Melody had probably meant that as a positive, but given that Ben had already been thinking about how hard it would be to step back from Nora once again he couldn't help but hear it as a double-edged sword. Maybe he would be gone most of the time from now until she was eleven; maybe he'd only be a fixture of her life at holidays and summer breaks for the next half dozen years. And it shouldn't have stung as much as it did, the idea of it, because he'd been ready to commit to the same kind of division when he'd separated from Melody this spring... but after September, it just hit differently to think he'd be away from his daughter for so long.

"Maybe," he said with a shrug; his tone made it clear he wasn't enthused about the idea. "We'll have to see if Phineas Black can still stand me by May, first." A beat passed where Ben weighed whether he wanted to leave it there to venture into more dangerous waters, and then he said hesitantly: "Some professors have houses in Hogsmeade."

---