Belle, that was pretty. No one who called him by his first name had ever tried to shorten it, so he hadn't expected that she would have a nickname, either, but he liked this one. What level of acquaintance would he have to reach before he could use it? Engaged, he suspected; that was jumping the gun a little. He'd only had a handful of conversations with her (two, in fact) and one of them he only remembered in broad strokes. Best disregard the nickname for the moment.
"Er, a bit of both, I suppose," he answered with a half-smile and a shrug. "I did put her up to it, loosely — we were talking about what might happen if one mixed and matched the wand movements and verbal cues for different spells and I theorized that she would probably light something on fire, which she did." He was still rather proud of himself for correctly determining the outcome in that case; theoretical spellwork was a fascinating field of study, but he seldom had any chances to apply it; he was more often working backwards at the hospital, trying to reverse-engineer whatever the patients had gotten themselves into by seeing the results. "Singed her skirt, too. It was quite a spectacular display of sparks, actually, but that might have something to do with her wand's makeup, or — ah, well, I won't bore you," he finished, animated tone trailing into an apologetic wince. This wasn't everyone's cup of tea, he had to remember, and while Miss Christabel had seemed interested when they'd talked about it, it was decidedly not the point of having tracked down her brother.
"It came up because she was plotting how she might trick a bunch of Muggles who meet up to try out magic," he explained. "Which did seem to be a rather unusual hobby for a debutante." Here he was fishing a bit; he wondered if Dempsey would be inclined to correct his use of the word debutante, if her priorities or interests lay outside of society and the pursuit of marriage.
"Er, a bit of both, I suppose," he answered with a half-smile and a shrug. "I did put her up to it, loosely — we were talking about what might happen if one mixed and matched the wand movements and verbal cues for different spells and I theorized that she would probably light something on fire, which she did." He was still rather proud of himself for correctly determining the outcome in that case; theoretical spellwork was a fascinating field of study, but he seldom had any chances to apply it; he was more often working backwards at the hospital, trying to reverse-engineer whatever the patients had gotten themselves into by seeing the results. "Singed her skirt, too. It was quite a spectacular display of sparks, actually, but that might have something to do with her wand's makeup, or — ah, well, I won't bore you," he finished, animated tone trailing into an apologetic wince. This wasn't everyone's cup of tea, he had to remember, and while Miss Christabel had seemed interested when they'd talked about it, it was decidedly not the point of having tracked down her brother.
"It came up because she was plotting how she might trick a bunch of Muggles who meet up to try out magic," he explained. "Which did seem to be a rather unusual hobby for a debutante." Here he was fishing a bit; he wondered if Dempsey would be inclined to correct his use of the word debutante, if her priorities or interests lay outside of society and the pursuit of marriage.
Fabulous set by Lady!