Disclaimer- I do not own and never will own harry potter or anything related to it. Only this story, inspired by a brilliant and fantastical tale written by J.K. Rowling, can i I lay claim to.

The Sorting Hat's Tale

Up on a wooden shelf, in the headmasters office, resides a hat. Silently it sits, collecting dust, waiting for the next start of term when it will once again be needed to sort the young children into the four houses of Hogwarts. Although this has been its job for over one thousand years, not once has it ever enjoyed it. Yes, it will never complain. It will remain quiet, only talking to the child whose head it rests on. Encouraging the best house for each particular student regardless of the stereotypes, both good and bad associated with each over the centuries. Once its job is complete, again it will be returned to the high shelf. Out of the way of the wizards and witches scurrying about the school, always in a hurry.

Now, much of this time in solitude is spent creating new rhymes and songs to sing before the sorting in order to alleviate the fears of the ignorant. If anyone were to ask it, which surprisingly few have, it could recite every verse it ever invented, and then some on the spot if you so desired. Some of the songs are solemn. There are definitely dark times in wizarding history that merit such. Why, the hat particularly likes the verses it devised during the plague years. After the fire of London 1666, a muggle town the hat has a particular fondness for, as you will no doubt realize later on in this story, fire had a way of being incorporated into song.

Not all the poetry the hat makes is for the general public. He usually composes a few for the headmasters and headmistresses that work beside him. The old headmaster Dumbledore is one of the hats most exciting subjects. Colored socks and lemon drops can be found in his archive of rhymes about the headmaster. The teachers though are his favorite to rhyme about. Having watched their progress through school and life afterwards, many embarrassing stories have become immortalized (at least to the hat) in verse.

When not composing poetry, the hat will listen to the dealings of the school and the gossiping portraits in the office. If you were to ask the hat (which no one seems to do) it would tell you with certainty that the only things that gossip more that the newspapers and teenagers put together are Hogwarts portraits. The hat has always wondered why the teachers are so in the dark about the ridiculous situations of the students when all they would have to do to receive the information they desired would be to ask the portraits. Although, now that the hat thinks about it, when one makes the mistake of asking a portrait anything (especially that of a pompous idiot) they must be prepared for a life story and any complaints on their mind at the time before any useful information is given.

While all the previous methods of entertainment take up an inordinate amount of time from anyone's day, inevitably the gossip and rhymes will run out and the hat will be left alone on the shelf collecting dust. While the hat has gotten used to being alone, that was not its original intention. A hatter crafted it to be worn and used, to be taken to far off lands, to protect a wizard's head from the scorching sun and chilling rain. At one point in its life, that was exactly what it did. It had been to sights beyond its own imagination and back (occasionally forgotten in a moment of haste, but quickly remembered again). It had seen the birth of its current residence and four of the most legendary magical beings walk its halls.

This, is what its spends most of its time thinking about- Events that played out over a thousand years ago. Now, many people will say living in the past is unhealthy. Moving forward is the best solution. Well this is all fine advice for people- but not so much for a hat. It doesn't really have a future. All it possesses are memories of the past, and such a wonderfully tragic past at that. Yes. The hat spends most of its solitude remembering the four most important people in its life. These four are considered the greatest wizards and witches of their age. The hat, having lived over a thousand years itself agrees with this statement. After all, it used to belong to one of them (well two of them, if you want to get picky about it) and rode on his head for years before being given its current job.

Those four were the best of friends. Sure, they teased and prodded each other mercilessly, but all good friends do. They were, as the hat referred to them before it learned their names, the smart one, the fun one, owner, and the moody green one.

Owner and the moody green one were always together for as long as the hat had been with them. At least they were until the worst day of the hats life. The smart and fun one were never apart and would take pleasure in making fools out of owner and the moody one (something that wasn't all that hard to do for owner, but took quite a lot for the moody green one).

Of course the hat knows their real names, but still he calls them on occasion as he first knew them.

Friends?, You ask. How were Gryffindor and Slytherin EVER friends? Well, they were. At least according to the hat. And shouldn't it know? After all, it is the only thing besides Hogwarts herself that still remembers them. Still mourns their loss.

Dark times have fallen on Hogwarts again. Whenever the world seems particularly grim, the hat will recite one of its favorite songs. In it he tells the story of how the founders were friends. The best of friends. Together they created the worlds best magical school, the one in which you stand. The four teachers of Hogwarts lived together and loved each other as family, until the darkness of the world seeped inside the walls of their beloved school and turned them against each other.

So many wonder, after hearing the sorting hat's warning song, how could such a wonderful way of life be brought to its knees. Well, if you really wanted to know it would tell you. All you have to do is ask. In fact, it would love to tell its story about what actually happened, if only some one would ask it.

It wasn't around when they first met, but the hat came into the picture not long after wards. He knows everything that brought them together, and everything that tor them apart. Don't you want to know what happened?

What on earth could tear apart friends to the point that they couldn't stand to see each other again?

Well, the hat wants to tell. All you have to do is go to the headmaster's office…

And ask it.