OotP - Bubble Gum Is Just Bubble Gum

[bunnie1222]

No: HPFGUIDX 70597

Okay, I know it's very popular to find hidden meanings in EVERYTHING 
from JKR and sometimes there are legitimate clues and sometimes red 
herrings but maybe just this once there is nothing but gum.  I, like 
everyone else, would love for there to be a miraculous, happy ending 
for Neville and for his parents to find a way out of the horror that 
keeps them imprisoned in their own minds, and if there is that would 
be great but I just don't see it having anything to do with the gum.

It seems more to me that Neville's mother giving him the wrapper is 
just to illustrate the very bitter sweet nature of the whole 
situation.  This poor child is forced every Christmas time to go and 
face the most horrific thing in his life.  It's his mother's attempt 
at generosity that makes it so sad, that there is enough of Alice 
Longbottom still remaining in the shell of a woman who shuffles 
around to want to do something kind.  How pathetic is it that his 
mother sees a child and maybe sympathizing with his obvious sadness 
thinks he might like a treat, never realizing in her insanity that 
it's her own son or that it's nothing more than an empty wrapper.  

And Neville's passive act of defiance in keeping the wrapper despite 
his grandmother telling him to throw it away, is simply his way of 
hanging on to the one thing he can of his parents.  The whole 
situation seems to be more to illustrate how Neville is emerging as a 
person, showing his strength and maybe giving him some more depth of 
character rather than a great mystery to be solved.  I also feel that 
Neville's suffering helps calm the tide of anger that Harry has been 
feeling, to see how Neville suffers and how bravely he stands up to 
it.  It gives Harry some perspective about how bad he does and 
doesn't have it.

Just my 2 cents worth.