The Arithmancer/Trivia

• Did Not Do the Research: Utterly averted with anything concerning mathematics. Other things... well, a few errors slipped through:
  • At least once when Douglas Adams comes up in the story, Hermione thinks of him in the past tense -- even though he was alive at the time.
  • Hermione being reassured in chapter 57 of Lady Archimedes when she learns that the Nottingham base (a former shirtwaist factory) was built after 1911. This is a fairly subtle reference to the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which prompted massive improvements to fire safety laws -- in the United States. Unfortunately, similar laws were not enacted in the United Kingdom until 1937.
  • In Annals of Arithmancy, Hermione congratulates Harry on his 18th birthday by saying, "You're officially old enough to drink in the Muggle world." However, it is actually legal in the UK for 16- and 17-year-olds to drink beer, wine or hard cider if an adult accompanies them and buys the drink.

• Fanon: Hermione notes Remus Lupin's facial scars when she first encounters him; although semicanonized by David Thewlis' makeup in the movies, the books make no note of Lupin being disfigured in any way.
  • Hermione's parents have the fan-favorite names "Dan" and "Emma'.

• Genius Bonus: When Hermione takes out a post box in the Hogsmeade owl post station, she gets box 314 -- pi to 2 places. (In fact, any number that gets associated with Hermione by outside sources -- numbers she doesn't pick for herself -- has some kind of special meaning.)

• Mythology Gag: When Harry and Ginny present their newest (as of 2004) child to the Weasley family and introduce him as "William Kingsley Potter", Hermione notes that the name "was certainly better than, oh, Albus or something."

