"Lily just stepped out with her mother, they were going to run to the store and get some more milk, Sev, but they should be back soon," Hal told Severus when he answered the door to find the Master Healer standing on the porch. "Come on in, I'm watching Harry, the kid's been awful irritable today and I had Vi take Lily out, I think he's really getting to her."

Severus stepped inside the Evans' home, he was not wearing his Healer whites, having gone to his flat and changed into more casual wear. "Hello, Hal. Lily and I were going to see a movie after dinner." He unconsciously smoothed his blue pullover. From the den he could hear a cartoon show blaring. "Is he sick again, Hal?"

The big man shook his head. "No, I took his temperature, it was normal. This's just pure crankiness. Everyone has bad days."

Severus followed Hal into the den, where they found Harry sitting on the couch, watching The Jetsons. Harry glanced up when Hal entered, and whined, "Pop, I thirsty. Want some milk. Get some?"

Hal heaved a sigh. Clearly this question had been asked multiple times already. "Harry, we don't have any milk right now, your mum and Gran went to get some from the store, remember?"

Harry scowled mulishly. "I want milk!"

"Hey, scamp, what's all this?" Severus demanded, coming into the den.

Harry immediately quit scowling and smiled instead. "Sevvy!" he shrieked, and jumped off the couch and ran to hug Severus about the leg. He held his arms up. "Up, Sevvy!"

"How do you ask, Mr. Potter?" the Master Healer demanded with a touch of sternness.

"Pease, Sevvy pick me up!"

"All right, Harry." Severus scooped the toddler into his arms, and let Harry throw his arms about his neck and kiss his cheek.

"Love my Sevvy," Harry whispered, his green eyes glowing.

Severus smiled down at the heartwarming little brat and whispered, "Love my Harry too." He drew his wand and cast a quick diagnostic on the child, just to make sure Harry wasn't coming down with something. But the seventeen-month-old was physically healthy as a horse, Hal had been right when he had said Harry's attitude was just plain crabbiness. "Why are you giving your grandpa a hard time, scamp?"

"‘Cause. I want milk, Sevvy, an' he-" Harry pointed at Hal. "-won't give me it."

"Because he has none for you, Harry," Severus explained patiently.

"Sevvy get me some?" he flashed the Healer one of his patented puppy dog looks, all big pleading eyes and pouting lower lip.

The Healer nodded. Then he summoned a carton of milk from his own refrigerator. He then called up a sippy cup and poured the milk into it and handed it to Harry. "There, here's your milk. What do you say?"

"Thanks." Harry drank some milk, then turned to Hal and said, "Sevvy's best, Pop, not you!"

Hal blinked at his little grandson's declaration, inclined to shrug it off as a mere bad mood. But Severus was appalled at the way Harry behaved and he scowled down on the child. "Harry James Severus, you do not talk like that to your grandpa. Now say you're sorry."

Harry blinked and sniffled at the harsh tone, he hated it when his Sevvy was mad. But he wasn't prepared to apologize either and he shook his head firmly and cried, "No! I not sorry!"

Severus narrowed his eyes. "Would you like me to make you sorry, young man? One."

Harry wailed. "No! No count!" He knew that if three was reached, he was in time-out.

"Then tell your grandpa you're sorry."

Harry began to cry.

"Two. I'm waiting, young man." Severus prompted, turning the boy about to face Hal.

Harry hiccupped, his nose dripping, mixing with the tears on his face. "‘Kay. I sorry, Pop."

"Thank you," Hal said quietly, and fished out a handkerchief and wiped the mess off Harry's face. "See what I mean? He's in a mood today."

The little boy hid his face in Snape's shoulder, crying. "Sevvy mad?"

Severus rubbed his back, murmuring, "Not now, scamp. I forgive you. Hush." He walked over to the couch and sat down with the toddler in his lap, hugging him until Harry stopped crying. "Have you put him down for a nap?"

Hal shook his head. "I tried, but he refused to go to sleep. Spent ten minutes howling like he was being tortured. I couldn't take it after that and I took him out of there. Probably a mistake, I know I should have left him and he would have cried himself to sleep, but I hate it when kids cry."

"That's probably why he's cranky," Severus remarked, shifting Harry slightly. He began patting the child's back and humming softly. Harry squirmed, fighting the urge to sleep.

"No-o-o! No nap!"

