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"A good choice - Kneazles and other magical cats make for good companions," Phobius told her with a nod.

"Well, it's the best I can think of on short notice," Harry answered sheepishly, adding, "Good idea, though Phobius actually has that book already - he was reading it when we first met."

"There's actually a whole book for that - Potions, Spells, and Rituals for Familiars - lists them in order from easiest to hardest. Now, as for Wizarding fashion, they aren't dresses, they're robes. You have to understand, we separated ourselves from non-magicals during the Medieval era - that's what resulted in the Dark Ages, in fact. Robes were in fashion for wizards then... and since the majority of Pureblood wizards and witches are pretty set in their ways, they're still in fashion now," Eris explained. "Don't get me wrong, there's some Purebloods like yours truly who don't wear robes unless we have to, but we're generally the minority in terms of fashion."

"The possible reactions of others is rarely going to keep me from speaking what I see as the truth - Confusa is far better than any owl," was Phobius's dry reply.

"Er... I would, but I think that would be lying to both myself and you," Harry answered Katherine's question before frowning slightly in thought. "Anyway, I guess I'm going to have to think about that one - I don't exactly have any pictures of him and Hermione or anything."

"Well, any accidents that happen when one's practicing the animagus transformation are easily reversible by any competent healer," Eris answered thoughtfully. "Rituals are harmless as long as you don't try to cheat them or forget anything. Other than that... well, overuse of Light Arts and Dark Arts can put a strain on the mind. Overuse of Light Arts tends to fill the user with a feeling that they can do no wrong, resulting in their morality becoming warped unless they've got a particularly strong moral code or have Light creature blood, and Dark Arts tend to be rather addictive unless you're strong-willed or have Dark creature blood. I wouldn't worry too much, though - Katherine seems both strong-willed and morally anchored, and despite what the Ministry says, most spells fall into some category of neutral magic... though yes, some lean more toward being Light or Dark than others." She paused. "...I would, however, suggest that if Katherine learns Light Arts, she not practice them near Phobius; he's... well, to put it bluntly, he's allergic to the Light Arts, as strange as that may sound."

"She can get back to me when Sorren learns to shadow-travel and turn into a massive predator." When Hermione picked up the book of his baby pictures Phobius turned a little pink, but resigned himself to having Hermione look through the book. If he recalled correctly, there were several of the standard baby pictures: first steps, annual photos to catalogue his growth, and the occasional adorable picture of him sucking on his thumb or his toe. Of course, there were also more... interesting baby pictures - for example, the first time he'd started showing nonhuman traits (which somehow only made his baby pictures from then on even more adorable), a picture of him somehow managing to flash-freeze the bathtub via accidental magic and looking rather puzzled as he stared at the ice he was sitting on, one time when he'd somehow managed to get his hands on a human skull and was quite seriously examining it, another picture of that time he'd fallen asleep under his crib instead of on it, and so on (though one of the cutest was probably a baby Phobius staring a little too innocently at the camera with several cookies floating around him). There were even a few pictures of Phobius as a toddler socializing with what looked like a toddler version of the dragon they'd met earlier.

Harry nodded, looking a little reassured at her statement.

"Well, I can't speak for Harry or Katherine's family, but I can easily afford to take a few months off for a vacation every now and then," Eris answered with an excited little grin. "Besides, Phobius has always been pretty interested in culture of all kinds... which is pretty weird, considering he hasn't even hit puberty yet, but frankly, he's always been a little more mature than most of his age range."

"Doubtful, unless she has a particularly high Dark Arts affinity," Phobius answered, pretending that his girlfriend wasn't looking through his baby pictures... and praying that she didn't find the one of him dressing up as the Grim Reaper for Halloween as a toddler - he looked absolutely ridiculous in that picture.

As if on cue, Hedwig flew over as well, expertly landing on her boy's shoulder and lightly nipping his ear in greeting.

"Probably... and if not, Mitis will probably get wind of it and kidnap him anyway," Eris commented casually.

"It's a good thing she's not in earshot, then," Phobius decided, adding with just a hint of desperation, "Weren't there other books you wanted to look at?" Well, at least she hadn't reached the incident where he'd ended up in a massive pile of ice cream... and he'd just jinxed it, hadn't he?

Hedwig similarly introduced herself before giving Sorren the owl equivalent of a small smirk and nipping him playfully, much to Harry's amusement.

Mitis, meanwhile, was out in the forest. He was all set for Hermione's and Katherine's Christmas presents and had made arrangements for Harry's gift, now he just had to make the present for Phobius. He went over to the makeshift forge he'd made in the forest, pulling out a bar of a strange silver metal and a vial of Phobius's blood and getting to work.

"Why America?" Eris asked, curious.

"It's not my fault I have a thing for ice cream," Phobius mumbled defensively, blushing. 'I thought Mother had moved the baby pictures somewhere else...' The next couple of "interesting" pictures were a little Phobius staring with puzzlement as a baby Mitis somehow set a rock on fire and a picture of baby Phobius reading H. P. Lovecraft. This was then followed by a picture of baby Phobius making a makeshift altar to... was that Cthulhu? And why was baby Mitis building an altar to some sort of obscure dragon-god next to it?

Harry watched with amusement and some surprise as Hedwig accepted the tuna with a hoot of thanks. She then pulled out a piece of bacon, similarly offering it to Sorren.

"Ah. Yeah, sounds like a good idea," Eris agreed.

"The Cthulhu thing was a phase, I grew out of it!" Phobius insisted, blushing even harder, then mumbling, "The, er, ice cream bit sounds good, though..."
"Ice cream evil! Hot chocolate better!" Mitis declared, looking over Hermione's shoulder curiously.

"Yeah, Hagrid's a good guy," Harry agreed, smiling. "A bit on the simple side and a bit too pro-Dumbledore, but a good bloke otherwise."

"Great idea, glad I thought of it," Eris decided shamelessly, smirking slightly. "Now, the big question: which amusement parks do we want to go to?"

"Mitis know Minion Boogeyman grew out of it - Minion Boogeyman throw big temper tantrum when he find out Cthulhu fiction," the crazy pyromaniac told Hermione cheerfully, completely oblivious to Phobius glaring at him and blushing slightly. "On completely unrelated side note, what would Minion Bookworm like for Chrissy-mass? Mitis already have presents for Minions Boogeyman and Scarface, but need help to figure out what would be good for she-minions."

"Well, he didn't," Harry pointed out, smiling as Hedwig similarly nipped him lightly.

"Both sound pretty good - I heard of this one amusement park called Six Flags, too," Eris noted. "Maybe we could make it a tour of America's amusement parks or something?"