Fork

The Hat can't decide for the life of him what to do with Peter Pettigrew. Gryffindor, the poor boy is hoping, but the Hat knows it's only because that's where he put Remus Lupin and Pettigrew would give anything to stay close to his thus-far only ally. He's not all that brave—if anything, he's the opposite of a Gryffindor. But where he really belongs—that's the tricky part. Pettigrew isn't quite loyal or clever enough to be a Hufflepuff or a Ravenclaw; self-reliant, yes, but he doesn't have the cruel, cunning edge of a Slytherin, either. But Gryffindor… it's beyond all reason, but perhaps that kind of encouragement is just what Pettigrew needs.

He has a feeling about this Peter Pettigrew, the kind of feeling that would give him butterflies if he had a stomach. He's just not quite enough to fall either way: he's a traitor or a hero, depending on the next seven years, and it's moments like these that make this job too damn stressful, the Hat thinks. These are the moments that set wizards in their ways and shape the course of history, the culmination of a year's worth of idle songwriting and mounting expectation, and it all comes down to whether he makes the right Sort—

Godric help him.

GRYFFINDOR!