𝙵𝚘𝚛𝚐𝚎𝚝 𝙼𝚎 (𝙽𝚘𝚝) - 𝚉𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚢

chapter ii.

Niall sighs, rubbing his palms together, his eyes turned down to the floor. He looks up at Harry after a moment, gently shaking his head. "I guess you have to, somehow. We will all help you. Do you know if your memory's coming back?"

"I hope so," Harry says quietly. "Dr Carrey said it should come back. It might take a few days. It might take weeks. And then there's the option that I'll never fully get all those memories back."

"Fuck," Niall curses, huffing out a breath. "You'll get them back, Haz. Don't worry."

Harry just nods silently. His mind is like a beehive, constantly. He shouldn't stimulate himself too much to let himself heal but it's impossible. How can he relax and not think when there are seven years of his life missing?

"I dropped by at your house before I came here."

Harry looks up at Niall with a frown. He is at his house. Then it clicks. Niall doesn't mean his mum's house, he means the house he and Zayn have. The house Harry has no memory of.

"Yeah?" is all Harry can reply to it.

"Don't view this as... blackmail or somethin'" Niall says carefully. "But I really do fucking hope your memory comes back soon for the sake of everyone involved. Zayn's acting all aloof and shite but I've known him far too long not to see through that. The kids miss you too. You should at least call them. Take a few days if you need to but... even if you don't remember, Haz, they're your family."

"I know," Harry says, his voice barely above a whisper. He doesn't really know. He has no fucking clue what to do next. He doesn't know how to feel.

"I've been here for all of it Haz," Niall says delicately, choosing words carefully. "I saw how you and Zayn fell madly in love and then got married not even a year later like the psychos you two were back then. Still are sometimes. I was there when both Sadie and Noah came into your lives. I'm actually Sadie's godfather. Had to fight Jeff for it but I won in the end, obviously. Every other weekend we have lunch together either at your place or mine. You're my best mate, Haz, but so is Zayn and I can't sit here and lie to you. I can't. I'm here for you, 100% but I will also be completely honest with you, even if you don't want to hear it."

Harry's throat is choked up. He's never seen Niall like this. "Thank you," Harry gets out quickly. "Um, are you married?"

Niall chuckles pitifully. "Was engaged last year. She broke it off a few months back. It didn't work out."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Harry says automatically. "Erin was great."

Niall's eyes widen. "Oh my god," he breathes out. "Oh my god!"

"What?" Harry frowns at him before it finally clicks. "Oh god! I remembered her name!"

"You fucking did!" Niall laughs, shaking his head. "Out of all the bloody things."

Well, it was literally out of all the bloody things because Harry didn't remember a single other thing that day. But the simple mention of Niall's ex-fianceé prompted the memory to come back, fuzzy and incomplete but still there. So Harry decided to go sleuthing on his own life.

The passcode on Harry's phone changed as well. It's 190316. It's his and Zayn's wedding date (fucking wedding date) and of course, Harry has trouble remembering it. Thankfully, his fingerprint hasn't changed and he can use TouchID just fine. And the phone is unrecognizable. His lockscreen is a photo of Sadie and Noah, not a funny photo of one of his mum's cats. That's the first time he even sees Noah, on a fucking lockscreen of all places. But there's not a bit of recognition. He sees the photo of the two smiling children and there's nothing in Harry's head. When he sees Sadie, he can recall only the shock of her calling him daddy in the hospital and the hushed conversation she had with Zayn afterwards.

He lays in his old bed as he slowly scrolls through the images of a life he can't remember living. Photo by photo, not just scrolling through the photostream, it's painfully slow and Harry feels like oxygen avoids him at all times. The latest photo on his phone is a screenshot of a recipe for buckwheat pancakes, which is apparently the type of food he makes now. Then it's another screenshot, this one of a schedule for events for the end of Sadie's daily summer camp in August. The third photo hits Harry like a dagger in his throat. It's a photo of Sadie and Noah in a sandbox, building a sandcastle. The address stamp says 'Home'. Harry swallows and thumbs onto the next photo. It is actually a short video, not a photo, of Zayn tossing Noah up into the air as he squeals in glee. The video ends with Zayn looking at the camera with a wide smile, Noah in a football hold still giggling, and he speaks to a Harry that is now forgotten in 2015/2022 Harry's mind. 'You filming again, babe?' he asks and the Harry with his memory replies 'Course I am. You're really fit and our baby is adorable. How can I not?'. Then the video's over.

Harry locks his phone and throws it somewhere onto the carpeted floor. It's his voice. It's his husband and his child yet he doesn't really know them. The last actual memory of Zayn Harry can remember is from earlier in May, just before Harry finished his thesis. They ran into each other in the library on campus. Harry was there just for a moment to return two books before going on a date with Xander. Zayn was polishing up his referencing on his own thesis. They talked for a few minutes, Harry asked him to come to a pub quiz that weekend, Zayn said maybe, if he's done with referencing by then, they said goodbye and that was it.

How in the hell did they end up getting married and having two children together?
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Oh my god guys THANK YOU SO MUCH for the amazing feedback on the first chapter!!! It really made my day, I didn't expect you all to like it so much 🥺 Thank you so much, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the chapters too ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️