Sorting Hat

The Sorting Hat is a sentient magical hat kept in the Headmaster's office at Hogwarts, used each year at the Start-of-Term Feast to place new students into one of the four Houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin. Once the ordinary hat of Godric Gryffindor, it was enchanted with the combined intelligence of the four founders and speaks and sings through a tear along its brim, using Legilimency to judge where each student truly belongs.

Beyond the Sorting, the Hat yields the Sword of Gryffindor to any worthy Gryffindor, producing it for Harry Potter in the Chamber of Secrets and, during the Battle of Hogwarts, for Neville Longbottom. This overview is a neutral summary; see the Timeline for chronology. Text is available under CC BY-SA.