Sorting Hat

[glow=red,2,300]YOU MUST DO THIS FIRST![/glow]

Originally the pointed wizard's hat of Godric Gryffindor, the Sorting Hat was bewitched by all four of the founders of Hogwarts with brains and some amount of personality. It's function is to determine which of the four houses each new student will enter. It does so at the beginning of the start-of-term feast, when it is placed on a three-legged (sometimes four-legged) stool in front of the Great Hall. It then sings a long, rambling song of introduction, a different one each year but with the same basic information in it: how it was bewitched to perform the sorting and what the criteria are for the various houses. The first year students one by one place the Sorting Hat on their head. Within a minute, it loudly proclaims the house for which they are best suited.

The hat is battered and old; it's patched, frayed, and extremely dirty. In order to speak and sing, a tear along the brim opens like a mouth. It speaks inside of the hat with a small, quiet voice to the wearer and it can read thoughts and respond to them. When not sorting students, the Sorting Hat rests on its stool in Dumbledore's office.