Alternate Ending :- from after chapter nine.

Harry was right. Not only did the withdrawal stop, Colin stopped the violence and the anger and the depression his life was in, everything stopped. Colin went back to work, their house became cleaner, brighter, friendlier.

Colin would go to work everyday, coming home with beautiful photographs of people and places and events, he spent his time brewing his developing potion or cooking for Harry.

It was two whole weeks after the final alcohol headache had passed, and Colin went into Harry's bedroom and cleaned it, he fixed the broken glass and cleaned the bed sheets and replaced all the furniture. The roof where the thick chains had been attached was replaced, the door was replaced and even though Colin's wage was pitiful for his photography, he decorated Harry's room with a large bed and a lovely warm Gryffindor red comforter. Thick blinds were put on the window and the cupboard was filled with clothes and things for Harry.

Harry had never had his own room before, there was the cupboard under the stairs, and Dudley's second bedroom, the dorm and the room he shared with Ron at Grimmauld place, then his and Ginny's bedroom.

The point was it was Harry's room, and Colin didn't come in there anymore, not for anything, Harry's holly wand was even placed on the desk.

Despite all this, Harry was getting angrier and angrier at the other man. Because Colin would barely speak to him anymore.

"Colin," Harry had gently taken the book from the blonde man's hands, making Colin look at him.

"What do you want from me?"

"What?" Colin asked, a confused look on his face.

"What am I doing here, you don't talk to me anymore." Harry asked. His anger faded, and in front of him was the little boy who idolized him. Then that innocent face turned into one of a very sick, very sad man.

"I can't make excuses, what I did to you was unforgivable."

"But you still did it."

"You should go, Harry," Colin said, "I gave you your wand back, I, I shouldn't have, I'm sorry."

Colin was obviously trying to keep it together. His eyes were red and fat tears dripped down his cheeks, but he didn't look away.

"I deserve to die." He told Harry. Harry shook his head.

"No one deserves that," Harry said, "it's, it's alright."

The words were heavy in his mouth and left a foul taste on his tongue, he expected Colin to lash out again, hit him, kill him, now his guilt was alleviated, but none of it happened.

"I'm sorry," Colin said, "go, just go."

Harry hadn't been outside in what felt like years. He was frightened to say the least. He was sure to see something he didn't like. His family have moved on after all, he knew this.

Harry held his hand in a tight fist and apparated with a loud crack.

His first thought was of utter relief, and then disappointment. Ginny and James no longer lived in their old house. Harry couldn't think of a way to find them now. And if he was honest, he didn't want to see them. Colin would just come looking for him again.

Harry didn't want to apparate again. He wanted to be saved. He wanted ... He wanted Colin. Harry's breath became labored, he looked around him but couldn't see. it was so, so bright. why was it so bright?

Harry held his chest. It felt heavy as if all the important things in there had been turned to stone. He looked around again. He knew this place, but it seemed so, so very different.

How long had he been away?

Harry's panic spiked, tears formed in his eyes and he was gasping for breath now, wheezing, choking noises coming from his lips. He wanted to be back inside.

He needed Colin, and Colin needed harry. Why did he leave?

Another glance around the bright street, Harry's vision tunnled, black seeping into the edges. Everything sounded like it was so far away.

He forgot to breathe all together.

Harry bent forward, his legs moving of their own accord to keep him balanced and only serving to move him three steps before he pitched forwards onto the pavement in a dead faint.

Harry woke up in his bed, the red comforter was tucked snugly around him and a cup of tea was sitting on his nightstand.

"How did I get here?" Harry asked, pushing himself up and looking at Colin who was leaning on the doorframe. He had lost a lot of weight and his tall frame was rather shrinking without the big bulbous beer gut he sported months earlier.

"I followed you and brought you back."

Harry laughed. "You know I like it here a bit." Harry shook his head, with his strength back and his wounds healed and his wand safely in his pocket, the wicked, fat and dirty blond man wasn't so frightening anymore, though looking at Colin now, that man was just a memory.

"Stay," Colin said casually, it sounded like he was begging, but Harry knew he had a choice. And the thought of seeing Ginny again frightened him. He nodded.

"I will, but if you ever raise your hand to me again," Harry warned. "I'm leaving."

Colin stared at him with disbelief.

"Harry, you deserved every hit you got, you know that, Hero."

Harry shook his head this time.

"Colin you have a problem, and please, don't call me hero."

"I do not," Colin said, eyes flashing.

"I can see what you're thinking Colin," Harry told him, "Go on, hit me again. Just one more time."

Colin shook his head, though it was reluctant.

"I will-" Colin was interrupted by the loud smack that seemed to echo in the room. Harry drew his fist back, and shook it.

"Harry," Colin warned the older man, but Harry drew his fist back and punched Colin in the face again, and again, in the stomach, in the face, Colin spluttered and cried out, and Harry kicked him, stomped on him, kicked him again. But he did only superficial damage, Colin was curled up on the floor, whimpering.

