"Oh," Ben said lamely when she explained that she'd opened the box. It certainly didn't sound very impressive, but it did sound much better than it opens? or what's a puzzlebox? Neither, he was certain, would endear him to the storekeeper. If he was going to salvage this little side-gig, he needed to at least look as though he knew what he was doing. He didn't think he'd ever even heard of a puzzlebox, but if he had he certainly didn't remember anything useful about them.

If she had opened it, though, that simplified things significantly. A curse that was triggered by who-knew-what and involved transfiguring the box as well as causing some sort of damage to the victim was far more complicated than a curse that simple activated when the box was opened. This was the magical equivalent of a Muggle spring-snake, which was easy to anticipate and not much more difficult to defeat once sprung. Usually.

He couldn't help but roll his eyes as the woman asked if he knew what he was doing. He answered with a spell, which halted the progress of the black through her fingertips, at least for the moment. "Yeah, I do," he answered, sticking his wand between his teeth for a moment so that he could use both hands to gingerly prod at the edges of the box near where her fingers were. "Does this hurt?" he asked through clenched teeth as he poked lightly at one of her stuck fingertips.