Summary: Severus' and Hermione's daughter tells her dad about the relationship she has been having with her defence against the dark arts ex teacher.

Disclaimer: Don't own so don't sue please.

Tradition

Tradition.

A word that means something different to everyone. In each individual mind people understand the simple word in their own little way. Hermione Snape sees the beautiful architecture surrounding her at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Severus Snape remembers with distaste the trials he suffered throughout his childhood, following the purebloods' sacred traditions. And Saffi sees her last hope of gaining acceptance from her parents.

Tradition. Saffi was desperately clinging to the word as though somewhere deep in the nine letters there were hidden depths that could miraculously tell her what to do, what to say, or maybe what to spike her father's coffee with to keep him calm during the whole ordeal awaiting her on the other side of the portrait.

Trying in vain to swallow the suffocating lump in her throat, she ran a hand through her hair wishing she were watching him commit the same act - watching him do anything at all could comfort her more then she thought love ever would. Feeling her ribs swell with the deep calming breathes she took quietly there in that cramped and silent dungeon corridor, she closed her eyes to the thought of his hair, his hands, his nose, lips and everything else that mesmerised her about the man. Unnoticed by the swirling hush of the draft blowing along the stone floors, she stood, completely lost to her memories.

Forgotten minutes passed by as she imagined the smell of his cologne, the slight curl of his thick, dark, hair and the love she always saw in his deep all-knowing eyes. Opening her own black orbs she was disappointed to see the annoyed face of the portrait at her parent's living quarters staring at her cautiously. Finally steeling herself for the obstruction flying all to quickly towards her boyfriend and herself she mumbled the password and crossed the threshold.

"Oh there you are," Hermione said casually from her seat at the writing desk as she attached a small scroll to the waiting leg of Hedwig, "Salazar said you have been loitering out there for the past ten minutes." Saffi scowled, dutifully kicking off her shoes – a custom in her parent's apartments.

"Damned portrait," She mumbled under her breath as she walked over to her mother, "Is Dad around? I need to talk to you both." Saffi lowered her eyes to her fingernails, nervously picking at the tips, knowing that there was no going back now.

"Yes, he is just looking for his new potions book, your brother has stolen it off somewhere. That boy is too like his father for his own good. Just like you." Smiling weakly Saffi turned her back on her mother before falling onto the sofa.

Tradition. It could be like a tradition, they would understand, they had to understand.

Suddenly she was thrown out of her troubled thoughts as Severus slammed the door connecting the living room to the hallway branching off to the bedrooms.

"That boy better keep himself away from things he doesn't understand, do you realise I found him trying to bottle death? Again? He's getting out of control!" Saffi realised with horror that he was not in a good mood.

"At least he's experimenting with powdered unicorn horn instead of the kind of things other boys rebel with, he doesn't bring home girls for instance." Severus sat in his armchair by the warmth of the fire, oblivious to the presence of his twenty-year-old daughter just feet away.

"True, but then why would he bring them back here? He has a dorm." Hermione stood from her seat at the desk and walked nearer the billowing fireplace.

"Darling, why are we talking about this? Both of us as well as Hunter realise that girls are a bit of a rare thing in his life anyway." Severus glared into the fireplace, thinking restlessly about the state of his son's obsession with potions. Saffi breathed a sigh of relief as a smile broke out of his lined face.

"True again, Hunter is a bit unlucky in that department, very much like I was." Severus turned to face the room at large and noticed his daughter for the first time. Tradition, she hoped, tradition would win the battle.

"Hi Dad." Saffi said waving from her sofa. Severus smiled again, glad to see his eldest child.

"Saffi! We weren't expecting you, I thought you would be caught up in the hospital wing because of this flu epidemic."

"Erm no, Poppy is paying me a visit – she banned me from the wing for a day." Tradition.

"Hunter will be happy to see you without having to fake a brain tumour again." Saffi laughed nervously as her eyes darted around the room watching her mother, waiting for her to take a seat. As Hermione sunk into an armchair across from Severus, Saffi sprung to her feet; surprising her parents and gaining their undivided attention.

