LIKE TEN DAYS BETWEEN UPDATING I AM THE WORST.

Dorcas, tired from hours of unpacking, dragged two rickety old lawn chairs out of the house and onto the grass of the backyard. She set them facing away from the house, then sat in one of them, pushed her sunglasses up her nose, straightened her legs out, and crossed her ankles.

"Cassie!" Lily called out of the window of the top floor of the house. "Have you seen my second box of clothes?"

"In the kitchen!" Dorcas replied, then closed her eyes and sighed.

It was a sunny, warm July day. The birds sang, a light breeze rustled Dorcas's long hair and the leaves in the trees. Dorcas slowly dragged her hands through the grass.

After a few minutes, she heard footsteps coming closer to her, then the lawn chair creaked as someone sat down in it.

"Enjoying the sun?" asked Marlene.

Dorcas made a small noise of contentment.

"If you're trying to tan, it won't work," Marlene continued. "You'll only burn."

"Says Snow White," Dorcas retorted with a smile. Marlene snorted, then reached across and took Dorcas's hand in her own. Dorcas squeezed lightly.

"We've moved in, officially," said Marlene. "All the boxes are unpacked, sheets are on the bed, food in the cabinets, et cetera, et cetera." Marlene settled into the lawn chair, mirroring Dorcas.

"How are Lily and James doing?" asked Dorcas. "And Amelia too?"

"Lily's having trouble fitting all the clothes she brought into her allotted space. James is worried about his broom just sitting in the closet. Amelia's room is covered in law books, muggle and magical. She starts that internship in September, and she's worried about washing out."

"Amelia Bones, wash out of an internship for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement? Pigs will fly sooner than that."

"That's what I said. Anyway, I got her to take a nap. Her books are her blankets."

Dorcas laughed quietly, then sighed again. "I'm happy, Marley."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Really happy. This is so fantastic, all of us living together. Remus and Emme and Peter will visit all the time, and your brothers too, and we'll be family. We are family. You all are my family."

"Cas," Marlene said fondly. She sat up, rose from the chair, and sat down in the grass next to Dorcas's chair. Dorcas opened her eyes and looked at Marlene.

Marlene smiled and pulled something out of her pocket, but kept it in her fist, hidden.

"Cas…" Marlene smiled, then tilted her head back and looked up at the blue sky. "Oh Cas. Cas, I love you so much." Marlene let out a laugh. "You know, I had this whole fucking speech and everything, with metaphors and puns and jokes, but… I forget everything the moment I look at you." She sighed.

Dorcas sat up, pushed her sunglasses onto the top of her head, and looked at Marlene seriously. "Marley…"

Marlene grinned and held out her closed hand to Dorcas. "What I'm trying to ask is…" she opened her fist to reveal a ring, "marry me, Cas? Please?"

Dorcas gasped, then beamed. She pressed her lips together, too ecstatic to even speak, and nodded. Marlene put the ring on Dorcas and kissed her. Dorcas laughed against Marlene's mouth, then pulled away to smile and inspect her ring: a thin, gold band with a small ruby inset.

"Gryffindor colours," Dorcas noted. Marlene nodded with a smile.

"James!" they heard Lily screech from her third floor bedroom. "Marlene just proposed to Dorcas!"

"She did what?!" James replied from somewhere on the second floor. "How the fuck was I unaware of this?!"

Dorcas and Marlene leaned on each others' foreheads and laughed.

"Who proposed?!" Sirius chimed in as he walked into the backyard. "What's going on?! All I heard was the word proposed."

"We're getting married," Dorcas stood, pulling Marlene up with her, and smiled at Sirius.

"You're getting married?" Sirius asked, looking very much like a kid at Christmas. When Dorcas nodded, Sirius ran to her, picked her up, and spun her around a few times, before setting her back onto the ground and doing the same to Marlene.

"You're getting married!" Sirius yelled excitedly. "You're getting married!" He quickly kissed each of their foreheads, then spun in a circle. "We're planning a wedding! Prongs, Evans!" he called upwards. Lily and James stuck their heads out of third and second story windows, respectively. "Wake Bones up! And call Vance and Moony and Wormy. We're planning a fucking wedding right now."

Dorcas and Marlene laughed and followed Sirius inside.

! Excited? I AM! I'm excited and I wrote this fricking thing.

What do you think? :)