September 1991

Dear Diary,

You're not really a diary as I'm saying this into a bewildering speech recorder thingy that Dumbledore gave me after this year's Sorting.

He said I should record my thoughts on each year's Sorting and what students I see potential in and why I sorted them into each house; I'm telling you now, I am not giving reasons for every single student I sort each year!

You see, some students do seem to possess qualities that will let them flourish in a particular house whilst others are just a mix and I just pick the house they'll eventually prefer even if I have an 11 year old screaming at me telling me I'm wrong.

I do hate the students some times.

I hate to disappoint them but I'm a trained and experienced Sorting Hat – I know better than they do which is why I choose which house they should be sorted into instead of them. Every year I get at least one student who thinks they know exactly where they should be and they try me on, confident that I'll put them in their desired house, and then they get upset when I try to tell them that they truly belong somewhere else and in a few years they'll thank me for it. Which brings me on to my next complaint. If I'm going to have to make a review of each Sorting then I want my complaints heard!

I think and I always have thought that I am required to sort the students too early. I am a Sorting Hat not a Predict the Future Hat. My job is to sort yet I am given a bunch of 11 year olds and am forced to predict what house they should be in for the next 7 years. An 11 year old will change dramatically over the years and by the end of their time at Hogwarts, a lot of students will probably feel they weren't sorted correctly as opposed to how they felt in their first year. And this year was no different, there will be students disappointed by their 7th year although there were a couple of students that I actually listened to and considered the opinion of this year.

Of course it's obvious as to why I'm being asked to do this and it's not to give me a chance to complain about my life as a Sorting Hat. It's because the famous Harry Potter has arrived at Hogwarts.

Yes, Dumbledore could've just asked me outright what I think of the boy but this is Dumbledore we're talking about- he's never gets straight to the point.

Actually now I think about it he might want to know what the children around Harry Potter will be like or maybe he just wants an account of the Sorting to look back on in the future.

I don't know. You can never tell what Albus Dumbledore is thinking.

Anyway enough about Dumbledore, like I was saying it is quite difficult to sort 11 year olds that haven't fully developed yet. It's because the houses are so different like the founders of the school were. There was Godric Gryffindor, brave and bold, Rowena Ravenclaw, wise and thirsty for knowledge, Helga Hufflepuff, patient and kind and Salazar Slytherin, cunning and ambitious. I remember them well.

I truly don't have a favourite house and I don't have a house that I particularly dislike. All this talk of Slytherin being the bad house is absolute rubbish! Yes they've had a lot of Dark wizards but I remember sorting all of them a lot of them could've easily been in Gryffindor at the time. I remember sorting You Know Who like it was yesterday and I considered putting him in Ravenclaw. He was so looking forward to learning magic and was extremely intelligent. I stand by my decision to put him in Slytherin but that wasn't the only option for him.

After all this talking I feel like I should actually start my review of this year's sorting now. Like I said I'm only going to pick and choose the most interesting student that I had to sort and, my, there were some difficult ones this year but I hope they're all reasonably happy with my decision.

I think I'll do it house by house as there were some notable ones for each house. I'll start with Gryffindor.

Hmmm its funny isn't it?

Gryffindor always seem to come first in everything and on every list. In my song this year I put them first and Slytherin last as I nearly always do. Its just when you think of the four Hogwarts founders, Gryffindor always seems to come to mind first and Slytherin last. Is it because Slytherin is supposedly the worst out of the four?

Right then, I'll do Gryffindor first and then Slytherin second.

Enough chit-chat. The review of the 1991 Sorting will now commence. Gryffindors up first!