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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