As I said in my comment section below, I remembered a fairy tale about a girl whose brothers were turned into swans. I thought it was seven brothers, but it was six. I guess it was the girl who was the seventh child. I did remember that she had to make them shirts in order to change them back and that at some moment of danger she was done, except for one last sleeve, so she threw the shirts over them and they were transformed back, except that the youngest brother still had a swan's wing instead of one arm, because his shirt didn't have a sleeve. Here's the Grimm version: The Six Swans.
Seven children is a fairy tale theme. In Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley is the seventh child, a daughter with six older brothers. J.K. Rowling was very aware of fairy tale motifs and traditions, and I recall reading an interview or possibly a post on her website about this aspect of Ginny.
Now I just found another one, Hans Christian Andersen's version, and in his it's eleven brothers and a sister. Interesting how details change in the basic story. You wonder why. And then some other elements are unchangeable. It's brothers and a sister. The brothers become swans. And the sister must make shirts and not talk until she has done so. And her refusal to talk somehow gets her into trouble. She's so loyal to her brothers that she almost dies to save them; however, at the last moment they also save her.
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