Hermione Granger and the Boy Who Lived/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Bilingual Bonus: "Malenfant" is French for "bad child" or, as Hermione mentally translates it when she first meets Drake, "bad baby". The Wellesleys much later refer to the Malenfant family as "Mal-enfant" (bad child), "Mal-père" (bad father) and "Mal-maman" (bad mother).
  • Continuity Nod: To The Secret Return of Alex Mack:
    • In a discussion of world-class hackers, Willow Rosenberg's early hacker handle, S4L1x680, gets mentioned. Much later, Hermione is explicitly (and favorably) compared to S4L1x680.
    • In sixth year, we find out that Luna believes there are ape-men in deepest Africa who should be recruited to fight Lord Deathstrike's wolf-men and lizard-men. There are, the result of some really horrific Nazi experimentation, and Terawatt encountered them a few years later.
  • Genius Bonus: Many of the given names of older members of the Black Family require you to be cognizant of British and American celebrities from the 1970s or earlier in order for the Theme Naming to make sense.
  • Mythology Gag: When "a school in Scotland" is first brought up in a roundabout way, Hermione wants to know that it's not "an asylum or prison or something with a name like 'St. Brutus' Secure School for Incorrigible Girls'."
    • Hermione in third year saying, "I'm not a wizard!"
    • In chapter 140 there is an off-hand joke about Arthur Wellesley's car acting as though it had a mind of its own.
    • Hermione's pixie cut, which she gets in the same chapter, echoes Emma Watson's own post-Harry Potter haircut.
    • Combined with an Actor Allusion when Hermione reminds Ron of an appointment at "nine ack emma" ("ack emma" being British slang for "A.M."). He replies, "Not interested in Emma. I like Hermione."
  • Shout-Out:
    • To Sherlock Holmes and the "Dr. Gideon Fell" mysteries by John Dickson Carr, when Hermione describes how incompetent the policeman investigating the disappearance of her friend was -- she compares him to the bumblers who are routinely out-thought by these fictional detectives.
    • There's a fairly subtle one to Hogan's Heroes -- a British version of the FBI's "Hogan's Alley" training facility is called "Newkirk's Alley".
    • One of the third floor defenses at the end of first year are Daleks. This discovery is immediately followed up with a Blackadder reference: "I have a plan." "Is it a cunning plan?"
    • IT Professor Burbage makes a reference to the famous Iron Man "in a cave with a box of scraps" meme. Since the scene takes place in late 1992, this is further evidence that the Teraverse's version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe launched some fifteen years or more earlier than it did in our timeline.
    • Similarly, when Fred and George call Hermione both "Light Yagami" and "L" early in her second year, it seems to indicate that Death Note appeared in some form at least a decade earlier than it did in our timeline.
    • Another time during second year, Fred and George compare her to both Jim Phelps and Ethan Hunt. Again we have something of an anachronism, as the film version of Mission: Impossible did not premiere until 1996, four years later.
    • Fred and George, upon learning what access Hermione has to the dorm hand scanner, sing, "She's a handscan wizard, there's got to be a twist..."
    • Ron suggests that Harry say, "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die" when they finally face Seorus Black.
    • Fred and George identify a kidnapper who committed suicide as "an ex-parrot".
      • In general you can count on the Wellesleys making Python references whenever appropriate (or not).
    • The tasks of the Inter-School Tournament are deliberately styled around James Bond movies.
    • When Viktor learns how quickly Hermione decoded the clue for the second task of the IST, he says

"As the Americans say, we are not worthy."

    • Hermione and Ron codename Crabbe and Goill "Thing One" and "Thing Two", and Malenfant "The Cat" one Saturday when they're following them.
    • To the Firesign Theater, when they decide to codename "Team Potter" -- which is made of more people than just the Golden Trio -- as "Bridge Night". The twins quote the album Don't Touch That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers:

"Isn't that bridge built yet?"

"I'm going to kill him. I'm thinking... a spoon. It's dull, it'll hurt more."

    • Hermione's boss in MI5 has her call him "Mr. Phelps" rather than tell her his real name.
    • During a hacking run, Hermione discovers that someone at Borgin and Burke's uses the The Spice Girls for his passwords.
    • When going to explore a possibly-trapped room, Ron reassures Hermione "I'll bring my ten-foot pole along." She vaguely IDs it as the Dungeons & Dragons reference it is.
    • The reinforcements who show up for the expected attack on Harworts at the end of year six use codenames from the Narnia books. Charlie's girlfriend is not happy when she finds out she's the White Witch.
    • After the attack on Harworts, when Hermione is directing the Ravens to help with the aftermath, one shouts out, "Is it safe yet?"
    • When Hermione re-meets Detective Inspector Merrill (the police officer who discovered her responsibility for Oliver Herstein's gaslighting and suicide) she realizes that nothing she can say will convince him that she's not "Hannibal Lecter in a dress."
    • Seventh-year Hermione compares her first-year social skills to Mr. Bean.
    • During the summer between sixth and seventh year, Alicia Spinnet describes the Wellesley Twins by quoting Kyle Reese from The Terminator:

"They can't be bargained with. They can't be reasoned with. They don't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, ever..."

  • Shown Their Work: As is usual for a Diane Castle fic, if you see anything explored in any detail "on-screen", such as an effective way to write term papers, or the chemistry of nerve gases, or the proper usage of guns, or an advanced math assignment, it will be accurate -- although sometimes lacking a few details critical to actually reproducing some of the more harmful (or legally dubious) results.
    • One such detail: While taking apart a "secure" piece of of electronics, Hermione discovers that some of the screws involved have unusual star-shaped slots (for which, fortunately, she has drivers). These are Torx screws, commonly found in computer systems (among other places) and often used wherever tamper-resistance is important -- but almost unknown outside of those applications.
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