JK Rowling has finally confirmed a ‘Harry Potter’ fan theory regarding the pronunciation of Hermione’s name, and childhood readers are loving it.
The theory surrounds a drawn out passage in ‘The Goblet of Fire’, in which Hermione explains to fellow student Viktor Krum how her name is pronounced:
Fans have long speculated that the interaction was there to teach us how to say her name ourselves. Let’s be honest, some of us were saying “Her-mee-own” and other painful variants way into the fourth instalment. This was also before the films came out and we finally got to hear the certified pronunciation out-loud after all.
In the book, Rowling made it explicit, writing: “‘Her – my – oh – nee,’ she said, slowly and clearly.”
Keen to engage with fans as always, Rowling took to Twitter to give us our answer:
Potterheads were excited, and promptly started chiming in with their own mispronunciations:
We’re glad she set us straight in the kindest way possible.
The news comes in light of the 2015 revelation that it’s “Volde-morrr” not “Volde-mort”, which swiftly disappeared into the ether as a piece of trivia too much for any of us to take on board.
At least there’s one thing we’ve always known for sure: “It’s Levi-O-sa, not Levio-SA.”