A/N ~ Excerpt included from Chamber of Secrets. Just the intro to the Dueling Club by Lockhart. I do not own that portion, JK Rowling does, OF COURSE. 3 JK!

~ December 17, 1992 ~

Garnet walked with Fred and George into the Great Hall after dropping their books off in their Common Rooms.

"This should be entertaining to say the least." Garnet grinned. "As if Lockhart knows the proper way to duel."

Everyone gathered as Snape and Lockhart took to the center of the room.

"Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little duelling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions — for full details, see my published works." Professor Lockhart arrogantly said.

Garnet made eye contact with Severus, and rolled her eyes.

Snape almost smiled, but caught himself just in time.

The students were made to pair up against each other. Fred, George and Garnet were all separated. Garnet looked around, so were Harry, Ron and Hermione. Garnet saw Harry up against Draco and grimaced. This may not turn out well.

Garnet turned to see who Severus was pairing her up with. Lee Jordan walked over to her.

She smiled, "Have you used the disarming charm before?"

"Not in a duel, just to practice." he smiled at her.

They practiced a bit, both knocking each others wands from their hands back and forth.

Garnet looked around and saw George was paired with Cedric. Her chest tightened.

The look on their faces was fierce.

Then she looked around to the rest of her friends. Harry and Draco were going at it, Ron was apologizing to poor Seamus, and Millicent had Hermione in a headlock. Garnet ran over to break that up. Garnet scowled at Milliecent.

"So..." Cedric said to George as they squared off.

"So." George replied.

"I bet you're happy." Cedric said, then disarmed George.

Scowling, George picked up his wand, "About what?" he said playing dumb.

"That she broke up with me." Cedric replied.

"I'm not happy about it. But if that's what she wants, then I support her. She's my best friend." George replied, then disarmed Cedric.

Cedric retrieved his wand and turned back at George. "I see the way you look at her." he said. "I'm pretty sure most see it, except her."

George put his hand down. "So what?"

"So do something about it you knitwit!" Cedric disarmed George again.

George stared at Cedric, completely in shock. What did he seriously just hear the Hufflepuff say to him?

George picked up his wand and approached Cedric. "Are you screwing with me?"

Cedric shook his head. "I've seen the way she looks at you too."

"You guys just broke up a little over a month ago." George shook his head. "You're not angry?"

Cedric shrugged, "Not going to lie, I wish we were still dating, but if she's happier being my friend I'd rather have that than no friendship at all." he sighed. "I like seeing her happy."

George nodded. "Are we good?" he asked Cedric.

Cedric nodded, "We're good, but you should make a move before someone else scoops her up."

George sighed. "I'm still working up the nerve."

Lockhart called the students back to attention, seeing the chaos that was happening around them.

Garnet stood beside George as everyone gathered around Snape and Lockhart.

Next thing she knew, Harry and Draco were standing in front of everyone, taking a dueling stance. When Harry flew backwards, everyone gasped. Garnet noticed her Godfather looked amused. When Harry fired back and Draco flew backwards, Severus narrowed his eyes and yanked Draco to his feet.

Then Draco hollared "Serpensortia!" and a snake appeared.

Nobody moved. Snape smirked.

"Don't worry, Potter, I'll get it."Severus moved around Draco.

"Allow me, Severus." Lockhart stepped forward. "Alarte Ascendare!"

The snake flew up into the air and landed in front of Justin Finch-Fletchley. Justin froze as the snake was eyeing him up.

Garnet grabbed hold of George's arm and tucked in behind him, when the snake moved quickly, hissing at everyone.

That's when everyone heard Harry hissing at the snake. All eyes were on him, terrified.

Garnet glanced down and realized she was still holding onto George. She blushed. Then she noticed her bracelet was turning colors quickly.

She let go of George and backed out of the Great Hall as quickly as she could. She knew she couldn't make it to the Common Room or Potions classroom very quickly, so she raced up the steps and ran into the second floor girls lavatory.

Just as the door clicked shut, she fell to the floor.

Garnet slowly opened her eyes. There was a startled looking girl with her face hovering above hers.

"That was quite a show. I thought for a moment I was going to have someone else to share my stall with." The girl giggled.

"Myrtle..." Garnet groaned and sat up. "How long was I out?"

A little less giggly, Myrtle floated above her. "How should I know? But that shaking and jerking you did, that looked fun."

Garnet laughed, "Yeah, real fun. Especially since I can't control when it happens." She stood up and brushed herself off. "Can you do me a favor and not tell anyone about this?" she pleaded. "If you promise, I'll make a promise to come visit once in a while."

Myrtle thought about it for a moment. "I suppose I could keep quiet about it. Not like too many people come in here anyways, just Harry and his two friends."

Garnet stopped short of the door. "Harry, Ron and Hermione come in here? For what?"

Myrtle opened her mouth to tell her, but she held up her hand quickly, "Nevermind, I don't think I want to know. I'll see you again soon Myrtle."

"Bye Garnet." Myrtle moaned and flew into her toilet.

As she made her way down the steps to head for the Common Room, exhaustion took over her body. She sat down on the bottom step, eyelids getting heavy.

"Garnet!" she heard George's voice and opened her eyes with a start. Coming towards her she saw George, Fred and... was that Severus?

