20 Harry's POV

Making it look like I wasn't checking the house's security systems out was difficult. I had eyes on me constantly, and I couldn't keep on coming up with excuses on why I was wandering around. Dad was getting suspicious, giving me the side eye whenever I was somewhere I shouldn't have been. It was getting worrying actually; Dad could have caught onto what I was doing. If he figured out what I was doing, he'd go mental and change the security system or something, just to make sure I was kept here. And I was determined to make sure that wouldn't happen.

But, I managed to get a good idea of where each of our cameras were around the house and garden, as well as where the guards stood. Now all I needed was to find out when the guards changed, and then make a plan combining this knowledge. Obviously, I couldn't figure out when the guards changed myself, as I wasn't allowed out, but I could send Thomas or Katherine...

So that was how I ended up alone for an evening with only my parents for company. Thomas and Katherine had gone out to 'business meetings' and weren't due to be back for a while, which left me, Mum and Dad alone. For an entire evening. There were not words to describe how awkward it was, the tension could be cut with a knife. I didn't dare say a word, not without anybody to back me up or placate anybody. I had to will myself to not shake a little; I was so scared of anything Dad would say.

Currently, Dad was being quiet, and Mum was following suit, so now we were sitting in silence and eating. Again, another home cooked, healthy meal with the best ingredients. It was nice, obviously, but I missed takeaway food. Here, we didn't eat anything but home cooked food made with the best ingredients. At home in the band house, we ate takeaway practically every night. Pizzas, Chinese, Indian, anything we fancied, we bought it. Sometimes we cooked, but the most we did was pasta because it was easy. Everything we ate was shop bought, we didn't care about cooking, we just liked to eat.

Here it was so different, the culture shock wasn't pleasant. I missed home, where things like this didn't matter. We didn't even care much for manners, we talked with our mouths full, we laughed, we joked, hell half the time we didn't even bother getting out of our pyjamas to eat! Here we had to be dressed properly, speaking only when we were not actually eating, and Lord help us if we dared say anything 'inappropriate' at the table. I hated it, where was the fun in this? Where was the joy, the family bonding? I didn't want to bond as a family right now, but damn it this was suffocating!

"Harry if you want to say something, just say it. There is no point stewing pointlessly." Dad spat out, glaring at me like he was daring me to say a word.

"Nothing, wasn't going to say anything." I mumbled, stabbing a carrot.

"Mumbling is not an attractive quality Harry." Mum chastised between mouthfuls.

Because everything around here was about attractive qualities and not actual substance or happiness. Who cared if anybody was happy as long as our reputation was maintained and nobody thought that I was a disgrace to the family for daring to be happy.

"Don't roll your eyes either young man!" Mum warned again, only her voice changing, the rest of her still composed.

"I-" I started to speak.

"Don't talk back to us either. We raised you better than to talk back to us." Dad growled, looking almost offended, despite the fact that I hadn't said anything.

"I didn't say anything!" I defended myself, because how the hell was he supposed to know what I was going to say before I actually said it? He didn't! Therefore he shouldn't be shouting at me!

"You were going to, and I won't stand for you being disrespectful to us. We are your parents and you will treat us with the respect we deserve." Dad hissed, his face going red.

"How do you know I'm not going to be respectful if you don't let me finish my sentence? And how can you expect me to be respectful to you if you don't treat me with respect first? Why should I be nice to someone who is only rude to me, even when I've done nothing wrong?!" I tried not to shout, refusing to lower myself to this level and make this worse.

"Because I know that those boys you have been with have corrupted you! You're now rude and insolent, all of our hard work raising you has gone out of the window!" Dad shouted, rising from the table.

"It has not! Nobody has corrupted me; nobody has made me rude or anything! I'm exactly the same as I was when I left here; the only difference is that I was happy with the boys! You know why that is? They listened to me! They cared about what I thought and didn't treat me like a prisoner!" I shouted back, hating Mum and Dad so much! What did they think they were doing?! How could they be so stupid as to think that I was being corrupted by my friends when they were the ones who wanted me to change?! It was ridiculous, I hated it!

"We happen to be doing what is best for you! We are not taking you away from your studies or using you for your money! We love and care about you, we are keeping you away from those bad influences to keep you from getting yourself into trouble and becoming a delinquent like them!" Dad argued.

"They are not delinquents! They are my friends and they don't want me for my money because we're all earning the same amount and we live together! I didn't want to study anymore, I wanted to be in a band because it's what I love doing and it's what I'm good at! Being with them makes me happy, when will you understand that?!" I felt my eyes tearing up in desperation.

It felt helpless, they didn't understand, and they never understood me! I was desperate for them to understand that Tom, Danny and Dougie were not after our family money, or trying to turn me into some sort of criminal. They liked me as I was, I wasn't judged or anything, I was loved. That was what I wanted, for my parents to love me as I was and respect my wishes, instead of arguing with me constantly!