Ida let out a short, exasperated laugh at the idea of him thinking she worried about him. Fine then. With a statement like that, she wouldn’t worry, because it’s not as though he earned any of this extra effort to ensure his safety. The former Ravenclaw swallowed the urge to make him sign some sort of affidavit like her brother talks about, absolving her from any of the consequences of this strange research venture. But that would take too much time, they both were getting antsy, and she wondered if he’d have the wherewithal to consider a lawsuit unless someone put the idea in front of him.

Satisfied with his verbal agreement then, Ida turned around on him for a moment to retrieve her notes and get started on a quick note to Beryl. She’d have to get it to her posthaste, and hope Beryl might be around her mirror later. If Cliff only knew the lengths she was going through to make this a comfortable and easy transition to and from –

Out of the corner of her eye she caught the man moving, wrestling much more with his shoes than she would expect was normal (but obviously, nothing about him was normal). When she turned to look at him, the sight drew out a high-pitched shriek of shock.

“What in blazes are you doing!” her hands immediately flew to cover her eyes, wand flying out and rolling on the ground towards Cliff’s bare feet in the process. Seeing him standing a literal small square sheet away from being utterly naked had not been in Ida’s cards for the day, and she’d never seen a man so naked in real life anyway. Unless seeing her little brother shirtless dressing him for bedtime counted, but that was a completely different thing. For one, Cliff was a grown man, and much tanner, and… with many muscles and things. Ida squeezed her eyes harder together and tried to swallow with her dry throat, thinking about how it looked different than the statue.

As if it would help head off these thoughts, she abruptly turned her back to him again and grit her teeth. “You…” Idiot? Pervert? Maniac? Frankly, the shock gave Ida a complete lapse of thought or ability to cope for a solid minute. If he had wanted to get the upper hand earlier in the forest, clearly, all he had needed to do was start stripping. “I can transform you with some clothes on, why do you think I have this entire bloody formula! I said just take off your shoes because laces and things get complicated… God, it would be bad enough if we were found here already, imagine like this...?” Flustered seemed like an inadequate word to describe the particular shade of scarlet her face turned as she crossed her arms resolutely, back still to him. No way would she move on until he was dressed. She had lost her wand, at any rate, and refused to turn to see him in that state again.

---