บท 45: Chapter 42
Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to lead, Harry got into line behind a boy with sandy hair with Ron standing behind him, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the fabled Great Hall.
It did not disappoint.
Not even in the wildest corners of his overactive imagination had Harry even imagined such a place. Lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. Briefly wondering how the wax didn't fall into the food, Harry looked at the tables that were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table perpendicular to the House tables where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first years up here so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver.
Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black enchanted ceiling dotted with stars. It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open up into the heavens.
Harry quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat that was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. Maybe they had to try and get a rabbit out of it, Harry thought wildly as he wondered what the Sorting test was.
For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth-and the hat began to sing:
"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
if you have a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means
To achieve their ends.
So put me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!"
The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again. 'Observe,' Harry instantly thought.
The Sorting Hat
This magical hat enchanted with the intelligence of all four founders of Hogwarts. It normally stays in the Headmaster's office until it is needed. During the opening banquet at the beginning of each school year, it speaks to the wearer inside of the hat with a small, quiet voice, using Legilimency to interpret their thoughts and respond to them. After a moment of consideration, the hat announces its choice aloud for all to hear, and the student joins the selected house. The moment of consideration varies in length, from over five minutes to less than a second.
So that's what it was. The four Founders…Harry almost drooled at the thought of the amount of knowledge that the hat held. Ten minutes with it would probably boost his own intelligence by a metric ton.
Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.
"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!"
A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment's pause -
"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.
The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.
"Bones, Susan!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.
"Boot, Terry!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
And so it went. Sometimes, Harry noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at other times it took a little while to decide. 'Finnigan, Seamus,' the sandy-haired boy who had stood next to Harry sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.
"Granger, Hermione!"
Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat on her head. Harry winced in sympathy for the hat when he saw a new tear appear on the brim.
"RAVENCLAW!" shouted the hat.
When Neville was called, he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with him. When it finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR," Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to hand it over to "MacDougal, Morag."
Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once; the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!"
Malfoy went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, looking quite pleased with himself. Harry still was a bit disturbed by the boy's description, but he hoped he could find out more as the school year went along.
There weren't many people left now. "Moon" "Nott" "Parkinson" then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil" then "Perks, Sally-Anne" and then, at last - "Potter, Harry!"
As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like a pit full of snakes all over the hall.
"Potter, did she say?"
"The Harry Potter?"
The last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his head was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second, the hall in front of him disappeared as he landed with a thud on what was looking like an entirely white surface. From in front of him, a dry voice spoke.
"Well. This is unexpected."
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