The next few days were tense. Harry was doing everything in his power to avoid Ron and Hermione, as he was still furious with them. Hermione was angry at being caught in the middle, once again. Ron was having trouble because although Dumbledore tried to explain everything away, everyone had heard his and Harry's argument and overwhelmingly took Harry's side. Everyone was either blatantly rude to him or flat out ignored him. All except Malfoy, who was either actively hiding from all of the Golden Trio, doing his best not to piss off Ron any further.

Training was different. Instead of training together, Harry trained with Ryuu-sensei while Ron endured much more vigorous training administered by Dumbledore. Whether that was due to Ron's punishment or Harry's choice was unclear, but the tension between the two was worrying their Professors.

"They're Complementary Opposites, Albus," the Japanese professor sighed. "Is it really all right for us to leave things as they are?"

"I understand your concern, Arashi, but what can we do? Harry's too angry and hurt and won't accept and of Ron's attempts to apologize."

"Perhaps...we need to provide a catalyst." Arashi smirked. "Tomorrow's training will be a bit different."

The next day, the boys arrived to the Gardens separately as usual and were about to head to their professors when they spotted them standing on what looked to Harry to be a soccer field without the goals.

"What's going on?" Harry asked the professors.

"Today, we'll be doing something a bit different. You two are going to duel."

Harry and Ron looked at each other. Their eyes met for what felt like the first time in weeks.

"Why?" Ron asked.

"All will be revealed later, but for now we want to gauge how you two perform if your opponent is your partner."

Without raising further question, Harry walked over to one side of the area. 'I'll show him who needs protecting.' he thought. Once Ron made his way to the other side, albeit more hesitantly, the professors gave the signal and the duel began.

Harry launched into an an all out assault. He formed several ice spears and sent them hurtling towards Ron. Ron had to jump and dodge through them, and barely made it. Once he'd made it through he raised his fist and ignited it. He was about to land his first punch when Harry yelled "BLIZZARD!" and he was pushed back by a flurry of snow. Harry took the opportunity to go on the attack. 'Icicle blade', he whispered and formed a sword of ice and ran towards his flame using partner. He began to furiously jab, yelling out with each strike, "You think I can't stand up for myself? YOU THINK I'M WEAK?! I'll show you weak!"

Ron backflipped out of the way and sent out a flurry of fire kicks. He happened to glance over at his professors and saw something. Suddenly, something clicked in Ron's head. He knew what he was meant to do. He jumped up, palms raised in the sky and yelled "PHOENIX BURST!" and launched towards Harry with fire surrounding him taking the shape of a giant bird. Harry quickly put up a giant wall of ice as a barrier, but thanks to Ron's extra training, he'd managed to burn right through it. As he made contact, the area was shrouded in steam and water began to pour from above them. Ron jumped on top of Harry, arms wrapped tightly around him. Harry struggled to get free. "Let me go! LET ME GO!"

"Not until you listen,"Ron yelled back. "You have a bad habit. You allow people to do what they want and say what they want, just so it doesn't cause confrontation. You try to rationalize it, so you don't have to fight back, and I can't stand it! I can't stand to watch you continue to be disrespected and hurt and you not doing anything about it. You treat yourself like you're not worth standing up for. So, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it for the rest of our lives if it takes. Because you'll always be worth it, you'll always deserve respect and you'll always get it."

Harry looked up at Ron as he spoke. Tears were filling the redhead's eyes, but his face was determined.

"I have a bad habit too. Several, actually. I'm prone to anger and jealousy at the drop of a hat. I say stupid things and sometimes hurt the people I care the most about. I don't listen when someone's trying to stop me from making a fool of myself. But...if you can get past all of that, if you can continue to love me despite all those and many more faults...then I'll do everything in my power to not only protect you, but to cherish you as long as we live."

Harry, now that he was finally released, sat up and reached out to hug his boyfriend. "I'm sorry, Ron. I was just so angry and I couldn't..."

"Shh.." Ron soothed his raven, who was becoming a bit hysterical. "It's all right, mate. I'm here. I'm here and you're here and things are great as long as that's true."

The professors looked at the scene before them. "It's about time." Dumbledore sighed. "I thought we'd have to tie them together in the Room of Requirement until they got themselves together." He then took Ryuu-sensei's hand. "You think we were ever like that, Arashi?"

The Asian professor just snorted. "No, if it were us, we'd have fought all day. They probably would have too if you hadn't kissed me. Still think you have the worst timing in the world, by the way."

"Some say worst, I say best." the old wizard winked.

Once training had ended for the day, the boys, exhausted and achy, made their way to their dorms. They were hoping to get a shower and a nap before dinner. They reached the Fat Lady and gained entrance into the common room, when they saw a large bush of chestnut hair and a book. Suddenly the hair sprang up, and revealed the third of their Trio.

"Hermione," Harry said. He made his way over and sat beside her. "I'm glad you're here. I want to apologize for my behaviour. You were only trying to mediate and I had no right to treat you that way. It was wrong to put you in the middle of our fight."

"It's alright, Harry. Emotions run high from time to time. Frankly, I'm glad you've begun expresing your anger instead of bottling it up like before. Looks like some of the Weasley temper is rubbing off on you." she said eyeing Ron who had come over to join them.

"Yeah, about that." Ron said, nervously scratching the back of his head. "I wanted to apologize for my behaviour as well. I acted like a right prat that night and once again lost my cool."

"An apology from Ronald Weasley? Looks like some of Harry is rubbing off on you as well. Look, now that you guys are a couple, I realize there may be many more situations like this, and I'll try to help when I can and let you know when you are being stupid. Just know that it comes from a friend who only wants to help."

"You mean a sister," Harry said as he hugged Hermione.

"Yeah, you're stuck with us idiots, 'Mione." Ron added.

"Oh goody," she smirked, but everyone could tell she way quite happy. Recently, she had been feeling like the odd man out, and it was nice to feel so included again. "Now, tell me about your classes," she pried.

"Only if you tell us about yours, it's been ages since we spoke last."

And the Golden trio fell into easy conversation and let the rest of the day get away from them.