The small claws that scrambled at Sasha's sweatpants were beginning to move faster and with more vigor.  The mouse had become keenly aware of its precarious position and had moved slowly towards the edge of Sasha's hand and peered down at the animals.  With a twitch of its nose, it turned and tried to scurry up Sasha's arm. 

"Ah, nicht so schnell," Sasha murmured as he gently placed the mouse back in his palm.  It seemed as though Mystique had gotten distracted, though by what wasn't readily apparent.  "The mouse," he repeated.  "If we can get it to go where we want, then maybe they'll follow.  Like a mini Pied Piper.  Except the rodent's doing the leading." 

Mystique had voiced Sasha's own concern: making sure the mouse went where they needed the nifflers to go.  But, Fauna seemed to come up with her own solution for that.  Sasha watched, nodding in agreement as Fauna got the mouse's attention with the tidbit of food and sent it racing across the grass towards the paddocks. 

It occurred to Sasha, as he took off after the moving Bertie Botts Every Flavor Bean (of questionable flavor), the pursuing mouse, the flock of nifflers and the two girls that, in retrospect, it seemed even less fortunate that the girls hadn't just gotten rid of the hat in the first place.  He understood that they wanted to keep it but, here they were, without the hat, worrying about the welfare of a recently transfigured silver mouse. 

Distract the nifflers?  With what?  Something shiny?  Didn't that defeat the purpose of this whole exercise?  If they did that, the nifflers would stop chasing the mouse and start swarming around them again.  But, the nifflers were closing in on the mouse and Sasha certainly didn't want to see the thing hurt.  Quickly, he pointed his wand at the mouse again and called, "levicorpus!" just as one of the nifflers lunged towards the mouse.  With a surprised squeak, the mouse was lifted from the ground and hung in mid-air above the group of eager, leaping nifflers.  "Poor thing," he said.  Seemed like Mystique had the right idea in the first place.  "Alright, lets get them back to the pens."

"The mouse," he repeated.  "If we can get it to go where we want, then maybe they'll follow.  Like a mini Pied Piper.  Except the rodent's doing the leading."

Brilliant idea.  Mysti wished she were a better thinker at the moment, but at least Sasha was doing a good job.  She couldn’t imagine what would have happened to the girls if they hadn’t run into Sasha.  They might have still been in the lake waiting for someone to come along and distract the Nifflers.

Mysti then watched as Fauna started leading the mouse.  It seemed that Fauna’s attempts to not giggle were going well.  Mysti’s on the other hand, were not going so well.  She felt bad for laughing at the situation, but how could she help it? It was quite silly, watching her friend guide a shiny mouse with a bean while running alongside it. Unfortunately their plan was about to hit a problem.  Mysti also noticed that the nifflers were catching up to the smaller mouse.

“Um, Mysti, Sasha, try to distract the nifflers!”

Mysti had moved closer and was at a loss of what to do.  It was still kind of early and she just really wasn’t the best thinker in the morning.  Thankfully, Sasha was way ahead of her.  With a flick of the wrist, Sasha had the mouse in the air just out of reach of the nifflers. 

"Poor thing," he said.  Seemed like Mystique had the right idea in the first place.  "Alright, lets get them back to the pens."

Mysti nodded. “I’ll go ahead and make sure the pen doors are open. And then I can close them when they’re in.”

They weren’t too far from the pens so she ran up towards them.  Seeing that they were already open, she positioned herself close to the doors.  She then watched in hopes that the others would get the nifflers safely to the pens.

When the mouse suddenly rose into the air Fauna stumbled, then looked back at Sasha, who had his wand pointed at the creature. Ah, it made sense now. She hated hearing the mouse make those terrified squeaks, but it was better that the mouse be afraid than to get eaten by the nifflers! She kept running, leaving the bean on the ground now that they no longer needed it to tempt the mouse. The nifflers seemed momentarily confused as their prey floated in the air above them, but they soon recovered and continued the chase.

