"And I can't figure this thing out!" Complained an exhausted Hermione to her two friends in the common room. "The arithmancy project is due tomorrow and I can't figure out the correct process to make my project work! I'm so close I can taste it, but the ridiculous little object won't work!" She kicked at a sofa in frustration, and grimaced as she hit the wooden leg.
Ron looked over her shoulder at the paper which held the arthimantic processes she had been so angry about. "Oh that's easy," he mentioned. "You just confused Tsedeq and Gakiiz."
Hermione glanced at him with a long suffering look on her face. "Really, Ron? I think I-" and then she paused. "Wait… that might work?" She quickly rearranged her calculations, and the small box she had been holding in her hand opened up and a clicking was heard from inside. "Ron!" she exclaimed. "How did you know?"
"What?" Ron looked up, and glanced at a confused but amused Harry Potter before turning to Hermione. "It's just math, 'Mione. It's all about some bloody logical process having to occur, which opens other options up and allows for you to set certain things to happen. It's basically chess but with more steps and a different form of creativity, really."
"But how did you-"
"Hermione, I took it over the summer. It's really easy. It's all about being creative and not following rules given to you, rather you establish your own with what's given."
"But-"
"Hermione, you didn't think I was just good at chess, did you?"
"Er-"
Ron shook his head. "Bloody ego you got there, 'Mione. Might want to get that checked." He gave her a wink to show he wasn't actually angry. "Even idiots have things they're good at, you know."