The noises from the otherwise quiet house had Ron raising a brow. All morning, he'd been hearing music, splashing from the fenced in area behind the house and by now, he was beyond curious. For his entire 15 years of life, he'd thought the house empty, thought it abandoned. Now apparently, he was about to discover either he had one damned impressive imagination, or it actually was not empty.

The closer he got to the house, the louder the noise, -which was apparently music of some kind- got. He was almost to the stone wall that seperated the house's back yard from the rest of the property and the woods and he could hear his heart roaring in his ears.

"Can't believe I'm about to do this." he muttered as he looked around and then satisfied that nobody saw him, he scaled the fence just a little.

And promptly almost fell off when he saw a group of girls around his age all sitting in a pool that looked more like a pond than an actual swimming pool, sipping lemonade through straws out of wine glasses while talking loudly amongst themselves.

The cough caught Celeste's attention and she bit her lower lip. Was her mom back from her cruise early? She hoped not, this summer had been by far the most peaceful one she'd ever had without her mom there blaming her for the loss of her father, wishing she'd never had her, drinking and being angry all the time, breaking things.

Way down deep inside, Celeste sort of hoped her mother never came back from the cruise. It wasn't like she actually wanted to be there at the house when she was there.. Maybe if her mother left they'd both be happier and she wouldn't lie awake nights crying, wishing her mother loved her.

Her friend's giggling had her looking at the fence and she saw a brief flash of red and heard a loud thud on the other side of the stone wall. Holding a finger to her lips, she looked at her friends and grabbed her towel, got out of the pool and walked to the wall's door, peeked out.

"Jig's up, mate. I saw you before you fell off my stone wall like a proper jackass." she called out as she stepped out, towel wrapped around her tightly.
Ron looked up from the ground at her and then blinked and asked "Don't I go to school with you?"

Celeste bit her lower lip and held out her hand, assisting the fallen ginger haired male off the ground as she said cheekily, "I ask god for a male model and he sends me a Weasley."

Ron stared at her dumbly a moment and she said impatiently, "It was sarcasm, Ronald. Gahh, you'd think as much as you spend time with that walking book Hermie, you'd know what that was." as she looked at him a moment, brow raised.

"You live here?" he asked, looking around at the house and then back at her. She chuckled and shaking her head she said simply, "Nooooo... I'm just squatting in this dump for the summer."

He chuckled and then said quietly, "Celeste, right?"

She nodded and then stopped her walk a moment to turn and ask with a lazy grin, "So are you coming into the backyard or... I mean you did almost break a limb trying to spy over the fence.. Satisfy your curiousity." as her heart fluttered a little.

Ron stood there a moment. He really had nothing better to do, if he went home he'd either be teased or tormented by his brothers or his mum would put him to work. Harry wasn't there yet and neither was Hermione. He shrugged and then asked "Is that a pond or a pool?"

"It's a little of both, Weasley, come on. You can ask these questions on the other side of the fence. I hate dirt and sand between my toes." she muttered as she stared a little. True, she'd spent the better part of the past 3 years or so nursing a bit of a schoolgirl crush on the older Gryffindor, but she'd gotten over it lately..

Or so she told herself.

"Are you having a party in here? Because I can go if.." Ron said as he studied her a moment. She shook her head and stepped out of the way, letting him duck and step through the smallish door etched into the stone wall, almost completely taken over by some kind of wild growing flower.

He looked around at the pool and the other girls sitting in it, a few he recognized from school, a few he didn't know, and then back at her.

"You know Eva, Sarah and Marie.. The girl on the left is Amy and the girl sitting on the lounge chair with the magazine and a stick up her arse is Melia. And your favorite person just left." Celeste giggled as Ron gave her a dirty look and said "Not Lavender.."

"She loves you soooooo much." one of the girls in the pool called out as she splashed at Celeste lazily. Celeste dropped her towel, got a running start and dove off into the pool. Ron leaned against the wall not sure whether he should leave now or stay and talk to the girl.

