Henrietta was focused on two things, as he approached. First, trying to get back to her feet in the most graceful way possible, to salvage whatever poise she had left after such an inglorious fall. Second, trying to ignore, as much as she could, the fact that this man was having to help her up. She had asked him to, of course, but really she wanted this particular part of the interaction purged from her memory immediately, so she was doing her best not to notice anything about him as he reached down to help her up. Concentrating, then, on her own body and on precisely nothing else, she failed to recognize his question as a joke. Her expression as she responded could be most accurately described as abject horror.

"No! I wasn't doing anything of the sort. I was trying to light the lantern. Oh — please don't tell the Scamanders I was trying to burn down their hedge," she pleaded. "They've been so kind but I'm sure they'd send me back to London if they thought I'd nearly set their house on fire. Even if I didn't mean to and was only being clumsy."