A/N: Severus and Hermione's father spend some time together while Hermione and her mother are gone.

final word count: 650:

Spending Christmas in Australia was not Severus's idea of a good holiday, if only because spending the time with her parents was painfully awkward.

Yet it was even more awkward as a few days before the holiday, Mrs. Granger and Hermione both decided they wanted to do some last minute shopping, leaving Severus with Mr. Granger, who actually hated him.

"I still don't approve of you with my daughter," Mr. Granger said after sitting across the table from Severus.

"You realize I've known this from day one, right?" Severus drawled. He'd long stopped trying to be anyone other than himself.

"That's why. You have such an awful attitude. Didn't your parents ever each you how to treat others?"

"No, actually. They were too busy fighting, drinking, and hitting to teach me anything."

He'd said it so casually, without realizing what the consequences would be.

"What did you say?" Mr. Granger asked, but his tone…worried.

Severus sighed. If he brushed it off…no, he'd get it out. At this point there was no use in hiding it. "My parents were too busy arguing with each other, my father too busy drinking, my mother too busy trying to please him, and him too busy beating her or I for either of them to have remotely tried to teach me anything."

Mr. Granger's jaw was slack. "I-I-I'm sorry. But what about Hogwarts? Surely-"

"At that point I was eleven. Most of my interactions with people were defined by my parents. I had one friend, but I still wasn't where I should have been. But at Hogwarts I was being bullied by a group of four boys, they all decided that they wanted to make my life hell. Ended up almost killing me via werewolf when I was fifteen, and having decided that wasn't enough, then humiliated me and exposed me to my peers while trying to blackmail my only friend into dating him. I accidentally called her something I regret to this day. I lost my best friend that day."

"What about the boys? Why weren't they expelled?"

"I blame a bias in favor of Gryffindor and the fact that they were popular. But I will likely never know."

"Is that why you initially-"

"Joined the Death eaters? Yes. In part. I didn't believe any of the blood status crap. My best friend was a muggleborn and she was easily one of the most talented witches I knew. But I desired power and position. I was skilled with potions and the dark arts because of my isolation. It became an asset. But-I regretted it almost immediately. I realized I had let those in my house manipulate me into thinking that I was doing a good thing. It was only when the only friend I ever had was in danger that I realized the error of my ways."

"I guess that certainly explains a lot."

"I suppose."

They stared at each other for a moment.

"You better be treating my daughter right."

"I can assure you, I am doing everything I can to make her happy, because that is all that matters to me. As long as she's happy, it seems I am."

"Do you intend to leave her? Hurt her?"

"No. I don't think I could."

"Then-then I give you my blessing. To be with my daughter. However-however you two choose."

Severus's eyes widened in surprise. "You don't have-"

"It's obvious to me that my daughter is happy. Truly happy. And I know if I keep hating you, she'll only be upset because she wants us to get along. So I'm going to calla truce. What do you say?"

"That would be agreeable."

The two men shook hands across the table and grabbed up their newspapers, a comfortable silence between them.

Severus inwardly was beaming. He essentially had just been given permission to marry Hermione, and it was certainly something he wanted to do.