Harry sat, relishing the quiet; he'd just arrived home hours earlier than he had expected to. His girlfriend Ellie had gone out with everyone else. Everyone else being Dougie, Hannah, Danny, Emma, Tom and Jenny. He'd been at his parents for the week with his 2 brothers and 2 sisters because his mum was progressively losing her battle with cancer. His parents understood that his position in the band was demanding and that he could only take a certain amount of time off work. Partly Harry was glad he couldn't take off too much time because as much as he wanted to be there for her at the same time he didn't. It was selfish of him but he liked to think that his brothers and sisters had it sorted. They had all moved back home to his parents huge house a few months back when she first got diagnosed.

Harry went to the fridge and helped himself to a handful of beers, he lived with the rest of McFly and beers were one thing that they would never be short of, there was an abundance of alcohol in the house and on the way out of the room he grabbed some vodka. Harry couldn't be bothered to get back up and get up again for more drink and he knew how horrible it was to be comfy on the sofa and have to get up for another one. So it was with handfuls of alcohol that Harry shuffled tiredly back to the sofa.

Once there he collapsed and started on his first beer, they wouldn't be back for at least a few hours and Harry was so grateful for the silence for once.

Meanwhile, the others had arrived at the restaurant.

"Shame Harry isn't back yet, he loves this place, what time does he get back tonight again?" Emma said as she wriggled closer to Danny in order to properly see the menu. She did this every time they came here, she knew exactly what the restaurant served and knew the menu off by heart, not to mention she ate the same thing every time she came but she still loved a little nosy at what it had to offer and that was just one of the things that Danny found cute about her.

"Ohhh erm I think it's after midnight, sometime in the early morning, I wouldn't be surprised if he stayed another night to be honest. It's important he be there for his mum ya know?" Ellie sighed. She knew that things were tough for Harry at the moment and she did enjoy being out with everyone else; because they were practically family to her, but she would rather be cuddled up on the sofa with Harry.

"Nah, he'll be back tonight for sure we have to go see Fletch later on anyways." Tom said.

They ordered their usual and ate up quickly as they were all starving. 2 hours later, after several puddings (for the boys) they left the warmth of the restaurant.

"So on to a club or back to ours?" Dougie said helping Hannah get her arm through her jacket sleeve.

"I wanna go to a club, just one and then we can all head back to yours for drinks." Hannah jumped up and down, excited to be spending time with her friends on her night off from work, she wanted to make the night last as long as possible.

At home, Harry was on to the vodka, 4 beers down and he was starting to feel the room spin. He suddenly had a moments thought to go and join his friends at the club. So he got up and grabbed his phone, taking the vodka with him, he forgot to pick up his keys but it was okay because the door locked as soon as it was clicked shut and one of the others would have keys on them. So he headed off down the road into town.

The wind blew and froze his body. He wished that he'd grabbed a jacket but he was closer to town now than home so Harry kept walking. He drank periodically from the vodka bottle and got closer to civilization.

He was soon in town and about 2 minutes from the club that he knew they'd be in and was about to step up his speed when all of sudden he felt someone creep up behind him … and then there was nothing. Just black. A black abyss that sank in from the corner of his eyes, seeping into his sight until he knew no more and he never felt his body being dragged into a dark alley.

The others were just leaving the club about an hour later when Ellie decided to give Harry a ring and see if he was nearly home.

Dougie and Danny were leading the group up the road a few paces in front of her laughing and joking with each other and Hannah and Emma were just behind her talking about the night's antics. Tom and Jenny were just level with her holding hands. None of them had had much to drink as they all had work the next day.

Ellie sighed as she heard Hi you're reached me, Harry, I'm not here, leave a message, bye.

Jenny glanced at Ellie when she heard Ellie sigh exasperated.

"What's up babe? Harry's probably just driving; don't worry about it." Jenny moved closer to Ellie trying to comfort her.

"Hmm yeah I just thought that he'd be back by now I mean it doesn't take that long to get back from his parents." Ellie's feeling of worry increased she knew from some type of instinct that there was something wrong.

Danny and Dougie fell back a bit and they all fell into a comfortable and easy conversation.

Ellie tried Harry's phone again just as they were coming up to the corner of the road and all of a sudden they saw a little flashing light just up in front of them and 'Hero' by Enrique Iglesias.

"What the hell?" Ellie murmured, pushing past Dougie and Danny who had yet to catch on and ran the distance between herself and the phone. What she saw took her breath away and she fell back stumbling away from the sight.

By this point the others had caught up with her and they all gasped at the sight of what lay before them.

