Harry Potter and the omissions for the sake of time

I am not myself an ardent fan of J.K. Rowling’s works, yet even I noticed some glaring omissions, some of which will no doubt precipitate further omissions down the line. However, I didn’t mind the fact that Hermione never tries to stick up for elf rights ( computer generated elves are expensive), that the obnoxious reporter never gets her comeuppance, that Hedwig the owl doesn’t return throughout the whole movie, Victor Krum’s brutal mispronunciation of Hermione, or that they digitally erased prominent nose of the actor who played Voldemort. None of those would have done anything significant to advance the story.
As an aside, the scene in which Myrtle, the ghost that haunts the bathrooms, converses with Harry while he’s in the bath, figuring out the clue to the second challenge is just a bit too creepy. The ghost is of a girl, no older than 14 but she lays on the innuendo pretty thick. I understand that the movies and books are getting darker and more mature, but that was a bit much. It also bothered me that there were pretty much only two or three appearances of Hermione in which she didn’t break down crying. Is the character really that emotional, or is that the actress’ whole range?
All and all, it was an enjoyable movie. No film with a well done dragon can be all that bad. The only thing missing there were the ears (all dragons have external ears), but I suppose that would be the fault of the art director and not the writers.