Given JKR’s sensitivity and cleverness with ethnic names, it was probably Marietta Mozzarella.
I think they should have kept the potion puzzle when Harry, Ron & Hermione were trying to get the Sorcerer’s Stone. It was a nice insight into both Snape and Hermione.
The name is Marietta Edgecombe.
Thank you. The it’s just on the tip of my tongue syndrome was bugging me–not enough to research it myself, but enough to appreciate having the last name provided.
Does having Hermione played by Lolita count?
They didn’t have to fix her buck teeth, her hair is never frizzy, and many other things that I’m sure more dedicated readers can point out about her appearence have been altered.
Are you thinking of Neville Longbottom?
I also would’ve liked to see more about SPEW. In the books it was funny to see how Ron obliges Hermione’s do-good obsession, and of course there’s a nice little reference to it in Deathly Hallows that I’d like to see included (but I’m sure it won’t be).
Filch’s clandestine QuikSpell coursework would’ve been nice to include.
I seem to remember much more about Harry and his friends studying for, and then taking, their OWL exams in the books. I would’ve liked to see more of that, with Harry receiving praise from the outside examiners rather than just being smacked around by Snape et al.
Seconded as to the omission of the fact that it was Umbridge who sent the Dementors to attack Harry in Little Whinging. That’s huge. Hope they pick up on that in later movies.
In one of her interviews, Rowling said that she had originally intended for a character who had never before worked magic to perform it in the final battle, though she didn’t say who or in whose service. This is my own conjecture, but I think she probably meant Filch, and since he’s not the sweetest guy anyway (though neither is Snape of course) I can see him serving the Dark Lord as a Hogwarts mole in exchange for the ability to work even a mild form of magic (which could be within Voldemort’s power- certainly he could provide him with some form of magical facilitator). However, per Rowling, whoever the character and whatever the side they were to fight on, she scrapped the idea.
If my thesis is correct (and I’ve certainly been way off before in prediction Potter developments- I always thought Petunia was going to be revealed as a squib, for example, or that one of Harry’s Potter grandparents or other relatives would come into play [odd that he has no living relatives in the wizarding world other than very very distant ones]), I think that Filch being a squib was originally a bigger plot point but was dumped later and deemed unimportant. (My understanding is that Rowling did not divulge the future plots to the screenwriters but did meet with the screenwriters and gave them “You really can’t omit Kreacher- take something else out if you have to, but he must be introduced” pointers; she probably said “That’s an okay omission” about Filch as squib.)
Oh, god, I’m so there with you, both as a total Remus fangirl (I’m just about at the point now where I can think about DH without going into a long, bitter, angry tirade) and as a general fan of characters that the author doesn’t seem to give two poops about. That’s why everyone in the stories I write is the kind of character I like (or a clear villain) so people like me can find someone they like and have them be treated in a reasonable manner (or, if it ends on a sour note for them, I usually make it up to them in the sequel.) But, even when I hurt a character, I make it clear that I care about it, and it’s not just an off-handed, barely-mentioned sidethought.
I feel the bile rising again. thinks happy thoughts, twitches
Let me add to the chorus of voices annoyed by the failure of Harry to ask Remus the incredibly simple question, “Uh, hang on a sec teach, but how the heck did you know about the Marauders’ Map?”, thereby leading to the explanation of who Messrs. Moony, etc. really were. The whole thing would’ve taken about 30 seconds.
But I’d also like to add that I think they blew it with Viktor Krum. In the books he’s a totally unremarkable kid - introspective, awkward, even kinda nerdy - except when he’s on his broom, when he finally looks comfortable in his own skin. In the movie, he’s the Big Man On Campus - handsome, athletic, quarterback of the football team kinda guy. Why does it make any difference? I suppose it won’t change the outcome of the series, but I can’t get over what seems to me to be the simple, inescapable fact that if Krum were really all that he’s made out to be in the film…
…he wouldn’t have given Hermione the time of day.
I would doubt that, as Neville (Matthew Lewis) is tall and does not have red hair.
NO. Nigel was introduced by the director of film #5–he does not exist in the books, and acts as comic relief. He is in many, many scenes in film 5, even the last one where he can be seen either in the background or passing Harry. He is annoying.
I love Neville, who is not a twit or short and does not have red hair.
It is true they cast a prettier girl than the book describes, but I thought in the book, Hermione left her teeth fixed after the Yule Ball.
Can’t recall which book, but ISTR that was after Malfoy put some sort of “beaver teeth” hex on her. She had to go to the infirmary, and when Madam Pomfrey told her to say "when " while she was fixing her teeth, she let her go a little further than where her teeth actually were. 
Hermione did say that whatever she did to smooth her hair for the Yule Ball was too much trouble to do every day.
Plus, Emma Watson has about two hairs on her head. The first film attempted to show her with frizzy hair, but you could see how they had crimped it. The other films didn’t bother. To me, it’s a moot point.
I wish they had shown Aunt Petunia accidentally revealing that she knows what “Azkaban” is, then clapping her hand over her mouth like she’s said something filthy. It’s a great WTH? moment in the book.
I wish they had included the scene where Harry is trying to understand that his dad was not perfect and in fact was a brit of a spoiled rich brat when he was a teenager. He tries to talk to Remus and Sirius about it, and it was so long ago for them that they don’t really understand why it’s so important to Harry.
I’m not particularly interested in the house elves, but I agree that the Winky subplot is important, because getting her to “betray” the Crouches is like trying to get a little kid to talk about witnessing a murder or something similarly awful. She doesn’t want to talk about it, and they make her.
I wonder how much of the “11-year-old Tom Riddle at the orphanage” stuff they’re going to cut out.
There was a two second scene in one of the movies I just watched on abcfamily. Harry picked up an envelope that said QuickSpells(or something similar) and gave it to Filch, who made an embarrassed face and hid behind his cat.
Ditto the many mentions of the failure in PoA to identify the authors of the Marauder’s Map. Stupid omission.
One annoying change not in the book: making the other schools of wizardry single-sex. WTF? Anything get added by that? No.
Annoying omission: Hermione getting revenge on Rita Skeeter.
An issue of timing: OOtP, Umbridge is getting her comeuppance from Peeves, McGonagall, and the Weasley twins. OK, in the fllm just the Weasle twins. But they interrupt it, cut it off prematurely to segue into whatever is popping into Harry’s non-occlumency-protected mind. Sheesh. Let Fred & George finish their freaking swan song wouldya?