Timeframe: Year 3 -> (7 or Adult Life?)
Ship: Unusual/Noncanon

When the Sorting Hat is put on Harry Potter's head, it sees potential...alot of it.

Reluctantly it obeys his request to enter Gryffindor...

Come the Chamber of Secrets, it the hat once again gets a glimpse of Harry's mind.

Reminded of such unused potential, it sulks in the headmaster's office, until by chance it hears a certain prophecy Albus Dumbledore thinks on when news comes that Harry Potter has, yet again, cheated Death.

Resolve set, the Sorting Hat decides to contact Mr. Potter via Fawkes and give him Private Lessons.

With the knowledge of the founders, and judging every new Headmaster and, until recently, every teacher, it is by far the most knowledgeable entity on the planet.

Because even a tattered old hat can still make a difference...

---

Timeframe: PostOOTP
Ship: ?

At the end of Harry's Fifth Year, he decides he's had enough.

Raiding the library and the Chamber of Secrets, he stocks up on textbooks that can help him win the battle of his life.

But then, a certain hat comes to mind, a very knowledgeable hat...

Taking the Sorting Hat, he repairs it and puts it on his head, setting off on a new path in life.

[Same explanation for the hat's intelligence]

---

In either scenario, Harry can learn materials via either:

The Sorting Hat getting a body of it's own via the Room of Requirement, or Harry walking around in a mental world the Hat Provides while on Harry's head.

 

How do you come up with this shit? This is sheer brilliance! I can't believe I haven't seen a story with this yet! In fact, this is so great, that it deserves to be a cliche...already. Because I know for a fact that once this gets used by someone, everyone is going to use it, and it's gonna turn into the new shopping trip, and we'll lament about it and stab Amerision in the eyeballs with sporks for suggesting such an idea that now we have to suffer for.

*looks at what he wrote*

 

I bow to your knowledge and creativity. Sadly, I've moved on to Naruto.

 

That, is quite a good idea actually. unfortunately it seems to rely on the fact that the hat would absorb the knowledge of the founders, and headmasters and teachers.

 

The idea of a Sorting Hat mentoring Harry seems VERY interesting. It's just that these suggested plots don't seem very orriginal, other than the hat's influence.

Heh, here's the idea that just came to my mind.

Harry's sorting, first year. He's nervous, very nervous. Everybody's staring at him, pointing. He's affraid that he'll end up in a wrong house and dissapoint everybody. Sorting Hat is placed on his head... and the stupid thing wants to place him in Slytherin! He's pannicking, imagining what Ron and his parents might think of him if he ends up there, imagining what Malfoy might do to him... Accidental magic kicks in, lashing against the hat that has upset Harry... and suddenly, with a tug behind his navel, Harry is gone, along with the Hat on his head...

What has happened? The Hat is actually a Horracrux that Voldemort had created during his visit to Hogwarts (Dumbledore's pensive). When Harry lashed out, defensive mechanism inbedded in the Horraxrux activated (thinking that someone was trying to detroy it), transporting the hat to the location its master has set in advance.

Now, Harry's new location could be:
- Cave in Albania, next to Voldemort's spirit
- Little Hanington, the home of his father
- Random safe-house somewhere in the world

Thus, Harry and the Sorting Hat go on an adventure together...

 

Good idea, but wouldn't Voldemort be possessing Quirrel? Or would that be a part of the change in universe?

 

I like the challenge from Amerision better. Of course it's a bit cliché (or more than a bit), but you can make the hat teach Harry from his over 1000 years experience and not knowledge he absorbed from the headmasters (It's not his job to absorb knowledge, so why should he?). At least it's better than some kind of shopping trip.

 

Perhaps Harry could be in the room of requirement wishing for anything that could help him defeat Voldemort. Imagine his surprise when a tattered hat lands at his feet.

 

Isn't there some Dark'Harry, or Manipulative!Dumbledore story like the first of your challenges Amerision? (I think though that it is set after OotP) but I remember reading something where the Sorting Hat is delivered to Harry from, I think, Fawkes and he tells Harry all the secrets the Headmaster has been keeping and gives him his knowledge.

 

I remove my hat in front of you (and the pun IS intended!)

 

Yeah, that's the point. He's lost in some foreign country (not Albania, that was my mistake) and has only the Talking Hat and his wand. He'd be damn motivated to learn anything that could help him through.

Oh, and Horracrux blasted all the tracking charms attached to him (another safety measure), so the Dumbledore couldn't find him.

 

Just to make it known now, i am currently writing on a newly started timetravel fic and have written >Sorting hat apprentices HP instead of sorting him<. I had this idea a long time in my head, its fascinating because its allmost like a very powerful neglected Character, like Flamel or perhaps Aberforth.

 

Cool! So you're accepting the challenge?

-If you answer yes, you win a booklet filled with the best Mpreg and Slash stories on the net!

-If you answer no, you...you...don't win...

 

IP, Amerison, that is a great idea. I have seen this done before similarily in the story "catechism" where the author has the sorting hat teaching Harry.

 

I wont accepting the challenge, I have my plot allready drawn out. So you may send the booklet to the real winner.

PS: if that booklet proclamation was a slap to my nick (again) I might really think about doing somthing about it.

 

Catechism was quite possibly the best written worse story on the face of the planet.

Anyhow, would anyone accept the challenge? (I'm not into the timetravel AND sorting hat mentor thing because it's using two gimmicks, and makes it weird.)

 

This topic has really got me thinking about the sorting hat...wouldn't it be cool if the sorting hat used to be a person who sacrificed their body to put themselves in a hat and sort the students of Hogwarts...kind of like a fifth founder.

You could even put a twist on it and say that it was unwilling and that the founders forced him into the hat.

 

That would be much harder to write, I can allready see the parent/child behaviour. It would have to be a crazy person to make it interesting and not Harry adopts the hat as his mum because he had none. I think there are plenty of stories where this happens with the Hogwarts castle. One worse than the other with this my-new-family drivel.

 

Fifth Founder? Sounds interesting. I could possibly take it... but I don't think I can bring out the flare.