December 25th, 1994 ~

Christmas morning, Garnet woke with a start when she heard laughing, giggling and squealing from the Common Room.

She rolled her eyes. She was not looking forward to the Yule Ball.

She and George had talked, a lot, the last few days. He told her over and over he was willing to be patient and help her through the trauma. Garnet still felt this was unfair to him, but he wouldn't hear it.

Garnet pushed herself and let him hold her last night. He had kept his hands on her back and didn't hold her tightly, just enough that they were connected. Not like they were before, but at least connected.

And now, the Yule Ball loomed ahead. An evening of dancing in close proximity of not only George, but many others as well.

But she would get through it. She told her self this over and over again

She got up and saw a small pile of presents on her bed.

Her aunt and uncle and her father sent books and simple things that she appreciated. Of course, a comfy Weasley sweater from Molly was in the pile. It was a lovely green color, a bit different from the sweater from a past Christmas.

She noticed a small black box with a green bow on the bottom of the pile. She carefully opened it and inside was a curved white stone.

Instinctively she rubbed her thumb over it's smooth surface and it began to turn grey. Then she realized she was ever so slightly less anxious about the Ball tonight.

She pulled a paper out of the box and read the note. She did not recognize the writing.

"This is a 'Worry Stone'. Not that Muggle rubbish, an actual Worry Stone. Rub it and it will temporarily alleviate some of the worry and anxiety weighing on your mind. Something you could put to good use."

She read on that the darker it got the more worry it absorbed, but once it was black it was at maximum capacity. It held the worry for quite some time, then slowly released it back until it returned to white.

Garnet raised a brow. She debated telling her Godfather about it. Whoever sent it seemed to know how hard of a time she was having this past week.

In the end she decided to keep the stone to herself, but wanted to test the power of it before relying heavily on it for the Yule Ball.

Garnet held the stone and rubbed her thumb over it a few times. The already grey surface turned a darker grey.

She sat a moment and realized the thought of being near people wasn't making her insides churn.

Garnet felt elated at this. She jumped up and got dressed quickly.

She wanted to go see George and her friends. The realization of wanting this made her even more excited. She grabbed George and Fred's gifts and quickly raced out the door through the Common room and up the Dungeon corridor.

Garnet saw George and Fred coming down the stairs with Lee Jordan. It took only a moment for George to notice Garnet standing, smiling brightly. A smile he had missed over the last week.

"Love?" he smiled at her as he stood in front of her. "Alright?"

Her smile widened and she slowly wrapped her arms around his waist, startling George. Unsure, he merely touched her back, not wanting to make her panic.

Garnet loosened her hold on him, and smiled up at him. "Merry Christmas, George," she gave him a peck on the cheek and handed him a small box.

Still confused, George warily smiled back at her. He raised a brow when she let go and gave Fred a quick hug and handed him box as well.

"Feeling better, Garnet?" Fred asked timidly.

Garnet smiled, "A bit."

The Twins were excited to see she gave them a few ingredients they had been hard pressed to find for one of their {prank box snacks name}.

"Where'd you get this?" Fred smirked.

"My aunt helped me out." She shrugged.

"This is wicked," George kissed her on the head, "We can make a lot out of this."

Garnet grinned.

Fred and Lee watched the two of them for a moment, then George gave Fred a look, telling him to get lost.

"Here Georgie, Lee and I will run these up to to the room." he held out his hand for George's box. The two of them disappeared up the steps.

George took Garnet's hand and pulled her towards the entrance to the Great Hall. George shifted from foot to foot, telling Garnet he was worried about something.

"What's wrong, George?" she wrapped her arms around his waist again, resting her head on him. George put his arms around her and closed his eyes. He smiled. This was the best Christmas present he could have gotten. Not being able to hold her, but the fact that she was feeling this much better.

He loosened his hold and cleared his throat, and she took a step back.

George held out a small red velvet box. Garnet raised a brow.

"George, what is that?" her mind going a mile a minute.

He chuckled, "Calm down, it's not what you think it is... sort of." He opened up the box, and sitting inside was a beautiful silver ring with their names and a pretty design engraved in it, and in between their names, a single tiny fleck of what looked like diamond.

"George?" her eyes lit up. "It's beautiful!"

"It's a promise ring, Garnet." he said, almost afraid to speak. "As long as you wear it, you're mine, I'm yours, and nothing can get in our way. Eventually, once we get out of Hogwarts and get on with our lives, I'll trade you that one for an engagement ring."

Garnet's gaze shot straight to George's eyes.

"So basically it's a pre-engagement ring?" she bit her bottom lip.

He nodded. She could tell he was trying hard to hold it together.

