The Character J.K. Rowling Wanted To Give A Bigger Role To In Harry Potter

The Harry Potter series has more than its fair share of memorable characters — many of whom still rank as some of the most beloved fictional figures ever created. Indeed, readers were introduced to a wide ensemble of rich, layered characters over the course of the main seven Harry Potter books. Some of those characters ended up meeting tragic fates in the series, while others survived the central conflict with Voldemort and got their well-deserved happy endings in the final chapters of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. No matter how their individual stories ended up playing out, though, most of the lead and supporting players in the Harry Potter series still hold a special place in the hearts of fans everywhere.

However, due to just how sprawling the world of Harry Potter is, there were inevitably some characters introduced in the books who ended up falling by the wayside. It turns out there was one character, in particular, who was supposed to play a major role in the series' core narrative but was ultimately sidelined in favor of some other, more prominent characters.

While Harry Potter features a wide array of important characters, there are also plenty of figures featured throughout the books who mostly exist to help build out the Wizarding World itself. One of those characters is Florean Fortescue, the owner of an ice cream shop in Diagon Alley whom Harry meets in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The character is more or less forgotten about after the brief meeting, so it's understandable if fans consider Florean to be one of the least important characters in the Harry Potter books.

That wasn't always going to be the case, though. J.K. Rowling revealed on Pottermore that Florean was actually supposed to play a major role in Harry's quest to defeat Voldemort. The descendant of a former Hogwarts headmaster, Florean was originally going to be "the conduit for clues" that Harry needed during his "quest for the Hallows." According to Rowling, Florean was going to have "a smattering of information on matters as diverse as the Elder Wand and the diadem of Ravenclaw," and she even had Florean kidnapped by Voldemort with the intention of having him later "rescued by Harry and his friends."

Rowling ultimately decided to have other characters — like Phineas Nigellus and The Grey Lady ghost — impart the knowledge to Harry about the Hallows and the Ravenclaw diadem that Florean was originally supposed to. To make matters even worse for poor Florean, he was later killed by Voldemort in the books, just in case his overall existence within Harry Potter lore didn't feel sad enough.