Chris laughed heartily, at the prospect! 'I just might do that!', She was sure it was the sort of thing Sorcha would do, or if she mentioned it to Porphyria, it may actually get her to come to an order meeting, if she thought she could mess with some muggles.

'I wonder if anyone has ever done that before?' she mused, 'Given muggles a proper enchantment or two to see what would happen. Do they work?' she asked in a genuine query. Did it work like squibs, so that even if they were shown the real movement and word, would it actually work.

'or teach them totally the wrong thing - is it breaking the statute of secrecy to teach them the enchantment for lumos, the wand movement for wingardium leviosa, but tell them it's a transfiguration spell.'

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I am my mother's savage daughter, The one who runs barefoot cursing sharp stones

I am my mother's savage daughter, I will not cut my hair, I will not lower my voice
MJ made glory

Victor glanced up at the ceiling briefly, thinking through the fake spell she'd just created by combining the word lumos with the well-known swish and flick of a levitation charm. Spell theory was one of his hobbies, as well as a topic deeply relevant to his profession, so this was the sort of riddle he liked. "Well, I think," he began. "That might actually end up setting something on fire — if it did anything at all for a Muggle, that is — so maybe don't give them that unless you've made peace with being responsible for their house going up in flames."

He would have liked nothing better than to have launched in to an explanation of how he'd reached that conclusion. He could have explained the loo sound was repeated in a handful of obscure incendiary charms that used a similar wand motion, and that in general the flick motion in a spell tended to cause more concentrated results than gentler movements. He could have even gotten into the etymology of lumen — but he had long since realized that this sort of discourse was interesting to very few people besides him.

"Only one way to know for sure, though. Should we give it a try?" he asked with a mischievous expression. "I'm a spell damage healer, after all."

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Fabulous set by Lady!

'I accept your superior expertise on the matter' she laughed, and her lips pursed, eyes narrowing conspiratorially, shooting off to either side. Chris looked around her, to ensure that no one was paying any particular attention to them or their conversation. Matching his mischievous mien with her own. 'Probably best not to burn the Mayhews drawing room curtains,' she said with a mirthful laugh and jerked her had towards the veranda. With the spirits flowing the veranda was unoccupied, as none of the current party were inclined to move away from the centre of the festivities.

She headed through the doors and out into the pleasant coolness of the evening, the change of scenery was preferable for a number of reasons, not least of which being she was no longer in ear shot of the continuing conversation on the best modiste for summer stockings, but the summer breeze she had been enjoying by the window was to be experienced to best effect now actually out of doors. She had been assuming that he would follow her.

'I think if one of us is going to actually attempt to cast it, it might better be me,' she stated matter of factly, 'as only one of us is likely to let the other burn to death - albeit accidentily.' she added quickly, lest he think her a sociopath. 'and to be a clear, I hope the person who could save someone from firey death - is you.' she flashed a purposefully puckish smile, but did actually rather hope he was as good as his job as she was rather hoping he was.

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I am my mother's savage daughter, The one who runs barefoot cursing sharp stones

I am my mother's savage daughter, I will not cut my hair, I will not lower my voice
MJ made glory

"Oh, absolutely," Victor agreed. He had followed her out towards the veranda without protest and was now taking up station by one of the garden walls, giving her plenty of room to cause any manner of magical mishaps. The garden wall only rose to the level of his hip, which made it a convenient place to set down his drink while he leaned against it casually, arms crossed over his chest. "I'm quite capable of setting you to rights, whatever happens. And if you end up looking particularly undignified during whatever it is, I'll do my best to shield you from the eyes of the rest of the partygoers," he joked.

If she lit something on fire, that was all well and good; it was easy to put out a small fire. Of course they didn't know that was actually what would happen. Supposing her casting hand swelled to thrice its size, or she was temporarily blinded, or she transfigured the lawn furniture into an army of voracious rats... some things could be a little less glamorous than a small shower of flames. But in any case, he was sure he'd be able to set her to rights again. He was less confident that the Mayhews' home would remain unscathed, but he was still mostly sure they'd be able to put whatever happened back as it had been before anyone noticed.

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Fabulous set by Lady!

For an instant Chris thought she might chicken out, and her wand hovered in mid air for a moment before she managed to steel her nerves against her fear. With a last deep steadying breath she made the appropriate wand movements and gave the spell in a loud commanding voice. The individual parts she knew well enough but together they felt odd, as it fought the muscle memory developed since childhood.

As she finished the wand flick a single beam of flame erupted from her wand before bending out to the sides, like the fabric free spindles of an umbrella- but made of fire. As the flames reached they end of their arch they broke off the 'end' and fluttered to the ground like firey snowflakes, much to the detriment of Mrs Mayhews prize Roses, one of which burst into flames.

°'ow!' she exclaimed, shaking her hand as the heat mildly scorched her fingers, the shake was worst possible course of action and some of the flame snowflakes worried the skirt of her dress, before the smell of burning satin indicated that one or two had caught the starched material. 'oh merlin' Christabel exclaimed, dropping the wand, the flames sputtering out of the implement as she turned her attention to patting the scalded fabric before it was able to take full advantage and burn her alive like Fanny Longfellow! Porphyria would never forgive her if she managed a dramatic literary death before she did!

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I am my mother's savage daughter, The one who runs barefoot cursing sharp stones

I am my mother's savage daughter, I will not cut my hair, I will not lower my voice
MJ made glory

Victor supposed he should have drawn his wand and had it at the ready, but he was too busy watching with interest to prepare for the worst. Fortunately, the earth didn't open up to swallow her whole, or anything similarly melodramatic.