• Shout-Out: The Arithmancer, Lady Archimedes and Annals of Arithmancy are rife with shout-outs, primarily because Hermione is One of Us and seems to make at least one per chapter. Here is a large (but in no way exhaustive) list:
  • When Hermione first enters the Great Hall for her sorting, she estimates the number of floating candles to be Over 9000.
  • Upon learning about the curse-breaking profession, she likens it to being Indiana Jones.
  • When he learns of Hermione's mathematical prowess, Colin Creevey compares her to Matilda.
  • The Founders of Hogwarts first built the castle to defend against Lord Foul.
  • It's likely that when Hermione -- a voracious reader of SF and Fantasy -- described the House Elves as Uplifted Animals, she was explicitly referencing the Uplift series by David Brin.
  • Remus Lupin quotes Douglas Adams to Hermione early in Year Three.
  • When she finally learns of their nature, Hermione describes dementors as "half-demon, half-Terminator".
  • At one point early in third year, Hermione good-naturedly compares her social circle at Hogwarts to being on the Island of Misfit Toys.
  • For Christmas during Hermione's fourth year, Dobby makes Sonya a scarf explicitly styled after that worn by the fourth Doctor.
  • Later that same year, when Hermione is trying to explain to classmates at Beauxbatons why the ancestry of blast-ended skrewts Squicks her, she compares crossing manticores (which are sapient) and firecrabs (which aren't) to crossing humans and turtles. To which one of her classmates says, "Like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?"
  • Inside of the golden eggs retrieved in the first task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament are magical Rubik's cubes, which hold the actual clues.
  • After Hermione's first experiment with thermite blows up in her face, she asks her lab partner, "Am I missing an eyebrow?" ("Both", he replies.)
  • The Third Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament is not set in a hedge maze, but in a tesseract whose interior was inspired by M. C. Escher.
  • Hermione has the occasional nightmare inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos, thanks to reading the works of H.P. Lovecraft at a very young age. "Tekeli-li!" gets heard a bit. (She even turns it into a spell.)
    • To get even with Ludo Bagman for cheating her of her World Cup winnings, she puts a copy of Lovecraft's works in his belongings, with the title page slightly modified to suggest they're all true accounts. It takes a year or so, but it works.
  • When she notes that Harry's escort to Grimmauld Place numbers nine witches and wizards, Hermione thinks of the Fellowship of the Ring.
  • When she first sees one, Hermione compares puffskeins to tribbles.
  • When the twins create a way of generating a vivid daydream as a novelty charm, Hermione's first try of a "pirate adventure" draws on her own memories to populate the daydream with people and plot elements from The Princess Bride. She compares the potential uses of the charm to a holodeck or a Super Nintendo -- the potential of which stuns the Twins.
  • At one point in fifth year, Hermione gets help in Magical Creatures from Daphne Greengrass and Tracy Davis on horselike creatures called "porlocks". This may be a reference to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous unfinished poem "Kubla Khan", the composition of which was interrupted by the infamous "Person from Porlock".
  • Ron surprises everyone when he quotes Rudyard Kipling when describing Hermione with the classic line "the female of the species is more deadly than the male".
  • Face-to-face with Dolores Umbridge at one point, Hermione cannot help but think of George Orwell quotations.
  • When dueling Seamus Finnegan his first time with the D.A., Hermione cannot resist pulling out another Princess Bride reference when she starts the duel fighting Seamus with her off-hand, and then announces "I Am Not Left-Handed" before switching to her right hand and demolishing him.
  • Hermione quotes Darth Vader, saying, "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further", when instructing Rita Skeeter to write the first Quibbler article in fifth year. She goes so far as to do the voice a little.
    • Not long afterward, when Cedric comes by her house to tell he he's quit Hogwarts to defy Umbridge, she quotes Obi-Wan in response to something he says: "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can imagine."
  • After a threat by Umbridge, Hermione sneers "And your little dog, too" as she departs.
  • She says "It's just a flesh wound" about a cut on her face after rescuing George from Umbridge.
  • When the Weasley Twins are surprised by a prank idea she gave them, she responds to their praise with, "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way."
  • During the initial discussion about where Voldemort may have hidden his horcruxes, Hermione asks what they could do if a future Dark Lord shot one into space or dropped it into the depths of the ocean.
  • She names the first carbon nanotube-and-tungsten blade she creates (a stiletto) "The Black Blade of Buckminsterfuller". (This is a double shout-out, because it also references the carbon structure called Buckminsterfullerene -- aka the "Buckyball".)
