This is precisely why The Arithmancer and the sequel, Lady Archimedes, have come to be my absolute favorite fanfiction. Hermione is a genius head-and-shoulders above the vast majority of the other characters, but she isn’t a hateful little shit about it. Ron’s back, and so is Harry. Dumbledore is just as flawed as in canon, and although Hermione challenges him, they come to be respectful equals. Hermione is rational without being rigid and compassionate without nursing a god complex. Her greatest intellectual achievements stem from her curiosity and creativity, and even then she gets a lot of help from her friends because unlike HPMOR!Harry, Arithmancer!Hermione doesn’t pretend to be a one-person intellectual juggernaut who doesn’t need help or support from anyone. The fanfiction is written by someone who is clearly a fan of Harry Potter who loves the source material in a way that Yudkowsky never was when he wrote HPMOR. I could keep going, but you get the point.
However, I’m still impressed by the reconceptualization of dementors as personified Death, followed by the realization of the full potential of the patronus charm. It is a creative masterstroke that is utterly overshadowed by the unlikeability of the boy genius who casts the poorly named “patronus 2.0″. A shame, really.
Let me elaborate some major themes that The Arithmancer does right: - Hermione writes research papers and publishes them in magical research journals! She often collaborates with other magical experts (usually Hogwarts professors) when she ventures outside of her area of expertise in Arithmancy, even if she’s so brilliant that she’s given first authorship in the papers anyway. She operates as the scientist that
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres pretended he was in his own story. Also, Hermione conducts research, but doesn’t always publish a paper about subjects that would be too dangerous for Voldemort to get his hands on. - Hermione spends a lot of time building up the people around her, and they repay her for her kindness and love. This aspect cannot be overstated. For as brilliant and talented as Hermione is, she would never have gotten anywhere in the story without her friends, family, mentors, and allies. She even learns multiple times in different ways to lean on other people for support, to great benefit she learns the lesson.
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