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(#4) Hermione's Dad Saved Harry Potter
Hermione's parents are pretty absent throughout the whole series. We know they love their daughter, but they lead a quiet, non-magical life. The only real glimpse the reader gets comes in the gut-wrenching scene where Hermione has to painstakingly remove their memories of her in order to protect them from Voldemort.
In the first draft of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the Grangers actually knew Harry's parents. Lily and James Potter lived on an island, and the Grangers lived just off-shore on the mainland. One fateful night, the Grangers hear an explosion, prompting Mr. Granger to sail his boat over to the island to see what's wrong. That's where he finds baby Harry sitting in the wreckage of his house.
Wisely, Rowling later transferred this role to Hagrid, who then becomes a mentor to Harry, setting him apart from the other students. If Harry and Hermione knew each other throughout childhood, Harry's entire shtick as an outsider would've been debunked, and the inclusion of a normal father figure would've made his character lose some edge.
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(#1) Arthur Weasley Died During The Vicious Attack From Voldemort's Snake
J.K. Rowling killed off so many characters throughout the Harry Potter series. She planned all the deaths years in advance, and refused to budge on their grim fates, except for when it came to certain Weasleys. When J.K. Rowling was penning her fifth installment, Order of the Phoenix, she originally intended to kill off Ron Weasley's beloved father.
As it's written, Arthur Weasley narrowly survives his battle with Voldemort's snake Nagini. However, in earlier drafts, Nagini came away victorious. Rowling ended up sparing Arthur's life, as she felt that Harry Potter doesn't feature many doting fathers.
“If there's one character I couldn't bear to part with, it's Arthur Weasley,” she told TODAY. “I think part of the reason for that is there were very few good fathers in the book. In fact, you could make a very good case for Arthur Weasley being the only good father in the whole series.”
The Weasley family is hit particularly hard when Fred is killed in the Battle of Hogwarts (which Rowling allegedly knew would happen when she decided to let Arthur live). With tragedy on the horizon for the family, it would've been too much to kill off the only good father in the entire series.
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(#8) Hermione Had A Sister
Hermione's an only child, a detail that perfectly underscores her bookishness and tendency to be found reading in solitude. Given how well this all plays, it's surprising that J.K. Rowling originally intended to give Hermione a sister.
In a 2004 BBC interview, the writer admitted, "I always planned that Hermione would have a younger sister but she's never made an appearance and somehow it feels like it might be too late now."
She decided that Hermione's quiet, muggle background perfectly contrasted Ron's hectic family life.
"You see so much of Ron’s family... so I thought that I would keep Hermione’s family, by contrast, quite ordinary. They are dentists, as you know. They are a bit bemused by their odd daughter but quite proud of her all the same."
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(#3) Ron Weasley Was Supposed To Die Midway Through The Series
Ron Weasley is the misfit hero the series needs; his lovable dorkiness perfectly foils Harry Potter's scandalous fame. Weasley and Potter teach the reader important lessons about friendship, so why the heck did J.K. Rowling think it was a good idea to kill him off?
Rowling admitted that she "wasn't in a very happy place" when she started to think about Ron Weasley's tragic demise.
"Funnily enough, I planned from the start that none of them would die. Then midway through, which I think was a reflection that I wasn't in a very happy place, I started thinking I might punish one of them off. Out of sheer spite... But I think in my absolute heart of heart of hearts, although I did seriously consider killing Ron, [I wouldn't have done it]."
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(#6) Draco Malfoy Wasn't The Baddest Bully In Hogwarts
Draco Malfoy may be bad to the bone, but the original Harry Potter was supposed to have an even badder bully. Rowling intended for Theodore Nott, another pureblood son of a Death Eater, to be Draco's equal. If you don't remember Nott, he is briefly mentioned during the Sorting Hat ceremony in the first book, and mentioned again in the fifth book as a "stringy Slytherin boy" standing behind Draco.
“…We rarely see Draco talking to anybody he considers a real equal, and he is forced to see Theodore as such because Theodore is just as pure-blooded as he is, and somewhat cleverer,” Rowling said. “Together these two Death Eaters’ sons discuss Dumbledore’s regime at Hogwarts and Harry Potter, with all sorts of stories that the Death Eaters tell about how this baby boy survived the Dark Lord’s attack."
Somehow, Rowling ended up allowing us a speck of sympathy for Draco, so adding in this element would have made him either egregiously unlikable or far too sympathetic.
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