He'd sort of thought she was cute, almost asked her to the Yule Ball last year, but he'd decided against when he got talked into asking a Patil twin by Harry.

"Are you going to stand there all day like a knot on a pickle, Weasley, or are you getting in this water?" Celeste called out cheekily as the other girls began talking, taunting him, saying funny things that made him laugh and smile and for a little while forget there was a war incoming that dark days lie ahead.

For a few moments he was just your average teenage wizard standing in the backyard of a pretty teenage neighbor, making casual conversation. Without the confines of Hogwarts daunting him, he seemed a little more confident.

And he had been gearing up to play Quidditch this year, he was filling out in physical form finally. He took off his t shirt and then dove into the pool in his jeans.

"Seriously, Weasley.. You're getting in here.. With those filthy jeans."

"Wouldn't want any of you fainting on me." Ron quipped as Celeste smirked and then said "Promise we won't." as the girls watched them with amused faces. All of her friends knew that yes, she was in flirt mode right now, she was taking full advantage of Hermione Granger NOT being underfoot and flirting with Ron, finally.

"Think she'll tell him she's liked him for a while now?" Eva asked Sarah who shrugged and said "Katie Bell DID dare her to do it.. Said something about seeing Hermione staring at a certain Malfoy?"

"Ooh la la.. Scandalous." Marie said as she sipped her lemonade and said "He's actually not a git. He's constantly either irritated or being a git when the other two are around. Not entirely bad by himself."

Celeste splashed at Ron who splashed back and asked "Do you have anymore of that lemonade?"

"Depends, Ron. How thirsty are you?" Celeste asked as he looked at her, watched her burst into laughter and climb out of the pool, jog into the house, come back out with a wine glass full of lemonade.

"Why is it in a goblet?" he asked, arching a brow as he sipped the drink. Celeste shrugged and said "Made us feel sophisticated, I suppose."

"So.. what were you sophisticated ladies doing?" he asked as he leaned against the pool's side wall, sipped the drink in his hands. Celeste dove back in and Eva said casually, " Just talking, really. Why were you spying?" with a smirk on her face.

Ron chuckled and shrugging said "Heard your music." as Celeste surfaced from beneath the water, asked Ron, "Granger and Potter aren't already at your place? I mean I always seem to see them there."

"And now who's spying?" Ron joked as Celeste laughed in amusement and said quietly, "Yeah, don't flatter yourself there, Ronald."

"It's Ron."

"Not when you say annoying things." Celeste teased as Ron studied her a moment, laughed a little. He honestly couldn't remember the last time in almost 4 years now that he'd laughed this much in a day, let alone the space of an hour or so.

"What? That wasn't annoying, woman, bloody hell." Ron joked as Celeste splashed water at him, dove out of the way.

From the distance, Ron heard his mum calling his name from their porch and he got out of the pool, grabbing his jeans and t shirt.

"So.. Suppose we'll just put this day in a little black box and never speak of it, but maybe we'll never forget it, either, yeah?" Celeste asked as Ron raised a brow and then smiled a little, said with a casual shrug, "I'll.. I'll ermm, see you round. Whole other month of summer left."

"And once they're here, Ron, you'll be too busy. Which is fine, really. If you want to actually have fun.. You know where I live." Celeste gestured as she waved him off and added almost teasingly, "Better go Ronald.. Wouldn't want mum and daddy catching you with the likes of me, right?"

He studied her a few moments and then made himself walk out of the heavy door in the stone wall. Once he was back home, he opened the owls he'd gotten from his friends, flopped back onto his bed in his room and mulled over the girl next door.

How long had she lived there? Where were her parents?

And why was she so convinced that once his friends Harry and Hermione showed up, he'd just forget she existed.. Even more intriguing, why was she so okay with it?

The music from that mansion in the woods floated in on the summer nights breeze and he found himself wondering what she was doing now...

"I'll go back over and see her tomorrow. Not like I've got anything else to do.. Harry and Hermione won't be here until next week or the week after." he muttered to himself as he got into bed for the night.