Neville and the Gillyweed

[Steve]

I'm not sure where I read about this controversy, but there seems to
be some 'believability' conflict with Neville giving Harry the
Gillyweed instead of Dobby in the most recent GoF movie. Chiefly that
conflict hinges around the very great unlikelihood of Neville having
the courage to steal from Snape's private stores.

The problem actually stems from book readers making assumptions about
the movie. Since Dobby stole the Gillyweed, we naturally assume
Neville did the same, but the actual movie doesn't support that.

Snape confronts Harry about stealing from his private stores AFTER
Harry has already used the Gillyweed in the second task. In that
scene, Snape says something to the effect, 'Gillyweed is
[unintelligable], but Broomslang and lacewing are...etc...polyjuice'.
While I couldn't make out exactly what Gillyweed is, it seems that it
is inconsequential or irrelevant since Snape's focus is on the
production of Polyjuice. 

Which I took to mean that Neville either gathered the Gillyweed from
some other source like Prof. Sprout, or it came from the students
communal potions stores. Gillyweed, from the perspective of the books,
seems unlikely to be in the students communal stores, but this is the
movie and they need quick and easy explanations. So, Snape seems to
imply that he is unconcerned about the Gillyweed.

I just saw the movie for the third time, and I watched and listened
very carefully for exactly how the movie dealt with the issue of the
Gillyweed. No where does it imply that Neville /stole/ the weed from
Snape. My sense is that the movie makers anticipated this conflict,
and used Snape's speech as a quick and easy way to gloss over it.

Just passing it along.

Steve.bboyminn

By the way, even my third viewing of the movie was an exciting and
powerful experience.