Is Buckbeak Indispensable (& Other PoA Edits)?

[cynthiaanncoe at home.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 27375

My PS/SS is 309 pages and the movie is 2:20 minutes or so (I think).  
PoA is almost 50% longer (435 pages), so if the movie is 50% longer, 
it could easily exceed 3 hours -- like Schindler's List -- which 
really would be too long, IMHO.  So I was wondering what, if 
anything, could be cut out of PoA to make the movie length manageable 
without destroying the story.  It's a tough challenge, because PoA is 
very tightly plotted.

I was thinking that PoA might work without the whole Buckbeak 
subplot.  Buckbeak primarily serves as a vehicle for Black's escape, 
and secondarily to give Hagrid something to do and be concerned 
about.  Maybe it would work just as well for Harry to give Sirius a 
broom instead for his escape, specifically the Firebolt, thereby 
allowing Sirius' generousity to his godson to be the means of his own 
escape and allowing Harry to make a sacrifice to save Sirius.  <*dabs 
at eyes due to the emotional impact*>  Instead of using the time-
turner to rescue Buckbeak, Harry and Hermione would go to the broom 
shed and get two school brooms and also retrieve the Firebolt.  They 
still have to hide in the forest while they wait for Sirius to be 
caught and taken to Flitwick's office.  

Sirius could return the Firebolt to Harry by owl (Pigwidgeon would 
need some help there) at the train station or at the Dursleys because 
Harry needs it in GoF, Sirius having secured his own broom 
somewhere.  That would eliminate Buckbeak from GoF, of course, but 
Buckbeak doesn't do much in that book either.  Sacrificing the 
Buckbeak sub-plot would save a great number of pages, at least 50, 
because you lose half of Talon and Tealeaves, you lose the execution 
scenes, and you lose all the talk about Hagrid's appeal.  

I also think the Ravensclaw Quiddich match could be eliminated 
entirely without losing anything important.  11 pages saved there.  

Then I'd take a hatchet to Snape's Grudge and eliminate Harry's 
entire visit to Hogsmead with Ron where Harry throws mud at Malfoy.  
We would just pick things up Harry about to go to Hogsmead, but 
getting intercepted by Snape and taken to Snape's office for the rest 
of the chapter.  12 pages saved there.

I'd also remove about half of the dozens of relentless foreshadowing 
references to the time-turner.  Just a few pages saved.

Any other ideas?

Cindy (who doesn't want to even think about what it would take to cut 
down GoF)