Promises

When he awoke, he was lying in a bed in a place he had never seen before. "Where am I?" he asked.

"You're in St. Mungo's," Ginny told him, brushing his hair out of his eyes. As he looked around, he saw curtains dividing him from the rest of the patients. He could vaguely hear the person in the enclosed space next to him mumbling something about everybody being out to get him. "Don't mind him. He was cursed with a Disillusioning Charm," she informed him, noticing that he had heard the guy.

"What happened to me?" he asked in a soft voice. He could barely speak. His heart was still burning a little bit, and his vision was still a little fuzzy, but he was feeling better than before.

"Someone was trying to ruin the wedding. Someone didn't want us to get married, so they tried to hurt you beyond repair. They didn't want to kill you, they just wanted to get you out of the picture. We still haven't found who it was," Ginny answered, a look of extreme worry on her face.

"Why would anyone want to do that?" Harry thought to himself. "Why would anyone not want Ginny and me to get married? What possible reason could they have?" he continued to ponder to himself.

"Hey Harry, how ya doin'?" he heard a voice ask him. He looked up from his bed and saw Ron walking through the curtains that engulfed his bed. "You're not really looking too much better," Ron said with a quiver in his voice.

"I'm not feeling too much better either. What the hell did they do to me?" Harry inquired, though he knew Ron wouldn't have a clue either.

"I have no idea, Harry. But whatever they did must've really taken it's toll on you. Just look at yourself. You're as pale as a ghost," Ron answered with a look of bewilderment upon his face.

"Harry, baby, you should really get some rest," Ginny said, kissing him on his forehead. "You really don't look like you're feeling well. Maybe we should just leave you be for a little bit. We'll be waiting outside for the time being." Harry nodded in acknowledgment as they walked through the curtains. He could hear them whispering to each other.

"How long do you think it'll take for him to be on his feet again?" Ron asked. Harry could hear the uncertainty in his voice.

"I don't know, but I hope it isn't too long," Ginny answered him. Her voice was very soft, and their voices were getting quieter. Harry supposed they were walking off towards the waiting room. As he rested in his bed, he began thinking about who could have possibly wanted to make him so ill.

"Who did this? Who wouldn't want me and Ginny to be together? There must be some explanation for all of this mess. Hmm...let's see...who was there? Neville, Moody, Dean, Seamus, Snape...Maybe it was Snape! Nah, Snape wouldn't do this...Michael Corner! It must've been him!" he thought to himself, sitting up quickly at this idea. "Who else could it be? He has perfect reasoning! He's just jealous because he used to date her!" he muttered to himself. It was at this precise point in time that the nurse walked in and stood next to his bed. "When will I be able to leave?" he demanded of the nurse.

"I was thinking two days from now," she said, glancing up at him before resuming her work. She jotted down some information that she retrieved from a machine next to his bed on a clipboard before leaving promptly. Harry sat there staring at the curtain that divided him from the man in the space to his left. The voice sounded oddly familiar to him. The person was mumbling something about autographs.

"Gilderoy Lockhart!" he murmured to himself, his eyes widening in shock. "I can't believe he's still here!" Harry thought to himself. This triggered something in his brain. That was the first time he really started to like Ginny. When he had saved her, there became a sort of relationship between the two. That was the first real time he realized how much he loved her. The curtains flew open, and Harry saw Lockhart scramble across the floor to his bedside.

"Have I met you before?" he asked in this sort of awkward tone.

"Um...yeah," Harry replied, rolling his eyes. "I was there the day your memory went kaflooie," Harry told him.

"Kaflooie? Now that's an odd word..." Lockhart muttered, staring up at the ceiling. "Would you like an autograph? How about your cute red-headed friend? Would she like an autograph? I was quite famous once ya know!" Lockhart told him matter-of-factly, his smile stretching across his face and his eyes growing larger.

"Gilderoy! What have I told you about bothering the other patients? Get back in your bed!" Harry heard a nurse's voice say. "I'm sorry, Mr. Potter. I'll make sure he doesn't wander out of bed again," she said very calmly, closing the curtains on him. He felt isolated, cut off from the rest of the world. The area around him was silent and very dark. There was nothing for him to do but sleep. So he laid his head back on his pillows and he thought; he thought about his life with Ginny; he thought about Michael Corner, the person whom he suspected had tried to dismantle him so his and Ginny's marriage would be miserable. But Harry would not let Michael ruin the good thing he had with Ginny. He would exact his revenge on this boy for trying to hurt him and cause him great suffering.

"Harry," a voice whispered from the back of his mind. He had heard that voice many times before, the most recent being when he had conquered the nefarious Lord Voldemort. It was the voice of his father who still lived on in Harry's subconscious self. "Harry, you need to relax. You don't even know for sure it was this Michael kid. Just calm down. You need some rest. You still haven't fully healed from the incident," his father's voice told him.

"Yes, that's true," Harry replied, muttering to himself. He closed his eyelids and moments later drifted off into a deep sleep.

"Look at him," Ginny whispered to her brother as they emerged from behind the curtains. Harry was fast asleep on the bed with his arm dangling from the side of the bed.

"Nobody admits to seeing anyone do anything during the reception," Ron informed her, staring at his best friend. "We have no leads as to who did it."

"I have an idea though," Ginny said, lowering her head and staring at the ground.

"Who do you think?" Ron inquired.

"Michael Corner. He came as Lavender's date," Ginny told him. "He's probably still angry because I dumped him."

"That filthy little scumbag!" Ron exclaimed furiously. Ginny smacked him on his arm to make him quiet down. "Sorry," he mumbled. "He's going to hear it from me. I'm going to go have a word with him," he said, an evil grin appearing on his red face.

"Please Ron, don't do anything too rash," Ginny commanded him. He walked through the curtains, and Ginny went over to Harry's bedside. She grabbed his hand and sat down beside him "Everything's going to be okay, Harry," Ginny told him. "Everything will be okay." She put her other hand on his shoulder, and kissed him on the forehead. She left the bedside and went out to the waiting room once again where Sirius, Lupin, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were conversing.

"I do hope Harry's all right," Mrs. Weasley said. Her face was becoming pale from worrying about Harry.

"He's been through worse stuff than this. He'll be fine. He always is," Sirius tried to comfort her. He had true faith in Harry's recovery.

"I'm sure you're right, Sirius. It's been causing Ginny some major distress. She's really worried and hasn't gone to work these past few days," Mrs. Weasley replied.

"You know I'm right here, don't you?" Ginny jumped into the conversation.

"Oh, sorry Ginny, dear. We didn't see you walk in here. How's he doing? They wouldn't let the rest of us back there," her father told her.

"He's sleeping right now. He doesn't look too good though. His face is very pale, his eyelids are swollen, his ears are a deep shade of magenta, and he didn't sound too good when he was awake either. He sounded rather angry about what had happened," Ginny informed the adults.

"Hmmm...I would be quite angry myself if somebody tried to ruin my wedding night," Remus tried to show that Harry's feelings were perfectly normal. "What's wrong with Ron? We saw him run out of here."

"Oh, well, we think we know who it was. Michael Corner, Lavender's boyfriend. We used to date. Ron's just a little angry with him at the moment. I told him not to do anything too rash," Ginny said, trying to stick up for her older brother.

But outside of the hospital, trouble was stirring. For just outside the doors, there was a confrontation. A confrontation between Ronald Weasley and the supposed attacker, Michael Corner.