The Hat's Revelation

When they arrived on the other side of the hall, they stopped in front of a stool. On top was a traditional hat, although it looked far older than his own and somewhat rackety. All new students looked at the hat in confusion, that is until it moved and started to sing.

Harry didn't think the song wasn't that bad. It felt more like a poem than anything that could be danced to. The lyrics just explained the characteristics of every house, and that you only had to put him on to be sorted. The boy saw his future classmates physically sigh in relief and Blaise gave him a glare for not telling him about how they were sorted before.

However, Harry didn't care, he was too preoccupied with staring at the sorting hat. It definitely didn't deserve the deafening round of applause. For the first time, Harry wondered when the Hat started to sing before every sorting. It was enchanted to sort the students, it definitely wasn't designed to sing, or its voice would have been far better. So, that means that one day, they decided to sing before sorting the students and it became a tradition.

The main question would be if the hat is sentient or not. Magic seemed to bridge the gap between objects and life. The moving paintings surrounding Hogwarts were proof of that. However, where was the line? Can the sorting hat be labelled as a living being or is it simply an enchantment that is mimicking a living being?

Perhaps this question was the core of why wizards disregarded magical species so readily. They were creatures born of magic, and so, they treated them like they would a very heavily enchanted object. It was just a theory, but it would explain why wizards look down on magical creatures no matter how powerful they may be.

Still, Harry had no idea if his idea had any merit. It was just based on observation, nothing concrete. He'll need to look it up in the library later on. Oh, he was going to be busy for a while.

He was so long in thought that he hadn't even noticed that a girl had been called to sit on the hat, which suddenly bellowed out, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

Realizing that the sorting had started, Harry wondered how the hat even worked. It didn't read minds, that's for sure. At least, it didn't look at memories. Old families are very protective of their secrets and have them stored in a single artefact that every wizard in Britain put on their head when they were eleven, was a huge privacy breach.

People far more knowledgeable than him probably theorized about how the hat worked, and if it came out that it could ferret out secrets, the public outrage would be gigantic, and the hat would find itself burnt or destroyed in a tragic 'accident'.

It had to be a test of character, like a personality test with automatic answers that tells the hat in which house students would fit the most. But the hat could also take into consideration the choice of the students, whether they preferred one house over another, that's not mentioning hat stalls – when the hat stays on top of someone's head for over a minute.

Perhaps the hat could read surface thoughts, or at least projected thoughts, which students with a particular preference would be yelling in their minds. Maybe hat stalls are just what happens when someone is compatible with two or more houses, and the hat needs to probe further by physically asking questions, to see their preference.

But the main question was how the hat could differentiate between the values of each house when they are so connected. Ambition is useless without the courage to pursue it, the wits to know how to realize it, and the hard work to make it a reality. The core values of each house were deeply connected, too much of one or another, and could easily ruin a life. A coward with ambition will not amount to much.

While the young Potter was pondering about the workings of the sorting hat, many students were starting to get sorted. He didn't even notice their names; he would have plenty of time to remember them, but it was almost impossible to regain a proper train of thought.

However, even Harry paid attention when Neville Longbottom's name was called up. The entire hall started murmuring but shut up when the boy who lived walked up. As for the boy himself, he walked towards the hat with swagger in his step, which was very misplaced for a child his age. Well, the boy acted superior to anyone else because of that scar, and well, it made sense. Oh, he was a very foolish notion to entertain, but Harry knew that any kid that was raised as a national hero for something he didn't even remember would develop a large ego.

You tended to see it in spoilt rich kids in muggle schools. Longbottom will need to learn to curb it as he grows up. The world can be very unforgiving for people that think they are owed something. That's not even mentioning the Voldemort bullet that he'll need to dodge. Not for the first time, Harry thanked the gods that the Dark Lord hadn't marked him as his enemy.

Oh, the war was coming, and Harry will need to deal with it, but it wasn't happening for a few years, and it was more than enough to have a solid plan and enough preparation to execute it.

Back to Longbottom, the moment the hat even glanced at the boy's head, it yelled out, "GRYFFINDOR!"

The Gryffindor table erupted in cheer, it was by far the loudest one yet, and the house of lions started celebrating getting the boy who lived in their house as he arrogantly walked to the table. Harry wished the boy the best of luck dealing with the crap that comes with being the Chosen One; he will need it.

After a few more students were sorted, it was finally Harry's turn, "Potter, Harry!"

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