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Harry is a Hailsham student that Kathy briefly considers having sex with as a teenager. Kathy starts to feel left out because most of her friends claim to be having sex. While she doubts that many of these claims are true, she still feels like an outsider—especially because she’s aware that Ruth and Tommy have had sex. Desperate to fit in, Kathy decides that she is going to have sex with Harry C. Kathy explains that Harry had four qualities that made him the ideal candidate: he was experienced because he had already had sex with Sharon D., he was not ugly, she knew she could trust him to not gossip about it afterwards, and he had already expressed an interest in her. However, Kathy is unable to go through with her plan when the time comes because Ruth and Tommy suddenly break up. Kathy explains that many Hailsham students started joking that Kathy would be Ruth’s “natural successor" in the immediate aftermath of the break-up. Kathy recalls how, although Ruth and Tommy’s break-up “put [her] in a bit of a confusion,” she would have had sex with Harry anyway if it “hadn't been for this ‘natural successor’ business.” This brief admission is crucial to our understanding of Kathy. While it is never explicitly stated, she decides to not have sex with Harry because she is hoping that she and Tommy can finally be together now that Ruth has been removed from the picture. Kathy is a very detached, guarded, and vague narrator—especially in regard to her own emotions—but this brief memory reveals the depth of her love for Tommy because she has clearly had feelings for him since they were teenagers.

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