up, there was one thing that was becoming increasingly difficult to cover up.

“Fuck,” Daisy swore and tried to push the edges of her jacket closer together to get the zipper over her ever expanding baby bump. She couldn’t believe she still had a couple months to go, and yet she already looked like she’d swallowed a watermelon.

‘Whatever’ Daisy thought, and stepped outside to face the world. Whether she got any stares and odd looks, Daisy barely noticed, as her mind was far away. She was on her way to meet someone - someone she hadn’t seen for a while, and honestly hadn’t seen much of him at the time. Well, she had seen a lot of him at the time, but their only meeting was brief.

Daisy looked around the busy diner for him, trying to remember what he looked like. She met eyes with someone and he raised his hand slightly in a wave.

“Conor…?” Daisy approached him. He looked much younger than she remembered now that she could see him in daylight.

“Daisy,” he nodded, and she sat down across from him. She removed her sunglasses and he saw the dark circles under her eyes, the lines of worry aging her face. She looked years older than the girl who’s guitar and honey voice had led him to instigate the fateful one night stand that led them to… Conor blinked when his eyes finally took in her baby bump and the reality of the situation hit him like a tsunami.

“I think we have a lot to talk about,” Daisy smiled politely.


***


Molly awoke on Alexa’s couch with a headache, and tried to recall the previous night. But before she could collect her thoughts, Alexa slumped onto the couch next to her with a cup of coffee and her phone.

“Did you see the new insta-story Harry posted?” She asked Molly and opened the Instagram app.

“No, I just woke up,” she said, and quickly rubbed her eyes to wake up a little faster. Molly had hoped Harry would continue updating his social media now that she wasn’t around to remind him or take pictures for him, so she was glad to see he had posted something.

“He just posted it, but it looks like it was taken this morning. Makes sense they’d wait to post it, because they don’t want fans seeing it and rushing there hoping to see him.” Alexa held up her phone for Molly to watch as she hit play. It was a short video of Harry standing in front of the Eiffel Tower holding his hand out, as if he were holding it in his hand. Molly’s heart ached as she wished she were the one behind the camera taking the video, enjoying Paris with Harry.

Yet here she was, in New York, on her friend’s couch with a hangover. Molly needed something to occupy her mind, something to keep her busy so she wasn’t constantly pining after Harry.


***


Harry sat alone in his hotel room, waiting to move onto the next tour date. He wished Molly were there so he could at least have some company, and at least she could venture out into the city and enjoy it herself. Instead, Harry and a pr intern went to the Eiffel Tower that morning before it got busy, so Harry could take a short video for Instagram, before returning to his ‘confinent’ to his hotel room. His schedule seemed to be planned -with every detail taken into consideration- in order to dissuade the rumors that he had a secret girlfriend, especially the rumor that it was his manager. Jocelyn was irate at this ridiculous speculation, all stemming from a blurry photo of her entering Harry’s dressing room to talk strategy after one of his shows.

Harry wished he could make these rumors disappear, and things could go back to normal. He wanted people to stop thinking that he had gotten Daisy pregnant, and accusing her of lying about being gay; he wanted the speculation about his secret girlfriend to stop because that rumor was, in fact true. He wanted to keep Molly out of the public eye, away from the scrutiny of his the media and his fans, and safe.

Harry missed Molly, and talking on the phone and texting was just not enough. He wanted more than anything to fly her over to Europe and keep her safe by his side throughout his tour, but Harry couldn’t risk accidentally exposing her to the public and giving up Molly’s anonymity. He didn’t think he could live with himself if he did that to her - since once it was out, it couldn’t be undone.


***


Molly called Gemma once she had returned to her mother’s apartment. She remembered Gemma’s offer to write an ‘advice column’ back when Molly visited Holmes Chapel and hoped to finally take her up on that offer. She had been too busy to do anything about it with Harry’s tour, but now she had ample time on her hands.

“Gemma!” Molly said when she answered her call. “How have you been?”

“I’m okay, how are you? You’re not with Harry, I’ve heard, is everything alright?”

“Yes, we’re just waiting out the rumors, hoping they’ll just go away soon.” Molly explained, without much enthusiasm behind her words, as she knew these kinds of things didn’t just ‘go away’. “In the meantime, I could use a little distraction, something to keep my mind busy.”

“You want to start our advice column?” Gemma’s voice lifted, and Molly was glad she still entertained the idea favorably. “We can start immediately!”

“Excellent!”


***


There was one thing that had been on Harry’s mind for a while, ever since Molly brought it up. He thought it might help him fill that void created by he and Molly only being able to communicate over phone, yet, he didn’t even know where to start looking. Harry hesitated before pulling out his phone and eventually calling an old friend for assistance.

“Harry?”

“Liam!” Harry replied enthusiastically. “How are you? How’s Bear?”

“Fine, we’re both fine, what’s up?” Liam asked.

