The Reinvention of Harry Styles

As Molly and Harry moved on to the last few tour dates in Harry’s tour, Molly barely noticed the hype around her being ‘Harry’s girlfriend.’ It was something she’d wanted more than anything when she was younger, yet feared more than anything the last few months. But now that it was actually happening, and she was publicly (and privately) Harry Styles’ girlfriend, she felt...normal.

Part of that might be due to the reaction of her close friends Lily and Alexa, whom Molly now regretted not letting in on the secret. She had been so wrapped up in her own problems, that she selfishly didn’t realize that her friends were always going to be just that - her friends - no matter who she was dating. Harry had an idea to hopefully fix their strife.

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” He asked, a smile starting on his lips. “You know what they say: when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”

Molly did not see how that would make things better between her and her friends. “You want me to drink my problems?”

“No,” Harry chuckled. “I mean, turn the problem into the solution. Bring them to a show, get them backstage passes...maybe meeting me would make them forget about...whatever it is they’re mad at you for.”

“They’re mad because they found out one of their best friends was dating their celebrity crush, and didn’t tell them,” Molly sighed. “But your idea might work.” She smiled at Harry and decided to give them a call. It was a bit awkward at first, until they opened up and didn’t hold back their complaints.

“We knew you were writing an advice column with Gemma, everyone knew that, so I don’t know why you had to keep it a secret from us that you were dating him,” Lily complained.

“Yeah, we’re not 17 anymore. We might fangirl about him, but...this is different. You’re dating Harry, a person, just like us.” Alexa added.

“I know, and I’m sorry,” Molly sighed. “I just didn’t want anyone to know about us, I wanted to keep it between us, for now.”

“That’s okay, and I get that, but… maybe tell us next time before going public?” Lily rebutted, a bit sarcastically.

“I’m sorry, I understand - I’d feel the same way too,” Molly apologized. “How about I make it up to you? He’s playing at a few of the Jingle Ball concerts this year, and I can get you tickets.” Molly smiled to herself as they reacted. “I can get you backstage passes, and, of course, you can meet him.” She held her phone away from her ear as the girls squealed in shrill excitement. “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’, okay? I’ll be in touch about travel arrangements and what not.”

The girls screamed again, and Molly gave Harry an approving nod.

“I knew they’d like that,” he quietly said to Molly with a thumbs up, before leaving to give her some privacy with her friends. After his last tour date in Japan, on December 8, he had a few days to adjust to the time difference before performing at the Jingle Ball in Boston on the 10th with none other than Niall Horan.

Technically they were not performing together, but were their sets back to back, and did they plan on maybe overlapping a bit and singing a song with each other? Maybe.

When the news broke about Molly and Harry, each of the boys had shown their support in one way or another. Niall tweeted that she seemed like a down to earth girl, who could keep Harry in check; Liam mentioned in an interview -when asked about her- that he was surprised Harry was dating a fan, but he was glad it was Molly; and Louis posted a picture on instagram of him, Molly, Daisy, and Niall at Harry’s concert in LA (which Molly hadn’t remembered taking) with the caption ‘You’re lucky to have a girl like Molly’ and a smiley face emoji. The fans went crazy at this, and took 1D’s acceptance of Molly as some sort of sign.

“Maybe it’s a sign of the times,” Harry joked, and Molly couldn’t help but smile.

“Maybe,” she said thoughtfully, her head suddenly miles away. “That does give me an idea,” she started but Karen entered to update Harry on their travel plans. After Boston, they were headed to Washington DC for the next Jingle Ball, and Louis happened to be playing at that show as well.

“I wonder if he’ll want to do a song together, or if he’s done with that after the LA show,” Harry mused.

“You’re singing some new songs, aren’t you?” Karen asked.

“Yeah, but we could do Fools Gold for old times sake,” Harry grinned.

“New songs?” Molly asked as she brought her mind back to focus.

“From the deluxe album,” Karen answered.

