Droobles/Wizard Sweets (Was:Re: Odds and Ends)

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 83499

pennygbrooks wrote:

> 3)   There is some meaning behind the Droobles gum wrappers that 
> Neville's mother keeps giving him.  I'm thinking that somehow, the 
> DE's are tied up in the wizard candy industry.  Maybe that's how they 
> make all their money.  

Money laundering by the DEs! Or maybe it's one of the old family
businesses that Lucius owns and one of the sources of his income? 
It's certainly possible -- *and* a handy way to sneak into the
population some of the Confusing and Befuddlement Draughts that JKR
was hitting us over the head with just before Dobby tells Harry about
the Room of Requirement (ch. 18).

About those Droobles gum wrappers, now.  True, Neville has "enough to
paper [his] bedroom by now.  But, just a few paragraphs before, as
Alice approaches Neville holding something in her outstretched hand,
we read:

"Again?" said Mrs. Longbottom, sounding slightly weary.  "Very well,
Alice dear, very well -- Neville, take it, whatever it is...."

Neville's gran does *not* know it's going to be a Drooble's wrapper. 
Though the thought that Wizard sweets in general, or Drooble's gum in
particular, may have some significance in the coming struggle feels
likely enough, I don't think that's the true point of this scene.  I
think the real reason is to show that Alice does indeed recognize and
*love* her son.  Besides, either she's improved some since GoF, when
Dumbledore tells Harry that Neville's parents don't recognize him, or
Dumbledore was mistaken.

Neville was a possibility to be "the one" when the prophecy was first
heard, and Dumbledore must have given the Longbottoms some protection
at the time because of it.  If part of the protection was a rune
charm, perhaps Neville has a latent one on his forehead as well, which
Alice may yet someday activate?

Annemehr
out in the stratosphere, maybe, but it's nice up here...