Hermione Granger almost had an evil Weasley cousin as her archenemy

Today, I learned something very surprising. Apparently, Harry Potter character Hermione Granger (played by Emma Watson in the movies) was supposed to have a rival. There were plenty of characters who disliked Hermione throughout the series (namely Draco Malfoy), but she never had an archenemy.

But it almost happened. Author J.K. Rowling had an idea for a character named Mafalda Weasley who was not only a villainous Weasley family member who was a Slytherin (I can’t even imagine this!) but also Hermione’s biggest enemy.

This character never made it past the concept stage, but if she had, things could have gotten very interesting.

The Harry Potter character that could have been

Rowling once wrote about Mafalda on her official website. That excerpt is gone now, but it’s preserved on Web.Archive. Check it out below:

"I have spoken before now about the Weasley cousin who made it quite a long way into ‘Goblet of Fire’ before I cut her. I really liked her as a character and did not want to sacrifice her, but she just wasn’t doing the job she was supposed to do so she had to go.Mafalda was the daughter of the ‘second cousin who’s a stockbroker’ mentioned in ‘Philosopher’s Stone’. This stockbroker had been very rude to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley in the past, but now he and his (Muggle) wife had inconveniently produced a witch, they came back to the Weasleys asking for their help in introducing her to wizarding society before she starts at Hogwarts. The Weasleys agreed to taking her for part of the Summer, including the Quidditch World Cup, but regretted this almost immediately. Mrs. Weasley suspected that Mafalda’s parents simply wanted to get rid of her for a while, because she turns out to be the most unpleasant child Mrs. Weasley has ever met.Mafalda was supposed to convey certain information about the Death Eaters to Harry, Ron and Hermione, because as a nosy, eavesdropping Slytherin who likes to impress, she does not keep her mouth shut when she overhears their sons and daughters talking. Unfortunately, however bright I made her, there were obvious limitations to what an eleven year old closeted at school could discover, whereas Rita Skeeter, whom I subsequently built up to fulfill Mafalda’s function, was much more flexible.The best thing about Mafalda was that she was a match for Hermione. To the latter’s horror, Mafalda was highly gifted and a real show-off, so that Hermione was torn between deploring the rule-breaking and longing to join in and beat her."

As a long-time Harry Potter fan, I would have loved to see this rivalry, especially since it would have tempted Hermione to rebel and push herself outside of her comfort zone. Can you imagine Hermione breaking rules left and right to keep up with a student much younger than her? That would have been amazing.

I’m still trying to process that the Weasleys had a distant cousin who ended up being evil and was there to cause chaos with her gossiping and showboating. Goodness, that really would have been something.

Rita Skeeter is the closest Hermione got to having a rival in the series, and it makes sense why Hermione subbed her in for Mafalda. There’s only so much a young student could learn vs a reporter.

But still, I can’t help thinking how much the story of Harry Potter would have changed had Mafalda Weasley been a part of it.

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h/t CBR