"Erm well…" Embarrassed by the two burning eyes that bore into her face, Saffi stumbled behind the sofa and braced her palms on it's thick leather back. "I needed to talk to you."

"Oh? What about?" Saffi bit her lip as she watched her parents exchange a confused and sceptical look. Horrified, Saffi noticed her nerve crumble and a rational part of her brain finally broke through, telling her that tradition was not enough for her to centre her whole argument around.

"You!" she screamed startling her parents, "Him…me… love… tradition… oh God." She mumbled watching her parents mentally assess her sanity.

"Are you feeling okay Saffi? Have you recently bumped your head?" Musing on her parent's decision that she had indeed lost her mind Saffi decided to start again.

"I like this man…" Saffi watched as her father's complexion paled and her mother sat up further in her seat.

"Do I want to hear this?" Severus asked, sending mildly scared looks at his wife and daughter.

"Yes, you do, because it's very important."

"Sweetheart I didn't know you were seeing anyone. Is it serious?" Saffi bit her lip again and cracked her knuckles at her mother's mother hen attitude.

"That's because I haven't been able to tell you! But yes it's pretty serious. But well it's tradition!" Severus fidgeted in his chair trying to block out the conversation, as Hermione looked up confused at her daughter.

"I'm sorry, what tradition?"

"You're tradition!" Saffi said raising her hands and gesturing towards her parents as Severus catching onto the strange situation tuned in.

"You-You have a re-really big age gap between you!" Saffi felt an iron like taste in her mouth and realised the pressure she had been placing on her bottom lip had cut it slightly. Severus scowled and looked away again, never wanting to be reminded that he was too old for his wife.

"I'm still confused Saffi, what point are you trying to make…" Hermione's mouth fell open, "Oh no! Saffi!" frowning she ignored her mother and checked to make sure Severus was still oblivious.

"I know mum! I didn't plan it! But… I love him." Severus turned to look at her, a scowl pinned to his lips,

"Who? Who do you supposedly "love"?" he asked spitting the word out as though it left a bitter after-taste in his mouth, Hermione anxiously watched as her husband vanished before her eyes and the dreaded Professor Snape sat in Severus' favourite armchair.

"I'll tell you in a second Dad, but first I need to explain, I figured you two would understand because it's just like you! Actually I'm older now then mum was when you got married," Hermione spluttered, and looked with wide eyes up at her daughter,

"Married? No! I forbid you to marry a man with an age gap to you as big as mine and your fathers!" Saffi watched dejected, as smoke seemed to billow out of her father's ears and Hunter wandered into the living room,

"No! We're not getting married…" she tried to protest as her mother geared up for one of her infamous lectures.

"Saffi just because your father and I…" Hunter walked over to the small kitchen and began rummaging through the cupboards.

"Hey mum, dad, can I have a muffin… Saffi! What are you doing here?"

"How old is this pervert?" Severus exploded, silence issued across the room as Hermione laid her head in her hands, Severus stood from his chair in a fit of rage and Hunter backed out of the room with his hands up.

Saffi put a hand on her father's shoulder, but he flinched under her touch,

"He's-he's not that old…"

"How old?" her father asked coldly his eyes void of emotion.

"He's only thirty eight." She whispered timidly,

"What?" he father yelled, "an eighteen year age gap! Who? What pervert…" Saffi felt tears spring to her eyes,

"He's not a pervert! I love him! And that's not even as bad as you and mum…"

"Don't bring your mother and I into this! That is different! You are my daughter." Severus' face fell emotionless and he took a step back. "Who? Who is it? Where is he? I'm going to tear him limb from limb!" Severus stampeded towards the door, as the tears flowed down her cheeks. Neither of the two noticed as Hermione swept towards her husband and grabbed the back of his robes,

"Severus! How do you plan on tearing this man apart if you don't know who it is? Crush every man you come across?" Severus paused at the door, breathing heavily and his eyes glinting,

"No," he spun around and bore down on Saffi, "Who is it?" he snarled, Saffi looked up at his through her tears and tried to push past him, he caught her wrist,

"Who is it?" Hermione stood to the side of her husband and gently eased Saffi's wrist from his grip and pulled his wand secretly from his robe pocket.