"Shhh. Put your head down," the Healer ordered, gently pushing the boy's head down. "There's a good boy."

Harry fussed, and Severus gave him a warning tap on the bottom and said in a tone that brooked no nonsense, "Harry, stop it! Lie still." He knew that once he got the little one to stop moving, he would be tired enough to fall asleep.

Harry obeyed, recognizing that Sev meant business. Sure enough, as soon as he was still his eyes closed and within five minutes he was fast asleep on Severus' shoulder, his thumb in his mouth.

"Looks like you've got the magic touch, Sev," Hal chuckled. "No pun intended."

Severus flushed, he was unused to being praised by an older man, especially one like Hal, whom he respected. His father had never praised him for anything, only criticized and smacked him when he didn't meet Tobias's impossible standards of perfection. "He was getting tired before I got here and probably would've fallen asleep on his own." He cradled Harry against him, awash in the scent of fruity shampoo and baby powder that clung to the little boy. Harry's breath caressed his cheek, and smelled of apples. Severus remained holding him for a few minutes more, making sure he was well and truly asleep before rising and asking Hal where he could put Harry down for his nap.

"The third door on the left is the nursery," Hal pointed, and Severus walked into the room, which had giraffes and teddy bears painted on the wall, and put Harry in the small bed that was against the wall, covered in a matching print comforter. After tucking the boy in next to Smokey, his stuffed dragon, Severus slipped from the room and returned to where Hal was in the den.

Hal had already flipped the channel on the TV to a sports channel and waved Sev to a seat. "He asleep still?"

"Out like a light," Severus replied.

"Would you like something to drink, Sev? We've got soda or iced tea or lemonade, anything but milk," Hal said with a wry grin.

"Thanks, Hal. I'll have an iced tea."

Before Hal could rise, Severus summoned a glass and the iced tea to him and poured himself some.

Hal gave him a rather envious look. "You don't know how many times I wished I could do that, especially in the middle of a football game or a rugby match."

"It does save time." The Healer admitted. "But it can also make you lazy, which is why I often do things the Muggle way. Force of habit, since my father never permitted me to use magic around him."

"Because of the Underage Magic Restriction?"

"Hardly. He didn't even know about that. No, he hated when I used my magic accidentally, sometimes I did things without meaning to, like summoning ten glasses off a shelf and breaking them, before I went to school and learned to control it."

"Lily did stuff like that too. Once she made my hat dance a jig. I near passed out cold."

"I'd have preferred that to what my father did," said Severus darkly. He winced in remembered pain and fought the urge to rub his backside, for Tobias had whipped him bloody and faint scars still remained.

"He wallop you?" Hal queried very softly.

Severus's jaw clenched and he nodded once, his eyes dark. "I was four. I had no idea what I'd done, how I'd done it, and he was drunk, got woken up, and took out his damn temper on the only person available-me."

Hal shook his head. "That's rough, Sev. No wonder you were over here more than you were home."

Severus went quiet then, staring at the TV screen in a kind of daze until he regained some semblance of control over the memories that haunted him. At last he said, "With that as an example, it makes me worry that . . .if Lily and I ever marry . . .what the hell kind of father will I make, Hal? I've got his temper, you know. So far I haven't lost it yet with Harry, but someday I might and then . . .I don't want Harry to live through what I did. Always afraid, never knowing if you're going to get smacked from one minute to the next for something you never did. I promised myself after my mother died that I would never become my father, but what if I don't have a choice? What if it's . . .within me anyhow?"

Hal leaned forward, the younger man's anguished honesty touching a deep chord within him. "Sev, look at how you just handled my grandson when he acted up. Did you lose it with him then? No, you scolded him but you didn't haul off and belt him one. And you forgave him afterwards, which is the most important thing. That doesn't sound anything like the man you grew up with. Did your dad ever hug you and tell you he forgave you after he punished you?"

Severus laughed sharply. "Hell, no! Usually he just left me and went off to drink himself senseless or whatever. Tobias Snape didn't know the meaning of the word "apologize". Whenever he punished me, he thought he was doing the right thing and it was no more than I deserved. It'll be a cold day in hell before I ever hear an "I'm sorry" from the old bastard."

"And would you ever treat a son or daughter of yours like that?"

"No, not knowingly. But Hal, my temper's like a lightning bolt. If I ever snapped because of something Harry did . . .I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to help myself, that I would just start hitting and not be able to stop. It's happened before, the statistics show that those who are victims of abuse are likely to become abusers themselves . . ."

