A School Of Royalty

Endings and New Beginnings

Nearing the end, fellas.

Louis and Harry quickly got used to the stares, the whispers, and the constant congratulations they received then walking through the hallways. On social media, people were a little bit more... not so happy about it. Louis had gotten to the point were he didn't even wanted to open his Twitter or Instagram, due to the people who hated on him and Harry's relationships.

And then, of course, there were the people online who kept pestering him about his sexuality, asking him what he identified as. Louis tried his best, to just ignore them, and most of the time it worked, but sometimes it also made him just want to curl up and die. Luckily for him, Harry was always there, his arms open, ready to embrace Louis when it got really bad.

It was even harder for Harry. Louis often found him starring down at his phone, looking through his socials, more often than not, stepping upon a hate message. Then it was Louis' turn to hold him while he cried over the hate.

But mostly, they just felt happy. They no longer had to hide, and the most important people to them, their friends, family, had accepted them, so all in all, it was okay.

***

March slowly neared its end. Harry and Louis had sent applications to Oxford, both confident in the fact that they would be accepted into the school. They had sat on their bed, laptops in their laps, counting down from three, pressing 'send' on one.

They also finally found out about the picture, and about who had taken it. It was Anne, who gave them the news. She had called Harry, late a Monday evening as he and Louis were huddled together under the duvet.

"Hello?" Harry said, his brows furrowed. His fingers were tracing light patterns over Louis' naked back as he listened to his mother speak. "What-I will put you on speaker real' quick." He moved the phone from his ear, placing it on the duvet. He pressed the speaker button, Anne's voice flowing into the room.

"Can Louis hear me now, darling?" she asked.

"Yeah, I can," Louis replied, not quite catching on to what was happening. "What... what is going on?"

"We found out who took the picture," Anne's voice came through the speakers, the sound slightly scratchy through the phone.

"Wh-what?" Louis was stuttering over his words, his breath hitching in his throat.

"We found the person."

Anne then proceeded to tell them how it had happened. "You were at The Town's café on Harry's birthday, the day the photo was taking. The man who took your orders, overheard that you were planning on going to the beach. So, well, he decided to get there before you, in the hopes of catching some pictures he could sell to a newspaper and earn a little extra on that. What he did find, though, was the two of you kissing on the beach. He decided to try and blackmail us on it." She had scoffed then. "Wanker. Well, we, as I said, traced the email back to the library. We decided to go over the surveillance footage once again. On it we found a man, wearing the cafe's uniform. Said man, went onto the computer and sent an email. The time fits perfectly with when we received the picture. We could only see him from behind, but we contacted a female worker from the café, asking if she recognized him; she did. We tracked him down and he confessed to having done it."

Harry cleared his throat when Anne stopped her small speech. "Who... who is he?"

"George Thomas. Fifty-five years old, and in severe hospital dept, due to his fifteen year old daughter battling cancer in London. That's why he wanted the money. To give his daughter treatment."

Louis had looked stunned at the phone. "He did it because his child is sick?"

"Yes."

Harry bit his lip then, the flesh going white. "Is... is he going to prison for this?"