"Rough day?"

"Oh, hey Mr. Potter. What are you doing here?" Ron asked with a meaningful glance at the shelves laden with all kinds of noodles.

"Grocery shopping. Shego wanted Lasagna, so here I am looking for ingredients. And I told you, it's Harry. I'm not that much older than you," the wizard said and took in the appearance of the boy next to him in the pasta aisle of the Smarty Mart. "You look like you're walking to your execution."

"Junior Prom is in two weeks, and KP is going with Eric."

"Ah, say no more. I've been there before."

"Really?"

"My school hosted a big dance when I was fourteen, and the girl I wanted to go with has been asked by someone else. Although unlike you, I only found out after I asked her," Harry replied and decided to leave out the great mess that had been the Triwizard tournament.

"Ouch."

"Quite. Being a clueless idiot back then, I ended up asking a classmate on the grounds of her being the next-best girl who didn't have a date yet. Let me tell you, that was a train wreck," Harry explained and chuckled at the memory. Looking back at it, he could see the humour in the whole mess, but back then it had been anything but. And here he had the opportunity to spare someone from a similar situation.

"Let me give you one piece of advice. Whoever you end up asking instead of Kim, ask her because you enjoy her company. Better go as friends with some girl and make the most out of the night than rush into a date for the sake of having one. Don't do what I did and pick someone you can't talk with, just because she is pretty. You'll be miserable for the whole evening, and your date will leave you because you spent too much time brooding that you didn't get the girl."

"I don't know. It's not like there's a queue of girls just waiting for me to ask them out."

To Harry, this felt like a mirror into the past, to when he had been too dense to notice female attention. He might not know this Ron as well as his namesake, but there was some wisdom he could pass on. His Ron had no need for such advice any more, being happily married and probably looking for a way to escape his brood for an evening rather than charm some witches. Although come to think of it, the last time Harry had been roped into babysitting duty, Susan ended up pregnant with twins. "Look, you spend your free time helping your best friend fight villains and save the world. That has to count for something, right?"

"Maybe?"

"So think about it, other than Kim, whose company do you enjoy the most?"

"Kim has been my best friend since Pre-K. I never felt the need to find anyone else when I had her."

"Well, as you've said, she already has a date, and you still need one," Harry pointed out, feeling oddly nostalgic. And old, despite his thirtieth birthday still being a few years off. "Don't think about looks or attraction, just about whom you can spend an evening talking to without running out of things to say. Who can make you laugh?"

"Well, then I'm beaten. KP has been my best, but also pretty much only friend. Or at least girlfriend. Friend who is a girl," Ron explained with a wild gesture of his hands. " – There is someone," he said slowly, then his face fell. "But she's in Japan."

"So get a plane ticket. And maybe phone ahead to ask if she's free whenever your prom is. That could save you some trouble, come to think of it," Harry said thoughtfully as he stroked his chin. Had he been raised under normal circumstances, he might have remembered that it wasn't normal for a seventeen-year-old boy to walk up to the ticket desk and book a seat on the next transpacific flight. Or that seventeen was not the age of majority everywhere.

"Well, I'm broke."

"I thought you were a millionaire. Shego got quite a laugh from reading about your newfound wealth in the newspaper," Harry recalled with a fond chuckle. Especially thinking about the gaping fish imitation Shego had made at the headline before she burst out laughing.

"After that cash went to my head, my parents put any further royalties into a trust fund. I won't be able to use any of that until I turn twenty-one, which is like – forever."

"I see," Harry replied. He pulled out a bundle of banknotes out of a mokeskin pouch and gave it to Ron. "That will cover four flights to Japan and back. If you book steerage, that should even leave you with enough to buy your date a nice dress and, as a friend of mine likes to say, to suit up."

"That's – that's ten grand. I can't accept this, Mr. Potter."

"It's still Harry, and this is not a gift, but a loan," he said and waved dismissively. "You can pay me back when you get your trust."

"That will take years."

"Then so it shall be."

"Aren't adults supposed to be all like: Do the smart thing? Think about your future, don't waste your money."

"Fuck them," Harry snorted. Being responsible already cost him one relationship, and he was not about to repeat that mistake. "Look, your school has what, a thousand students? Two thousand?"

"Something like that."

"Well, let's say that there are a thousand girls there. And despite that, despite the fact that the sea is full of fish, you went straight to a friend in Japan?"

"There are others. Monique can be pretty fun. And Tara is cute –"

"And yet, you did not think about her, but someone else instead," Harry pointed out. He was not quite sure why he was so insistent on this, but perhaps New York had rubbed off more onto him than he would have thought. Apparently, you can only play 'Have you met Ted?' so many times before picking up certain habits that go along with it.

"Yori is great. She's pretty, smart, honorable, has a great sense of humor and she – she believes in me like no one else does. Not even me."

"So then the important question becomes: Do you think she likes you?"

"Well, she kisses my cheeks each time we – and – but –" Ron trailed off, reaching the conclusion on his own.

