A friend dragged me to see this film in the theater (I was not a Potter fan at the time). I fell asleep TWICE...the film was so long and there were so many scenes of people just TALKING.

The snake could have felt the vibration of the pebble that Harry tossed, but wouldn't have been able to hear Harry whispering.

Yes, film were much better before the use of CGI. I just watched a clip where Dumbledore's blackened, withered hand (in Half Blood Prince) was shown as being added in using CGI. WTF? Why not just use a simply rubber prosthetic hand?