Garnet just stood there for what George thought was eternity.

"Are you going to give me an answer?" he finally blurted out.

"Oh! I-" she giggled, "Yes, George, of course, I'll wear your promise ring."

George grinned from ear to ear. He took it out of the box and put it on her right hand ring finger. Then he leaned in and kissed her. They broke the kiss grinning at each other.

"I was going to wait until later, but when I came down the stairs and saw you in such a good mood, I couldn't hold off." He nuzzled her nose with his.

Garnet was even more grateful for the mysterious Worry Stone gift now.

They walked into the Great Hall, hand in hand. Garnet kept looking down at the ring, her heart so full.

After breakfast Ginny and Hermione got with Garnet quick to set a time to meet up. The girls were supposed to gather in an empty classroom and help each other with their hair and make-up. Hermione was especially in need of Garnet's help. Her wild hair was going to take a team of people to tame.

"Do you think after Lunch will give us enough time? I don't want to run short to work on your and Ginny's hair." she worried.

Garnet tried to run her hand through Hermione's hair, but it got caught on her ring.

"I'm so sorry!" she freed her hand, laughing.

Ginny's eyes lit up. "What is that?" she pointed at Garnet's ring.

"Oh..." she didn't know if she was supposed to mention the Promise Ring or not. She knew Fred knew about it. "Uh, my Christmas present from your brother." she tried to brush it off.

"No way!" Hermione grabbed her hand and she and Ginny inspected it.

"It's so pretty!" Ginny smiled.

Hermione held Garnet's hand a little longer. "It's... on your right ring finger." Hermione raised a knowing brow at the Slytherin.

Garnet felt a familiar sense of anxiousness filling her chest.

"What does that mean?" Ginny turned to Hermione.

"I...uh," Garnet managed to get her hand back, and pressed on her chest over her heart.

"If I'm not mistaken, that means it's a Promise Ring. Which pretty much means he plans to marry her some day." Hermione grinned at Ginny, who was getting giddy, until they turned back to Garnet. She had taken a step back and had gone pale, trying to calm her breathing down, and stop the shaking she felt inside.

"Garnet?" Hermione had a worried expression on her face.

"Hermione, her bracelet." was all Garnet heard Ginny say as she dropped to the floor.

The girls had made a dash to grab Garnet, trying to keep her from hurting herself as she went down and started convulsing.

Granger watched their friend on the floor, feeling helpless.

Once her seizure ended, Hermione rolled Garnet on her side, like she had seen George do before, and rubbed her back.

Garnet sobbed a scared sound, startling her friends. "Please... don't touch me right now. I'll be fine, just give me a few minutes." she couldn't stand being touched again. This worried Garnet.

She composed herself for the most part, and excused herself, promising to meet with them right after lunch.

Garnet pulled out the Worry Stone. It had gone back to white.

"No..." she took a deep breath. She began rubbing it vigorously, until it turned pitch black. Taking a deep breath again, and feeling much more relaxed, she headed to see her Godfather.

As she approached the door to his office, she heard arguing.

"But Severus, you can not ignore the signs." she heard a heavy Bulgarian accent.

"I've asked you to get out of my office. This is the last time." Snape's voice remained calm.

Garnet heard yelling in Bulgarian, and something shattered.

Leaping into action, Garnet pulled her wand, pointed it at the door, and yelled "Bombarda!"

Snape's door burst open. She raced in, wand drawn. Karkaroff's wand was drawn as well, aiming at her. Garnet narrowed her eyes at him.

"You will put your wand down, Karkaroff, or I will put it down for you." Severus jumped between Garnet and the foreign Headmaster.

"How dare this student attack!" the Bulgarian yelled.

Severus looked back at Garnet, a look of pride at what she was capable of doing showed on his face, then turned back to the loud intruder. "Perhaps my Godchild would not have blown up my door, if you had left the third time you were asked. Now I'm telling you. GET OUT."

"Godchild... Alatar's daughter?" Karkaroff narrowed his eyes at Garnet again, nodded acknowledgement, then left.

"I'm so sorry, Severus." Garnet suddenly realized the damage she had done. Snape waved it off, then with a flick of his wand, his door fixed itself.

Severus then walked over and picked up his cup of tea he had been trying to enjoy before Karkaroff interrupted him. "Did you really just blow my door up to come to my rescue?" He smirked at her.

Garnet shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe?"

He regarded her for a moment, "Feeling better, child?" he asked.

Nodding, Garnet walked towards his cauldron. "I was thinking maybe we could go ahead and change my hair color? Can we go with a dark cherry type color?"

"You mean black and red?" Snape raised a brow but nodded. "I suppose." and he motioned to a chair.

