The Sorting Hat doesn't sort /WAS The sorting hat seems to think Harry...

[happybean98]

No: HPFGUIDX 105794

David wrote:
> The Hat, as the collective mind of four pioneering educators, is 
> doing its job and trying to get Harry to broaden his mind.  It 
> focuses on Harry's rather simplistic view of Slytherin and 
> challenges it, in a way that, if he thinks about it carefully, both 
> endorses the validity of membership of Slytherin and the abilities 
> of Harry himself: "Harry, you would do well *anywhere*.  You would 
> have done well in Slytherin.  Being in Slytherin would have been 
> good for you - but I don't regret putting you in Gryffindor."

happybean98:

This is an interesting interpretation of the Sorting Hat's motives - 
to reduce predjudice between the houses by suggesting Slytherin to 
Harry. However, my theory about the sorting hat is that it's actually 
doing less than what most are led to believe. 

Most believe that the sorting hat appraises each student and then 
decides what house to put them in. As though the hat was 
an "impartial judge" similar to the Goblet of Fire. But I don't agree.

I think the sorting hat is simply "sorting" students by reading their 
thoughts and placing them where they want to be placed. Just 
a "legilimancy" charm placed on the hat. My canon support for this is 
in CoS Dumbledore says,"Yet the Sorting Hat placed you in Gryffindor. 
You know why that was. Think." "It only put me in Gryffindor," said 
Harry in a defeated voice, "because I asked not to go in 
Slytherin...." "Exactly," said Dumbledore..." CoS p. 333

So, this led me to believe that all the Sorting Hat is doing is 
reading each student's mind and placing him/her where they WANT to 
go. This is also supported by the fact that so far, we don't know of 
anyone who was sorted into a house they didn't want to be sorted in.

When the sorting hat takes a long time to decide, it's actually the 
student that can't make up their mind, not the hat. The fact that the 
hat told Harry he would do well in Slytherin tells Dumbledore that 
Harry, (not the hat) is aware that he would do well in Slytherin. But 
that he chose Gryffindor - which is more important.

The amusing irony of the Sorting Hat is that it illustrates how 
willing the students, (perhaps all of us?), are to think that a 
magical object or third party is more capable of knowing who they are 
than they are capable of knowing themselves. 

happybean98