The Most Headstrong New Students I've Ever Sorted!

"Albus, listen to me! This year's new students were the most headstrong new students I've ever sorted!"

Hogwarts had indeed changed a great deal this year. The Hogwarts Express had more carriages than in previous years, and the Great Hall at Hogwarts was larger than in previous years;

Even the Sorting Hat of Hogwarts had not begun preparing next year's Sorting Song as it usually did.

The Sorting Hat stood stiffly on the desk, like a wrinkled brown traffic cone;

The split in the hat was opened very wide, and even the stitches on both sides of the split were pulled taut, as if they would snap if it opened just a little more.

The Sorting Hat sounded extremely indignant. "Just take Graham Pritchard... I told him he was suited for Slytherin, but he resisted it and kept wanting to go to Ravenclaw..."

"And that Aura Quirk! I was already planning to put him in Ravenclaw, but he was begging me! He thought I wouldn't let him go to Ravenclaw!"

"Does a hat as superb and outstanding as I am not know that he is suited for Ravenclaw? This is contempt for me! He was questioning my ability to tell right from wrong..."

"Yes..." Dumbledore wrote a few more strokes on the document and nodded in agreement with the Sorting Hat. "Indeed..."

After returning to the Headmaster's Office, he had begun reviewing documents. To him, the Sorting Hat's shouting counted as helping set the mood, making the tedious marking work a little less dull.

Only the resting phoenix Fawkes had a harder time of it, having to open his eyes now and then to glance at the still-rambling Sorting Hat before closing them again.

The night was already deep. The Sorting Hat had vented quite a lot of emotion,