"Severus calm down!" she laced her fingers with his and pulled him calmly over to a seat as his eyes closed to her touch and he followed obediently. Tradition. Why couldn't they see that they were just the same? Saffi turned to leave the room but her mother spoke harshly to her from her seat calming her husband.

"Sit." Saffi diligently fell into the hard wooden chair at the writing desk and waited for her parents to speak.

"Now Saffi, I understand that you think this is no different to your father and I, but you must see that such a big age gap would never work in today's society…"

"Mum, have you not listened to me? I love him, he loves me and we're happy together."

Hermione breathed in deeply and opened her eyes to survey her daughter sitting so casually in her seat. Her big wise black eyes staring back at her begging for acceptance, Hermione could see no trace of the cynical, sarcastic and angry teenager who used to glare back at her, she could see something else shining out from every inch of her daughter. Something had happened to her, the old cynical, sarcastic and angry Saffi Snape was not sitting in her parent's living room – she had disappeared and in her place was a happy and relaxed woman at peace with the world. When had this happened? Why hadn't she noticed? Hermione thought back trying to remember when Saffi had begun to change, with shock she remembered a day months ago when she had come across her daughter giddy with glee because 'he has finally come to his senses.'

"You are in love." Hermione raised a hand to her mouth again, realising that whoever this man was who had tamed Saffi, without him Saffi would never had been happy. Severus' ears pricked up and he turned to his wife in shock,

"You're ac-accepting this? Why are you…"

"Severus! Don't start again, can't you see she's happy?" Severus glanced at Saffi and scowled,

"I don't care whether she is happy or not! She's not dating some 80 year old!"

"Dad! He's only thirty-eight, I told you…"

"I don't want to hear it young lady!"

"I'm not a young lady any more Dad!" Saffi stood from her wooden seat and stormed over to her father. "And you can't treat me like one…"

Suddenly a blinding light filled the room as a glowing silver stag jumped though the wall and arrived at Saffi's feet, she froze and swore under her breathe as it began to speak,

"I hope you're finished because Poppy says she takes it back, she really needs your help. -- I agree, seriously she roped me in and -- you Smith! Yes you! Were you just sick in her hair? On purpose? -- I have to go Saffi, but please hurry, see you soon, love you." There was silence throughout the room as his voice echoed throughout the living room. Saffi watched horrified as the stag bounced around the room for a few seconds more, as though taunting her. Severus turned wide-eyed to Saffi as Hermione frowned and began mumbling to herself about bat bogey curses.

"Please tell me, Saffi, please tell me that it's not Potter." Saffi looked between her parents, all thoughts of the tradition argument she had practised so carefully in front of the mirror that morning vanishing from her mind.

"Well…" Severus stood breathing heavily trying to speak.

"That ugly piece of filth? Saffi he is practically your uncle! And he is old enough to be your bloody father!" Saffi bit her lip again and began to protest.

"He's hardly my uncle! I only met him last year! He's been in bloody Egypt! Hardly living next door! You forgot he even existed!" Hermione manage to spit out a few words seconds later as Saffi watched Severus turn purple with fascinated apprehension.

"Well he was supposed to be like your uncle! If he hadn't gone off to Africa, he would have been!"

"Mum! Please just stop it – I love him! I love Harry Potter!"

"No you don't!"

"But you accepted it Mum!"

"That was before I found out it was my best friend!"

Neither of the two noticed as Severus rose in a trance like state and ran towards the door,

"Immobilus!" Hermione screamed in his direction, and Severus froze his hand ready to push open the portrait.

"Mum!"

"Would you rather he went up to the hospital wing and killed Potter?" Saffi looked at her shocked,

"So now it's Potter to you too!" Saffi spun on her heels and stalked towards the door,

"Saffi, why?" Those two tiny words made her as still as her father when she sensed the tears sprouting to her mother's eyes. She ran back across the room and enveloped herself in her arms.

