JK Rowling Finally Confirms Harry Potter Fan Theory

And it's all about Hermione's name.
Warner Bros

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:

Theory: @jk_rowling included that passage on how to pronounce Hermione's name in Goblet of Fire just to school all of us who were saying HER-MY-OWN like Viktor Krum.

— Atulaa (@atulaak) September 17, 2018

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:

Theory correct. https://t.co/Q46h56ljuU

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 18, 2018

Potterheads were excited, and promptly started chiming in with their own mispronunciations:

I used to say her-me-own :-)

— varun (@thesimplecrew) September 17, 2018

My 7 year old brain read it as Her-Me-Own!! It wasn’t until I watched a Oprah interview that I understood I was saying it wrong all along.

— Nicole Dodson (@NKDsoooCoolyaya) September 18, 2018

My Dad, to this day, still calls her “HER-MONEY” and like, she’s only been my favourite fictional character since I was TEN👏 FATHER👏SIXTEEN YEARS👏 pic.twitter.com/Wb3iRHJxwv

— Megan Flockhart (@meganflockhart) September 18, 2018

Hehe. I always read it as hermy-won 😳

— Kylie (@kyliehams) September 19, 2018

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.

... but I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who pronounces it that way. https://t.co/HxhJ5XY5HP

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 9, 2015

At least there’s one thing we’ve always known for sure: “It’s Levi-O-sa, not Levio-SA.”

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