Garnet skipped lunch with everyone. She wanted to wait until to show off her new color until Ball time.

She checked the Worry Stone quick, it was still dark, so she tucked it in her pocket and headed to the empty classroom.

"AH! I love that color on you!" Ginny grinned at her.

"Thanks." Garnet smiled, then grabbed a brush and a container of hair putty. "Come on Granger! Let's get started! It's gonna take a while."

George and Fred stood with Ron, Harry and Neville by the entrance to the Great Hall.

Ginny and Angelina came down the stairs first. Neville and Fred escorted them into the Hall, as the entrance was getting quite crowded.

Parvati and Padma approached Ron and Harry. George chuckled at Padma's reaction to Ron's ancient looking robes.

"Bloody hell," Draco's comment drew George's attention to the stairs.

Garnet stood at the top, her silver dress fitted in all the right places, her dark hair is bouncy curls framing her face. She painted her nails black, and wore her necklace with the snake that Severus had given her for Christmas one year.

She had the Worry Stone tucked in a pouch she wore around her wrist as a clutch.

George met her halfway down the stairs, and held his hand out to her. Garnet smiled at him lovingly.

"You look... whoa." was all he could muster.

Giggling, Garnet bit her bottom lip, "Thank you."

She felt eyes on her as they made their way to the Great Hall.

Finally the Yule Ball got underway and George and Garnet danced and danced. She also took turns dancing with Fred. A couple of students from Durmstrang had cut in on George and Garnet. George showed her how much he trusted her by letting her go with them. He merely kept and eye on her from a distance.

"You notice how Garnet hasn't had any issues being touched today at all... something doesn't sit well with me." Fred mentioned to his brother at one point.

George nodded, "That's why I'm keeping tabs on her."

After an exceptionally quick song, Garnet made her way back towards George, only to be intercepted by Draco.

"Prince," he said to her, looking her up and down.

"Malfoy," she shifted her weight to one foot. George and Fred were both burning a hole in the back of the blonde's head.

"May I have a dance?" he smirked.

"We've already danced, haven't we?" she smiled.

Draco shook his head, chuckling, "Come on, I'm sure Weasel One would be okay relinquishing one more dance."

Garnet looked to George, who shrugged, leaving it up to her.

"Fine." she said. Draco took her hand and led her back to the floor.

Of course the band chose that moment to play a slow song. Draco smirked, as he put his arm around her waist and pulled her closer.

"If you don't move your hand up a little bit, I will cut it off." she growled.

"Oooh, I like 'em feisty." Draco teased.

They danced a few circles, and Garnet could feel her heart starting to pound hard in her chest.

She had all but forgotten about the Worry Stone.

"Just so you know, you look gorgeous tonight," Draco gave her a compliment, but it fell on deaf ears. The sound of her own pulse was roaring in her ears instead. The feeling of his hands around her waist was beginning to cause panic to course through her.

'Why is this hitting so fast..." she began to shake a bit. "Excuse me, Draco," she could barely mutter, as she backed away from him.

"Garnet," he looked at her concerned.

She pulled her skirt up and started rushing through the crowd, flinching every time someone brushed against her.

George saw everything happen and was waiting at the edge of the crowd when she got there.

"Love, you alright?" he went to put his arms around her and she pulled away from him.

"No... I'm not, I need out of here." she kept moving towards the doors. "I need outside or something. Fresh air."

She bust through the doors and outside. She started rummaging through her pouch for the Worry Stone.

"Garnet," George touched her shoulder.

Garnet flinched and yelled, "Please, don't touch me."

George saw horror in her eyes.

"Just... just give me a minute, I need to find..." she was shaking so bad she couldn't get the bag open.

Snape and Karkaroff were wandering around, when Severus heard the commotion.

"What do you need, Garnet, I can help you." George offered.

"No! Just hold on, let me be." Severus heard the fear in his Godchild's voice. Completely different than earlier.

He rounded a shrub when Garnet pulled the near white stone from her pouch and dropped it. It skidded to a stop in front of Severus.

"What is this?" he asked, bending down to pick it up.

"Severus, please," Garnet begged, George watching with questions in his head. "Please. It's how I've gotten through today."

Snape looked at the stone. "Lapis Anzietis? Where did you get this?" his eyes snapped up to Garnet.

"It was in my Christmas gifts." a tear streamed down her cheek, "I don't know who gave it to me."

"Do you know the power this wields?" he asked. "It will remove all your anxieties temporarily, but when they come back they are amplified." He saw Garnet shaking, and not from the cool air. "This explains a lot. You should have brought this to me immediately."