"Bollocks, Severus!" Hal said. "Statistics can be fudged, you've no way of knowing how large the sample was that they drew that study from. There's no guarantee that you'll be like your father, any more than I'm like mine. How often have you raised a hand to Harry?"

"Once, after he tried to bite me. I gave him a light swat and that was all."

"And did you say to yourself, this damn kid deserves to get his arse whipped and it's too bad I can't teach him some real manners?"

Severus shook his head. "No. I put him in time-out and I felt bad even doing that much."

Hal nodded. "There, you see. You can trust yourself to do the right thing, Sev. But I understand where you're coming from. I grew up with a strict Navy Captain as my dad, and he wasn't an alcoholic or nothin' like that, but when we got into trouble with him, he didn't hesitate to wallop our arses, me and my brothers. Whenever Mum told us "wait till your dad gets home" we knew we were going to get tanned good and proper. Most times it was just a spanking and it hurt for like a night. But the one time he caught me and my brother Andrew playing with matches . . .he made me go and cut a switch and gave me ten good ones and I still recall how much it damn hurt to this day. But I never played with matches again and that was the only time he ever switched me. And after it he held me and said he hoped like hell I'd learned my lesson and I knew he hated doing that to me, though he never admitted it. Now, based on your so-called statistics, I should have whipped Tuney's arse good for playing with my hedge clippers when she was five, right?"

"Did you?"

"Naw. I yelled at her, told her she wasn't ever to touch them, that she could cut off her finger, and I gave her six swats over my knee. One of the only times I ever lifted a hand to her or Lily. The other time was when I caught her smoking when she was ten, her and bloody Vernon Dursley. What I wouldn't have given to wallop his arse . . .still can't believe she married him . . ." Hal trailed off, for Petunia's choice of a husband still rankled, even after nearly two years. "My point is, Sev, is that I could have done what my dad did, and disciplined my girls same way I was disciplined, only I felt there were alternatives and better ways to let them know they'd done wrong than with my hand or a switch. I loved my dad, don't get me wrong, but as a kid I was more scared of him than anything, and I didn't want my girls being scared of me. So I scolded and grounded and took away their allowance and their phone time or whatever and it worked just as good as anything my dad ever dished out."

"Lily always said you were a good father."

Hal smiled. "Yeah, she can say that now. She sure didn't think so when she was a teenager and I wouldn't let her go out till midnight during the summer to a party at Sirius's house. Called me a bloody dictator that didn't want her to have any fun and I grounded her for the weekend for that little comment. It wasn't easy, raising those girls, there were plenty of times when they were at each other's throats and all I heard were screeching and tears and I wanted to pack up and move to Alaska. But in the end it was worth it, and I've got two fine grandsons, and my daughters still come to see me and say I'm a good father."

"I want that, Hal."

"And there's no reason you can't have it, Sev. Just make up your mind to be yourself and then go ahead and do it. Take your bloody father's ghost and kick his arse into a closet and throw away the key. Do the same thing when your temper's simmering and you won't have to worry about losing it with Harry. That's what I did."

"Thank you, Hal. I appreciate it," Severus said sincerely. "You gave me better advice than a therapist."

Hal roared with laughter. "Of course I did, boy! I'm talking from experience, not blasted books. Now, let's watch this here football game, eh?"

"All right," the Master Healer agreed, his mind much more at ease now that he had discussed this with Hal, for it had been bothering him for weeks, ever since he had started thinking seriously about buying a ring for Lily.

He had just settled down when Hal looked at him and asked slyly, "Sev, when are you going to make my Lily your wife? She's been awful patient, but I think she's starting to think maybe you're afraid of the M word."

"No, it's not that, I just . . .haven't found the right time to ask her. Or the right ring. But I'm looking and as soon as I do . . .she'll be Mrs. Severus Snape."

Hal grinned. "Now I like the sound of that. Lily Ann Snape." Then he focused on the soccer game, where England was playing Italy, and began telling off the referee for an unfair red card.

Severus didn't mind watching soccer, though he tended to fall asleep during the commercials.

Lily and Vi returned home to find both their men asleep in front of the telly, and the women just shook their heads and muttered, "Typical!" then they went to put their groceries away and check on Harry, who was still sound asleep, sucking his thumb.