Placing the trio was very tough, as my primary complaint of the books was that Harry Potter had too much significance, especially given that he claimed to hate it.  Still, he wouldn't ignore all of it.  I did try to have him take a secondary role to Hermione in every aspect, though, as I believe he would want her to lead for a number of reasons.  His presence invites discord.  I am sure he was campaigning for her behind the scenes, but avoided public involvement until necessary.<br/><br/>The part that I enjoyed the most was having Madame Pomfrey resign.  She and McGonagall have been close friends since they were students, so that name being gone had significant weight attached to it.  Still, she cared greatly for the students' safety, and she remembered how many were at risk for those years.<br/><br/>Yeah, first year characters were tempting, but it came down to not enough players.  The more years that are represented, the more spread out the PCs become.  If this goes really well I may continue it into next year and allow first year characters then, but we'll see.  Besides, I might have just "sorted" Charlize into my bedroom.