“Right,” Molly nodded, remembering she had suggested that to Jeff months ago, but didn’t realize they had followed through with the idea. The timing would work out perfectly: Harry sings a new song from the deluxe album at the Jingle Ball, along with some other songs, and then the album comes out on the 15th in time for people to buy it for Christmas.

Molly had not yet heard these new songs, so as she stood off stage at the Jingle Ball in Boston with Niall, she, and everyone else, heard them for the first time. He only played one new song, ‘Medicine’, and the audience seemed captivated by it, as did Niall and Molly.

“Is it just me, or is this song about sucking cock?” Niall asked Molly with a confused smirk.

“I don’t ask.” Molly shook her head with a half smile. “If he wants to tell me what each song is about, that’s fine, but I don’t need to know the details, or whether or not a song is based on something he experienced or not.”

Niall nodded, but didn’t say more (though Molly thought it looked like he wanted to say more). “Personally,” she continued, “I think it’s about drugs, but I don’t know. This is my first time hearing it, too.”

“Really?” Niall raised his eyebrows.

“He recorded it last year, it just didn’t make the album.”

“That’s smart of him to release a deluxe album right before Christmas - wish I’d thought of that!” Niall laughed.

“He wasn’t going to, but I think Sony wants to make up some of the money they poured into him, expecting him to be (in their words) the ‘male Adele’.” Molly scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“That’s a pretty high expectation,” Niall balked.

“It is, and they wrongly thought Harry equaled 1D, and would have the same success.” Molly shook her head.

“That’s a bit disappointing.” Niall said quietly.

“But I think you’re proving them wrong. You, Louis, Liam, and Zayn are proving that assumption wrong.” Molly amended, since she hadn’t intended to hurt Niall’s feelings. Niall was about to go on stage with her boyfriend and sing ‘their song’ - If I Could Fly - just the two of them with Niall on guitar, while their bands switched. Then, Niall was going to invite Harry to sing ‘Drag Me Down’ with him before Niall got into his own songs. So, Molly realized, maybe telling Niall that Sony thought Harry was the reason for One Direction’s success was not the best thing to do at this moment.

She watched him with trepidation, and followed his eyes as they watched Harry on stage. “Well, he certainly was one of the fan favorites!” He finally said with a grin, and Molly exhaled a sigh of relief.

“This next song is very special to me, not only because I used to get to sing it with some of my best friends,” Harry paused as the audience cheered. “But because it is one of my girlfriend’s favorite One Direction songs.” The crowd again screamed, maybe at the mention of 1D, or maybe because Harry brought up his girlfriend, Molly wasn’t sure, but he gave her a quick glance before continuing. “I am very happy to have one of those best friends here with me tonight, so please give a warm welcome to Niall Horan!”

The audience shrieked as Niall walked on stage to join Harry, and the lights dimmed so just they were illuminated while their bands set up. Molly had heard the pair rehearsing earlier, but it still nearly brought tears to her eyes hearing them sing ‘If I Could Fly’ together like that. The crowd seemed to have a similar response, and they gave a heartfelt and possibly teary-eyed round of applause when they finished.

Then, the lights came up, and Niall’s band had replaced Harry’s, and once the audience calmed down, Niall addressed the crowd for a bit.

“And before I play a few of my own songs, while I have Mr. Styles on stage with me, why don’t we sing a One Direction song for old times sake?” Niall asked the audience and they cheered enthusiastically. “What about ‘Drag Me Down’? Do you know that?” He jokingly asked Harry.

“I think so,” he responded with a smirk. With that, Niall’s band started playing their cover of ‘Drag Me Down’, with Harry and Niall dividing the parts equally between the two. It went over quite well, and Niall transitioned to his own songs after Harry left the stage


The next night at the Jingle Ball in Washington, D.C., Harry repeated this practice with Louis, except he changed the set list a bit. Instead of Medicine, he played a new song called ‘Anna’, which Molly and Louis both liked.

