You never know, Ben might become a crazy bad ass. He's Gryffindor, they are totally foreshadowing. He has a ton of catching up to do if he's going to catch Penny but it can be done. [...] I just don't really like his face though. I think it's the chin?
I haven't heard anything about Merula changing gender based on your character. She's basically just a she Malfoy with bird shit in her hair. They should've mixed it up a little and made an asshole Ravenclaw rival.