Ben enjoyed his time at House Domina, mainly because it was chilly in the winter and he got to laugh at Kate because she hated the cold. Well, not 'mainly' but more because saying he didn't much care for hanging out at Hogwarts or any of the other schools around Europe wasn't polite. He knew too many people who worked at those locations to say so to their faces.

If there was anything he enjoyed more though, it was spending time with his family. Since they were all welcome at - if not of age to attend - the school, and since Kate was teaching here for the duration, they were afforded a rather nice 'wing' of the place for their family. Another similar one was right upstairs, or down the hall, or around the corner - several largish extended multidimensional families lived here. He was rather fond of the bunny-girl and her brood, he loved rabbits.

Of course, he was extra fond of Kate's animagus form, whatever it was. It was furry, warm, fluffy and had great wings. With a smirk, he would request 'do that sphynx thing' and she'd sit rather erotically atop him looking entirely regal. Yeah, that was good.

To say that Ben was a bit indulgant in the finer things in life, would be true. He liked caffeine gum, good games of Go, extremely expensive saké and Muggle concerts. After all, life was meant to be lived.

Though that was the rub. Ben feared death - not necessarily dying or dying badly or painfully. But feared the thought of it. Ceasing to exist gave him the willies. There were exceptionally few ghosts in his family line, if any - more 'skeletons in the closet' really, than remnants of ancient forebears.

Kate's too, now that he thought of it (and he did think of death disproportionately often), she didn't have all that many relatives to begin with, and few of them were even Wizards. Normal Muggle folk just didn't become ghosts, when they died.

So while he was apt to enjoy what he did do, he was careful when he had to be. He made triple sure that a transport spell was going to be done right. He bought the best items and enchantments because they came with a guarantee of security.

And he certainly wasn't involving himself in the whole Voldemort thing. That had been a disaster when he was a teenager, why would he want to relive it or get in a wizard's way?  It was said often that 'history was written by the winners' - which he felt was slightly wrong. History, Ben would say, was written by the survivors.

But he wasn't going to let himself get trapped into that line of thought just now. Right now, there were a parade of dragons and their riders, getting ready for a dragon-quidditch match. Gray loved those things, Ben wasn't all that much into sports. But it was dragons, and they were always fun to watch, especially since they were offworld things, not given to roasting every human they saw!

When he got back down to their quarters there was something ... something waiting for him.

That thing turned out to be a very patient, mottled colored beast from another world. Perhaps he'd scooted in while everyone was playing Quidditch, there were lots of open portals around. And Ben thought he had seen that kind of weird floaty-glass stuff somewhere around here before.

"I am Gondolni," said the creature in a strange, glass-on-stone voice. "I wish to remain with you, travel with you, if I may? I have heard that you are a philosopher - I am a bit of one myself."

Ben's eyebrow shot up, but he remained silent while nodding. After a moment he said, "yes, of course, I just hope you don't mind the kids..."

"I have never had offspring," Gondolni said, tilting his head and allowing his long ear to touch the ground.

Just then was when Kate and Gray came bolting in, cheering and giggling with the kids, Ben's wife looked at the unusual hades-beast and appraised him with a nod. "Nice, you've found one of those too - Desmond has one similar... not so similar," she looked around. "This one's got no wings."

They settled back down, Lydia and Maddie were entranced by the glowing colors, and Gondolni looked wistfully at them, perhaps he would find a way to procreate, some day...