twelve-foot mountain trolls

I recently began reading "Harry Potter" [hopefully you inserted a British accent as you read his name] on my lil' trip to London -- a fitting place to delve into the series, wouldn't you agree?... Yeah, I know, I'm lagging over a decade behind on this one... no time to start like the present though, right? Especially when the present (at this particular juncture in life) means I have the freizeit (free time) to generally do as I please and read each day simply for leisure... because I sure do like a good read. : )

Everyone who has recommended the series to me since middle school is right; these books are quite good! J.K. Rowling is such a clever writer; I especially enjoy (what I would interpret to be) her definition of what it means to be family, to be in community with one another:

"From that moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend. There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them."

-- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, pg. 132

Even pulling that quote out of context still does it justice, because it's true.

We often make the assumption that those who we share very little in common with/those who might tend to annoy us (like in the case of Hermione & Harry) can't really be our friends. I know I've had that thought before. But, after walking through a particularly difficult circumstance together, (for instance, knocking-out a twelve-foot mountain troll), we end up not only tolerating each other but we even like each other.

And isn't that a good and right thing?