Even years after the movies have ended they’re still popular enough for theories to keep coming out about them, even if some of them seem to have forced Rowling to adapt her creation around them now and again. This seems more in line with keeping the fans happy than saving the integrity of the story, which is an author’s prerogative really but is kind of hard to agree with since despite allowing a story to expand, evolve, and adapt, the truth of it kind of needs to stay grounded in what the author decided when it was first laid down. This theory explained by Kara Hadash of ScreenRant however at least makes sense even if it’s never been confirmed. It’s kind of interesting to see just where the minds of Harry Potter fans go at times and what things they choose to fixate on and why. But the theory concerning Hermione’s cat Crookshanks is one that seems to hold a lot of water since it would explain a few things. Of course a lot of it is still up to chance, but at the very least it does have the ability to connect if one happens to believe it does.
Anyway, the theory is that Crookshanks used to belong to the Potter’s. Yep, that’s it, well, at least to begin with. The orange-furred ball of fluff was a member of the Potter family up until James and Lily were killed, and then made his way to the Magical Menagerie, where he would be adopted by Hermione in her third year at Hogwarts. It’s also been established that Crookshanks was half-Kneazle, a magical creature that can detect falsehood in others. This was the reason why Crookshanks went after Scabbers, Ron’s pet rat, so often, because he could sense that Peter Pettigrew in his animagus form was someone that was not trustworthy, and it’s also been surmised that the cat realized that Peter had been present during the death of his former owners, so it could be that Crookshanks had a score to settle with Peter and wasn’t about to let up. To think that this cat was actually a big part of The Prisoner of Azkaban’s story line is kind of funny since people were focused on so many other things that you can imagine that it just kind of went by the wayside what Crookshanks might actually mean in relation to the story. It’s also easy to think that Crookshanks is a little more intelligent than people gave him credit for since he made his way to the pet shop and waited there to be adopted.
It’s also evident that he might have liked Harry since he happened to sit on the wizard’s lap as it’s been mentioned, meaning that he could remember Harry and was glad to reconnect in some way. The theories are still coming all the time when it comes to Harry Potter as a lot of people continue to go back to the movies and find things that others might have missed. Some of the theories that come up seem to be little more than goofy ideas that people are wanting to be true but don’t have a lot of basis other than some obscure reference or idea that isn’t all that easy to prove since the needed pieces of the puzzle aren’t there to find. Roma Panganiban of Mental Floss has a few that you might want to look through. Every now and then however there are those stories that seem to pan out and make a lot of sense considering that they’re substantiated by actual facts and events from the stories they belong to. The idea that Crookshanks was there in front of us the whole time, for a few movies at least, and we didn’t think much about it was kind of hard to fathom. But then once he exposed Peter Pettigrew it was pretty much done for the cat when it came to the story line since his purpose was done for the most part aside from being Hermione’s pet and familiar. From that point on it was easier to just happen to notice him from time to time and admit that he was a part of the story, but perhaps not one that warranted that kind of attention again.
There was simply so much to see in Harry Potter that it was difficult to focus on anything or anyone that wasn’t front and center at that particular moment, and of course the fact is that Crookshanks was given a couple of amusing moments in which he was the star, such as when he tore off one half of the Weasely brothers’ listening device, which was kind of funny. But apart from that he was just there, to be noticed or not. It is interesting however that it wasn’t just a regular game of cat and mouse between Crookshanks and Scabbers/Pettigrew.
