9 Harry's POV

"Mum, why are you doing this? I'm happy as I am, I don't need to find someone." I hissed at her, wishing she would stop doing this to me. Every time I came down for one of these parties, she always tried to pair me off with someone, even though I didn't want it. It was part of the reason why I now avoided these things, so I didn't end up being pushed into awkward conversations with people I hardly knew, or simply were not attracted to, all because my parents wanted me to find someone who would break me from my apparent ridiculous life style. I hated it, and hated it even more now that I knew that Dougie was watching it.

All I wanted to do was run to him and hold him close, promise that nothing would happen between anybody here and me, that I loved him, and nobody else. Maybe then my parents would see just who made me happy and stop this mad plan to push me away from my friends and lover. I doubted it though; they'd probably hit the roof and go ballistic at the idea of me dating someone so apparently 'common.'

"Because it is needed Harry, we do want grandchildren eventually." That was really going to be Mum's answer? Really?

"Go ask Thomas and Katherine, they're far more likely to be willing to give you want you want." I glared at her.

"Harry don't make a scene!" Dad warned, I resisted the urge to tell him just how much of a scene I could make if I wanted to.

"Well if you insist on setting me up with someone when I don't want to, then I'm allowed to complain." I argued, just as someone came up to us.

"Emily hello! You remember our son Harry don't you?" Mum immediately put on the charm offensive, smiling and putting on her best 'posh voice' as well.

"Oh of course! The one who left school early to join a band, how is that going now?" Emily gave me a condescending smile.

"Well we just had our fifth number one hit recently and are planning on going on tour soon." I answered smugly, always ready to prove that my band was incredible, and that this was not a mistake. This band was what I wanted, and just because it wasn't seen as a proper way to make a living, it was what I wanted.

"Oh, would I have heard this song?" Emily asked, looking slightly wrong footed.

"Possibly, if you've listened to the radio at all recently." I smirked.

"Sorry, can't say it rings a bell." Emily looked confused, damn it.

"Well look it up, it's a good one. Has to be if it went number one." I gave a condescending smile of my own.

"Harry, be nice. Sorry for our son, his manners have all but gone since he joined a band, it's like he's a different person." Dad subtly elbowed me in the ribs.

"I like to think of it more as becoming my true self." I said sarcastically, Emily looked a little alarmed. Good.

"Oh well, oh I think I see Clarissa over there, I haven't seen her in an age, I must go over and say hello. Good day." Emily rushed off.

"Bye." I waved my fingers, one day, several more to go.

"Harry, that was rude and uncalled for!" Dad growled quietly in my ear, making it look like he was whispering in my ear.

"It was rude to bring me here under false pretence in the vain hope of getting me to run away from my band and my friends to come back here and be a good boy!" I argued, because it was true! If I was being rude, what were they being?! It certainly wasn't nice or civil!

They had lied and said they wanted to finally meet my friends, and get to know them, but instead they were trying to get me paired off with someone and to push my friends out. Well it wasn't going to work, if they wanted to be disrespectful, then I was going to be disrespectful back! And if they didn't like it, I was going to go home with my boyfriend and my friends and refuse to return until they actually treated us all with some respect!

"We did not bring you here until false pretence!" Dad argued, barely managing to keep it subtle.

"Well what do you call it then? Leaving out bits of information to suit your needs?" I raised an eyebrow; really what could they actually explain this as? There wasn't much!

"Come here right now." Dad grabbed my arm and yanked me from the room, into the deserted hallway, "Watch your tongue young man, I will not take such insolence from you." He hissed, the doors banging closed behind him.

"Then don't lie to me and treat me like I'm idiot child." I argued, I wasn't having it, I was not going to let him and Mum bring us all the way down here to humiliate my friends and separate me from them! If my parents really did not like my friends, well, f*ck them. They were my friends, I knew them for who they were and loved them as they were, I didn't need my judgemental parents sticking their noses in and trying to mess up a good thing for me.

"Don't act like one then! You're being rude to our guests and that is not how I raised you." Dad glared, his face turning red.

"You mean it's not how boarding school raised me?" It was a low blow, but I was so wound up by this, I was going to take it.

"How dare you, I raised all three of you children, and sent you to boarding school to give you the best education we could afford!" Dad's voice rose further.

"And cleverly put you up the social ladder by introducing you to other influential people!" I hated this, I hated all of it! Everything my parents did was to further their social standing or to protect the family name; none of it was for us! No matter what was actually good for me and my siblings, or what we wanted, we always did what was 'good for the family name' even when it made us miserable. And right now I was miserable here, I was miserable anywhere near my parents and their snobby comments and 'better than you' attitude. They never listened, and they never cared!

"Business had nothing to do with where we sent you to school!" Dad defended himself.

"As if! All of it was! Every single little thing was to further your standing, nothing mattered as long as you were seen to be rich and in charge! Even now, when we're all adults here, you expect us all to bow down to you and Mum so you look good, and get rid of my friends! I can't tell you anything about myself without you judging it and looking down on people you barely even know! Do you know what that's like, to be so scared to tell your own parents who you really love? You can't even imagine what it's like to come down and hide the fact that I'm in love and happy with Dougie!" I stopped the second I said it, realising that I'd just made a terrible mistake.

"You're what?" Dad went redder than I'd ever seen him.

"Harry, did I just hear you say that you're in love with that... with that boy in there?" Mum looked disgusted, looking back at Dougie, Tom and Danny, who had just arrived at the door.

"Well so what if I am huh? So what?! He's a wonderful human being and he makes me happy, and you'd know that if you stopped judging for thirty damn seconds!" I shouted, there was no going back; I may as well have gone whole hog in this.

"You're dating this... this boy? This common boy?! You're actually seeing this vermin? How could you Harry? How could you stoop so low?!" Dad shouted back, everybody gasped.

"He's not vermin! And I have not stooped low to date him! I love him, and you would understand that if you had a shred of decency inside you instead of contempt!" I went to go to Dougie, who had gone a very bad shade of white.

"Don't. You. Dare. Move. Young. Man." Dad hissed.

"Mr Judd, if you would let us-" Tom interjected before I could speak.

"Don't you dare speak to me either! None of you speak to me! Get out, all three of you! Get out of here!" Dad ordered, nobody moved.

"I SAID GET OUT!" Dad shouted, violently shaking with rage.

The boys started to rush out the room, I turn to go with them, but Dad grabbed me a hauled me back in again.

"You're not going anywhere young man! You're never going with them ever again! I will make sure you never disgrace this family ever again by stepping out with these miscreants!"