Harry & Hermione Siblings?

[karywick]

No: HPFGUIDX 53535

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Penny Linsenmayer 
<pennylin at s...> wrote:

Penny said:
> 
> RE: Harry and Hermione being twins -- um.........but JKR herself 
has said that Hermione's birthday is Sept 19th and that Harry's 
birthday is July 31st.  In other words, I think the canon directly 
contradicts this theory.  And, if they *were* twins, why would the 
Potters have separated them?  This sounds very far-fetched to me.

> It is definitely possible that Hermione could be born Sept 1979 and 
Harry in July 1980..........but I think that's highly unlikely 
really.  It's a push biologically speaking for one thing.  But, more 
importantly, I can't see why they would have hidden Hermione in a 
muggle home and left their son in the line of Voldemort's fire.  
Doesn't add up.

> Hagrid: "Well, you do look the image of your father, Harry, except 
for the eyes. You got yer mother's eyes.  Yer dad had brown 
eyes..........like Hermione's there."  
> 
> Not hard to drop in a relatively inocuous clue!  But, there's just 
nothing canonically to suggest such relationship, and the fact that 
children in the Potterverse seem to bear a strong resemblance to 
their parents suggests that there is no biological relationship 
between Harry and Hermione or Hermione would have a different 
appearance (or James' eye color would be suggested at the very 
least).  

Now Me:

Okay I teach biology. So I know that genetically there's no problem 
with the birth dates being close together, the hair color or texture 
or the eye colors.  As genetics reveals the human's genotype is so 
complicated; human hair color and eye color is controlled by many 
genes and they the have a type of inheritance that is both 
multifactorial and incoplete domininance.  That's why in one family 
there can be brothers and sister that don't resemble each other at 
all or either of the parents.  People have pointed to the Weasleys as 
an example of how JKR shows family inheritance but in genetics two 
parents with red hair almost always have red haired kids.  Its a 
special type of a gene that overrides other genes.  But that's enough 
of the genetics lesson. I'm a bit curious why no one has ever 
mentioned the other thought running through my head.  Maybe it's 
because no one wants to sully James reputation.

What about Harry and Hermione as half siblings?  Isn't there hints 
somewhere in canon (besides Snape - which I wouldn't give a lot of 
credence to considering the biased bitterness of the source) that 
James was not always the perfect angel?  Maybe he fathered Hermione a 
little before Harry.  We don't know how long Lily and James  were 
married before Harried was begat? (Did I use that word in correct 
tense?)  If that happened and Hermione's mother dies she still could 
have been raised a muggle by being adopted by the Grangers and all 
the previous ideas would still work.  Maybe he was married before 
too?  We know very little of his and Lily's life, don't we?  I only 
consider this because my husband's adopted and we met his birth 
mother and father last year and his half sisters.  

Hmm . . .That could add credence to those heir theories if Hermione's 
dead birth mother was a person related to Ravenclaw.  :-) Who's gotta 
go to bed and teach about Mendel's peas tomorrow- I hate peas, they 
are so boring instead of people but you've gotta start somewhere.  
Kary