"Oh Mum, I didn't plan it! It just happened, one minute I was just sitting next to him in the library helping him with his research and the next I had the biggest crush on him!"

"So it's just a crush! You're not going…" Saffi felt more tears prick her eyes as she felt the need to tell someone. Just one person needed to understand and she and Harry could be happy.

"That's just how it started Mum," she found herself rambling still in her mother's arms, "I -- I tried to get him to notice me like that, but he told me he couldn't like me because he was too old. It took me ages to convince him that it was okay. He was so angry at me for trying to turn his head when he brought one of his first years up to the wing, that he yelled he couldn't tell me he loved me because Dad would kill him. We started dating after that." Hermione frowned into her daughter's hair wishing Saffi hadn't acted just as she had done when she had first liked Severus.

"Let's unfreeze your father, shall we?" But Saffi looked at her hopefully,

"Or we could just leave him like that! No-one will miss him in the cupboard on the landing." They both turned as one to see the place where Severus had been frozen but to their confusion it was empty.

"Oh no! Where is he?"

"Potter!" Severus screamed, as his fists pounded on the hospital wing's bathroom where Harry had taken refuge when he saw Severus running towards him. "Get out here you coward! I though you were supposed to be brave!" There was a chuckle from the other side of the door, which angered Severus even more. He plunged his hand into his robe pocket and was surprised to find it empty. "Damned woman!" he screamed to the heavens and pounded on the door again, "I may be old but I can still take you!" There was a snigger from a few beds away from the door and an unfortunate fourth year who had recently discovered innuendo whispered,

"That's what he said," to his visitors. Severus' ears pricked up at the comment and he found himself stalking towards the boy. The frightened screams that came from him as Severus got closer dragged Harry from the bathroom.

"Leave him alone Severus," he said before laughing at the annoyed professor ready to bat the boy over the head with a bedpan. Severus turned his furious eyes on Harry, threw the bedpan aside and stalked over to him.

"You dirty pervert!" Harry looked about him for another hiding place before jumping over a bed and leaping a small cupboard to put more feet between them.

"I am not a pervert! Severus, I'm really sorry!" Smoke seemed to billow out of his ears for the umpteenth time that day.

"You're sorry? You're sorry? What? That you've corrupted my daughter?" Harry looked at Severus with shock.

"No! And I haven't corrupted anyone! And really this is the pot calling the kettle…"

"Oh don't you start going on about how it's no different to myself and Hermione! It is!" Harry raised his eyebrow and noticed that Severus was not trying to chase after him any more, so he took a step forward, legs bent to run.

"I'm sorry? I don't understand how you think this is any different…"

"Because she's my Saffi." Harry shuffled closer again and watched as Severus slumped defeated onto one of the beds, forgetting the watching students. "Even I can see you make her happy, but I want her to like someone her own age." Harry sat down cautiously next to Severus, wondering how he made Saffi happy. "To tell you the truth I understand her "Tradition" argument although that is not really the best word to use for it but when I heard that she was seeing someone so old all the arguments I had for not loving Hermione came flooding back." Harry nodded his head, falling in love with someone young enough to be his daughter made him realise he understood exactly where he was coming from. "You!" Severus' eyes flashed again and Harry got ready to run, "Why do you have to make her happy?" Harry assessed the situation and decided he should speak,

"Would you rather she was with someone who made her feel terrible but was 20 too?" Severus thought for a second and was ready to agree before an image of the new happy Saffi flew to the front of his mind.

"No." Harry bit his lip before smiling faintly at the realisation that he was starting to pick up some of Saffi's habits.

"Do you always feel unworthy of Hermione?" Severus frowned at Harry confused at the random comment, "No! That wasn't an insult! I just wondered whether when you fall in love with someone twenty years younger than you, you ever feel as though you deserve them?"