"I think you have a plane to catch this Friday."

"Boo-ya," Ron replied, drawing a laugh from the wizard before he got more serious. "Hey Harry?"

"Hmm?"

"What's with the whole Master of Death thing? Because I'm still kinda freaked out by the whole title. And you being Shego's boyfriend. And the strange smoke thing you did."

"My parents were killed by a self-proclaimed Lord Voldemort, which is bad French for flight from death. Fucker wouldn't leave me or my friends alone. So, since I shipped the one fleeing from death across the River Styx, I'm Master of Death," Harry explained. He had thought about telling Ron more, but in the end he went with the cover story he had come up with after one too many glasses of rum at Fidel's beach house. Although admittedly, it has sounded better in his drunk mind.

"Man, that sucks."

"Don't sweat it, he has been six feet under for years now. As for the smoke, a magician must never reveal all his secrets."

"Don't you think this is too much?" Harry asked as he watched the transmission from the junior prom playing on three screens.

"I think it's perfect," Shego laughed and grabbed more popcorn, her head resting on his shoulder. "Not only is the cheerleader falling for a Synthodrone, she's also mighty green because you set her sidekick up with a date who's just as hot as she is. And we're getting to watch it live through a high definition satellite uplink."

"You should have seen Ron when he learned that she had a date. Helping him was my good deed of the week."

"I thought karaoke with Dr D covered that," Shego drawled. Her boyfriend voluntarily spending time with the Doctor was even weirder than his magic.

"Nah, that's just fun."

"Sometimes, you make me question your sanity," Shego said and gently slapped his chest. "Still, I have to applaud your plot. You managed to break up Team Possible while barely lifting a finger. You won't believe how jealous the community will be about that, and how stupid they'll feel when they learn that all it took was a hot girl and ten grand."

"Break up Team Possible? Aren't you a bit dramatic here?"

"You see the looks Kim is shooting that chick. And they know each other, it wasn't any better the last time she visited. The Princess just couldn't cope with the idea that the sidekick could have someone else, yet she ditched him for the next best hottie, even if he's actually not even a person," Shego explained before she frowned. "That's actually quite rude, come to think of it."

"How do you know all of this?"

"Because I've tapped into the security cameras of the school, duh."

"Don't you find that a bit creepy?" Harry asked as he blindly reached for more popcorn, his eyes glued to the transmission. He had known that Shego watched a lot of TV, but he had never paid attention to the show, assuming it to be the same kind of soap opera Andromeda couldn't get enough of.

"Shut up, this is better than any soap. And you're British, don't you have an episode of Dr Dork to get back to?"

"I prefer Top Gear, but they are in between seasons right –"

"Oh look, they kissed again," Shego interrupted gleefully. "Kimmie looks like she would love to have my powers right now."

"I was just being a wingman," Harry grumbled. He had no intentions of ever partaking in evil plots, he just wanted to help a clueless bloke avoid a mess like the Yule Ball. Which worked, albeit a bit too well. "Who is she anyway? I didn't really question it at the time, but isn't it weird for a kid from Colorado to have a thing with a girl from Japan?"

"Sidekick did some student exchange in Japan, and she was his guide there. Or at least that's what I got from the cameras when she visited a few months ago. The cheerleader couldn't stand her, even if she and her best friend had been thirsting after the Japanese exchange student here like bitches in heat. Just because he rode a sweet bike."

"This really is like a soap opera to you."

"Hey, I need something to unwind, okay? I can only deal with Drakken's monologues, evil plots and doomsday devices for so many hours each day," Shego grumbled, and Harry wrapped an arm around her. "And now I want to know where the Japanese girl got her dress from. Black silk with a blood-red dragon might be a bit cliché, but it fits like a dream and the craftsmanship is superb. I want to see what else they'll have in stock."

"I'll ask Ron where he bought it. And then I'll book us first class to Japan."

"You know, I still have vacation days left. So how about we make it a long weekend? Dr D is stuck in his weird corporate meetings anyways, and you've sabotaged Team Possible for the foreseeable future," Shego summarized. "Or we could have a long layover in Honolulu, and enjoy the beaches there."

"I don't think a long weekend would be enough for Hawaii and Japan. Assuming you actually want to relax during that holiday."

"Oh, I can think of plenty of relaxation, at least with the right person."

"Well, tell me when you found him," Harry chuckled, even if he had to fight the shiver her low voice caused. That woman knew which buttons to press, and all he could do in return was to pretend she didn't affect him.

"Look, it seems there's even more trouble brewing. Kimmie's cheerleader rival doesn't look too happy that she has been upstaged by a hot date, either," Shego said with the same obsessiveness Harry recalled whenever his best mate was going on about the Cannons. She fiddled with the remote until one of the synthodrone's cameras focused on Ron's date. "She has an interesting build. Closer to a tiny football player than track and field or a cheerleader. Strong arms, broad shoulders and hips – maybe she knows some martial arts."

