Sorting Hat

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**The Sorting Hat** was a sentient magical hat at Hogwarts that determined which of the four school Houses each new student belonged most to. These four Houses were Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. The Sorting Hat originally belonged to Godric Gryffindor, one of the four founders of Hogwarts. It normally stayed in the Headmaster's office until it was needed.

## Overview

The famous Hogwarts Sorting Hat gave an account of its own genesis in a series of songs. During the opening banquet at the beginning of each school year, the first-year students were lined up and their names read aloud alphabetically. Each then took a seat on a stool and placed the hat on their heads.

The hat was battered and old by 1991; it was patched, frayed, and extremely dirty. In order to speak and sing, a tear along the brim opened like a mouth. It spoke to the wearer inside of the hat with a small, quiet voice, using Legilimency to interpret their thoughts and respond to them. After a time of consideration, the hat announced its choice aloud for all to hear, and the student joined the selected house. The moment of consideration varied in time period from less than a second to over five minutes (known as "hatstall").

The Sorting Hat was notorious for refusing to admit it had ever made a mistake in its sorting of a student. On those occasions when Slytherins behaved altruistically or selflessly, when Ravenclaws flunked all their exams, when Hufflepuffs proved lazy yet academically gifted, and when Gryffindors exhibited cowardice, the Hat steadfastly backed its original decision. On balance, however, the Hat had made remarkably few errors of judgement over the many centuries it had been at work.

## History

*Main Article: Sorting Ceremony*
Legend had it that the Sorting Hat was sewn roughly one thousand years ago and began as a normal hat belonging to Godric Gryffindor. When Gryffindor, along with Salazar Slytherin, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Helga Hufflepuff, wondered how they would continue to sort the students when the four were dead, Gryffindor pulled his hat from his head and, along with the other founders, enchanted it with their combined intelligence. All four founders wanted to ensure that students would be sorted into their eponymous houses, which would be selected according to each founder's particular preferences in students.

The Sorting Hat, now animated, was able to sort and divide the students into the Hogwarts Houses, and continued to do so for a millennium, passed down to each new Headmaster or Headmistress of the school. When not in use, it is placed on a shelf in the current Headmaster's or Headmistress's office.

The hat continued to carry out its duty each September at the beginning of the start-of-term feast, when it was placed on a three-legged (sometimes four-legged) stool at the front of the Great Hall.

In 1858, Angus Buchanan, an eleven-year old Scottish Squib managed to sneak into the feast with the help of his wizard brother and put the Sorting Hat on his head. The Sorting Hat then kindly said he was a good-hearted chap, but no wizard.

Godric Gryffindor's Sword, one of the founder's only other known relics, could be magically pulled out of the hat by any Gryffindor considered worthy, no matter how secure the sword's location. It was unknown why this was possible, but was linked to loyalty of the highest regard in relation to Hogwarts. There were two known instances of this happening within 1992 to 1997, once when Harry Potter was in the Chamber of Secrets, and once when Neville Longbottom refused to join Lord Voldemort during the Battle of Hogwarts.