A Sorting Hat Tale.
House: Slytherin
Category: Drabble
Prompt: Sorting Hat
Words: 598
Betaed by Mags. Thank you :)
Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw created the Sorting Hat to sort new Hogwarts students. It was a last straw idea from Rowena after the last sorting, where Godric and Salazar ended up arguing for two hours on where to place one of the students.
Helga, being sick of arguments about the sorting, happily agreed; and surprisingly, Godric and Salazar agreed without too much hassle or convincing.
They didn't start creating the Sorting Hat until the summer. Over the time before they started though, Rowena started reading up on charms to use on the hat. Godric would do the charms because out of the four of them, he was the best at charmwork. Helga and Salazar were given the task of either sourcing the hat, or making it themselves.
In the end, Salazar and Helga made a hat, because they couldn't find one which fit exactly what Rowena had asked for. Godric had found it funny, but he hurriedly stopped laughing when Rowena reminded him of how much harder his job would be if the hat wasn't exactly what she had said.
Four weeks after the end of term, the Sorting Hat had been finished. The only problem left was that some of the charms were not working properly. After five times of them being taken off, then Godric re-casting them, Rowena finally found out what was wrong: for one of the charms, Godric was waving his wand wrong, which upset all the others.
After Rowena corrected Godric, he tried again, and this time, the Sorting Hat was finally finished! It was everything they had wanted. The Sorting Hat had personality, it could read minds and work out where the person was best suited, and most of all, it promised to not share what it saw inside the mind with anyone.
With a Hat to sort the students, there was a lot less arguing between Godric and Salazar. They would still quarrel, but nowhere near as much and not about the sorting.
Godric was out more now, too. The Sorting Hat loved adventures as much as Godric, so the two of them would often be out exploring.
When the Founders all passed away, the Sorting Hat's only job was to sit on a shelf and get brought down for the sorting a year. No longer did anyone take him out for adventures, nor did anyone come especially up to talk to him. Half the time the Headmaster or Headmistress ignored him! But it was what it was.
One day though, a Ravenclaw called Luna Lovegood came up to the Headmaster's office to ask him something. The Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, had to rush off to take care of something, so Luna had to wait around in his office. While she waited, she and the Sorting Hat got talking, and it seemed this girl too, liked exploring. When Dumbledore came back and Luna had talked to him about what she had come for, she asked if she could take the Sorting Hat for adventures on the weekend. Dumbledore agreed for her to do that, much to the Sorting Hat and Luna's delight.
The Sorting Hat did have to admit, even if Luna's adventures were nowhere near as exciting as Godric's, they were much more interesting. Luna's adventures usually consisted of finding some rare creature that most people thought didn't exist.
The Sorting Hat knew when Luna left school there would be no more adventuring, but that was still years away, so he decided to put that out of his mind, and just enjoy the adventures and fun.