The Sorting Hat's Song (WASsorting hat death?/house relics(wasRe:Foreshadowing..

[Juliet <chetah27@hotmail.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52905

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "nobodysrib <nobodysrib at y...>" 
<nobodysrib at y...> wrote:

>>Also, are there any hints about relics entrusted to Hogwarts by 
other House founders? If the SH were killed, could it be replaced by, 
say, Slytherin's old hat?>>


As far as I can remember, there aren't any other relics, unless you 
want to count the Chamber of Secrets as being a Relic of Slytherin 
house(I haven't pursued the books on this subject, so I could very 
well be wrong).

And, I don't think you could take any of the old Founder's hats and, 
voila! It's the new Sorting Hat.  Remember the Sorting Hat's song 
from GoF(important thing is *'d off):

A thousand years or more ago, 
When I was newly sewn,
There lived four wizards of renown,
Whose names are still well known:
Bold Gryffindor, from wild moor,
Fair Revenclaw, from glen,
Sweet Hufflepuff, from valley broad,
Shrewd Slytherin, from fen.
They shared a wish, a hope, a dream,
They hatched a daring plan
To educate young sorcerers
Thus Hogwarts School began.
Now each of these four founders
Formed their own house, for each
Did value different virtues
In the ones they had to teach.
By Gruffindor, the bravest were
Prized far beyond the rest;
For Ravenclaw, the cleverest
Would always be the best;
For Hufflepuff, hard workers were
Most worthy of admission;
And power-hungry Slyterhin
Loved those of great ambition.
While still alive they did divide
Their favourites from the throng,
Yet how to pick the worhty ones
When they were dead and gone?
'Twas Gryffindor who found the way,
He whipped me off his head
****The founders put some brains in me
So I could choose instead!****
Now slip me snug about your ears,
I've never yet been wrong,
I'll have a look inside your mind
And tell you where you belong!

(GoF, American/First Edition, Hardcover, pg. 177)

Obviously, they had to have put some spells on the Hat, so it would 
know what to do(some sort of very permanent Transfiguration spell..?  
Hmm...that leads to some questions).  So, if the Sorting Hat were 
to "die", so to speak, I honestly can't fathom what they'd do.  They 
couldn't just take some other Founder's hat, it wouldn't have the 
spells and such that the Sorting Hat has.

Looking at that song closer...I never really noticed before that the 
Sorting Hat was *Gryffindor's* Hat.  Also, Gryffindor was the one 
that solved the problem as to how to sort the students once the 
Founders are gone(you'd think it would have made more sense for the 
*clever* one, Ravenclaw, to have solved that puzzle).  Hogwarts is 
really a very Gryffindor-biased place, when you look at it.


~Aldrea, who wants to hear the story behind why the Founders 
thought "Hogwarts" was such a great name for a school... :)