Harry Potter: 10 Times JK Rowling Admitted To Changing Her Plans

JK Rowling originally had grand plans for Diagon Alley ice-cream salesman Florean Fortescue. He met Harry during the first chapters of Prisoner Of Azkaban when Harry was staying for several days at The Leaky Cauldron. He helped Harry with his homework and even gave him free deserts every half an hour. This, according to Rowling's thoughts recorded on Pottermore, was to establish a relationship early on and make it clear that he had a good understanding of magical history.

He was going to come into his own in The Deathly Hallows, when he would be a conduit for vital clues in Harry's quest for the Wand, the Cloak and the Stone. As the stories worked their way towards the moment when Fortescue would be needed, Rowling had him kidnapped by Death Eaters so that Harry and company would be able to rescue him and in turn learn some vital truths.

This is where Florean Fortescue changes from very minor character to one of JK Rowling's big regrets. When it came to it, she explains, she realised that the talking portrait of former headmaster Phineas Nigellus Black was a better means of relaying plot-related clues, and that The Grey Lady was a superior choice for revealing information on the Diadem of Ravenclaw (created by The Lady's mother).

On Pottermore, the author laments: "All in all, I seemed to have had him kidnapped and killed for no reason. He is not the first wizard whom Voldemort murdered because he knew too much (or too little), but he is the only one I feel guilty about, because it was all my fault."