-THIS IS NOT A SECOND UPDATE. I am so sorry, I couldn't just leave it after I discovered a chunk of it was in italics when it wasn't supposed to be... I have no idea how that happened. Well. Sorry again.-

I like this chapter. Don't know why, it seems really bad to me, but I like it anyway. It's a few days later than I thought it would be because of that oneshot- I didn't want to post twice in one day, and then life happened for a little while, so yeah. Try and enjoy it~

"I can't believe we're doing this! I swear, if we survive this, I'll never say anything horrible ever again…"

"Don't make promises you can't keep," snapped Corvus. Ron was really beginning to wear on his patience with his incessant whining- it reminded Corvus somewhat of Draco… Draco on a good day, anyway.

Harry slunk ahead of them, peering around a corner. It had been Harry's idea, really. Granger didn't know about the troll. Granger was in the first floor girls' bathroom. Granger had to be warned. And it was Ron's fault in the first place, so they were the ones who had to fetch her. Without being caught, seen, or crushed by a troll. Corvus would probably be angry if this wasn't so dangerous, because, of course, in Corvus' mind, the definition of 'dangerous' was incredibly similar to the definition of 'fun'.

Well, he was a little bit angry.

Ron sent Corvus a glare at the exact same moment that Harry dragged them into an alcove behind a large stone griffin, whispering frantically. "There's someone coming!"

Corvus watched with unconcealed interest as Snape swept past them, turning a corner and vanishing from their sight. "Where do you think he's going?"

"Search me. He should be down in the dungeons, with the rest of the teachers, though," Ron muttered as they continued on their way to the girls' bathroom.

"Third floor, I'd guess," Harry said thoughtfully, but was almost immediately shushed by Corvus, who had heard more footsteps. They ducked behind a suit of armour, only to see that their 'pursuer' was none other than Hermione Granger herself, rubbing her puffy eyes and hugging her book bag to her chest.

"Hermione!" Harry hissed, beckoning her over. She stared at them in surprise but didn't move.

"Why are you whispering? Are you hiding from a teacher?"

Ron seized her arm, pulling her at speed along the corridor. Corvus and Harry hurried to catch up.

"Hermione, there's a troll running around the dungeons," explained Harry, "Everyone's been sent back to the common rooms. We've got to go."

Hermione looked, if possible, even more shocked by this. "A troll? How did a troll get in?"

"No idea, they're supposed to be really stupid."

There was a moment of silence.

Harry and Hermione glanced at each other and dissolved into laughter. This was due to the fact that Corvus and Ron had just said the exact same thing at the exact same time, and were now glaring at each other with a ferocious intensity. It couldn't last, however, and the two purebloods soon joined in laughing, echoes bouncing off the walls and down the empty corridor.

This would be their potentially fatal mistake.

Minutes later, the group had managed to calm down and were once again steadily making their way towards Gryffindor Tower. Hermione wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her robe, growing sombre. "Why aren't you three in the common room with everyone else? If there really is a troll, it's really dangerous…"

The three boys looked at each other uncomfortably. Eventually, Corvus was silently elected to be the one to speak. "Well, you were kind of upset and we were going to find you to apologise… And then there was the troll, and you didn't know, so we thought we'd better find you…"

Hermione stared at the three boys for a few moments in bewildered silence before her face broke into the biggest grin Corvus had ever seen on a girl. "Thanks."

As they hurried on down the passageway, Corvus found himself wondering when he'd stopped thinking of her as Granger.

Just as the Gryffindors were turning the corner into the main corridor, Hermione's nose was assaulted by a terrible odour. It smelled somewhat like a rotten herring wrapped in old socks and smothered with mouldy cheese, then dunked in a clogged toilet. It was really quite revolting. She heard Ron gag beside her. "What is that smell?"

Harry shrugged. "No idea. Corvus?"

Corvus didn't answer.

"Corvus?"

Hermione, Harry and Ron turned to stare at their silent companion, only to find that he was chalk white, staring at something behind them. With a huge sense of foreboding, Hermione glanced over her shoulder.

And screamed.

It was over ten feet tall, with a huge, lumpy grey body, a tiny head, and a stench ten times worse than what Hermione had first smelt. The Gryffindors threw themselves to the sides just as a giant wooden club smashed into the ground where they had just been standing, leaving a spider web of cracks in the stone floor. The troll raised its club again, this time aiming for the suit of armour Harry and Ron had ducked behind.

The armour crumpled against the wall, but the two boys were no longer behind it. They were now sprinting down the corridor, alongside Corvus and Hermione, who had dropped her book bag so as not to ruin her books in the inevitable bloodshed.

"I think," Harry ducked just in time to avoid a vicious swipe from the lumbering troll's club, "I think the troll's left the dungeons!"

"I'd never have guessed!" replied Corvus breathlessly. He threw out an arm and knocked Hermione out of the way of another swing. "How did it find us?!"

Hermione scrambled to her feet and kept running, brain working a mile a minute. Why would the troll attack them? How did it even know they were there? They'd met up outside the bathrooms, the boys had told her about the troll, and then… "Of course! It heard us laughing!"

"Laughing?" Ron yelped incredulously as they skidded around a corner, "Why would it attack us for laughing?"

"I don't know, but we weren't exactly quiet, were we?"

Suddenly, Ron stopped dead. The other three first years couldn't stop in time and ended up crashing into him, ending up in a tangled heap on the floor. Corvus extricated himself from the pile faster than should be humanly possible, glaring at Ron. "Why did you stop?"

"Dead end," Ron replied in a shaky voice, pointing at the solid stone wall that blocked their path. Hermione's heart sank. The troll grunted in triumph and swung its club towards them. She screamed and flattening herself against the wall, squeezing her eyes shut.

