DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these HP characters or settings.

S - P - R - I - N - G

Spring is generally known as the season wherein flowers bloom and trees begin to regrow their leaves. The skies become bluer and the days start getting longer. The weather becomes more pleasant and people begin wearing light jackets rather than heavy cloaks.

Marlene McKinnon usually associates the warm season with Dorcas Meadowes.

This could be for any number of reasons: because she and Dorcas met in the Spring of their first year and became fast friends; because she discovered that she fancied the Ravenclaw in the Spring of their third year whilst they were studying Transfiguration in the courtyard; because they got together in the Spring of their fifth year and have been inseparable ever since.

Whatever the reason, Marlene links this time of the year with her girlfriend.

The couple are relaxing under a large Oaktree, a soft blanket beneath them and a cool breeze drifting over them. It is the anniversary of their first kiss and Marlene, being the romantic sap that she is, had brought her girlfriend down to the Great Lake to watch the sun set and eat a lovely picnic. The banquet has been eaten and the sun has set, leaving the sky a collage of pinks and oranges, and Marlene's efforts have been deeply appreciated – if Dorcas's wandering hands and lips tell her anything.

Marlene is enjoying their date and she is enjoying her girlfriend's enthusiasm even more, but she has something that she wants to talk about and she can't if her lips are otherwise occupied, so she pulls back and takes a second to collect herself. She finds herself staring up at her soulmate and she can't speak for a moment because Dorcas Meadowes is utterly gorgeous: dark skin, unblemished and soft; brown eyes, deep and knowing; full lips, cherry red and parted in confusion; and wild hair, somewhat styled with daisies sticking out in random places.

There are hundreds – probably thousands – of words to describe Dorcas Meadowes, but 'gorgeous' is the only one that Marlene and her love-addled brain can coherently think of.

"What?" Dorcas asks, shifting to lean on her elbow and staring down at the blonde. "What's wrong?"

Marlene just shakes her head lightly in response, trying to locate her vocal cords. Dorcas's hair tickles her shoulder and the side of her face, but she doesn't do anything about it because any part of Dorcas that is touching her is welcome. After a minute, she finds her voice and replies, "Nothing. Nothing's wrong. I was just thinking."

Dorcas raises a sardonic eyebrow. "You were thinking?" she asks. "Well, I suppose there's a first time for everything."

Marlene gasps and places a hand over her heart, then monotones, "Rude."

Dorcas laughs freely and Marlene's heart thumps harshly against her ribcage because the Ravenclaw has the most beautiful laugh. Honestly, it could melt the coldest of hearts.

"My apologies," Dorcas says, her brown eyes twinkling with impish amusement. "What were you thinking about, my dearest Mar-Bean?"

Marlene rolls her eyes dramatically (because she is a Gryffindor and there is no other way for her to act) at the sappy never-before-used nickname and retorts, "I was thinking about some very important things actually. Like the coming summer, for example."

"Oh?"

Marlene nods and stares up at the colourful clouds behind her girlfriend's head. "Yes," she says. "I was thinking that maybe you should come to mine for a week or so."

"Yours..." Dorcas says slowly, sitting up and staring down at the Gryffindor carefully. "You want me to come to your home – like... to meet your family?"

Marlene swallows and looks at her girlfriend, "Yes."

"As your friend or...?"

Marlene sits up so that she can stare into her soulmate's eyes properly. "I was thinking of introducing you as my girlfriend, actually," she says, because she has wanted to be honest with her parents for a while now and she is tired of monitoring her speech whenever she mentions the Ravenclaw around them.

Dorcas opens her mouth to say something, but nothing comes out. Instead she just stares, her brown eyes looking into Marlene's very soul. Then she asks, "Really?"

Marlene nods determinedly and replies, "So?"

"I, uh... Well, I mean – I didn't think you wanted to tell them," Dorcas says.

This, Marlene concedes, is a fair assumption. She has been putting it off for months (years), after all. But she doesn't want to hide anymore. She doesn't want to keep pretending that 'Dorcas from school' is just her friend and nothing more. She loves this brilliant Ravenclaw and she wants the world to know and she just knows that her parents will love her too. And so she confesses:

"I love you, Dee, and I don't want to lie anymore. I don't want to hide this – us – anymore. I hate hiding the best thing in my life from my family. It's... tiresome. And a lot of work. Besides, when we get a flat together after school, they're going to find out, so..."

Dorcas raises an eyebrow, her lips quirking upwards as she replies, "Oh. We're getting a flat together now, are we?"

Marlene blanches because she has revealed way more than she had intended to. Truth is, whenever she pictures her future, Dorcas is always by her side. Whenever she thinks about life after school, it always involves her and Dorcas sharing a home. She just hadn't meant to inform her girlfriend of her plans quite yet. They are only in their sixth year, after all. She had planned on asking closer to the end of their schooling – Spring in their seventh year, perhaps. But, well, things rarely go according to plan. That said, Dorcas hasn't said no...

"Of course."

Dorcas snorts and turns her eyes to the Great Lake. "So bloody bold," she mutters.

Marlene shrugs. "It comes with the Gryffindor territory," she explains. "So, are you in?"

Dorcas looks at her again and asks, "With moving in with you or meeting your parents?"

"Meeting my parents," she answers. "We can talk about us moving in together another time."

Dorcas hums and takes a second to deliberate before she says, "Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay," Dorcas confirms. "I'll come to yours and meet your parents."

Marlene is a little shocked, but she doesn't know why. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Brilliant," Marlene grins, happier than she can explain in words because she is finally going to introduce the love of her life to her family and she is going to be free to be who she is.

And then, because she is a Gryffindor and because she is impulsive and because she is happy beyond words, she pushes Dorcas back and straddles the other student, planting her lips anywhere she can: lips, cheeks, neck. Dorcas squirms, ticklish and unused to being out of control, and captures Marlene's lips, distracting the Gryffindor long enough to roll them over so that she is on top again. Then she pulls back and stares down at her.

"You love me?" Dorcas asks.

Marlene pauses, confused.

"You said it," Dorcas adds, brown eyes intense and analytic. "You said that you loved me."

"Oh."

"Do you?"

Marlene frowns and wonders how Dorcas can even ask her that. It is obvious to anyone that sees them together that she is utterly smitten with the Ravenclaw. Then it occurs to her that, although they have been courting for a year, neither of them has said it before. This, she thinks, is ridiculous because she loves Dorcas with every fiber of her being.

"How could I not?" she asks.

Dorcas grins and plants a very chaste but very heartfelt kiss on her cheek before she whispers, "I love you too."

Marlene's heart constricts almost painfully in her chest, but she says nothing. Instead she kisses her soulmate with everything she has, trying to convey all of the emotions she is feeling but cannot express in words.

For most of the populace, Spring is known for its fresh flowers and blue skies and temperate weather. But for Marlene McKinnon, Spring means Dorcas Meadowes and infinite love.

A/N: Thanks for reading!

Written: March 2020
Edited: March 2020