"I never deserved that, ever, Colin," Harry said, "You told me you would look after me and you hurt me, you hurt me and you lied to me. You have a problem, you have a lot of them, but from now on the deal is, you look after me, and I will stay.

"I'll protect you, Hero," Colin muttered from the floor, a sob escaped his lips and he began to cry. "I'll take care of you, Hero."

Harry sneered at the boy on the floor, and left for his bedroom.

He should leave here. He could find Ginny and James.

Ginny Morris was watching James and Arty play a game. James was five years old, Arty only one and it was frightening to see the boys play because so many times would one of them do something that could nearly kill the other - she appreciated her own mother so much more now.

Arty started to cry, putting James right off and Ginny scooped him up and rocked him gently.

"He's just getting tired," She assured James, who nodded whilst releasing a huge yawn. "You too Jamie?" Ginny asked the little boy who nodded.

"Mum?" James said as she led him to his bedroom.

"Hmmm?"

"Why can't I have a real daddy too?"

Ginny sighed. It wasn't that Palmer didn't treat James like a son, he loved James like his own, but James was the spitting image of his real father, his rather Famous father. It was the only reason James even knew Palmer wasn't his biological father.

Harry had been declared dead twelve months previously. He had gone missing, and wether he had run off or was taken was never really found out, wether he was alive or not never known. They point is no one was looking for him, and Ginny believed he wasn't looking for them either.

"Your daddy, your real daddy," Ginny began to her sleepy son, "Was called Harry, and he was a very, very good man, he was so good, everyone else made him solve all their problems, and one day, he needed a break from everyone, and he went on a very long holiday. He was so sad that he had to leave you, James, but Palmer loves you just like a real daddy."

James nodded, and Ginny could tell he didn't understand, nor did he seem upset in the slightest.

"My dad's name is Harry?" James asked. Ginny nodded.

"Harry James Potter."

"I wish my real daddy didn't have to leave me behind." James said with another yawn. Ginny bent down to kiss his head.

"Me too baby, me too." Ginny stood and left the boy's room, turning to close the door behind her, she turned again and walked smack bang into a man.

"Palmer?"

"No."

Ginny took a step back, and her eyes went wide, he was much taller than she remembered, and he had some rather horrible scars marring his face. There was stubble on his chin and his hair was down to his shoulders. She looked at his eyes again, the same striking green hidden by the same round glasses.

"Harry." Ginny said, she felt something, but couldn't tell you what it was, exactly. "I thought you were dead."

"Or living in the Bahamas among the muggles, by the sound of it."

"What happened?" Ginny asked reaching out to touch him, but she drew her hand back before it connected.

"I was kidnapped," Harry told her, "I spent the past five years chained to a roof being told that that is where I belong."

"Merlin, Harry, how did you-"

"I thought you would wait for me," Harry said, "I thought you would look for me, Merlin Ginny I was missing for five years and you did nothing?"

"Ginny!"

There was a loud thud and Palmer raced up the hall, he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Harry, and sneered.

"Back are you?" Palmer asked, Harry sneered at Ginny.

"Yes," he said, "you obviously thought I was dead."

Harry pushed past her into his son's room, it was nearly identical to the room at their old flat, thought he had a proper bed and a lot more toys than usual.

"You have to see-"

"Shhh," Harry shushed Ginny. He put a hand against his head, desperately trying to push back the headache.

"He doesn't need me," Harry said, he crossed the room in two long strides and kissed his son's head. "And after missing for so long, I don't much fancy going back anymore." Harry shook his head, and he pulled his wedding ring off of his left finger.

"No hard feelings," he said, pushing it into Ginny's hand, "I'll write James, visit sometimes." Harry told them, then walked up the hallway and out the door.

"Wait, Harry, where are you going?"

Harry turned back and smiled at them.

"I made an unlikely friend." Harry said.

Harry was sitting in the center of his bed when Colin came in, his face was bruised but he smiled.

"Why are you back?" Colin asked, "you found Ginny?"

"They've moved on," Harry told him, "all of them," Harry shook his head. "I wrote the profit, telling them what happened, that I escaped and am in hiding, that I'm staying with a friend."

"Who?" Colin asked, his face paled, "how long do I have, before, Azkaban, I, Harry I don't want to go to prison, kill me, please, I don't deserve mercy-"

"Colin!" Harry cried, grabbing the other mans shoulders. "You're the friend, I'm staying with you!"

Colin's eyes lit up, and again, Harry saw the innocent, but obsessive little boy that raced around with his camera shooting everything he saw so he could keep it forever.

"You, you want to stay?" Colin asked. Harry nodded.

"You need help, and I don't want to go back, Colin, there's a kind person in there somewhere."

Colin nodded.

"Denis used to tell me that, when the other kids called me creepy, because of my photographs I-"

"It's alright, Col," Harry said, smiling at the handsome man. "It'll be alright."