"I already told you I couldn't," she said, assuming he'd forgotten. Understandable, really, given the circumstances. It was hardly the most interesting thing for his mind to have latched onto in the past twenty minutes. No, that award had to go to the illusory blood and gaping wound that had appeared and then just as suddenly disappeared on her chest.

"Oooo," she said suddenly, raising one knuckle to her lips as a thought suddenly occurred to her on that front. It ought to have occurred to her sooner, really, since she'd been off looking at them only a few moments before the incident, but — well, things had gotten rather hectic rather quickly. "I'll bet it had something to do with the boggarts," she said almost triumphantly, holding her finger up at him to punctuate this discovery. "The blood and everything. That must have been someone's boggart. There might have been half a dozen young woman with the same situation back at the party proper — we just didn't realize it since we were so far away from them."

Why it had chosen to impact her so far away was anyone's guess, but at least this solution helped to assure her that she was not about to imminently lose a chunk of her ribs again.

"I don't suppose you know any good stitching spells," she said, glancing down towards her stomach. She ought to have, working at the House of Lytton, but she'd never had a need — she was surrounded by people who actually did this as their job all day, and were much better at it than her.