Percy Weasley was caught right in the middle. Two older brothers, each confident and self-assured of their own strengths in life. Below him, the twins and little Ronnie, each with their own unique places. Ginny hardly needed to be mentioned, as the only girl she may well have been the most special of them all.
And that left Percy. Grades not as spectacular as Bill, not nearly enough of a flier to rival Charlie, nothing special about him at all. Old enough to be overlooked by his parents in favour of his younger siblings, young enough to be shunted aside by his older brothers.
He was low-maintenance, unwilling to be like the twins and make a spectacle of himself just to get attention. It would be hard to out-spectacle them in any event, even if he did try.
So he went into his first year at Hogwarts with a sort of resignation. He'd end up in Gryffindor, of course. Do his best, of course. And. . . never really stand out. Be just another part of 'the Weasley family'. Probably get a dead-end job in the Ministry looking out for Muggle Artifacts on recommendation from his father.
But he couldn't help wanting more. And so, when the hat started chuckling into his ear at his Sorting, he was already feeling fairly desperate.
"What are you laughing about?" he demanded of the whispering laugh.
"Another Weasley, but you. . . you have your mother's fire."
Percy wasn't sure what to say to that. No one had ever said anything like it to him before. Then again, he wasn't entirely sure anyone cared enough to notice what he was like.
"Yeah?" he asked. "So?"
"You want more," the hat whispered. "Ambition. Smoldering away, hidden by a desire to fit in. Neither of those are Gryffindor traits."
Ambition. Slytherin. Conformity. Hufflepuff.
"No," Percy said, but he didn't know if he was agreeing or dissenting.
"Do you really want to go where you don't belong? Where you won't be happy? Where you'll have to struggle to thrive? Even Ravenclaw would be a better fit for you. You're not a brave rebel, that's not what you want. Not who you are."
But Percy was shaking his head now. If he was going to do this, he would do it properly.
"Where do you think I'd fit best? Family connections aside."
"Slytherin," the hat answered without a moment's hesitation. "There, you could hone your cunning, learn to work well within the world's systems or outside them. You could change the world, yourself."
Percy hesitated a moment. Feeling quite reckless, heart beating wildly, he nodded. "Okay."
Two years later, his younger twin brothers were Sorted into Ravenclaw. And it wasn't until years later that they told him it was his example that inspired them. They'd have insisted the hat not break tradition were it not for Percy showing them there was another choice.