Character Development/Mafilda and how the novels could have been different

[career advisor]

No: HPFGUIDX 179171

I understand why JKR focused on the three in tent. Trying to write a broader based narrative switching back and forth from the school and the trio would have been confusing (I know this because I've tried it) and also would have spoiled the DA surprise at the end and it also heightened the tension of DH to be worrying about so many of the trio's friends.  
 
The minor character I'm most intrigued with is Michael Corner. Ginny's first boyfriend, and Cho's third. The minor hints JKR drops of his character suggest something bold but kind about him.
 
He engages my imagination and I imagine him to have a minor bit of the saving people thing. I imagine he sort of saved Cho from her own misery, that he's reasonably kind to Luna (Ginny never would have tolerated him at all if he weren't), that he has the guts to stand up to Ginny's anger and jealousy over Cho (it seems to he who starts the argument over his comforting Cho) and he saves that first year from the chains (risking his life, being horribly tortured and not seeming to complain about it). 
 
Aside from that, there are a few things I would have liked to have seen in the final battle. Just one mention of Susan Bones throwing a Death Eater across the hall, so we know for sure if the Amelia Bones's neice even had the courage to be there. Why did JKR mention the Bones's family as being a family that fights the dark almost as hard as the Weasley's yet never show us their courage, even in a passing way? 
 
Also I would have liked a mention of what happened exactly to Lavender. She leaves us a bit of a cliffhanger there. You'd think at least one of the trio would have asked after her, at least or been relieved to see her sitting at the table. I think JKR dropped the ball slightly on that, as not mentioning it did seems a bit unrealistic to me. (It would have been even better had Ron tried to fight through the onrushing spiders to get to her, as it would have shown that he cared at least, and was not the cad he was for using her so.)
 
Isn't it also a bit odd that Padma wasn't seen fighting by her sister's side. Or was Padma a coward, little things like that.
 
It didn't bother me about the Creeveys. I just assumed that they had been on the run like Dean and probably Justin had to be (there was no way Justin could havc hid his mugglebornness since the events of COS would have been public knowledge to the DE's.) And then they came when Neville summoned them with the coin. Although why the Carrows didn't guess at the coin; I couldn't understand, as surely Draco would have mentioned it at one point.I think that's a wide plot hole (Although JKR could say that Draco purposely hid the fiact somehow from Voldemort.). 
 
Also perhaps one of the Order members, or DA members who was pure-blood hid them somehow. I like to imagine Cho or someone else running a safe house. 
 
The minor character I miss the most, was the one cut from the novel's to be replaced by Luna: The Weasley cousin Mafilda.  JRK should have played with her some more and kept her, if even in a minor way. She would most likely have ultimately been a good Slytherin that would have balanced the houses, she would have been a good foil to play off of Gabriella's sweetness at the wedding and I have a feeling that the scene in the final battle where Ginny finds the young dying girl would have worked much more effectively if the dying girl had been her cousin. We lost a lot of potential character development for Ginny because Mafilda was cut. Mafilda would have given Ginny a real rival only a year or two yonger then here. Certainly a much more formidable enemy then Pansy.    
 
Don't get me wrong I love Luna. But Mafilda would have added a whole new element to the books. If JKR ever does a rewrite of the books she should consider shoehorning her in somewhere by having her join Hogwarts in the first or second book, and this avoid the being to young reason she used for cutting her. A Mafilda gloating over a mssing Ginny would certainly rachet up the tension in COS. She also could have been the romantic partner for Nott and thus bring him more into the story.
 
If she does rewrites she can also find places to foreshadow Luna in the first few books. Mafilda is foreshadowed but not Luna.  
 
Also, it points out something. At one time, JKR considered having muggle-borns in Slytherin as I believe Mafilda was either muggle-born or very nearly so, as the most she could have been was the child of a squib and a muggle.
 
OOP was a crucible on which this series turned, as based on her interviews and from what she's posted on the webstie, she clearly second guessed herself and made many changes to her plan while writing it. 
 
Again, I'm glad she did, as Luna is a superb creation, one of the best minor characters in fiction IMHO. 

:-) DA Jones


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