"Brilliant!" he called as he laughed and clapped his hands together once. Perhaps he was mostly talking about himself, since he had been the one to correctly guess what the mismatched spell would do, but he was genuinely delighted by the flames that had licked out from her wand. He hopped off the wall, abandoning his drink for the moment, and moved over towards the rose bushes to extinguish the fire. An acrid odor and a charred mess of melted petals remained, but the flames disappeared, leaving the garden safe from further mischief.

"The forking was probably a symptom of the instability of the spell," he commented as he crossed towards her and bent to retrieve her wand from where she'd dropped it. He glanced over the hem of her skirt for a moment to ensure that she had the smoldering in hand, but wouldn't be so bold as to try and do anything about her dress himself, unless she were truly in danger. "You oughtn't drop your wand when you're inventing new spells," he chided lightly, handing it back to her hilt first. "You never know what could happen."

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Fabulous set by Lady!

He managed to save the rose bushes - well save was an overstatement, but they were no longer on fire - so that was something. And thankfully, Chris' frantic, if undignified slapping of her dress had been successful in extinguish the flames. If not exactly the most ladylike or demure activity that she had ever participated in but it had been funny and her attempt to slap out the flames had been somewhat hindered by her giggles.

'It was hurting my hand' she was matter of fact in her retort, but not put out 'I'll remember your advice the next time I'm inclined to experiment, or perhaps just ensure that you are on hand.' she laughed, her hand on her stomach, which was aching from her mirth. 'Cudos on your assessment, it appears you were correct.' she said with a mock bow and salute with her wand, as she regained mastery of herself.

She observed him closely as she tucked her wand back into the pocket of her dress, between glances around to ascertain if anyone had seen her messing around with her wand - an action that was generally considered to be unladylike, but then at her age she was much passed the point of denying herself a rare amusement at a house party for the sake of some old dowagers outrage. 'Have you much experience in wand work experimentation?' she asked curiously, her head cocked to one side. 'What if you did it the other way around? Wingardium leviosa and the alternate wandwork?' she was getting into the spirit of it now.

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I am my mother's savage daughter, The one who runs barefoot cursing sharp stones

I am my mother's savage daughter, I will not cut my hair, I will not lower my voice
MJ made glory

Victor barely took a pause to consider before he answered with enthusiasm. "That's much harder to figure. There are more variables. Wingardium Leviosa is such a longer phrase, and any of those sounds might touch on something relevant to another spell. And the wandwork for Lumos is more vague as well. It's used in so many different applications that you can't really pin it to one certain type of result." He didn't stop to consider whether she was soaking this in or it was all going over her head. He had indulged her in her odd hobby of discussing Muggle 'magicks,' and now it was her turn to allow him an opportunity to verbally pace through one of his favorite hobbies.

"I think it might depend a bit how forcefully you moved your arm when you cast," he mused. He tossed his wand to his off hand, so that he didn't accidentally light her dress on fire with ill-timed wand sparks, then gestured with his now-empty wand hand as though he were casting. "A big sweeping gesture like this might see some things go flying, I'd assume. Something more subtle, like so, and — well, I don't know. Something in the charmwork family. Nothing dangerous, I'd think — though of course you really never know, so don't go trying it at home," he advised. "You'll just have to come find me at parties if you want to try anything crazy, so I can stand by to patch you up if needed. Or extinguish roses, you know, as the case may be."

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Fabulous set by Lady!

While Christabel might not have fully understood all of the nuance of the technicalities of his explanation but it was interesting and she tried as best she could to follow the explanation as he opined on a subject about which he clearly both passionate and knowledgeable . She did rather feel like she was back at Hogwarts - and perhaps a little dimmer than she might have been in her classes.

She made the wide sweeping motion but without her wand in hand nothing occured, it was almost a threat and she grinned broadly. 'You might regret that offer Mister Daphnel' she said 'although you've given me something to do during my next boring dance or conversation,' she indicated the dance card she had been given for the dancing that would come later. 'Coming up with some interesting combinations to bother you with confirming on our next meeting' she laughed merrily.

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I am my mother's savage daughter, The one who runs barefoot cursing sharp stones

I am my mother's savage daughter, I will not cut my hair, I will not lower my voice
MJ made glory

Victor grinned broadly. Being presented with a series of mismatched spells to puzzle through and guess the outcome of seemed like a delightful time to him. He'd rather do that than struggle through another boring dance himself, though of course he knew he had a duty to the latter.

"We'll have to get you into maths next," he teased. "Once you start doing equations in your head you'll never be bored by a dull conversation again."

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Fabulous set by Lady!

Chris pursed her lips and gave a small demuring nod at his offer- it could really be called that. 'I wouldn't be adverse to that Mister Daphnel - Your last idea was an excellent one, so I would be most indecorous to deny your next one.' She and Mister Daphnel had moved in broadly the same circles, although she could probably count on one hand the number of conversations they had had with him and most amounting to polite platitudes.

'You've not made the argument to learn as this conversation has certainly not been boring' and her amusement was evident. 'we shall have to do this again Mister Daphnel - perhaps next time we will not burn down the hosts garden.' she gestured to the still smouldering bushes.

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I am my mother's savage daughter, The one who runs barefoot cursing sharp stones

I am my mother's savage daughter, I will not cut my hair, I will not lower my voice
MJ made glory