Talking to the Hat

[Raglan]

It has just gone midnight - witching hour appropriately enough - and James was locked in his office. He had ensured the door was locked, he wanted no interruptions for this, and held the sorting hat in his hands. Sighing to himself, he realised he was strangely nervous - more nervous than he had been in his fight with the werewolf. Shaking his head at his foolishness, he seizes his courage and puts the hat on his head...

[M D]

The Sorting hat awakens,

"You do know that even us fabrics like to sleep ocasionally."

The hat grumbled,

"You are not a student yet on the other hand I have never met you before.. Do you seek sorting, or did you mistake me as a fashionable accessory."

[Raglan]

James thought for a moment, collecting his thoughts, unaware that the hat can sense them. His desire to know which house would suit him, whether he would have been placed in Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Griffindor. But below the surface of this desire lays all that he has done, his own lack of education and hidden but there feeling of abandonment over it, the discovery of the magical world, his seeking of becoming an animagus, the fight against the werewolf - and its subsequent execution. Even the time he spent making his own inefficient wand, before finally getting a proper one two years ago.

I was curious. I never got the chance to attend Hogwarts. I was wondering which of the houses i would have been placed in.

[M D]

The Hat simply mumbled and hummed to itself before finally speaking,

"You are certainly a conflicted person, but clearly someone who has gone through their life relying on no one. Yet within your heart I feel no malice except to those who have crossed you in anger. But I also feel that you self-deprecate yourself which will rule out one house in particular, and you are not conniving for another. And you are certainly far too important for another house. How will your knowledge of the house change you, Professor? And don't you dare lie to me."

[Raglan]

Listening to the hat he wondered which houses it was speaking off.

I'm not sure. I don't know that it will change me much. But it will help me learn about myself. And that is always a good thing isn't it? Your right, i am used to relying on myself. To ask for help is something i've learned not to do. I guess that rules Hufflepuff out then doesn't it. Or maybe it doesn't, i don't know. I guess most people know which house would suit them. But i can see good things in all of them. Griffindors courage, i would hope to have. Ravenclaws intelligence and wit, i believe i have - i would guess my own self tutoring proves that, though it seems arogant to think it. Slytherins ambition, yes, i feel ambitious. I wish to truly master charms, and feel i have made a good start. I want to be as best as i can. And have worked towards it. And then there is Hufflepuff, loyalty and friendship. My own past makes me yearn for it, though i am unsure if i have it.

[M D]

The hat chuckles,

"You are clearly someone who is less decided than I am, yet it is enlightening that you hope to fit in with all.. Yet you haven't embraced the House you run as fully yours and instead seek your own path."

The Hat made an audible hum, trying to decide what would happen with this man,

"You can learn about yourself without belonging to a House, yet it is clear you are missing the sense of home that such a house would give you."

The hat fell silent for a while before speaking once more,

"I have had many wear me, and only a handful have as been conflicted as yourself, and two of those became great paragons of both virtue and vice respectively. And I feel that how I decide will send you down such a path. But I am decided, and when I have decided, I must make such a decision heard. I must ask you though, in regard to the risk, do you truly wish to know?"

[Raglan]

James nodded, he hadn't asked without thinking it though.

Yes. Which house would i be sorted into?