“I’m not sure if you’ve heard from Niall or Louis, but, I’ve found someone.” Harry paused. “A girlfriend.”

“Oh, congratulations, Harry, that’s great to hear.” Liam said, but Harry could tell he was a little confused.

“Well, the thing is, she’s...a fan. She was a directioner.”

It was quiet for a moment until Liam couldn’t muffle his laughter any longer. “Harry, that is indeed surprising! How did this even happen? I can’t imagine you ever dating a fan -not that there’s anything wrong with that- I just didn’t think it was your cup of tea.”

“Well,” Harry laughed. “Neither did I, but she’s definitely stolen my heart.”

“She must be a lovely lady, then,” Liam added, still not over the amusement of this discovery.

“She is indeed.” Harry agreed. “The thing is...okay, don’t take this the wrong way, but I miss her -since we’re apart while I’m on tour now-”

“Congrats on the tour as well, mate, I’ve been meaning to catch a show, maybe when you’re in London?” Liam interjected when Harry paused. “And maybe I can meet your lovely lady?”

“Yeah, absolutely.” Harry paused again, as he tried to figure out how to word his question. “The thing is...it’s just...Do you remember those interviews where….I guess they thought it would be funny, or whatever, to show us some One Direction fan art, and even some fanficiton?”

Laim groaned at the memory of the pictures they had been shown of the five of them in some...odd situations, but laughed. “Yes, it was pretty awkward if you ask me. They were certainly talented artists, but there are just some images I don’t want to see!” Liam and Harry both laughed, and it got quiet again.

“Well, the thing is,” Harry said for the third time in their conversation that evening. “You always paid attention to interviews much more than I did, so, I was kind of hoping you remembered the name of the site our fans put their fanfiction on?” Harry closed his eyes and cringed as he asked this question, because he could only imagine the look on Liam’s face and the thoughts going through his mind trying to reason with Harry’s question.

“That’s an interesting question, Haz,” Liam answered and cleared his throat a few times as he tried not to burst out laughing. “I can’t even imagine why you’d want to know? Are you curious after all these years? Or…wait...”

Harry could hear it in his tone, as the realization set in and Liam connected the dots. He almost hung up right then and there from embarrassment, but he’d come this far, so he might as well wait for Liam’s answer.

“Yeah,” was all Harry managed to say, his cheeks burning pink with embarrassment, but he knew Liam wouldn’t judge him or tease him about it.

“Okay, I won’t ask, but I believe it was 1Dfanfiction.com, or something like that?” Liam politely answered.

“Thank you, and let me know if you’re coming to one of my shows, maybe we can grab a pint beforehand.” Harry was quick to change the subject, but there was still a tone of awkwardness in the conversation. But, it was far less awkward than having to call up Niall or Louis, Harry thought, and Liam would probably keep this information to himself.

“Absolutely, I’ll let you know,” Liam responde, and they concluded their conversation soon after. Harry poured himself a drink to clear his mind of the embarrassment of that conversation, and the guilt of what he was about to do. Then again, he didn’t necessarily have to do it; he didn’t have to try to find his girlfriend’s fanfiction about himself.

She’s the one who told him about it in the first place, so clearly she wasn’t trying to keep it a secret, right? At the time, Molly had seemed embarrassed about the thought of him reading her fanfiction, but she never asked him not to read it, right? He just wanted to feel closer to her, and what she doesn’t know, won’t hurt her, right?

Harry poured himself a drink while he contemplated this, and then he did something he never thought he’d do: he willingly looked up fanfiction about himself.

‘This is crazy’ he thought, and closed out of the site. Harry tried to distract himself elsewhere, but that evening (after a few drinks of encouragement) he yet again found himself on that fanfiction site again. ‘I think this is the one Molly said she used to post her fanfiction on…’

Harry scrolled through the titles of recently updated stories, but he knew he wouldn’t find Molly’s old fanfiction there. He searched his name to narrow down the stories to just those which were about himself. He cringed at the title of a few the stories, though a few actually caught his eye.

‘Okay Molly, what kind of fanfiction did you write?’ Harry thought as he scrolled the countless fanfics penned in his honor. He knew this search was probably (and he almost hoped it would be) fruitless, as he was on the 10th page of stories, and had barely scratched the surface. Harry randomly skipped ahead to some older stories, posted back in 2011.

“This is ridiculous,” Harry shook his head, and was about to give up when one username caught his eye: “Molly_Styles95...I wonder who that could be?” Harry chuckled and clicked on the first story without thinking about it.

Notes

Uh oh, Harry has (maybe) found her fanfiction! But will he actually read it? (And I finally remembered to include Liam! I didn't mean to leave him out, I just for got, oops!)

I have finally, after nearly a year of searching, found a job! Unfortunately, that means I won’t have as much time to write anymore : ( I can’t say how often I will be able to update this story, but I’ll try to write when I have time. Thank you all for reading, commenting, and voting on this story! I appreciate it a lot! :D