Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Alice Longbottom

Overview
Alice Longbottom is Neville's mother. She was part of the Order of the Phoenix and worked alongside Harry's parents, James and Lily Potter.

Goblet of Fire
Harry sees a trial by the Wizengamot in Professor Dumbledore's Pensieve. The trial was of four Death Eaters, Barty Crouch Jr., Bellatrix Lestrange, Rodolphus Lestrange (Bellatrix's husband), and Rabastan Lestrange (Rodolphus' brother), who used the Cruciatus Curse on Frank Longbottom, in an attempt to discover what had happened to Lord Voldemort so that he could be returned to power. When that failed, they repeated the process on Alice Longbottom, Frank's wife, possibly in an attempt to get something out of him by forcing him to witness his loved one being hurt. As a result, Frank and Alice both lost most of their mental faculties, and they have both become irreversibly insane. Dumbledore tells Harry that the two of them are now residing at St. Mungo's, and asks Harry not to tell anyone else about this.

Order of the Phoenix
At the celebration feast for Ron and Hermione becoming Prefects, Alastor Moody shows Harry a picture of the old Order of the Phoenix. In that picture, we see Alice and Frank Longbottom smiling and waving.

Before Potions class one day, Draco Malfoy, taunting Harry, mentions something about people with mental infirmities being forced to stay at St. Mungo's. Neville, pushed beyond his endurance, tries to attack him, but is restrained by Harry and Ron. Ron and Hermione wonder what that was all about, but while Harry knows, he also cannot answer because of his promise to Dumbledore.

Just before Christmas, while Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione are visiting Mr. Weasley at St. Mungo's, they run into Gilderoy Lockhart, and end up being brought to his ward to visit. There, then encounter Neville and his grandmother, who are visiting Neville's parents. Alice and Frank are sharing Lockhart's ward. Alice walks up to Neville and hands him an empty Drooble's bubblegum wrapper, as they are leaving. His grandmother suggests he throw it away because Alice has given him so many, but Harry thinks he sees Neville secretly slip it into his pocket. Harry can still see a resemblance to the picture Moody had showed him.

When Neville is captured by Death Eaters in the Battle in the Ministry, Bellatrix Lestrange says she will torture him as she tortured his parents. She is stopped only by the arrival of members of the Order arriving.

Strengths
Alice Longbottom was a strong woman mentally: despite witnessing her husband's torture and being tortured herself, she gave no information to the Death Eaters.

Relationships With Other Characters
Alice Longbottom, as mentioned, is the mother of Neville Longbottom and the wife of the disabled Frank Longbottom. She still seems to love her son, giving him what she can, even if it is only wrappers from Drooble's Best Blowing Gum. Because of her mental disability, we cannot form any clear idea of what her actual relationships with other characters would have been.

Questions

 * 1) Why do you think Alice gives Neville bubble gum wrappers? What does this represent?