Remember when Professor Umbridge forced Harry Potter to carve "I must not tell lies" in his hand for punishment? Does that mean anything to you, J.K. Rowling?
Well, apparently not.
Rowling shocked both the Muggle and the wizarding worlds on Wednesday by confirming that the "T" in Voldemort is silent, and that she's the only person who pronounces it right. But wait, what?
If that's the case, why wait so long to tell us? And, don't they pronounce the T in the movies? Wasn't Rowling working on those? Rowling reportedly passed a note to the screenwriter saying Dumbledore was gay. Why wouldn't she also say, "Hey, y'all have been pronouncing the bad dude's name wrong the whole time." If the T is, in fact, silent, why haven't we noticed J.K. Rowling is the only one who says the name correctly?
Actually, it turns out there's a big reason why we haven't picked up on J.K. leaving the T silent. And that's because she doesn't.
This janky video we made doesn't lie:
Bloody hell! There are literally dozens of examples of Rowling pronouncing the T in Voldemort. Even emphasizing it!
So what gives? Is this proof Rowling has just been making things up? Are all these recent "reveals" just whatever sounds good to her at the time? Is Rowling just trying to kill our childhood dreams and turn them into Horcruxes?
When asked whether the author had a reason for pronouncing the T, Rowling's camp said no, "apart from engaging with fans," and declined further comment.
Though she obviously pronounces it many times, we did come across an example where Rowling may have dropped the T from Voldemort, around 7:38 in the video below:
But it's still not clear. Does she just lower her voice at the end of the name? Maybe she mispronounced it? Or maybe Hermione just hit her with a Confundus Charm like she did to Cormac McLaggen at the Gryffindor Quidditch try-outs?
We may never know.
The whole Internet went cray when Rowling dropped the news about Voldemort. Whether she actually has been secretly dropping the T or just makes things up every once in a while, it's definintely mischief managed.