This is the most willful batch of freshmen I've ever admitted!

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

Hogwarts had indeed changed greatly this year. The Hogwarts Express had more carriages than in previous years, and Hogwarts's Great Hall was larger than before;

even the Hogwarts Sorting Hat had not begun preparing the Sorting Song for the following year, as it usually did.

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

the slit on the hat was stretched wide open, and even the stitches on either side were pulled taut, as though they would burst apart if it opened any wider.

The Sorting Hat sounded furious. "Take Graham Pritchard... I said 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 send her to Ravenclaw, but she was begging me! She thought I wouldn't let her go to Ravenclaw!"

"Would a hat as brilliant and exceptional as me not know she belonged in Ravenclaw? This is contempt for me! She was questioning my ability to discern right from wrong..."

"Yes..." Dumbledore added a few more strokes to the document, nodding 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 clamor helped set the mood, making the tedious work of marking less dull.

Fawkes, who was resting, did not have it quite so easy. Every so often, he had to open his eyes to glance at the still-chattering Sorting Hat before closing them again.

The night had grown deep. The Sorting Hat had vented much of its frustration; its body, once as straight as a traffic cone, gradually drooped, and its wide-open slit had closed considerably.

Dumbledore