The Sorting Hat - still there?

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 180582

"sbursztynski" <greatraven@ ...> wrote:
> 
> > Did I miss something in my reading or what? Nineteen years after
Voldemort destroyed the Sorting Hat, it's still there, sorting kids
into Houses. <snip>
> 
Lesley/wrappedinharry responded:
> My interpretation of why the sorting hat didn't burn was the same
reason Neville wasn't burnt. I think it is because the Elder wand
wasn't working properly for Voldemort. None of his spells lasted.
First of all, he couldn't kill Harry. That was partly due to his
having Harry's blood in his veins and the wand not working. He
couldn't keep the crowd quiet when he cast a ssilencing charm at them.
and the hat didn't burn, nor did Neville. 

Carol adds:

I'm pretty sure you're right. Here's the canon:

"In one swift, fluid motion, Neville broke free of the Body-Bind Curse
upon him; the flaming hat fell off him and he drew from its depths
something silver, with a glittering, rubied handle" (DH Am. ed. 733).

While JKR says nothing about the flames going out, it's pretty hard to
draw a sword from the depths of a hat that has been consumed by
flames. We don't know what happened to the Sorting Hat at that point
because it's not mentioned. Neville lops off Nagini's head, the
Centaurs charge, along with the Thestrals. In short, as the narrator
states even before Slughorn and Charlie enter with reinforcements,
"Chaos reigned" (734). The invisible Harry starts hitting DEs with
jinxes and curses and casting Shield Charms to protect Voldemort's
intended victims. Events are out of Voldemort's control.

Once Harry becomes visible again, he taunts Voldemort: "Haven't you
noticed that none of the spells you put on them are binding?" (738).
If Voldemort can no longer torture or kill anyone, thanks to Harry'
self-sacrifice (which also, apparently, greatly increases the power of
Harry's own Shield Charms), the spell he used to burn the hat probably
didn't work either, whether or not it had protective charms on it (and
being such an important object, I suspect it die).

Carol, who would have liked to see the slightly singed Sorting Hat on
the table next to Neville, but thinks that we have enough information
to draw the needed inference that it survived