Not a second later, Hermione heard a dull thump. She opened her eyes enough to see that the club hadn't hit anyone dead on, but it had definitely clipped Corvus, who was struggling to drag himself back to his feet while simultaneously clutching a gash on the side of his head. She instinctively placed herself in front of him as the troll raised its club and readied herself for impact, when the troll let out a high-pitched howl and lost interest in its prey on the ground.

Hermione looked up. Later in life, she would describe the sight with no small amount of accompanying laughter; Harry had, it seemed, sneaked around behind the troll and taken a flying leap at it in an attempt to stop it pulverizing his friends. He was clinging to its neck, but what the four would really laugh about in days to come was this- somehow, Harry had managed to stick his wand up its nose. The scholar in Hermione briefly wondered how the wand could go that far in without stabbing the troll in the brain. Again, later, she would discover that this was because a troll's brain is smaller than its eye, and situated right at the back of the incredibly thick skull.

Of course, right now, Hermione had more pressing issues. For example, the troll that was now holding Harry by the ankle and trying to hit him with its club. She reached into her robes for her wand.

It wasn't there.

"Someone do something!" Harry shouted, narrowly avoiding the club by curling in on himself in mid-air.

Hermione looked at Ron helplessly. "I must have left my wand in my bag!"

"What do I do?" cried Ron, panic-stricken. Harry dodged the club again, but it seemed like he was getting weaker, slower. This time it clipped him on the shoulder and he cried out.

"Anything!"

"Incendio!" came a voice from behind Hermione. A thin stream of fire hit the arm of the troll that was holding Harry, causing the troll to shriek and let go of his ankle, and the Boy-Who-Lived appeared to fall in slow motion as Hermione dove forwards to catch him; another shout, not a second after the first, this time from Ron, of "Wingardium Leviosa!", that raised the troll's club above its head. Then time crashed back into focus as Hermione and Harry crashed to the floor. Gosh, Harry sure was light.

A resounding crack filled the corridor as Ron dropped the spell, and the club. The troll pitched back and landed with a thud, its tiny head hitting the floor with another sickening crack.

Deafening silence filled the hallway.

Harry stumbled to his feet and pulled Hermione to hers. "Thank you… for catching me, I mean, are you okay?"

"Yeah," Hermione whispered, "You're very light."

"Thanks… And thanks, Corvus, and Ron…"

"Harry, get your wand," Ron said quietly. All four of them were still in shock. Harry complied, pulling his wand out of the troll's nose with a disgusting squelch. It looked like it was covered with lumpy grey papier-mâché.

"Troll bogeys," Harry explained calmly, seeing the looks on their faces. Hermione and the other two boys let out a collective "ew!".

Hermione grimaced. "It looks like you could use it as wallpaper paste, Harry. Just wipe it off and let's get to the Hospital Wing."

"Yeah, my brain is leaking out my skull," Corvus added, staggering slightly. Ron ducked under his arm and held him steady while Hermione inspected the sluggishly bleeding wound.

"Doesn't look like you're about to die, but I'll bet you have concussion. Come on. I have to collect my bag, too."

That's when they heard the footsteps.

The loss of blood was making everything kind of hazy. The edges of Corvus' vision were blurred, and everything sounded muffled and far away, like he was listening to it through thick glass. He could vaguely recognise Professor McGonagall's reprimanding voice, and Professor Quirrell's stutter; he knew the third voice, but when it came to remembering the owner, he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Still being supported by Ron, he unsteadily lifted his free hand and pressed it against the side of his head. No, he couldn't even fully make out how bloody his hand was when he pulled it away, but he could see that he was shaking badly. He barely heard Professor McGonagall's gasp of horror before he fell into the dark, empty depths of unconsciousness.

It seemed like only a moment later that he woke up. Everything was still blurry, but noticeably whiter.

This time when he touched where the wound should be, he found a thick bandage. It had trapped some of his hair, making it stick out at an odd angle, despite its length. Corvus snorted at the mental image.

"He's awake! Ron, Hermione, he's awake!"

Three faces swam into focus above him. Corvus could make out Hermione's giant hair, Ron's head of red, and Harry's bright green eyes. He smiled weakly. "What… what happened?"

"Well," Ron began hesitantly, "McGonagall, Quirrell and Snape showed up, and McGonagall was shouting at us, and then your hand was covered in blood, and you stared at it for a second and then you went sort of limp, like you were dead…"

Hermione took over at this point, speaking fast enough that Corvus had to concentrate quite hard to understand what was being said. "Well, Professor McGonagall was really angry; we were telling her what happened, when you collapsed. I thought you might be dying. It was really scary. Professor Snape conjured a stretcher and brought you up here…"

"If it's any consolation, Professor McGonagall didn't take any house points off us," Harry added in almost a whisper. "Because you were injured, and also because we managed to beat the troll. But she did say that first years shouldn't know fire charms like that one you used."

Corvus snorted. "That's because I looked it up when we were with Theo in the library, ages ago. You were doing your Potions essay, remember? I got bored. That's the first time I tried it, though. It was the first thing that came into my head. But Ron was brilliant."

"First thing that came into my head, too," Ron muttered modestly, but, with his vision clearing, Corvus could see that Ron's ears had gone red.

Then a shocking revelation hit Corvus very hard in the forehead. "Oh no…" he whispered, the colour draining from his face. "They've sent letters home, haven't they?"

Realisation dawned on Harry and Ron's faces, while Hermione nodded, blissfully unaware of the connotations. "My parents are going to be furious with me."

"My grandmother," Corvus whispered shakily, "Is going to kill me."

I am... so cruel it hurts me. So, I originally wasn't going to include the last section, but you got it as a present since it was three days late. And more fire~ Because Corvus really, really, REALLY likes fire.

Please review~