"I just... I just wanted to get through a day without fear of letting my boyfriend hold my hand, put his arm around me, or kiss me." she cried. "I didn't realize it was going to do this to me."

George felt awful. "Garnet, I told you I'd be patient."

"Well I'm not patient, okay?" she stood up straight, staring at them through tears, "I just want my life back to normal! I feel like a intruder in my own head! I need these damn memories, these irrational fears that you, that everybody is going to hurt me, to just go away!" she yelled, then turned running in to the castle.

"Garnet!" she heard Severus and George yell at the same time.

But she ran, unfortunately, straight into a group of students in the corridor. Some looked at her quizzically, but others just ignored her, too involved with their date to notice her. Garnet stepped on the hem of her dress and began to trip.

"I've got you," Draco had caught her, then saw the tears and look on her face. "Prince, what's the matter?"

Garnet tried to push him away, her breath catching in her throat. She felt a full on panic attack coming on.

"Did that Weasel hurt you? Garnet, speak to me." Draco held onto her arms.

"Bloody hell," Garnet muttered, before she collapsed into his arms, a seizure taking hold of her.

Draco had no idea what was happening, then Snape and George ran to them. Everybody circled around, giving them space, as George and Draco laid Garnet on the ground.

She began convulsing.

"What did you do to her?" Draco yelled at George.

"I didn't do anything, she's just having a seizure." George took off his jacket and placed it under her head. "Don't touch her." he pushed Draco's hands from her. "It's best to let it take it's course."

Snape quickly grabbed some teachers to escort as many of the students from the corridor as possible.

The Durmstrang boys turned their backs and circled around Garnet, George and Draco, giving them some privacy from prying eyes.

"What are they doing?" Snape looked at Karkaroff.

The Bulgarian Headmaster sighed, "One of our boys is epileptic. They've seen it before."

Severus nodded his approval and appreciation.

George sat by and watched Garnet shake and jerk. It seemed to last much longer than it had in the past.

"Does this sort of thing happen often?" Draco asked George quietly.

"It comes and goes." he replied. He sighed a breath of relief when the jerking slowed down. Once it finally stopped, he rolled her over and stroked her hair. "Garnet, love, you're safe."

Garnet's eyes darted about, sobs escaping in gasps.

George laid down on the floor facing her, and he waited, a single tear rolling down his face.

When Garnets' eyes focused on him, he gave a weak smile at her.

"Georgie," she sniffed, "I'm going mental."

"Nah, love, not mental, you just need a little more help than I can give you." His vision blurred as tears threatened to spill. "You need to heal properly and quit trying to please everyone else."

Garnet closed her eyes and cried.

"I told you, I can wait. That ring is a Promise, and like you, I won't go back on my promise." George choked back a breathy sob.

Severus stood, watching the young couple. Professor Dumbledore approached and stood beside him. "Perhaps, you could alleviate some of her suffering, Professor. I don't generally approve of a Teacher using the Obliviate Charm on a Student, but as you are her Godfather, as long as Alatar gives his blessing, I would not oppose."

"Headmaster..." he looked to Dumbledore.

"Who better to perform it than someone that cares enough about her to make sure what should and should not be erased." The professor pat Snape on the shoulder and headed back to the Ball, trying to distract onlookers as best he could.

Garnet closed her eyes again, just trying to gain control of her breathing, but she was so tired.

"Sleep, love. We can talk in the morning." George said. He reached to touch her hand, but stopped himself.

Severus saw Garnet falling asleep, but knew he needed to get her out of the corridor and to the Infirmary.

He pulled out his wand and silently put the Bewitching Sleep spell on her.

George jumped up quickly, "What did you do?!" he looked to Snape.

"She is sound asleep. Do you think you can handle taking her to Madame Pomfrey or should we get a stretcher?" Severus asked, not being mean, but knowing that all this must have taken a toll on him as well.

"I..." but George stopped and shook his head. He was trembling.

"It's fine, Weasley," Severus said quietly.

Filip Dragomitrov pulled from the circle, "I can carry her, Sir, with permission, of course." he looked at George.

George nodded and watched as his girlfriend was picked up easily, like a ragdoll, by someone else.

"Get some sleep, Weasley, we will have lots to discuss in the morning." Severus nodded at him, and turned to follow Filip down the corridor.

The crowd finally began to disperse, but George just stood there. Draco watched him for a few moments before heading to the Slytherin Common Room. This Yule Ball was over for him.

"Oi! George!" Fred, Angelina and Lee were making their way through the crowd to George.

One look at George and Fred knew everything he had overheard was most likely partially true. He didn't even say anything, he just hugged his brother.

George broke down.