So that's where it all started. My final year at Hogwarts is definitely going to be remembered by most, if not all, of the student body. I see Meredith making her way over to me and smile as I appreciate just how wonderful and beautiful she actually is. It's been a little over seven months for us. I've never been happier in my entire life.

"Hey, you," Meredith greets as she finally navigates through the hall full of people. "We're graduated!"

I pull her into a hug and place a light kiss on her lips. "Hello, love. You looked extraordinary walking across that stage. Where have you been all day?"

"My parents came in early, so I needed to catch up with them. They're anxious to see you," she says, giving me wink.

I make an exaggerated gulp and she laughs and grabs my hand. "Come on! They wanted to see you before the ceremony, but somebody had to get in trouble." Meredith pulls me back through the tangle of bodies and to her waiting parents who look at me with mild amusement.

"James." Mr. Blount extends his hand towards me and I shake it firmly.

"Good morning, sir. It's good to see you."

Mrs. Blount pulls me into a friendly, motherly hug. "James! It's been too long."

"I've missed you, Mrs. Blount. Christmas feels like ages ago." I pull back and stand next to Meredith, putting my arm lightly around her waist. Mr. and Mrs. Blount share a look and a smile and turn back to us. Mr. Blount gives me a slight wink. We're playing up the I-haven't-seen-you-since-Christmas-ness. Meredith doesn't know I've seen them recently.

The four of us engage in small talk about N.E.W.T.s; the weather; how the Tornadoes did the previous season…

Bloody hell! I just remembered I haven't shared the news. I do a literal face-palm in front of Meredith and her parents and receive curious looks from all three.

"I'm sorry… I just remembered that I have huge news that I found out late last night. I can't believe I haven't told you about it, Mer. Then again, I haven't seen you since dinner yesterday, but I still don't know why something this huge ever slipped my mind-"

"Are you going to tell us, James, or are you going to stand there rambling like an imbecile?" Mr. and Mrs. Blount's faces show their amusement as Meredith rolls her eyes.

"I'll tell you, but I haven't told my parents either, and they need to be here to hear this because it's the biggest news in the history of news in my life! I'll be right back. My parents are probably around here somewhere being swarmed by admirers…" I race off, leaving confused laughter in my wake.

I find my parents promptly. Dad is attempting to be inconspicuous and failing miserably. A crowd of wary fans form an odd barrier around my parents, Lily, Albus, and Malfoy and I break through them roughly. "Honestly, people?" I shout at the group, annoyed. "You make it seem like you didn't know Harry Potter's kids go here!"

Mum snorts behind her hand and Dad closes his eyes and sighs. "I was wondering when you would make your glorious reappearance."

"You all need to come with me! I've got big news I found out last night and I wanted to tell you all and Meredith together."

"Why didn't you just bring them over here?" Albus is standing with his fingers massaging his temple. He's never really liked crowds.

I wince at my inevitable stupidity. Of course that would have been easier!

"I know you said you'd be right back, but this was probably a better easier for everyone." Mr. Blount appears through the arc of star-struck teenagers, Mrs. Blount and Meredith smiling. Meredith winks at me and I know it was probably her idea to follow me. How did I manage to find someone as amazing as her?

"Are you going to finally tell us what's so life altering-ly important, James?" Lily asks impatiently.

I smile wide and take a deep breath. "I, James Sirius Potter, have been signed to Puddlemere United as a reserve chaser!"

The explosion of reactions around me would have been too much to bear if I had been anyone but myself. Mum squeals and pulls me into a bone-crushing hug and there are many more 'Congratulations' and 'I knew it would happen' statements from people in the immediate vicinity (including those eavesdropping in the fan-fringe).

I look at Meredith over Mum's hug. Her deep blue eyes are wide and she has a huge radiant smile across her face. Next to Mer, her mother shares the same smile and holds Meredith in a side-hug.

After Mum finally releases me, Dad pulls me into a firm, quick hug himself and places his hand on my shoulder. "I'm proud of you, James. You've really come a long way this year." His eyes wander over to Meredith and then snap back to my face.

"Thanks, Dad. I know what you mean." I look at Meredith as well and Dad's squeezes the shoulder he's still holding.

Dad lets go of me and I walk over to Meredith who throws her arms around my neck and kisses me excitedly. "James! This is so wonderful! I knew you could do it." She pulls back and smiles up at me. Something's wrong, though. I can tell. Nothing in her expression betrays her, but somehow... something about how her breath hitches slightly before returning to a quickened intake...

"James!" Lily appears on my right and hugs both of us at once. "I knew you could do it!" Lily releases me and Meredith and pulls Meredith away from me. "Come on, Meredith! Let's go find Rose and Hugo!" Meredith looks back to me briefly, smiling, but the same feeling of uneasiness courses through me.

Now I stand alone with Meredith's parents. A sudden thought occurs to me: this was no accident. I turn to Mum and Dad standing a couple of yards away. Dad's looking right at me and gives me an encouraging smile and thumbs up. Taking a deep breath, I turn back to Meredith's parents who are both looking in the direction in which their daughter disappeared. It was now or… well… not 'never', but later, and I definitely didn't want to wait until later.

"Mr. and Mrs. Blount," I say seriously, "I just wanted to let you know: I'm about to do it."

Meredith and I walk hand-in-hand around the grounds of Hogwarts. The silence around us is comfortable as we enjoy the warm, fragrant air and the sounds of summer. We haven't spoken since we decided on a walk (accompanied by knowing winks and fist-pumps from my friends).

