Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has finally confirmed a fan theory about Hermione Granger. Photo / Supplied

If you were anything like me, you were using a very – er – creative pronunciation of "Hermione" while reading the first three-and-a-half Harry Potter books.

Then something changed. In the fourth instalment, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a whole passage was dedicated to pointing out that foreign student Viktor Krum was pronouncing Hermione Granger's name wrong, saying "Her-my-own", instead of the correct "Her-my-oh-knee."

It really changed the game. The first movie hadn't even been released yet (it would come a year later, in 2001) so before that very pointed excerpt, most of us had never had a reference point on how to say Hermione's name.

So, did the author — fed-up with all of us — do it on purpose?

One Twitter user put it to J.K. Rowling this week, writing: "Theory: J.K. 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."

The British author retweeted the fan's comment, confirming: "Theory correct."

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

There was a strong reaction from fans on Twitter, with some even 'fessing up to their own weird and wonderful past 'Hermione' pronunciations.

For the longest time, I used to say her-mai-knee 😂

— Priyanka Balaji (@pbalaj1) September 17, 2018

I thought it was her-me-oh-nee until I read that bit...

— Rob Lavender (@law_ender) September 18, 2018

I used to call Hermione “Herm-a-jean” because there was another character in the book I read right before that with a hard-for-10y-me-to-pronounce name called Irmagean and I was lazy.

— Nathaniel Stephens (@NathanDoesWords) September 18, 2018

Hermione teaching Viktor how to say her name was one of the biggest reveals in the book

— Heather Sypher (@heathersypher) September 17, 2018