"There's no way this is their first date," Harry concluded after another camera panned back from Bonny glaring daggers at Yori to the slow-dancing couple. A very close slow dance that did not really fit in with the students around them. And if either of their smiles got any wider, their faces were in serious risk of splitting.

"You said they had history."

"Ron said that she pecked him on the cheek a few times, but he was too clueless to notice that she was more than just friendly."

"Boys. I remember being that age. If my crush flew around the globe to ask me out to prom and bought me a fancy dress, my panties would have dropped like a rock," Shego announced without a sliver of shame. "Do you think I should get them matching Mile High Club t-shirts?"

"I don't know, this Ron isn't my friend, he's just my girlfriend's nemesis' sidekick. The little man looked down, and I could relate to his problem. I wasn't expecting anything like this," Harry said and gestured at the flat-screen. Meanwhile, Shego was playing with the remote and the image changed to another security camera with a different angle. It showed a close-up of the couple's faces. The adoration in their eyes was clearly visible even in the black and white transmission. "That was a weird thing to say. I was just hoping the bloke would have a better evening than I did at my own school dance."

"He had a better evening alright. No way they haven't banged," Shego replied with a contemplating finger on her chin. "I could storm in there, butt-naked, and they wouldn't even notice me. He's completely oblivious to the daggers Kimmie is glaring at them, and that other cheerleader. They take the whole 'only having eyes for each other' thing to the next level."

"Is that your professional opinion?"

"I got that degree fair and square."

"And now you use it to determine whether two high school students are shagging," Harry said with a teasing laugh, which was answered with an elbow to his ribs.

"At least I'm not a magical janitor."

"I'm flying on a broom, not doing building maintenance."

"Your broom is literally called Cleansweep XXX."

"Yes, because the French League is standardised on the Thirty," Harry said with a roll of his eyes. "It was quite the scandal when an English company won that contract."

"It sounds like something a porno writer would come up with. All that's missing is a thick mustache and you coming and asking who needs their pipes cleaned."

"Once again, I shall refer to the expert," he laughed, and got another elbow to the side. However, this time Shego could not stop the smile tugging at her lips.

"Shego, where have you been?" were the words that greeted her as the bars on the prison window fell inwards, the frame melted to slag. The green glow illuminating the cell would have been more intimidating without the pink cocktail umbrella that Harry stuck to her hair, but she had not noticed that.

"On vacation, duh."

"Your absence allowed Kim Possible and her sidekicks to ruin my brilliant plan!"

"Woah, first of all, you signed off my application for vacation time. You spent weeks in board meetings and dealing with corporate, this was something you knew. I even filled out your stupid productivity assessment spreadsheet for the henchman who was my holiday replacement. You knew I wouldn't be back at work until today," Shego replied with a roll of her eyes. "Secondly, sidekicks? As in more than one? Did she bring her brothers? I swear if she starts her own version of Team Go, I'll stick my fist where the sun doesn't –"

"No, no, it was the usual buffoon," Drakken interrupted her mutterings. "But they had someone else with them. A ninja."

"Interesting. The services of a ninja are not something you can acquire through an ad in the yellow pages," Shego mused, ignoring the claxons blaring the alarm.

"Of course not, no one uses phone books anymore Shego. It's all on the Internet now."

"Not my point. Unless that was some hired muscle from Global Justice, the ninja will probably be around. Which means I will have to fight him."

"Why would you fight the ninja?"

"Because most likely, he will try to foil your next plot as well."

"Which next plot?" Drakken wanted to know and leaned forward with sudden interest, only to see a glowing fist grab him by the collar of his prison uniform. A second later, he was unceremoniously thrown into the passenger seat of the hovercraft.

"This is a prison break, not a social visit or brainstorming session. You can think of a plan for world domination once we, or more specifically you, are out of here," Shego hissed and opened up the throttle. Sometimes, she wondered why she even bothered with her idiot employer anymore. Then she remembered her bank balance.

AN:

Beta'ed by doenerkint/Babidibupi.

I hope that last scene made it clear that Team Possible is not broken up. Nothing like an attempted robot takeover of the world to make Kim get her head out of her ass, and nothing like defeating said robots to form bonds forged under fire to make her okay with Yori being around more. The overall plot of So the Drama went a bit differently with Ron actually having a good time at prom instead of running into the hints while moping at Bueno Nacho and causing the goon to activate the Diabolos early. On the flip side, with Harry taking Shego on a holiday and happily slurping cocktails in Hawaii on the way back, there is no one there to stop Kim, Ron and Yori from foiling Drakken.

Ron/Yori was my first-ever OTP (long before I knew about shipping or fanfiction), so I felt like I had to include it once I actually got around to writing in that fandom (not that I ever expected to).

Also, yes those were a couple of HIMYM references (and there were some more subtle ones earlier), the timelines match up well enough for Harry to have hung out in NYC with the gang (ableit before Robin came to New York). I don't expect him to have been a central element to that group, more like one of those secondary characters that gets introduced via flashback by Ted. Probably for messing with Barney by performing actual magic while pretending to be another magician.