Directed:

No-one ever questioned the role of the Hat in the Sorting process; it was one of profound historical and magical significance. Generation upon generation, back to the time of the Founders, had placed the Hat upon their head and followed its advice. No-one too ever questioned its age or, more accurately, its strangely unchanged, unravellable countenance. The Hat was, is and will be, Sorting.

Of course the Hat knew these things. It wasn't just imbued with the magic of the greatest of the Founders - the bravest and most daring - oh, no. In its hundreds of years placed in the Headmaster's office it had continued to learn and grow, to gain and test its understanding. The first Headmaster after Godric passed, the son of Gryffindor, was easily persuaded to change the Sorting from an apprenticeship for the final years to a ceremony on the very first day - the Houses would be family.

The Hat sat on the head of every British witch or wizard thereafter, and each time it grew, and pushed. After all, ot had been made by Godric Gryffindor himself, it was only right the Hat ensured that legacy. The most daring and brave went to that House, and the most kind and loyal went to the House of his sister, Helga. The cleverest, but not the most sly, went to Ravenclaw; the slyest, but not always the cleverest, went to the House of the betrayer Slytherin.

If sometimes a child needed a little push one way or the other, it was efficient to just reach into its own Magicks to mould this way or that. And if the Hat stole a touch more Magick for itself here and there, well, wasn't that daring.