"He does seem pretty smart," he agrees, thinking of how Digby almost seems to listen to Ned like he's a person, too. "Of course, now that I know that he's ancient and immortal, the fact that he's smart kind of makes sense. Well, not entirely immortal, I guess, but you're careful, like you said. Paranoid, like me. Just in a different way."

It's strange how similar they are, he thinks, even though he, of course, has no magical powers or inexplicable talents like Ned does. He's quiet for a minute, thinking about everything Ned's explained so far, and then speaks up again.

"I know what you mean about rules. Not like you do, of course, but I have a lot of rules, too. You probably wouldn't think that because I probably strike you as being pretty reckless. And then I made you be all reckless, and look what happened. See, I'm a bad influence."