    • "Black Blade" itself is a portmanteau shout-out to oh-so-many "Black Blades of X" in both gaming and fantasy literature.
  • The Weasley's Wizard Wheezes shop in Diagon Alley looks like its real-world counterpart at the various Universal Studios theme parks -- particularly the animated figure raising its hat to reveal a rabbit.
  • Hermione's vault at Gringotts for Archimedes Jewelers is number 1337.
  • When she learns about goblin culture from Bill Weasley, she quotes The Lord of the Rings about dwarven craftsmanship (although she footnotes to herself that she recalls those particular lines from the animated film rather than the books).
  • She compares the anguilla, a variety of water elemental she learns about in sixth year, to the water tentacle from The Abyss. The three varieties of Earth elemental she learns of at the same time are all based by the author on actual creatures, both living and extinct.
    • After some thought, Hermione realizes that the "World Serpents", the Earth Elemental counterpart to the Phoenixes, are basically sandworms.
  • The sword Hermione crafts for herself is modeled (by the author) on Aragorn's blade in the Lord of the Rings films. Prompted by Nearly-Headless Nick, she names it "Snickersnack".
  • When acting as a "visiting lecturer" in Defense and trying to explain to a class ways to bypass a shield, Hermione thinks briefly of General Products hulls from Larry Niven's Known Space books.
  • After experiencing the "shoved-through-a-straw" sensation of Apparition, Hermione thinks of the "unpleasantly like being drunk" exchange from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and wonders if Douglas Adams is a wizard.
  • The Gaunt property reminds her of Mirkwood.
    • And when she must cut off Dumbledore's finger only a few minutes later, she simply asks him "The Lord of the Rings?", trusting him to know what she means. He does, and agrees.
  • Hermione unintentionally quotes Star Wars at her parents while trying to convince them to leave the country at the end of fifth year. (Her father calls her on it.)
    • There are more Star Wars quotes (as well as Star Trek quotes) at the airport terminal when the Grangers leave England.
  • Hermione uses Galadriel's "Dark Queen" speech from The Lord of the Rings^[1] plus some impressive special effects to scare the crap out of Pansy Parkinson and several other Slytherins. Also counts as a moment of Awesome.
  • She makes an almost reflexive response of "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" when a comment is made on how unexpected something is in chapter 48 of Lady Archimedes.
  • Hermione rereads The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress and wonders if she can use its Resistance structure in the Wizarding World. Later she gives a copy to Ron for inspiration -- and he starts quoting it back at her, and actually applies a version of its cell-based organizational structure to the Resistance.
  • During an early-morning date to watch Comet Hale–Bopp, Hermione quotes Carl Sagan to George.
  • The magical rope Bill takes with them on a Horcrux expedition behaves just like an elven rope from The Lord of the Rings.
  • In a moment of somewhat-inappropriate humor, Hermione prefixes telling the D.A. about the Ministry's plans for "Mudblood Relocation Camps" by saying "Many Bothans died to bring us this information".
  • When they take over an abandoned shirtwaist factory in Nottingham to use as a resistance base, Hermione insists on checking the fire doors until she learns it was built after 1911. Unfortunately, this is also a rare case of Did Not Do the Research, as noted above.
  • In-universe, the choice of "Liberation" as the name for Xeno Lovegood's mimeographed newsletter is a deliberate shout-out on Hermione's part to a French Resistance newspaper of the same name that she saw in a history book.
  • She gives a copy of The Postman to Harry for his 17th birthday because of its "Chosen One" themes.
  • "Radio Free Britain"
  • When she meets with Rita Skeeter in a grubby bar in chapter 60 of Lady Archimedes, Hermione cracks, "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."
  • When Hermione's first attempt to destroy a horcrux fails, Bill suggests it might take a goblin forge to unmake it. Hermione almost reflexively thinks, "Destroyed in the fires where it was wrought."
  • In response to Bellatrix torturing her, Hermione blasts her with Force lightning born of accidental magic. She also summons her wand, Jedi-style, and almost swings it up into a lightsaber "ready" position before she stops herself.
    • Inspired by this, she tries to train herself to summon her wand(s) wordlessly; it comes in handy during the Battle for Hogwarts.
  • "Dammit, Harry! I'm an arithmancer, not a doctor!"
  • She uses Klingon for the runic basis of the eighth layer of an eight-layer warding scheme.
  • While they are on the run in Wales, George catches a duck for dinner, after many, many rabbits. Hermione asks him if it's duck season, not wabbit season, and Harry cracks up.
  • When discussing the location of Hufflepuff's cup in Lady Archimedes chapter 74, Hermione says

