It had been a week after the small incident at school when Harry returned. First off, Harry's mum wanted to keep an eye on him for a day or two, and then she also wouldn't let him go back until Zayn was suspended or something. Which he was, for a week. It's not a long time, though it should've been longer. Because bullying is a very serious thing, and it's sad when it's not taken care of right away. Which is why Harry switched to Louis' school. The bullying done to him was never taken care of, and happened so much that once it was noticed, Harry's mother just took him right out.

Louis had been eager for Harry to come back to school, because he was worried about him in the first place, and hadn't heard anything about him since. He also wanted to know the story with the cutting and such. Though he didn't want to force things out of Harry, and decided he'd wait on that one. After all, he had only known him for two days.

"Hey, isn't that the kid you helped?" Ed asked, tilting his head towards the lockers. Louis had told him, and Niall about what happened, minus the cuts and disorder parts. He just said that Zayn beat him up for being new, which was partly accurate.

Louis smiled, seeing no bruises left on Harry's face and jogged over. Harry saw him coming too, which made him a bit self-conscious. Though when Louis smiled and hugged him, he sighed, carefully wrapping his arms around Louis.

Louis sighed, and pulled away with a smile on his face, "I'm glad you're okay, Harry. Zayn got suspended for a week and might be expelled for other times he bullied people- so that's good. And you look better than you did when... that happened. The bruise on your cheek looks about gone, which you must be happy about right? I for one, missed you. I would've, like, gotten your number so we could text some time, but I didn't so I couldn't really get in touch with you... I'm rambling, oh god, just uh, never mind," Louis smiled sheepishly, hiding his face in his hands with a chuckle.

"I-It's fine," Harry muttered, looking down, "Louis?" he asked, catching the older boy's attention, "uhm, w-what did you uh s-see, last w-week?" he asked cautiously.

Louis' eyes glanced at Harry's covered arms, and then back to his face. "Well, uhm, I saw your arms," he told him quietly, and Harry instantly groaned, rubbing his eyes. "Why would you do that, Harry? I mean I've only known you for about a week now, but still," Louis paused, "why would you hurt yourself?"

Harry gulped, looking around frantically, "I-I uh, uhm, c-cause I-I just, uh. I-I have to g-g-go," he stuttered badly, not willing to just tell him everything, or hardly anything. He walked off quickly, going to the very back of the library during his first two classes. He sat there, thinking of what he could tell Louis to get him to drop it, or what he could bring up to avoid the conversation.

But the thing was, it got him to thinking. Thinking for a while, even though he knew he shouldn't, because thinking led to doubting, which led to hating and sadness and hurting. Then, soon enough, he was thinking of every single thing he didn't like about himself or his life, down to the very last detail. Which just made the voices in his head criticize him even worse and even more than they already do. And before he knew it, he was tapping lightly on his newest cuts from a couple of days prior, feeling a small stinging sensation each time he tapped, and eventually pressed hard the cut.

It wasn't until the end of the third period that Harry realized he had been thinking for too long, and had almost reopened one of the bandaged cuts with the repeated pressing on it.

Harry sighed heavily, and dropped down from the table that he had found sitting in the corner, which he was sitting on the whole time. Instead, he looked down the aisles of books, not feeling okay until he reached the fantasy ones, where the characters could have a perfect life and Harry could picture being the prince. This would make him smile, imagining him set on a horse with a fair maiden, which he switched into his knight in shining armor since he didn't want a female, riding off into whichever kingdom the story had told. And it made him felt decent. Not okay, not good, not great, but decent. He needed an escape and that was it. But it was okay to Harry, to be decent. It was okay to him. And that's all that mattered.