Apologies for the ridiculously short review. I realized I was late for work and didn't remember my one strong criticism.
My concern is the uncanny similarity to canon the troll events showed. There were a few more details, sure. Ron acquitted himself better, and Harry did better in terms of leadership but a bit worse in terms of actually taking action. Hermione took the blame when she didn't have to (how hard is it to happen to be using the bathroom when the troll attacks?)
That last one is as much of a complaint against canon as anything, so I apologize.
Still, I love this story, I just wish it wasn't taking after canon so strongly. I understand that you like all of the characters, but they can be nice enough without taking center stage (Dean, Seamus and even Neville make good examples).
Looking forward to more.
Author's response
No problem, I find myself forgetting things all the time. lol. You bring up some good points, and the encounter gave me trouble for awhile thinking it up. It ran so close to the canon situations because this was the perfect event to bring Ron & Hermione together, and I really didn't see a time to do it later. As we get more of Harry's friends developed, R & H really due become scenery characters mostly and it made sense to me to get their friendship started a.s.a.p. I really want to get over the fact that they're only starting out at school and have barely learned any spells especially ones pertaining to battles, with that it really limited my choices in Harry effectively defeating the troll. I tried to rely on ingenuity and the luck of Harry having explosive prank paraphernalia on him. The next chapter is a good example I think in how R & H will be used, more background moments mostly. Thank you again for the comment and reading after all this time! :)