"Where did you run off too?" George asked, frantic, "We were worried sick!"

"I..." she made eye contact with Snape, "I thought I was going to be sick, but I didn't want anyone seeing me, and I think I passed out."

George sighed, "You alright now?" Garnet nodded. "With everything going on, you know we'd rather walk you to the dungeons in the evening."

"I know I know, sorry." she stood up unsteadily, "It won't happen again."

"I'll take Miss Prince to the Dungeons, you two should get to your Common Room, it's after curfew." Snape nodded at Fred and George. The Twins nodded back. They each gave Garnet a quick hug, and headed up the stairs to the portrait of the Fat Lady.

Snape walked with Garnet down the steps leading to the Dungeons. "You're sure you're all right?"

Garnet nodded, "It was really close."

"As much as I despise all the red headed menaces, you could tell your friends why you disappear sometimes." Snape suggested.

"I'm not ready for that yet." she sighed. "Things would change I think. I don't want them to change."

"As you wish, it's your decision." He walked her to the entrance to the Common Room.

"Pure-blood" Garnet said the password, disgusted.

Snape shook his head. "Good night, Miss Prince." he said.

"Good night Professor." She walked in to the Common Room all abuzz again.

~ December 18, 1992 ~

It didn't take long for Garnet to get the scoop as to what had happened after she left the Duel Club. Now everyone was giving Harry suspicious looks.

"Poor Harry," Garnet said to the Twins. "You don't think he's the Heir of Slytherin, do you?"

"Harry? The Heir of Slytherin?" George laughed. "I somehow doubt Harry would be capable of such things, I mean, Muggles had him trapped in his own room. He didn't do anything to retaliate or hurt them."

Fred nodded in agreement, as his mouth was full of scrambled egg.

Breakfast finished up and the Trio headed for Potions.

"Today we are going to begin our chapter on the Antidotes." Snape began the lecture. He started writing a list of ailments on the blackboard. Then wrote Mandrake. "Mandrake is an essential ingredient of most Antidotes."

Everyone took notes.

"The first Antidote we will be making is the Burn-healing Antidote, which some of you could have used the last three years." his snide remark didn't go unnoticed by Garnet, who just shook her head.

"Feeling better today?" George whispered to her.

Garnet nodded, hating not telling her best friends what's wrong with her. "Much better, thank you."

"Mr. Weasley, Miss Prince, please let me know when you are done talking so that I may continue on with our lesson." Snape raised an eyebrow at them.

Garnet's face got really red.

"Are you finished?" Snape asked.

"Yes sir." George said, then gave Garnet a quick wink before they continued taking notes.

Divination seemed to drag on forever. They were working on Tarot Card readings.

Garnet started wondering if it would be too late to drop the class and get into something else. She had made a whole 3 correct predictions over the last year and a half, which arguably is more than Professor Trewlaney has had in the last decade, but she wasn't sure how much of it was actually Divination or just dumb luck.

"Miss Prince," Trewlaney stood over her as she shuffled the deck for the Hufflepuff girl across from her, "Shuffle them really well."

Garnet nodded then began shuffling them like she would if playing Rummy with her mother and father. The Hufflepuff laughed. She held them out so she could cut the deck.

Garnet started laying out the cards in the beginners Five Card Spread. When she picked up the card to represent present, she paused as she looked at it.

"The Three of Cups." Garnet thought about it, it means friendship. She then turned over the future card. "The Five of Cups..." Then she got a sick feeling in her stomach. "One of your friends is in trouble." She looked up at the Hufflepuff girl, whose eyes were wide with fear.

"Justin?" she whispered quietly.

"Now now my pupils, I'm sure everything is fine. It takes time to master the art of Tarot." Professor Trewlaney pat the Hufflepuff on the shoulder.

Garnet felt insulted. She finished out the girls Tarot reading.

"Well in the far future everything will turn out alright." Garnet was over Divination Class for the day, but at least the Hufflepuff relaxed.

Finally class ended, and they made their way downstairs towards the Great Hall for Lunch.

Garnet was bringing up the rear. She was trying to convince herself that nothing she said in class would be true, then she heard screams.

Instinctively she raced forward through the crowd.

Garnet saw Harry standing over Justin Finch-Fletchely and beside Nearly Headless Nick.

She ran to him, "Harry what happened?"

"I didn't do it, Garnet I promise, I found them like this. You have to believe me." terror was clearly etched across his face.

"I do believe you Harry," she said. TheProfessors cleared the area as quickly as they could, and Professor McGonagall lead Harry away to Dumbledors Office.

At Lunch Garnet explained to Fred and George what she saw.

"That's scary, but I know Harry didn't do it." George said.

"Yeah but listen to everybody else, swearing up and down that he's the Heir of Slytherin." Fred grimaced.

"He's going to have a heck of a time after this." Garnet sighed.

Just then Harry walked into the Great Hall. All eyes were on him as he made his way to sit with his friends.

"We may have to lighten the mood a little Freddie." George grinned.

After Lunch, Harry, Ron and Hermione were on their way to Defense against the Dark Arts, George and Fred purposely got in front of them, hollaring "Make way, make way, Heir of Slytherin coming through."

Harry smirked. Garnet giggled. Percy was not amused at all.