She transfigured her coffee cup into a coffee-colored mouse, and quickly emptied a shoe box for him to run around in. She cast a spell to numb it to all pain, and another to view and monitor its vitals. It grew slightly dazed inside the shoebox, having lost a bit of sensation, and Hermione watched bemusedly as it kept surprising itself with its own tail.

With a deep breath, she drew a large circle with her wand in the middle of the floor, her arm extended to the ground, her body turning clockwise with the sun. The room shivered as she whispered the words she'd memorized from her notes, the air vibrating around the caim as it sealed itself. She grabbed the shoebox and dropped the mouse inside, sending a quick freezing spell to keep it in place. Concentrating all her energy, she cast the tattoo spell, and watched a small black mark appear on the mouse's left foot. A quick glance at the nearest parchment before she muttered the runic charm that sealed the tattoo to the barrier.

She wiped sweat from her brow, and carefully lowered the mouse into the circle. She watched its vitals, and unfroze it.

It scurried, darting left—

And out of the circle.

She gaped in horror as it raced under her bed and out of sight. She quickly enlarged its vitals graph, her eyes darting from side to side. The lightning had worked. It had shocked the mouse's numbed system as it crossed the line. It was continuing to deliver shocks. But they were decreasing in intensity.

Hermione frowned down at her texts, summoning the mouse back to her so it hovered mid-air. She'd created the barrier correctly — she was certain of it. Letting out a huff of air, she slowly lowered the mouse back into the circle…

And it darted right, toward the fireplace this time.

Again, the lightning had worked. The mouse's vitals responded to the shock, but the shocks quickly wore off. Something about her tattoo or binding spell was flawed. The barrier was properly shocking the mouse, but only weakly, and then its effects vanished.

She spent the next forty minutes scowling down at her research and sprinkling toast crumbs into the shoe box. At the end of her hour, she transfigured the mouse back into a coffee cup, cast a few curling charms that only managed to give off the impression that she'd been the one electrocuted, and trudged downstairs to find Narcissa.

Narcissa took one look at her and said, "No luck?"

Hermione bit her lip and shook her head. "No, unfortunately. I, um… I should probably leave it to Pansy. She might have to stay a while."

Narcissa took her wand back and smiled.

~*~

Pansy stepped out of the flames of Draco's fireplace at five with a garment bag tucked under her arm, and a small case dangling from her fingertips.

"Granger," she said flatly, looking Hermione over. "Merlin, you couldn't even wash your hair for me?"