At their feet, laid against the wall was Harry Judd, bruised and battered, covered in vomit (presumably his own,) with his clothes torn to shreds.

"Fuck! Harry! Harry! Shit … what the fuck happened?" Danny ran to his friend and knelt beside him to inspect the bruises and cuts that littered his face.

The girls were all facing away, horrified by the sight of their friend, and Tom and Dougie soon followed in Danny's footsteps and knelt beside Harry.

"He's out cold. Fucking hell he's freezing" Tom took off his jacket and wrapped it round his friend that was only wearing a shirt.

"We gonna call an ambulance?" Dougie was trying to get his head around what had happened.

Just as Danny was about to answer Harry started to moan. He squirmed in a vain attempt to both make himself warm and evade the hands that were touching him, touching his body, he didn't want that. He couldn't put up with it again. Not now please Harry begged. He just wanted to die. The pain was so intense. It didn't occur to Harry that these touches were different; they weren't harsh, cruel and cold but warm and caring. Harry wasn't thinking straight, he didn't recognise the voices of his friend and girlfriend, simply the owners of hands that he didn't want near him and that was why he didn't hesitate to punch out and felt satisfaction at the grunt; telling him he had hit his target.

It was at that point that, with his eyes still pressed tightly closed, he blindly tried to pull himself up and at the same time shield himself from the retaliation that he thought would come from the person he had just hit.

Danny grunted, pain filling his jaw, what the fuck was Harry doing?

"Harry, mate, calm down, its okay, it's me Danny. It's okay, you're okay, we're here now." Danny watched as his friend clawed at the wall, trying to pries himself up with energy he just didn't have, he cautiously moved forward so as not to further scare Harry. But Tom got there before him and gently but firmly grabbed Harry's wrists.

That was when it turned even uglier. Harry squirmed, trying to wriggle away, Dougie moved into help Tom and together they got a good grip each taking one of his hands. Then Tom looked to Danny and Danny walked forward to his kicking and grunting friend. He held his arm out and grabbed a hold of his chin, forcing him to look upwards, fighting against him as Harry shook his head trying to make him lose grip.

The girls at this point were all crying softly watching the battle between the four best friends intently. Ellie moved forward and made an attempt to kiss Harry. Harry simply spat in her face. That was when he opened his eyes.

Blurry figures assaulted his vision, he was cornered, backed against a wall, held against his will and that was when he gave up. He stopped trying to fight back and his whole body slumped.

As soon as the boys felt the fight in Harry die they all strengthened their grips as they knew his knees would buckle.

Ellie whimpered at the sight of her broken boyfriend and she moved again towards him, the spit still slowly crawling down her face.

That was when they heard it, the small whisperings, the pleading of a broken man.

"Please. Not again. No, please, stop, it hurts, please, not again. Please. Leave me alone. Not again. Please" Tears rolled slowly down Harry's cheeks, descending to the bottom of his face and disappearing under his chin.

In a silent agreement the three boys each took a hold of their friend and basically carried him between them the few streets back to their house. All were silent. The girls walked just behind them quietly crying, Ellie couldn't even find the words to comfort her delusional boyfriend and the boys couldn't think of anything to say that would make anything better.

When they got to the house Ellie swept past Tom, Danny and Dougie, quickly running up the steps to open the door. They carefully dragged Harry's still shaking body to the sitting room where the eased him gently down on to the sofa, mindful of the several beer bottles that littered the floor, no one needing to ask whose they were.

Tom went through to get bandages and anti septic, Danny went to get some painkillers and Jenny moved to the kitchen to get some water for him to drink. Ellie kneeled in front of her boyfriend, shocked at the sight of him, tear tracks fading on her cheeks. All the while Harry shook and whimpered, curling in on himself, trying to block it all out.

When they returned, Tom moved towards Harry and carefully pried his hands away from his face.

"Harry, here drink this, it'll make you feel better" Jenny offered him the bottle which Ellie grabbed from her, trying to make herself useful she leant towards Harry and gently poured some water into his mouth, that was in the middle of ranting, taking advantage of the fact that Harry couldn't fight back as his hands were still being held by Tom.

Over the next half hour the 7 of them spent the time trying to clean up their friend who had passed out just after he had been forced the water by Ellie. The painkillers sat unwanted on the coffee table. Soon enough Harry was as clean as could be, dressed in clean pyjamas and lay on the sofa, they hadn't moved him because, through silent agreement, they had all decided to spend the night in the living room watching over their friend, boyfriend and brother.