Sorting hat and houses

[Juliet <lilpurplealdy@netscape.net>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52974

Hobbit-guy writes:
>>I don't think the founders' personalities THEMSELVES are in the 
hat; not only
is there no canon to support this IMO, >>

Yes, yes, but there's no canon to DISprove it, and that seems to go a 
long way... :)

>>I can imagine each sorting taking hours if all 4
of the founders were stuck in the hat. >>

That is a possibility.  But, as in Andrea's fic, it does make sense 
that when you are stuck inside a hat with someone for 1,000 years, 
you would get so that you don't bicker quite so much.  I think I 
remember Andrea saying that she didn't think she was explaining her 
view right, and that her Fic did a much better job, and I did think 
her fic helped a lot on explaining things.

>>I think it's much more likely that the
founders created a separate personality for the hat, possibly 
possessing
characteristics of each founder, and POSSIBLY gave it certain 
memories from
each. Thus, the hat could give us useful, founder-related info, 
without any
schitzophrenic tendancies. >>

Lol, another possibility.  Well, both ideas really don't have any 
canon support(both can be made to fit into the canon), and are both 
fun to kick around.  We'll only get some real answers in later books, 
I fear.

>>Or perhaps it just knows stuff from being around
for the last 1000 years; I'm guessing one learns things over that 
much time,
even if one is only a hat. >>

That puts into play the question of if the Hat can sort of "sense" 
things even if it doesn't have any..er, well, eyes, hands, and all of 
the above.  Then again, it could gather information during the time 
it spends poking around in the student's heads.

And I don't know about the rest of you, but I myself was a little 
shocked when the Hat actually responded to Harry in CoS("Bee in your 
bonnet, Potter?").  My first thought was "It's a *Sorting* Hat, not a 
Pick Me Up And Let's Chat Whenever You Doubt Yourself Hat."  I 
honestly didn't expect it to respond at all, just let Harry figure 
out for himself(the old self-discovery bit..).  Since then, I've 
always been a little suspicious of the old thing...

>>I agree, it'd be interesting to see the founders in action, but I 
somehow doubt
the Sorting Hat is where we'll do it. >>

Got any alternate theories on how we'll be able to see them? :)

>>(Hmm... maybe for the next Comic Relief,
Rowling should create Hogwarts: A History for us muggles...)>>

Ooh, I, personally, would *love* that.  It's definately mentioned in 
more books than QTtA or FBAWTFT, and I think would be a much more 
intersting read.

~Aldrea, about to leave for a basketball game and -not- liking it.