Mafalda

Mafalda was a planned character for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but was not included in the final version of the book, as the role she was to have played was replaced by Rita Skeeter.

Biography
Mafalda would have been born circa 1984 to an accountant father and a Muggle mother. Although her father, who was most likely a Squib, was an estranged second cousin of Molly Weasley (neé Prewett), he apparently did not expect to become the parent of a witch.

Mafalda's parents were thus planned to have gone to the Weasley family seeking help in introducing Mafalda to the wizarding world. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were to have agreed to allow Mafalda to spend part of the summer of 1994 at The Burrow and to have taken her with their family to the Quidditch World Cup. However, they were to quickly regret this decision, as Mafalda was an especially difficult child to handle. Mrs. Weasley was to come to the conclusion that Mafalda's parents had requested the Weasley family's help simply as a pretense for getting Mafalda off their hands for some time.

If Mafalda had gone to Hogwarts, she would have begun on September 1, 1994, and been sorted into Slytherin.

Personality and role
Mafalda would have been a bright, gifted witch with an inclination toward showing off and trying to impress. However, she apparently would not have been very kind or well-behaved, as Molly Weasley would have found her to be the "most unpleasant child...she [had] ever met." Malfada was also to be a nosy, loose-tongued girl, and, as such, would have listened in on the conversations held between the children of Death Eaters in her House. She then would have repeated this information to Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, hoping to impress them. Hermione would have discovered that, much to her own horror, Mafalda was her equal in many ways, and would have been caught between hating Mafalda's disregard for rules and longing to try to outdo her.

J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling stated on her website that she was very fond of Mafalda's character, who she called a "match for Hermione," and that she did not want to have cut her from the story. However, Rowling found that Mafalda "wasn't doing the job she was supposed to do," as there were severe limitations to how much information an eleven-year-old girl stuck at Hogwarts could gather, and consequently developed Rita Skeeter to fill her role.

Name etymology
Mafalda is an Italian form of Matilda, a Germanic name meaning, "strength in battle." Her name coincides with that of Mafalda Hopkirk, a Ministry of Magic employee, first introduced in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.