T2B84

OH. MY. GOODNESS.

I seriously-- I can't even.

http://www.cosforums.com/showpost.php?p=2111289

I found this link while browsing SparkLife Harry Potter theories, and someone wrote a FREAKING 25 PAGE ESSAY! Like OMG. (Haha--if my classmates knew, they'd say it was something I'd do.) It's about the Sibling Theory, which states that Harry and Hermione are siblings. I read part of it.... I don't buy it. It was written before Half-Blood Prince, though, so it was published a loooong time ago and the series wasn't complete yet. I think it'd have been interesting to wait for the books to come out one by one, because the only series I've done that for is the Heroes of Olympus, and to be honest, it wasn't, like, very fateful and depending on the last book. I think J.K. Rowling does a great job of the ending, but the ending to Blood of Olympus seemed really rushed, for a series that long. Harry Potter also did a really great job of keeping the suspense up and the plot new, whereas Heroes of Olympus started to get a bit... it's kind of hard to describe... it was kind of like, yes, yes, we know there's going to be a big war with Gaea at the end, but we don't really know anything about it. We don't know how this series is leading up to it, we don't see how any of this is crucial to the ending. The entire series totalled to 2725 pages, and the final battle was a whopping... 70 pages. I think it got rushed a bit, and it wasn't as much as fans could have hoped to get. It was still a good ending though.

I love how I started talking about a Harry Potter theory and somehow got to the ending of Percy Jackson.

Anyways....

I personally think Harry Potter offers more character development, and it allows us to see more into the characters, especially Harry and the way he perceives the world. I think there's more action in Percy Jackson, but eventually the plot gets a bit old. I think that's why Harry Potter is generally acclaimed as a classic around the world--it goes deeper than the surface.

So, back to the Sibling Theory.

The reason I don't really believe it is because the entire thing is like one big either-or fallacy. The either-or fallacy basically states that if A isn't true, then B must be true. They ignore all other possibilities. The entire essay was pretty much based on the fact that Hermione does this, so she must  be Harry's sister, because otherwise she wouldn't do this. Unfortunately, they failed to address the other dozens of possibilities Hermione could have done this!

For example: 

When reading the books, we have the feeling that Harry and Hermione have a special relation. They have a special thing - something unique, beyond friendship - that is not romantic. This is more visible on Hermione’s side. Her behaviour at the beginning of PS (before Harry and her become friends) is very interesting (see below). Through the entire series, her behaviour with Harry is very “sister-like”.
Harry and Hermione also have a way of guessing each other’s thoughts : this happens quite often, they know at first glance what the other has in mind while Ron is completely lost. Sometimes, they also finish each other’s sentences (not unlike Fred and George).

I think it's perfectly natural for someone to be friendly to someone else. You don't have to have a romantic relationship to be nice, and you don't have to be relatives to be nice. This clue doesn't really consider the fact that just because they're nice and not in a romantic way, doesn't mean that they have to be relatives. If that was the way the world worked, well... I'd be very sad indeed.

Another example:

- Hermione’s psychology : why is Hermione a “know-it-all” ? Why is it so important for her to be the best student in school ? There is a strange lack of background information concerning Hermione : JKR usually tells us about such things. For instance, we know Ron is a jealous character because of his childhood in the shadow of his five brothers, and also because of his family’s lack of money. We know Voldemort hates Muggles because of his father.
The Sibling Theory provides an answer : if Hermione knows that Harry is her brother, she wants to keep up with him ! Harry is “the boy who lived”, he is famous in the entire world ; so, Hermione must prove that she can do as well as he can do, or even better. At least, in class, she can answer questions he can’t !
The other possible answer would be : Hermione must prove she is the best because she is Muggle-born. But this doesn’t work : she was already a “know-it-all” when she first arrived at Hogwarts. If she had been knowing about the wizarding world for a few weeks only, this couldn’t have affected her psychology so quickly.

I try my hardest in school. I do my best. Do I secretly have a lost brother who doesn't know I exist? No. The possibility of other things, in this case simple motivation, is completely ignored!

- Chapter 17 :
“Hope you have – er – a good holiday,” said Hermione, looking uncertainly after Uncle Vernon, shocked that anyone could be so unpleasant.
And shocked that her uncle could be so unpleasant !

It doesn't have to be her uncle. I'd be pretty shocked if a compete stranger was that unpleasant. It's a natural human instinct. And yet, we jump straight to the conclusion that it's her uncle despite the numerous other possibilities of Hermione's surprise.

There's a lot more to the essay, but these three examples pretty much demonstrate the crux of what (I think) makes the essay less credible than it could be. If I have time, I'll finish reading the rest of the essay, but I've gotten through a little over half and I have to go do other things now (like legit things that I have to do XP).