It was a cold day, and the sky was overcast as the gloomy, grey Scottish clouds hung over the castle. But Garret was a happy little camper with a bounce in his step as he traipsed down the pathway, looking for a private little bench where he could read Trel's love letter. Forget the fact that the trees were bald, and that the ground squished under his shoes, he was warmed from the inside out at the thought of the love of his life pouring her heart out to him in this one scrap of parchment.

He found a secluded spot, far away from the castle and the more populated areas of the school grounds. It was a good place to have your dreams come true, he thought as he sat on an ancient looking bench.

Without thinking, as he drew the parchment out and admired the beautiful handwriting on the front which styled his name"Beloved Garret", Garret broke into song again. This time, it was another Puccini, but from Tosca, his mum's third favourite opera, "Recondita armonia di belleze diverse... *"

Garret was not a great singer, but he wasn't bad at it either. However, since nobody ever heard him sing, he had never received any comment about it.

He carefully unfolded the letter and he slowly took in the words, wanting to savor each and every moment. He kept on singing, barely thinking about it as the words flowed off the page and burrowed deep in his heart.

Your eyes forever the source of my calm
Your kind gestures I shall never forget
Making yourself memorable in my young life
Oh, Beloved Garret, you smell of dirt
A quality I quite esteem in a young man.

"E bruna Floria, l'ardente amante mia.....*" he sang slowly to himself before going on to the next stanze in the poem (she had written him a LOVE poem!).

Your cock-eyed look makes me shiver
And your metallic smile blinds me with it's radiance
The freckles on your face which so much resemble
Flecks of dirt and small insects are endearing
To the point I could drop and expire into nothingness

She liked his freckles and his smile! He was likely to expire, but kept on singing, getting louder and more into it as he read on, "E te, beltade ignota, cinta di chiome bionde!*"

Nothing that I can perceive in this world
Could ever compare to your uncanny ability
To become charmingly annoying
I could only hope to one day wrap my fingers around your neck
And squeeze you so tenderly until we become a couple

A couple, a couple!!! He had to put the letter down as he belted out the next line, too happy to keep it inside, "Tu azzuro hai l'occhio, Tosca ha l'occhio nero!*"

A couple like no other
A couple like Romeo and Juliet
Without the tragic ending
A couple like Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley
Minus the strange named children
A couple like no other

And she was perfect for him, too, he didn't care for Romeo and Juliet OR the Potter's strange named children. And to be compared to Harry Potter, the most wickedest awesome wizard to have ever lived (excluding some Quidditch stars he was rather fond of), it only proved how much Cassandra Trelawney esteemed him. He sang on, not aware of the words or their meaning, but simply singing from memory now, "L'arte nel suo mistero le diverse belleze insiem confonde...*"

Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that your boyish stench does go on
Once more you open the door
And you're in my heart
And my heart will go on and on

And as if the words she had written coincided perfectly with the song he was singing, Garret sang as he read the words, not even waiting for the end of the stanza as he was so moved by her love for him, "ma nel ritrar costei il mio solo pensiero, ah! il mio solo pensier-*"

He broke off mid-song. His whole world came crashing down and suddenly, suddenly he was so cold. So, darn cold. His heart felt like it had stopped beating and all he could do was stare at the name signed at the bottom of the poem. The LOVE poem to HIM.

Daphne Hopton.

And he couldn't even bring himself to sing the next line, the last line: sei tu, Tosca, sei tu!*

Now he knew. It wasn't Cassandra who was half mad with love for him, it was... Daphne! So shocked was he that he could only sit there, slumped against the back of the cold bench as he stared at the bramble in front of him. Going over every moment with Daphne, everything suddenly making so much sense to him now. It was no wonder she kept asking about his father, she had been worried about impressing him! She had just wanted to know more about his family... because...

He looked at the name signed at the bottom of the letter again and threw his arm aside, turning his face the other way as if he could be as far away from the letter as possible (even though he was still holding it). He wished he could erase it all from his mind. How was he to live now? Daphne was his best friend, his mate, his buddy... and now, now her girly feelings of love had pushed her to write this love letter to him... and he was forced to make the hardest decision of his teen life:

To tell her he didn't feel the same way and crush her heart and ruin their friendship forever, or to simply go on as if he was oblivious to it all?

He had no idea how to deal with this. And so he sat there in the cold and silence, simply thinking of Daphne and Cassandra and how he could ever be with one without hurting the other. Life was hard being this good looking and manly, he knew that now.

OOC: Oh maaaaan, this was SO much fun to write! It's long and novel-like, but I couldn't help it. Sorry. It's only cos it's a lone RP, a soliloquy of sorts.

* The song he's singing is Recondita Armonia, from Puccini's Tosca. The translation:
What strange and lovely harmony of such different beauties!
How dark is Floria, this ardent love of mine.
And you, mysterious beauty, long and blond flowing tresses
how your eyes are sky-blue, Tosca's eyes are black-night.
Art, too, with its many mysteries, blends all together
such different beauties. But though I paint another,
my only thought is you, oh, my only thought is you,
Tosca, is you, is you!