Fauna noticed Mysti racing with her long legs towards the pens, reaching them before Fauna and the nifflers did. She assumed Mysti was there to close the doors once the nifflers made it inside. Out of breath now, she shot a smile at her friend as she entered the pens and waited for all the nifflers to gather around the levitated mouse.

Glancing back at Sasha to make sure he had a strong hold on the spell, she cautiously stepped out of the pens and began to close the doors while the mouse still hovered above the yipping creatures. In the niffler’s eyes, Fauna was about as interesting as a dull piece of parchment now that she no longer had her hat. They paid her no mind and she sighed in relief.

“Okay, Sasha…” she called over her shoulder. “Can you levitate the mouse out of the pens?”

If they were successful, their problem would be solved, and Fauna would have another rodent to spoil. If they were unsuccessful, well… Fauna did not want to think about that. She might have to give the mouse a funeral and tearfully ask her housemates to come, perhaps even the Ravenclaw boy, too….

But she was getting ahead of herself. With any luck this would work!

Both of the girls seemed to be finding this whole situation amusing though it was clear Fauna was trying to hide her amusement.  Whether or not Mysti was trying to hide her amusement was unclear but it mattered little.  She wasn't being very successful if she was.  When Sasha happened to take a look around at this whole situation he could feel a chuckle threatening.  There was something about the absurdity that was somewhat amusing. 

"Alright.  That sounds good," he said, nodding to Mystique.  With that, Mystique raced off towards the pen, ready to trap the maurading nifflers inside. 

The mouse squeaked the whole while was it was levitated across the last bit of grass and over the entrance into the pen.  Just as it dangled over the center of the pen, Sasha wondered if the nifflers would realize the trick before they were corralled.  But, it seemed, squirming silver was all that was on the creatures mind.  They didn't even spare a glance at the fence as they barreled into the pen after the silver mouse. 

"Close it!  Close it!" Sasha called, excitedly.  The encouragement was, obviously, unnecessary.  Fauna had already run out of the pen and was swinging the gate closed.  The scraping of the metal latch could have been the melodic chiming of a cathedral bell when the gate finally clicked shut. 

He hesitated a few moments before levitating the mouse over the fence.  What if the nifflers scrambled immediately after it and flung themselves, as a group, at the fence.  Would it hold against the herd of eager nifflers?  Sasha dashed up to the fence and climbed up on the bottom rail, leaning far enough into the pen to grasp the mouse as he levitated it close enough to the fence to reach.  After concealing the shining mouse in his hand, he jumped back from the rail and held his breath, waiting to see if the nifflers would remain, secured, in the pen.

Mystique realized that Fauna hadn’t heard what she said.  Thankfully, her friend was able to grasp what Mysti planned.  Seeing Fauna smile at her, she smiled back, waiting for the nifflers to get into the pen.  Fauna got into the pens first, and then came out. Once the nifflers were safely in the pen, mouse still levitating above them, Mysti heard Sahsa tell them to close the gates. Both she and Fauna both closed them quickly.  Sasha had reached over and grabbed the mouse out.  With a sigh of relief, she moved over to where Fauna and Sasha were.

“Now... will it hold?” Mysti wondered out loud. And surely the other two were wondering the same thing. 

They were all watching as the nifflers were trying to get out again after their shiny prey.  Mysti held her breath again as she watched.  The nifflers kept scratching at the dirt and fence.  It seemed as though they were trapped again, which was good.  The pens seemed quite sturdy, so Mysti figured that they had gotten out in the first place because the gate was not shut well enough. 

“So... anyone up for getting some refreshments in the Great Hall? Seems like our work here is done.” Mysti asked, as she was quite thirsty now.

The morning had started in hopes of getting some studying done on Herbology.  Well, they had been planning on doing some Care of Magical Creatures work too.  Of course, now they had gotten more than they had bargained for.  Mysti supposed that getting chased by nifflers and getting them back into their pens counted as studying the creatures.  They should totally get extra credit for that.

But for now, Mysti just wanted to go sit down for a bit. And the Great Hall was always nice, especially with the many nice cold drinks.  So she smiled at the other two after her suggestion.  She figured that they would be a bit tired after their adventure too.