"If we're lucky, it's only in a tiny castle beyond the Bridge of Death occupied by ill-tempered Frenchmen."

• • When the team to retrieve Hufflepuff's cup is assembled, she privately thinks of them as "The Fellowship of the Horcrux".
  • After getting engaged to George, Hermione enters into the Battle for Hogwarts saying "To hell with this. I'm gonna live." Unlike a lot of these, this isn't an intentional quote by Hermione as the movie won't be made for some six or seven more years, and Firefly itself is still a couple years away from production.
  • Combined with Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? for Ron, when he says, "Spiders. Why did it have to be spiders?"
  • When she dispatches broomriders with grenades to bomb the tunnels dug by the Acromantulas, Hermione says "Just like Starship Troopers." She almost immediately corrects herself, though, with "No, nothing like Starship Troopers."
  • According to an author's note, "Machicolatiooooooons!" is a shout-out to something on the Shadiversity channel at YouTube.
  • Hermione compares some of the distorted statues summoned from the upper levels of the Great Tower to Monty Python's Black Knight.
  • The homoaraneus spell, which basically creates a magical grappling line that one can swing from.
  • The barapergo spell pinches the target's carotid artery; Hermione compares it to a Vulcan nerve pinch.
  • She calls her magical nanite weapon "The Deplorable Word" (from The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis) and the Curse of Von Neumann.
  • Multiple C. S. Lewis quotes come to Hermione's mind, from both Narnia and Perelandra, the first time she kills a dementor.
  • Hermione refers to her Bag of Holding as a "Mary Poppins handbag".
  • Professor Rakepick, who appears in Annals of Arithmancy, is originally from the mobile-only Video Game, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery.
  • According to an author's note at the end of the relevant chapter, "Dragontooth", the sword Hermione makes for the Goblin King in Annals of Arithmancy, is styled after Orcrist, Thorin's sword in the Hobbit films. (By the author, not Hermione.)
  • Fred declares "Of course you know this means war!" when Hermione playfully gets him with a jinx in Annals chapter 8.
  • in chapter 9 of Annals of Arithmancy Hermione and friends use a series of portkeys to experience midnight of New Year's Eve 1999 in every time zone there's a celebration; when they hit London halfway through, Hermione says she feels like Louis Wu in Ringworld, teleporting west around the world to make his birthday last 48 hours.
  • When Hermione visits CERN in chapter 10 of Annals, she says, "Call me the Doctor" when she meets her contact. He declines good-naturedly, and she admits she can't get anyone to do so. A few minutes later, while explaining how the CERN facility collects antiprotons, her contact gets back at her by describing part of the process as "reversing the polarity".
  • When Georgina Vector becomes Hermione's apprentice, Hermione addresses her as "my young apprentice", prompting George to laugh at the reference.
  • The giant tribe which fought for Voldemort, and from which Hagrid's mother came much earlier, was Tribe Gogmagog.
  • In chapter 11 of Annals of Arithmancy, Hermione finally gets to say "I'm the Doctor" and get the reaction she wants, even if it's only from some children.
  • "Elementary, my dear Weasley," said in AA chapter 13.
  • Hermione initially introduces Georgina as "Darth Maul" at CERN, just for fun (and as a Call Back to the "young apprentice" line a few chapters earlier).
  • Dobby, thanks to coaching from Hermione, does a Gollum impression at Christmas 2002:

"Ooh, sockses. We likes them, don't we, my Precious."

• • In Chapter 14 of Annals of Arithmancy, when the Creevey brothers demonstrate their "Mementoscope" -- basically a magical video camera -- to Hermione, their first recording is of Colin Creevey in a Victorian suit reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb". This is an explicit In-Universe shout-out to Thomas Edison's first phonograph recording.
  • AA14 also ends with another In-Universe shout-out, with George Weasley explicitly quoting Firefly:

"We'll be in our bunk," he said, then added, "I officially love that show now."

• • In 2005, she finally is able to show George Doctor Who, and suggests he make toy wands that look like sonic screwdrivers.
  • Chapter 16 of Annals gets one to Mission: Impossible when Hermione is asked in 2005 to join a team to move ley lines in Antarctica and says

"I feel like there should be a 'Your mission, should you choose to accept it,' in there."

• • A puppet show run by the twins for the various Weasley godchildren and grandchildren at Christmas 2006 featured a puppet Hermione repeatedly knocking puppet!Voldemort over with incantations of "Hex to the face!" (which is also, to be honest, a Call Back to an earlier Running Gag).
  • In early 2008, Sirius makes an extended shout-out to The Dark Knight ("Why so Sirius?", "Do you wanna know how I got these tattoos?") while telling a story about the Department of Mysteries battle to Harry's boys.
  • After Ron's Spanish wife becomes pregnant, George insists that the baby, if a boy, be named Inigo Montoya Weasley. When the couple learn where the name comes from, they are less than pleased with him.
  • One of the muggle-born kids in Remus's defense class in 2010 faces a boggart and it turns into a Weeping Angel.

• What Might Have Been: In a note at the end of chapter 6 of Annals of Arithmancy, the author mentions that originally Hermione was to join Luna and Neville on a nighttime expedition and discover that nargles were, in fact, real. However, as the plot developed, there became no place where the scene fit. It's included as an extra on that chapter, and careful reading will reveal bits and pieces that were recycled into the story as written -- such as the description of nargles as inch-high green pixie-like creatures, which was recycled for use in the scene where Hermione first visits the Lovegood home in The Arithmancer.

1. ↑ "In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!"