“I wonder who Anna is?” Louis asked teasingly.

“It’s me, obviously,” Molly joked. This was another song she hadn’t heard, since Harry recorded it last year. “Knowing Harry, it’s probably about a fictional character he accidentally fell in love with while watching a romantic comedy.”

Louis giggled at this, and agreed. “He does have a tendency to fall hard and fast for people - whether they’re real or not.”

“Oh I know,” Molly laughed to herself. “Are you ready?”

“To sing with him? Fuck no, I don’t even feel ready to sing my own songs,” Louis smiled wistfully.

“I’m excited to hear your new song,” Molly said encouragingly. “And I heard you two rehearsing earlier, and I think you are definitely ready.”

“Yeah?” Louis asked doubtfully.

“Well, you’d better be, since your turn is almost up. Don't worry, you'll do fine!” She smiled at the panicked look on his face, but turned him toward the stage and gave a slight push as Harry introduced him.

“Give it up for Louis Tomlinson!” Harry announced and the audience went wild as Louis joined Harry on the stage. He waved to the crowd shyly, provoking more screams and a smirk from Harry. “We’re going to sing a song I’ve covered a few times on tour while trying to communicate something to my girlfriend, since, I’m not good with words.” Harry paused as the audience and Louis laughed. “So, here’s ‘Strong’!”

As they sang, Molly remembered the first time she’d heard Harry sing that song for her. It was when she flew to Boston to watch his show after he fired Jeff, which felt like an eternity ago, but was really only about two and a half months ago. She had been mad at him after the Daisy/Kiwi situation in Chicago, but when Molly learned that Harry had stood up to Jeff and fired him without her assistance, that somehow changed things for her; it changed things for the better between the two of them. Harry had, in Molly’s opinion, progressed so far since they first met, but Molly couldn’t take credit for that. He had it within him the whole time, she just had to help him open his eyes and take control of his own career, and -in a way- his own life.

When Harry first asked Molly to pretend to be his girlfriend around his manager, so Jeff wouldn’t know Harry was trying to fix his image, career, and anything else Jeff had inadvertently messed up, Molly was overwhelmed by the proposition. Yet, she knew that wasn’t normal, and the Harry she thought she knew and loved as a fan wouldn’t let someone control his career in such a damaging way. However, the more she learned, and the more she understood what was going on, Molly realized that the Harry she thought she knew and loved from 1D didn’t exactly exist. The fandom had built up so many myths and theories around him, that they somehow became canonical over the years. To meet and get to know the actual Harry was eye-opening, but not disappointing at all.

The ‘real’ Harry -not the fandom-created mythological creature she had grown up with- was almost like seeing the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz. Except, the man behind the curtain was a young man who didn’t know exactly what he wanted in life, and had been told he was the star of One Direction until he started to believe it. So the Harry Molly had met back in July was somehow coming to terms with reality himself, realizing that things were not going the way his manager had said they would. This was the state he was in when Molly waltzed into her interview with Harry and Fionn Whitehead for Dunkirk back in July, after getting her first deal as a ghostwriter for a book (which at the time seemed like a big deal, but now? Lol) and whispered in his ear upon greeting him.

And this confirmed Harry’s worst fears, his suspicions, that things were not going as well as he had been led to believe - that he was not the next Mick Jagger or David Bowie, or the ‘male Adele’ as his label had touted. Molly helped him realize there was nothing wrong with just being Harry Styles, former member of boyband One Direction.

He was, in a sense, the reinvented Harry Styles.

Notes

I love Niall’s cover of Drag Me Down! I especially love the beginning : D
This chapter sort of got away from me a bit here at the end, but I ended up addressing a few things I had been meaning to add, but hadn't found the right spot.

And, I finally included the title in the story!! I always try to do that one way or another, and I love seeing it in stories because it kind of makes the story feel complete (though we have two more chapters still!)

I've started writing a new story in a different fandom, so if you like Formula One racing check it out