Hardin Scott

Hardin runs with Steph's crowd and doesn't get along with his father, Ken, who is about to marry Landon's mother. He needles Tessa from their first meeting, but invites her to the lake, kisses her and slowly falls for her. At his father's wedding, he tells her why he's so angry: Ken drank, and the family paid a terrible price.

The secret comes out in a video: Hardin started it all as a dare from his friends. He swears he has changed, but Tessa leaves. In the end, he writes an essay declaring his love and waits for her at the lake.

Split from Tessa, Hardin follows her to Seattle and clashes with Trevor, her fellow intern. His mother, Trish, arrives from London and tells Tessa about the trauma he went through as a boy. At Christmas, he gets drunk and attacks Ken.

On New Year's, he's convinced Tessa will leave him for Trevor and Seattle. When she's hurt in an accident, Hardin blames himself and thinks about ending it, but Trish talks him into staying. He also meets Tessa's father.

Hardin doesn't trust Richard, Tessa's father, and even offers him money to leave. Later, he pays off Richard's debt with a watch. Tessa's move to Seattle turns into a fight, but he reads her journal, sees the damage and takes up boxing to keep his anger in check.

At Trish's wedding in London, he catches his mother with Christian Vance. At a bar, Vance reveals the truth: he is Hardin's biological father.

Furious, Hardin drinks and sets fire to his mother's old house. Vance takes the blame. Hardin vanishes into a party and lets Tessa fly home alone, but he comes back when Richard dies. Tessa asks for distance, and he agrees. He goes to AA, graduates and writes about the two of them.

In New York, they grow close again, until she finds the manuscript After. Hardin loses Tessa once more, and the book becomes a bestseller.

Stuck on his second book, Hardin goes to Lisbon to find Natalie, a girl he exposed years earlier over a bet. He gets beaten up on the beach, spends a night in jail, and Vance is the one who bails him out. Natalie ends up forgiving him, and he writes Before.

At Landon's wedding, he's the best man. His speech about missing half his soul wins Tessa back, and he proposes. Years later, he comes home holding his book Later, with his daughter running to him and Tessa pregnant.

In the fanfiction Anna Todd posted on Wattpad, the character was based on One Direction's Harry Styles. In the book, he became Hardin Scott. Before covers his childhood in Hampstead, London. Hero Fiennes Tiffin played him in all 5 movies; a prequel about young Hardin has been announced, with a different actor.