"Never." Severus admitted looking at Harry not as the older man stealing his daughter but as someone who was just insecure about whether he was being selfish by having a young girlfriend. "But then Hermione always tries to make me feel like I deserve her… but you won't have that problem because this is just a fling. You and Saffi won't be getting married. Right?" Harry's eyes widened and he spluttered trying to choke out an answer,

"No! We've only been seeing each other a couple of months, and I don't think she'd marry me anyway, and she's too young to get married, and I'm too old for her! And…" Severus curled one side of his lips and laid one hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Stop talking. And don't even think about proposing to my daughter yet…" Harry looked out the window in thought, before exactly what Severus had said hit him and he smirked dangerously, as Severus scowled, "No I take that back! Forget it! You may never marry my daughter!" Harry raised one hand and pointed at Severus.

"You said she could be my wife one day!"

"No! No! I didn't! Where is my wand when I need a memory charm?"

Harry chuckled and rose to his feet as the doors to the hospital wing slammed open and Saffi and Hermione ran in out of breathe.

"Don't hurt him!" they screamed together before pausing, confused to see the two men so close without one lying dead at the other's feet.

"What's going on here?" Hermione asked walking towards the bed and taking Harry's seat next to her husband.

"Oh nothing Hermione, Severus and I were just having a man to man chat weren't we?" Severus looked anxiously at Saffi as she walked closer to the trio and at Harry, where he stood feet away smirking with his arms folded.

"Yes. But we will never think on or discuss this ever again!" he said sternly.

"Oh no Severus! I'm remembering that one – it might come in handy in couple of years," reaching out to take Saffi's hand as she arrived by his side, he smiled, "or months," Harry gave her a light nudge and Saffi swarmed down on her parents. She hugged her mother as Severus stared up at Harry in disbelief, "maybe weeks, days even." Saffi put her arms around Severus and he patted her back in shock. Harry breathed a sigh of relief when Severus showed no signs of imploding any time soon. He looked guiltily at Hermione who glared at him as she playfully batted his upside the head. But then just as Harry and Saffi turned to walk across the wing to Madam Pomfrey, Severus stood. Hermione watched in shock as he visibly shook with anger.

"You cocky pervert!" Harry propelled himself suddenly to the right, leaving Saffi in his dust as he catapulted himself out of the door and down the corridor outside the wing. "Get back here! Coward!" Severus yelled running after him.

"Mum?" Saffi walked over to Hermione, "Will Dad hurt him?"

"I doubt it dear, he hasn't got his wand remember?" she said quietly raised her hand and twirling the long wooden stick between her fingers.

"Look at him, just sitting there. Arrogant brat!" Hermione rolled her eyes and speared more sprouts on her fork. "Oh my Merlin! He is actually drinking! He is drinking pumpkin juice and… Hermione! Hermione! We have to stop this - he just smiled at Saffi again!" Hermione placed her hand over Severus' restless one and smoothed his ruffled hair with her other.

"Darling it's Christmas! Try to be happy!"

"How can I be happy when my baby is sitting with an old perverted man only a few seats away." Hermione tapped him sharply on the head with her spoon.

"Stop it Severus! He is not a pervert and you know that! On many occasions he has shown himself to be respectful…"

"Hermione! He stroked her hand! Was that a frown? Hermione he's hurting her, let's go rescue my baby." Hermione yanked him down in to his seat as he rose from the table and tried to run to the rescue.

"Sit down and put on your cracker hat." She dropped the coloured paper onto his head and watched him scowl up at it.

"This is just like the Christmas of '01 at my parent's house." Severus had the decency to look ashamed at this.

"You're father tried to castrate me with a turkey baser." Hermione chuckled and kissed him on the nose, "That was a good idea actually." Severus glanced around for a discarded baser. Damn those house elves; they never make a mistake.

"Severus." She warned, he sighed and glanced over at the couple.

"But he's going grey!" he protested, Hermione laughed,

"It doesn't matter, they're in love!"

Severus realised he was getting nowhere and his only choice was distraction. "You old romantic, dear." he forced a laugh and held her hand under the table. Hermione smiled at him and turned to engage Hagrid in conversation, Severus watched out of the corner of his eye to make sure she was completely absorbed; there was a particularly sharp looking bread roll just inches from his fingers.

"What the hell? Who threw bread at me?"