15 Things That Almost Completely Changed The End Of Harry Potter

8. Hermione Had A Rival

What Happened

Now this is not explicitly linked to the end of the Harry Potter series alone, but it would have shaped everything in a completely different way.

Though Hermione is presented with a romantic competitor in the shape of the tragic Lavender Brown, she stands pretty much head and shoulders above the rest of her schoolmates in terms of aptitude and ability (in all but Divination). There are other smart kids, sure, but she never explicitly clashes with them.

What Could Have Been

Originally, JK Rowling had written in a Slytherin girl called Mafalda, who would have been a distant Weasley cousin and would have first appeared in Goblet Of Fire as a direct rival to Hermione with high intellect. Like Hermione, she would have had "impure" blood, coming from a Muggle and a squib and would have been a first year when she was introduced.

That would have changed the dynamic for Hermione entirely, but it's not the only major change that her character went through. Originally, she was called Puckle, had a younger sister and her family lived close to the Potters - so close, in fact, that it was Hermione's father who rescued Harry from the wreckage of his parents' house when they were killed.