

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. The Sorting Hat on a shelf in the Headmaster's office 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. 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. Legend had it that the Sorting Hat was sewn roughly one thousand years ago and began as a normal hat belonging to Godric Gryffindor. The Sorting Hat, Sorting students into their respective houses at the ceremony It's got to be a pretty boring life, hasn't it, being a hat? I suppose it spends all year making up the next one." - Ron Weasley's opinion of the Sorting Hat's existence On balance, however, the Hat had made remarkably few errors of judgement over the many centuries it had been at work. 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.

The Sorting Hat was notorious for refusing to admit it had ever made a mistake in its sorting of a student. The moment of consideration varied in time period from less than a second to over five minutes (known as " hatstall"). After a time of consideration, the hat announced its choice aloud for all to hear, and the student joined the selected house. It spoke to the wearer inside of the hat with a small, quiet voice, using Legilimency to interpret their thoughts and respond to them. In order to speak and sing, a tear along the brim opened like a mouth. The hat was battered and old by 1991 it was patched, frayed, and extremely dirty. Each then took a seat on a stool and placed the hat on their heads. During the opening banquet at the beginning of each school year, the first-year students were lined up and their names read aloud alphabetically by last name.
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The famous Hogwarts Sorting Hat gave an account of its own genesis in a series of songs.
