"You can't win! I have forever to get under your skin!"

"You're not ever gonna give up?"

"Okay, if you make me give up, you win. Name your prize."

... "I hadn't thought this far ahead."

"If I had thought you had, I would not have given you the option."

He laughs. "I guess I walked right into that one."

"Yes, you did. So, tell me more about yourself, since we're apparently going to become magic buddies."

"Like what? You already know I'm called Theo."

"There are usually more things to know about a person than their names! Like what they do on their free time, their favourite subjects at school, who they live with, what their plans are after they obtain enough magic to take over the world..."

"I like listening to music. Maths is okay."

"Really. The biography of Theo would be limited to listening to music and maths being okay."

"I mean, I also scattered the Clow Cards. Don't know if you knew that yet."

"Parents! Siblings! Friends! Books! Movies! Come on, give me something, here, we're gonna spend a long time together preventing the apocalypse."

"I'm hungry..."

"I live with my dad, I'm an only child, I have a few friends at school but I'm not part of any clique or whatever, I sometimes read, I sometimes watch films..."

"...right. Guess we'll figure it out with time, then." She lies down on the grass. "I don't have food for you, or money to buy it, Kero. Sorry."

"... I still have a sandwich left," admits Theo, and he grabs it and gives it to Cerberus.

"I liked Harry Potter," he says, making an effort.

Om nom!

She sits up. "There we go! Progress! Harry Potter was fun, but I wouldn't say it's my favourite book ever. Mmm, I don't know what I would say my favourite book ever is... I like Terry Pratchett, for sure."

"I read a few of the books, but they were a bit weird, and I couldn't work out how they fit together.

"What about Garth Nix? Have you read any of his books?"

"I don't think so..."

"Keys to the Kingdom? Mister Monday? Abhorsen? The Fall? They're pretty good."

"Oh, Abhorsen, yes!"

"I liked the Keys to the Kingdom series when I read it, but that was a few years ago now; it's a bit more childish than the Abhorsen books."

"What's it about?"