Sorting Hat

[pickle_jimmy]

No: HPFGUIDX 59911

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Paul Prideaux" 
<p_prideaux at y...> wrote:
> Arthur Weasley states in CoS that you shouldn't
> trust anything that can think if you can't see
> where it keeps its brain.  Does this apply to the
> Sorting Hat also, I wonder?  It can certainly
> think, but there's little room for its brain! =)
> 
> I think there's got to be far more revealed about
> the Sorting Hat in future books.
> 
> Pryd.
> x

It's not just the Hat, there are a bunch of "non brain thinking" 
items that concern me - and Arthur is guilty himself.

1) The Flying Car - goes wild, lives in the forrest, saves Ron & 
Harry from the spiders - used to belong to the very man giving the 
warning

2) Riddles Diary
3) Mauraders Map (to a degree - smart enough to insult Snape)
4) The many paintings around Hogwarts - obvious thinkers
5) The goblet of fire (again to a degree, it has to 'decide' on the 
most worth champion)

And now for mr weasley's defence - 

"Ginny!" said Mr. Weasley, flabbergasted. "Haven't I taught you
anything. What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can
think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain?  Why 
didn't you show the diary to me, or your mother? A suspicious object 
like that, it was clearly full of Dark Magic"

Ginny is nearly killed because she disobeyed this simple piece of 
parental advice. Something that in the WW is probably like us muggles 
telling our children not to talk to strangers. We talk to strangers 
all the time, we introduce our children to strangers. The problem 
with strangers is that our children don't have enough experience to 
know when *not* to trust a stranger, or when that stranger might be 
out to cause them harm - so we blanket *all* strangers in the "not to 
talk to" category until we vet them.

This seems to be the lesson Mr Weasley is trying to teach Ginny -
 "Why didn't you show the diary to me or your mother?" - this way we 
could have decided if it were dangerous or not. This would probably 
be the same statement Mr W would make if he knew about the mauraders 
map.

Sorry if I lost anyone - in brief: are all items that "think without 
brains" dangerous (or full of Dark Magic), I would have to say no. In 
the same way that all stranger's aren't dangerous. Should young 
inexperienced wizards that stray across items that "think without 
brains" be wary, yes. In the same way our children should be wary of 
strangers. If introduced to an item like the Sorting Hat or one of 
the many Portraits by someone you trust then it (generally) should be 
ok.

Pickle Jimmy