A/N: Written for the Philosopher's Stone Competition.
Assignment: The Sorting Hat: Write about a character's sorting or about the Sorting Hat.
The Secret
"...And now the Sorting Hat is here
and you all know the score:
I sort you into Houses
because that is what I'm for.
But this year I'll go further,
listen closely to my song:
though condemned I am to split you
still I worry that it's wrong,
though I must fulfill my duty
and must quarter every year
still I wonder whether sorting
may not bring the end I fear.
Oh, know the perils, read the signs,
the warning history shows,
for our Hogwarts is in danger
from external, deadly foes
and we must unite inside her
or we'll crumble from within
I have told you, I have warned you...
let the Sorting now begin."
"That sounds ominous," said Ron into the silence left by the Sorting Hat's unusual closing lines. Several Gryffindors nodded in agreement.
Hermione looked pensive, "You know, I read in Hogwarts, A History," she ignored the groans, "That the Sorting Hat gives out warnings like that from time to time. It pays much better attention to current events than we might think!" Harry looked at Hermione with a funny look on his face. "What? Is there something on my face?" They joined in the huge cheer as the first student was Sorted into Gryffindor.
Harry shook his head. "No, no, I was just thinking..."
"Seemed to cost you an awful lot of effort, mate!" Harry punched Seamus in the arm. His exclamation of pain was drowned out by the roar from the neighbouring Hufflepuffs.
"Hermione, you read Hogwarts, A History before you came to Hogwarts, right?" At her nod, he continued, "Then how come you didn't know about the Sorting Hat? You just said it was in there."
Hermione looked stunned, "You're right, Harry! I don't know why I didn't know about the Sorting Hat. Maybe I accidentally skipped that chapter... Though I was especially looking for something to help me with the sorting. That's really weird!" They cheered along with the rest of the Gryffindors.
Ron looked around, "Did any of us know how the sorting was going to be done?" he asked. "Fred just told me a rubbish story about battling trolls and whatnot, but those twins are always trying to trick me."
"And you always fall for it, too!" George called over the cheers coming from Ravenclaw. "But that time we really were trying to tell you about the Hat, I think. Then we sort of forgot and told you a different story instead!"
"You think there is some kind of spell over everyone?" Dean asked, "So we can't tell anyone who doesn't already know, or something?"
Hermione nodded, "If it is, it must be a really big one, if it affected Hogwarts, A History like it did. I was probably able to read the chapter on the Sorting Hat right after the sorting. That's a really big piece of magic on its own." She paused for another cheer, this time for a new Slytherin boy. "And to include nobody being able to tell it, as well."
Harry looked around, with a serious look on his face, "A bigger question would be, why all the secrecy? And why doesn't Hogwarts, A History mention that it is a Secret?" Everybody could hear the capital S.
"Well, that second one is tied in with the Secret, right?"Neville spoke up, he blushed as everyone turned to him. "You wouldn't anyone to know it was a Secret, or they might try to break it." Ron nodded in understanding.
"Of course, it's probably protected with the Secret-Keeper spell," he ignored Hermione's quiet "Fidelius Charm" and went on. "The only question that remains, is why is the Sorting of all things, such a big secret?"
Dean nodded, "And who the Secret-Keeper is, what do you reckon it's The Sorting Hat, itself?"
"Must be, since The Hat is the first to tell us how the Sorting works." A few more cheers had gone up (two Gryffindors, three Slytherins, and Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw got four more, each) but the group hadn't joined in anymore.
Seamus answered Ron's question, "Maybe it's so we won't be able to influence the Hat's decision. If we know what we're up against, we might be able to mentally prepare to make us go a certain way. This way our minds are kept pure."Everyone nodded. That sounded plausible.
Hermione and Harry weren't quite convinced, but a second later they were distracted by the delicious start of term feast that had arrived.
Though they might remember sooner or later, and if it weren't for that awful speech after dinner, it might have been sooner, for a little while longer at least, the real reason behind the Secret remained just that, a secret.
A/N: The song is a direct quote from Order of The Phoenix, chapter 11