Agreed that the idea of equalising the numbers in each house is stupid, particularly because of how the sorting is done one at a time. So there could be someone early in the sorting who would be equally suited to 2 houses, call them A and B, and is put in A; then later someone is suited to A and unsuitable for B but is put in B because that is where the vacancy is.

If equal numbers were necessary, then everybody should be examined and the people with a clear suitability allocated first and the more flexible people fitting in where there is room.

I've made the assumption that there would be ABOUT 40 students each year and that they would be sorted about equally to the houses if possible and reasonable.
And that there would be a kind of pre-sorting while on the train.
And the dormitory would adapt to the numbers.
And there would be, say, minimum 2 pupils of each sex to each house, if available.

So one could guess the number of magicians in Great Britain, which were very few,
say a total of 5000, very roughly.
Maybe between 1000 and 10.000 of them.
(This is meant to be a kind and friendly review.)

Thanks for sharing this with us. I loved it.

I was actually expecting to see another fanon issue mentioned being caused by this rule - Blaize Zabini, being sorted last, not only gets put into Slitherin, but is turned into a boy, that being the only spot left.

heh... When I saw the description of this fic the first thing that came to mind was a sorting hat enforced gender change. ;-)

-SC

Hat is so done with this bullshit. I love it XD

She wasn't, you're right. And this rule is STUPIDSTUPID

the even results of the magical personality test do have some unfortunate implications

There's always workarounds...

For example: The sorting hat is a very powerful magical artifact. Reads minds, personality (, and souls, in fanon). Is a repository for at least one other highly magical artifact/weapon(Gryff's sword, of course), and able to protect itself from misuse(I mean, probably).

Now, if the hat is able to accumulate the knowledge it peruses in the students' mind, while also observing the houses for consequences of the sorting, it may also use it to project how future students should be sorted(to the best of its ability, anyway). Add in that it's been doing the sorting for at least 800 years(as we don't know when the founders' died), and it's got a pretty good number of case studies to base its sortings on.

It's also arguable whether the houses really affect all that much. It's more the situations and role models people have access to. People like to pretend that if their favorite character were sorted differently, they'd still be the same. Susan Bones would just as likely become another Barty Crouch Junior if she were sorted into Slytherin, AND if Slytherin really were a breeding ground for Death Eaters.

It really comes down to the fact that the stereotypes of the houses actually make little sense. People are trying to work within the limits of this false quadchotomy, and some succeed spectacularly; others, not so much.

Basically: I've thought of this before, and agree with you to a certain point. Based on what I think of magic and applied logic, I think the hat could conceivably sort 40 students evenly four ways without compromising magically enforced standards. People live up or down to whatever expectations are given them.

P.S.: There's literally no reason Blaise's intelligence or achievements would have to limited because he's not in Ravenclaw. He'd still be able to associate with the Ravens as it's sociably acceptable (unless that's another fanon thing).

This is so sad though. Wow. I didn't think such a short story could make me so depressed.

yeah that idea has caused me headaches, so i stopped thinking about it and sat back to watch what others did.
Ravenclaw is not house of the ravens, it is house of the Eagles
rock on

I really quite liked this! Wonderful job!

An interesting way to look at things.

Wow, this is another really good sorting hat fanfiction. (I've been going on a huge rampage reading sorting hat fanfictions today :P) and I really like it.

The hat's contemplations about which house the kids should go into, and him trying to sort them evenly into houses was really well written, it kind of reminded me of someone juggling and failing, and shows how silly that rule is.

I've never actually followed it while writing HP fanfictions, and this story has taught me that I should hopefully never will!

Superb!