Eventually, we wander to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Meredith hesitates a moment before leading us both in, bound by our intertwined fingers. The path we take is familiar to both of us and we pick our way through the deep underbrush to the clearing; our clearing. At some point, Meredith lets go of my hand and picks up her pace. She soon has quite a lead and I pick up my own pace to try to catch up with her.

By the time I do catch up, Meredith is once again lying, face-up in the grass of the clearing. The scene is familiar. I walk over Mer and sit down and rub her arm gently. Meredith has been giving off the same vibe constantly since I made my announcement earlier and my nerves have become more and more strained as the day wears on.

I wait for Meredith to speak, but she doesn't. Ten minutes pass. This silence is not the comfortable one we shared on our walk here. I'm not sure how much more of this I can take.

"You know, Mer-"

"I know where this is going," Meredith says, cutting me off.

"What?" I'm really confused, now. I know where this is going, but there's no way she could know where this is going… unless she overheard someone… I bet it was Hugo. He's too much like Uncle Ron.

"You can go ahead and get this over with, James." Her eyes are closed and she turns onto her side facing away from me.

I stop stoking her hair and pull my hand back quickly. Why would she say it like that? Did I misunderstand something? I was sure that this was what was best for us.

Meredith address me again, her back still to me. "Go ahead, James. I knew it would end up this way if you went pro. It's always been your dream. Don't let me hold you back."

"Hold me back?" All I can do is repeat those last three words.

"I get it. We're done. You have your career to think about, now. There's no need for me to get in your way. I really am happy for you and I hope we can still see each other, but I'll understand if it isn't really possible-"

"Stop it." I say this firmly but not threateningly. The pain in Meredith's voice is causing my throat to constrict. I don't know how these thoughts entered her head. I certainly didn't put them there.

Meredith cuts off her speech and pulls her arms closer around herself. "Please, James. Don't drag this out."

"Why are you saying this?"

"I'm just trying to protect myself."

I've had enough. I grab Meredith's arm and gently force her over to face me, again. Tears are welled up in her eyes and she blinks furiously trying to clear them. I place my hand on her cheek, lean in, and kiss her tenderly.

I pull back and move some hair out of her face to see her clearly. I look straight into her spectacular blue eyes. "You have never, nor will you ever 'hold me back'." I emphasize each word of that disgusting phrase. Meredith looks back at me, her eyes pleading for me to continue and stop at the same time.

"Just trying to protect yourself? No. You're running away, and I promised to come after you if you did. This is me coming after you." I take both of her hands in mine and look down to them. "Mer, you are the best thing that has happened to me and there has never and will never be a time when that changes. I love you. I've told you that so many times before. I love you and I can't image my life without you. I've done my best to show you with my actions and tell you with my words and Merlin knows I've failed a whole lot than should be allowed, but all I have wanted is for you to know that I would never and could never leave you." I stand and pull Meredith to her feet as well.

"You have been, sometimes literally, the only thing that has kept my feet on the ground. I may have helped you out in some twisted way at the beginning of this year, but you are the one that's helped me infinitely more. I can't even imagine what I would be like if I didn't have you smacking me on the head all the time." Meredith smiles a genuine smile and lets out a short laugh. I smile in return.

"If it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't have made it onto Puddlemere's reserve team."

Meredith raises and eyebrow. "How do you figure that?"

I chuckle at her expression. "Well, at the trials, there were some really amazing players there from all over the world. I wasn't the worst out of all of them, but I was by no means the best.

"If I had been at those trials before this year, I would have been crushed. I don't think I would have been able to do as well as I did because I would have been so overwhelmed by the fact that I was not, in fact, the greatest Chaser in all of Britain. At the trials I was able to outplay some of the most amazing Chasers I had ever seen outside of the pros. I tried my hardest and while I wasn't sure if I would make it or not, I knew that I would still have you. You would be there to help me through it."

I kiss Meredith's hands and hold them to my chest. "There so much to life, Mer. So much that's left for us to experience, but I can't imagine it without you there. I can't help but cherish every moment I have with you. I know I almost never think through what I do, but you make sure that I don't kill myself. I may stick my foot in my mouth but you are there to help remove it."

Meredith's eyes don't leave my face as I let go of her right hand to put my left hand in my pocket and find what I've been hiding there for most of the day. I close my fist around it determinedly. "We've talked about a future, Mer. We've talked about our goals and dreams. You're well on your way to opening your own Healing practice after getting into the training program at St. Mungo's. I was miraculously able to make it onto my dream team, even if it is just reserve for now." Meredith rolls her eyes at me, obviously thinking I'm rambling.

"The point, Meredith, is that while we know what we want in the future, there is a lot of time in between then and now and we could make that future together." Meredith's expression holds a mixture of amusement and bewilderment, as if she doesn't know if I'm being serious or not. "If I think about the future, now, no matter what set of circumstances, every future I see from now on has you in it. I cannot picture any life without you, Meredith."

"Every moment of our life is special when you're around, even if it is something boring like Astronomy homework. I said it before, Mer, every second counts and I want them to count with you by my side."

"Meredith Elaine Blount," I pull my hand out of my pocket and kneel down on my right knee. Clasping her left hand firmly, I hold out for her a silver ring with single diamond mounted in the center. Meredith breath hitches and her right hand covers her mouth covering up a smile I know is there and tears, this time of joy, begin welling in her eyes once more. Meredith is already nodding her head as I ask, "Will you marry me?"

A/N - Thank you for reading! I got inspired to write another HP fic based around Meredith called Never Miss a Second. It'll give more depth to Meredith as a character and also explore some missing moments and memories referenced in this story. The first chapter is posted, already, so go take a look and tell me what you think!