This “Harry Potter” fan theory gives Hermione a major connection to the Potter family

We could talk about Harry Potter theories for days. There’s the one that suggests the foreshadowing of Fred’s death all because of George’s ear. There’s also the one that ties the Hallows to the Christmas gifts the Dursleys send Harry through the years. And now, one clever fan has connected Hermione to the Potter family in a totally unexpected way: through her cat, Crookshanks.

You know Crookshanks: the mischievous ginger cat that Hermione buys from the Magical Menagerie in Prisoner of Azkaban. When Hermione gets him, the shop owner tells her that Crookshanks has been around for “quite some time,” and she’s happy to bring him home. So what if he’s the same cat that used to belong to Lily Potter?

Fast forward to The Deathly Hallows, when Harry reads a letter hand-written by his mother. She mentions that they had a cat — in fact, Harry almost ran it over with his toy broomstick. Harry wonders to himself if the cat survived after the Voldemort attack. Which led one fan to ask: What if Crookshanks was the Potters’ cat?

The biggest evidence in support of the theory is that when Hermione brings Crookshanks back to Hogwarts, he immediately recognizes Scabbers and Padfoot — or Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black, as Crookshanks would have known them as back in the day.

The theory might not hold up though, because technically Sirius would have recognized the ginger cat the first time they came into contact. Or, maybe he just thought it was another cat. We don’t know for sure, but we hope J.K. Rowling weighs in soon!