MuggleNet’s Pottermore Feature of the Week: “Hatstall”

MuggleNet has started a new weekly feature involving information revealed from the Pottermore website as we get ready to welcome Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets interactive book, which will become available this Summer.

In this week’s content feature, we share the information revealed on the Sorting Hat’s “Hatstall”:

An archaic Hogwarts term for any new student whose Sorting takes longer than five minutes. This is an exceptionally long time for the Sorting Hat to deliberate, and occurs rarely, perhaps once every fifty years.

Of Harry Potter’s contemporaries, Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom came closest to being Hatstalls. The Sorting Hat spent nearly four minutes trying to decide whether it should place Hermione in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. In Neville’s case, the Hat was determined to place him in Gryffindor: Neville, intimidated by that house’s reputation for bravery, requested a placing in Hufflepuff. Their silent wrangling resulted in triumph for the Hat.

Did you know that Professor McGonagall and Professor Filius Flitwick both experienced a “Hatstall”? Each of which were a result of determining between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor House. According to Pottermore, “The two Heads of house were amused to think that they might, but for those crucial moments in their youths, have exchanged positions.”

Harry Potter was also near a “hatstall” during his sorting. The Sorting Hat found he could do well in either Gryffindor or Slytherin, but because he was averse to Slytherin’s negative reputation, it ultimately chose Gryffindor.

If you were to get sorted by the Hogwarts Sorting Hat, what houses do you think would cause you to get a “hatstall”? Let us know in the comments below.