A/N – I do not own Harry Potter.
Chapter 1
Albus Dumbledore sat in his office attempting to reason with an old battered hat, but it was proving to be an fruitless attempt. The Sorting Hat was refusing to sort this year.
The headmaster sat hunched over in his chair, hands clasped together on his desk. He knew that just putting students randomly together was not a good idea. After a few minutes of silence, he sighed.
"How should I assign students to dorms, then?" he asked the hat. "Surely you don't mean me to do it alphabetically, or some other equally meaningless manner?"
"Of course not," the hat chuckled. "I will assign them all to older students, the ones who will best guide them. Seventh years are the exception, as most of them are quite mature enough to not need guidance. They will live in a large dorm, two students to a room."
Albus could have sworn he felt the shifts in the castle's magic as it shaped itself to meet the founder's – through means of the hat -wishes. "And the rest of the students?" he asked, resigned to the changes. After all, if Hogwarts itself was changing, then it must be for the best.
"They will be much more spread out throughout the castle. Three pairs of students to a suite, the suites will all include three bedrooms with desks and other necessary items, plus a small common room," the hat explained. "I've been thinking about this for a long time, headmaster. There is no other way to eliminate this silly house rivalry. Of course, it will not be fully successful until the new first years are graduating."
The headmaster nodded briefly. "Better late than never, I suppose. And how am I supposed to decide which students should share a classroom?"
"That can be done by alphabetizing, headmaster. Your teachers are quite competent to handle any group of students. I'd recommend three study groups per year so there are not too many students," the hat advised.
"Very well. Thank you for your kindness in at least giving me a sufficient amount of time to make these changes," the headmaster said, placing the hat back up on the shelf. "I assume you will still be needing to look into the students minds to place them properly."
"Of course," the hat murmured before going limp and silent.
"What a mess," the headmaster said to himself. "Naturally the hat would choose to do this the year Harry Potter is due to start school. I wonder who he'll be paired with."