Song: "Rooftops and Invitations" by Dashboard Confessional

"The first time you looked at her curves you were hooked"

Chapter 3: Can You Believe Your Eyes?

"This was definitely a great idea of Ron's," Hermione said as she and Ginny lounged in Hermione and Ron's backyard on the deck that overlooked their pool a week later. Ron and Hermione had bought a house in the country and three years ago, Ron had begged Hermione to let him install a pool. Her condition was that she would have Muggle professionals do it and kept Ben on standby in case Ron or the children let anything slip. She had to admit though, it was relaxing in the summertime to lay out.

"Sometimes he has those," Ginny grinned and he looked towards the house. "I wonder where the girls are?" Ginny and Lily had come over to hang out, but Lily and Rose had disappeared upstairs.

"Probably gossiping about things they think we won't figure out," Hermione sipped her iced tea and shook her head. "Are the boys coming over too?"

"James had a training session before his match tomorrow, but he'll probably be over after. Albus is working of course, he only gets one weekend a month off and I let Ben know at dinner the other night that he was more than welcome to come, so we'll see." Ginny answered and she and Hermione turned their heads toward the ruslting sound behind them.

"Speak of the devil," Hermione said, waving to Ben who was letting himself in the backyard. He gave a wave and walked over.

"Hello ladies," Ben joked in a deep suave voice.

"Oh good, now maybe Hugo will stop fussing and come out." Hermione said. "He said he didn't want to be the only bloke."

"Who else is here?" Ben asked, looking around and at that moment the back door swung open and two redheaded girls came out. Rose was first, her hair pulled back in a braid and a simple one-piece purple suit on. Lily followed after her, laughing at something, her hair pulled off of her face in a high ponytail. Ben's eyebrows rose when he saw her wearing a skimpy green bikini. It showed off her slender shape and she brightly smiled, seeing Ben was there. She and Rose grabbed towels and were about to lay them out on the ground when Ben grabbed Lily by the middle and tossed her in the pool.

"Don't you dare touch me, Benjamin Amherst!" Rose said, shaking her finger at him.

"Nah, Rosie, I'm going to tell Hugo to get you." Ben smirked and he turned to the pool where Lily had surfaced.

"You forget that I'm seventeen now Ben, and payback is no longer non-magical," Lily threatened, but she did it with a smile. "Help me out," She stuck her head out to him but he shook his head.

"That's the oldest trick in the book Lils, you're just going to pull me in with you!" Her smile faltered a little now that her plan had been discovered but she shrugged and started swimming laps. Ben taped his throat with his wand and muttered Sonarus "HUGO WEASLEY!" His voice boomed up to the house and Hugo appeared startled at the back window.

"Merlin, Ben!" He yelled out, but he ducked back in, no doubt coming down the stairs to join them.

"You are lucky we don't live near Muggles Ben, you would have had to clean up your own mess instead of other wizard's." Hermione told him, sipping more iced tea and watching Lily beg Rose to come in the pool with her. Ben shrugged and took off his T-shirt then cannon-balled into the pool, splashing Rose.

"BEN! That's not funny!"

"Well now you can come in the pool and Lily can stop fussing," Ben said, earning a splash of water from Lily.

"I wasn't fussing! And I would watch it Ben, I still have to get you back for throwing me in the pool." Lily said.

"No offense favorite-red-head-of-mine, but your threats do not scare me." Lily raised one eyebrow at him and the two stood in a face-off before a small smile appeared on Lily's face.

"That makes sense." She said slowly, climbing out of the pool. "But you've still failed to realize something Ben," She said, walking over to her towel to fetch her wand. Ben watched her saunter over and raised his eyebrows.

"And what's that Lily?"

"That you aren't the only one good at charms," Lily said sweetly and she pointed her wand at the pool and in an instant, the water changed from pool water to cold pea soup.

