Everyone looked at each other silently, Neville turning slightly red and Hermione studying her notes, until Luna returned with the pie. "It's very quiet in here," she remarked nonchalantly as she sliced it.

Hermione looked up from her paper. "So I got Erudite. Luna got Candor, Harry, Ron, and Parvati got Dauntless, Padma and Lily got Amity. I don't know what Neville got, I'm still trying to figure that out."

There was dead silence before everyone started asking at the same time how Hermione had known their results.

"All right, quiet, I'll explain!" Hermione shouted, holding up her hands. When the clamor died down, she looked at her notes and cleared her throat. "The simulation is a logical process of elimination."

"In English," Ron suggested.

Hermione ignored him. "Your choices are supposed to rule out factions. So Amity was out when I chose the knife, Dauntless when I didn't kill the dog, Abnegation when I didn't defend the girl, and Candor when I lied on the bus. The library was just a confirmation." There were nods around the table as everyone connected the dots in their own simulations.

"What about Neville?" Luna asked after a second.

Neville shook his head. "The woman in charge didn't say anything, just that it was over and I could go. She didn't look very happy about it. I asked her what the result was and she said she didn't know and to leave. So I did."

Hermione read over the last and longest section of her notes. "So you chose neither the knife nor the cheese, which rules out nothing. You didn't think about the situation, just acted on instinct, which rules out Erudite. Then you defended the girl, which suggests Abnegation. You lied on the bus, which rules out Candor, but then continued to lie when the man said the truth would save him, which takes Abnegation back out. How, exactly, did you break up the fight?"

"I got in between them, but the attacking one just pushed me away," Neville replied. "I tried talking to him but he wouldn't listen. Then I fought him."

"All right." Hermione wrote that down. "So you tried to break up the fight peacefully, suggesting Amity, but ended up fighting the other man, suggesting Dauntless. You then stayed to help the injured man, which is again Amity. Then you threw Luna off the train, which brings Abnegation back in, but then jumped without even seeing the roof, which is Dauntless again. So I'd say you got Abnegation, Amity, and Dauntless."

Lily raised her hand. "How can he have gotten three results? Isn't that the point of the test, to figure out which faction you fit into?"

"Evidently," said Hermione, "the test didn't work on Neville. Also, I don't think I was supposed to know how the test worked. I just wrote everything down and figured out where the patterns were."

"So what is everyone going to choose, if you know?" Harry interrupted. "Sorry, Hermione, but none of us is up to trying to figure out how you figured out how the test worked."

"None of us are," Hermione corrected.

"All right," Harry sighed. "I'm choosing Dauntless."

"Debatable," Ron added. "Mum and Dad dropped out of Dauntless initiation, but on the other hand all my brothers but Percy were Dauntless and they all made it. I'll probably choose Dauntless, I'm just not quite sure yet."

"Same here," said Parvati. "I'd like to choose Dauntless, but I don't want to leave Padma. I also don't want her to come to Dauntless with me, because I know she could only be a doctor in Amity."

"You know you need to stop taking me into account in your choices," Padma scolded. "If I choose what I want, you have to choose what you want. Go on to Dauntless. We'll stay in contact. And we can visit each other once initiation is over. We have talked about this so many times you should have stopped second-guessing yourself a long time ago." This commanding, scolding tone coming from gentle Padma made everyone smile. Sometimes even the Patils forgot that she was the older twin since Parvati was the natural leader.

Parvati laughed and ruffled Padma's hair, which she straightened with a resigned expression. "Okay, little sister, you got me. I'll go to Dauntless. But you have to go to Amity."

"I am. And Lily's going to Amity too, right?" Lily nodded, and Padma continued, "Also, you are my little sister. Everyone knows I'm older."

"Yes, but I'm taller," Parvati shot back. "So I'm your big little sister and you're my little big sister."

"That isn't how it works. But let's get back on topic," Padma suggested. "Hermione, what are you choosing?"

"Don't be shocked," Hermione cautioned, looking specifically at Ron, "but Erudite."

"No one is shocked," Ron informed her. "No one at all, Hermione."

Hermione looked insulted. "Just what are you implying, Ronald?"

Ron held up his hands in surrender. "I'm not implying anything! You're just so, y'know, bookish."

Hermione was apparently satisfied by this explanation. "All right then. Luna and Neville?"

Both the addressed persons spoke at the same time, stopped, and waited for the other to go first. Finally, Luna took the initiative. "I'm choosing Candor."

"I don't know," said Neville. "I didn't get a result, exactly. I need time to think."

"Don't worry about your results," Luna advised. "Ignore the test and just decide where you yourself think you should be."

Neville nodded. "All right, I will."

"Now," Ron put in, "I move we eat pie."

Luna glanced at the pie, which she had finished slicing and then forgotten about, and laughed. "Of course. Plates, please, before the Nargles decide we're taking too long and they want the pie!"

Xenophilius's head popped around the door frame. "Did you say Nargles, Luna?"

"I'm sorry, Daddy, I haven't seen one." Luna put a slice of pie on one of the smaller plates Neville handed her and got up to give it to him. "Here, you need something to eat. I thought you were going to come in and get your dinner."

"I was, but I thought I saw a Tith-tithering Nockle Dramson outside my study window." He took a bite and nodded appreciatively. "Good pie, Luna. In any case, I had to stay by the window in case it came back. But it didn't."

"Oh." Luna looked disappointed for a second. "Oh well, I'm sure it'll come back sometime," she added, brightening again. "They can't possibly stay invisible forever."

Xenophilius grinned over his shoulder as he headed back to his study. "That's right. Just have to be patient."

As soon as he was gone, everyone's eyes went to Luna. "What was that about?" Ron demanded.

"A Tith-tithering Nockle Dramson," Luna explained patiently, "has the head and neck of a giraffe, the body and tail of a fish, and the legs of a cheetah, which is probably why Daddy wasn't sure if he saw it or not- they're very fast. They're also amphibious and happen to have a cold-blooded body and warm-blooded legs and head. In other words, they're quite the hybrid creature, and we would love to study one."

Hermione shook her head. "Of course you would."

"Why wouldn't they?" Neville countered, sending the best glare he could manage at her. "They sound interesting."

"Because they don't exist, Neville."

"How do you know?"

"Can you prove they do?" Hermione shot back. Neville had no answer to this.

"Can you prove they don't?" Luna supplied. Hermione had no answer to this.

Harry cleared his throat. "Let's forget Titherson-whatever-you-call-it-"

"Tith-tithering Nockle Dramson," Luna corrected.

"Whatever. Forget that for now. Most of us aren't scientists."

"Except for me and Luna and Hermione," Padma pointed out. "So that's almost half."

"Luna and Hermione and me," said Hermione in a tone of patient exasperation.

"Let's forget both those and everything to do with factions until tomorrow," Parvati suggested. "We've had quite enough serious talk for one evening."

"One more thing," Hermione put in. "Let's meet up in Amity on visiting day. Agreed?" Everyone nodded. "All right, motion passed."

Parvati rolled her eyes, though her smile ruined her attempt to look annoyed. "Now we do what we always do after our meetings and play Spoons." She gave Hermione a pointed look. "All-in-favor-forget-voting-we-don't-need-it-motion-passed."

"Excuse me," Hermione interjected, "but you can't pass a motion no one's voted on."

"No one cares, Hermione!" declared Harry, Ron, and Parvati.

"Oh, honestly!" Hermione rolled her eyes. "You three are impossible. I'll get the spoons."