"GROSS!" Ben said, freaking out and trying to swim out of the murky green liquid. Hugo, Rose and Ginny were hysterical and even Hermione was laughing at Lily's victory dance while Ben floated in the soup.

--

"I guess we have had more of an influence on her than we realized," James said with a laugh as Ben recounted the day's events

"Seriously James, she left me in the soup for a goof four minutes before changing it back! I am scarred for life thanks to your little sister." James chuckled and he searched the cabinets in their house for something to eat. The boys had given Kreacher the day off, after all, the house elf was getting old and could not do all the work he used to.

"Well do you think you'll be able to put up with her Monday afternoon?" James asked and Ben looked at him, puzzled.

"Of course, but why?"

"I need help picking out something for Emma," James started, taking a deep breath. "An engagement ring." Ben's mouth dropped open, but a split second later he broke out into a grin and let out a cheer.

"Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant, I knew it!" He said and James grinned. "So what brought this on?"

"I can't lose her. I mean we fight sometimes but at the end of the day…I still want to give her a kiss goodnight. I want to be with her forever" Ben pretended to wipe tears from his eyes.

"Well that is just so beautiful Jamesie."

"I thought so," James shook his head. "Anyway I want to go over to one of the Muggle jewelry shops on Monday around noon and I figure Lils will be a good opinion to bring too."

"She is going to flip when you tell her." Ben said, grabbing a box of cereal and eating it. "Are you going to tell your parents before you ask her?"

"Nah, I'm going to ask Emma on Monday night because we're going out to dinner, finally. Then we'll tell everyone." James said, grabbing the milk from the fridge so he and Ben could enjoy a not-so-proper dinner.

"Excellent."

--

Lily sat on her bed playing with her Pygmy puff and remembering the fun afternoon she had. The look on Ben's face was absolutely priceless when he found himself in cold pea soup instead of a pool. Lily wondered if the shock was from her excellent charm work or the fact that she pranked the "master of pranks". Lily smiled to herself as Benny tumbled around on the comforter. She was glad she was getting to see a lot of Ben this summer so far, he was a great person and always made her laugh. Both her immediate and extended family treated him as a member of it already, just like they did with Emma. Though Emma was always like a sister to Lily while Ben…he was always something else. Perhaps it was because she already had brothers and didn't need another brother figure…or maybe it was because the way his blue eyes seemed to hypnotize her and she lost her focus on more than one occasion. All Lily knew was this summer was different. Ben wasn't a brother, but he wasn't a friend…what he was, however, she couldn't figure out.

"Lily?" Harry asked, knocking on her bedroom door and knocking the thoughts out of her.

"Yes?" She answered from inside and Harry walked in.

"I was wondering if you had any big plans over the next two weeks. One of the secretaries in my office has a son with dragon pox so she'll be out for a bit and I need someone to fill in,"

"I'd love to!" Lily said, her eyes lighting up. "So I would go to work with you?"

"Yes, starting on Monday , you would only have to go from 9 to 4 and you have a lunch break from 12 to 1. I'd pay you fifty galleons for both weeks."

"Wow!" Lily said, imagining the new things she could get with that extra pocket money. "That's really great dad, thank you for asking me."

"There's no one else I'd rather want to have brighten up my office," Harry said truthfully, walking over and giving her a kiss on the forehead. "Don't stay up too late now,"

"Dad, it's only ten. And I'm seventeen," Lily rolled her eyes.

"And I'm still your father," Harry said with a chuckle before he left.

I wanted to give you guys a treat! The following pictures are bascially how I see the characters in my head (it took LOTS of celebrity stalking ang googling) Copy and paste the links into a brower if you want to see! And please review on the chapter :)

Lily (imagine shorter hair) : ./_

Ben: .com/tv/photos/adrian_

James: /images/images_of_

Emma: .com/photos/uncategorized/hilarie_

Albus (haha i love this picture of daniel too): .com/storagev12/1049000/1049102_9a3a_