"The four founders each imbued me with their thoughts using profound magic, and these thoughts contained their standards for selecting students."
"At the same time, Salazar also taught me Legilimency, allowing me to perceive the students' minds…"
"Were the four founders really that powerful?" Gary listened to the Sorting Hat's words and found them somewhat terrifying. He had never heard of such powerful spells being cast on an object.
"Of course," the Sorting Hat said as if it were the most natural thing in the world, "Wizards of that era were much more powerful than they are now. Most Wizards could cast spells without wands, and the four founders were among the top Wizards in ancient times. Casting such spells was effortless for them."
"So, all the sorting results were decided by me under the influence of the four founders."
"The moment I touched them, their sorting results were already decided. My asking them which house they wanted to go to was just a way to chat with them." After saying all this, the Sorting Hat closed its mouth.
Gary also fell into deep thought. The Sorting Hat's words had too great an impact on him, and he couldn't react for a while. "Hogwarts: A History" did not record how the Sorting Hat came into being.
How incredible it was to give a hat thought and Legilimency.
"So that means Sirius Black isn't…"
"That's right, that's right. Godric was very satisfied with him, while Salazar felt he was a bit too unconventional, so he was sorted into Gryffindor… Whether he said he didn't want to go to Slytherin or not, it was impossible for him to be admitted to Slytherin."
"…Sigh." Gary let out a long sigh and fell silent.
"Keep chatting with me, don't go silent!" the Sorting Hat grumbled discontentedly.
"If I want to look up admission information from previous years, how do I do that?" Gary finally managed to digest all this information and asked his other question.
"Whose information do you want to look up? Maybe I still remember." The Sorting Hat was a big chatterbox; it was overjoyed as long as someone chatted with it.
"Alfrina Greengrass, a first-year in 1971," Gary said slowly.
"Greengrass…" The Sorting Hat's head twisted constantly, seemingly retrieving information.
"What do you want to know?" The Sorting Hat was like a traitor with important secrets, eager to reveal unspeakable secrets to the other party.
"Do you know her parents' information?" Gary asked.
"Her parents?" The Sorting Hat's body began to squirm. "Let me search for information in her mind…"
The Sorting Hat's processing speed was a bit slow. Its body began to undulate from bottom to top in waves. After five minutes, it said with a regretful expression, "I can't find it…"
"Can't find it?" Gary said, "Aren't you capable of Legilimency? Then you should have found information about her parents when you interacted with her before." Gary narrowed his eyes, "Or are you too weak?"
"No…" The Sorting Hat saw Gary doubting its ability and quickly argued, "How can you slander someone's innocence out of nowhere!"
"Legilimency isn't omnipotent," the Sorting Hat's body began to twist violently, "Legilimency extracts important memories from the other party. If the other party has mastered powerful Occlumency to falsify their memories, or if there are no memories about their parents in her mind, then I can't find anything from her mind either."
"…" Gary put a hand to his forehead, thought for a moment, "So that means there's no way to find her parents' information, right?"
"Just because it's not in my mind doesn't mean there's no way," the Sorting Hat said. "The method is right beside you."
Gary looked back at the acceptance quill and the Book of Admittance placed on the ground. "But no one can touch them. Principal Dumbledore said they are protected by very powerful magic."
"Yes, no one can touch them," the Sorting Hat admitted, "that's why he had you bring me up."
"You?" Gary then realized he had been in a blind spot. Dumbledore had emphasized that "people" could not touch the acceptance quill and the Book of Admittance, but he hadn't said the Sorting Hat couldn't.
"Put me next to this broken quill, and I'll find a way," the Sorting Hat was eager to prove itself.
"Will this work?" Gary held the Sorting Hat with both hands and placed it next to the acceptance quill.
"Yes, yes, yes. They and I are old acquaintances. We've known each other since the school was founded a thousand years ago." The Sorting Hat extended a corner of its body to touch the acceptance quill.
Just as the Sorting Hat's dirty body was about to touch the acceptance quill, a light blue ripple suddenly surged from the faded quill. Gary could feel the powerful magic contained within it from over a meter away.
The ripple paused for a moment after touching the Sorting Hat, then continued to spread into the distance. When it reached Gary's feet, he sharply recoiled to avoid contact with the ripple.
The wave-like blue ripple stopped advancing, then receded like the tide, all shrinking back into the faded quill.
"The acceptance quill is a bit different from me. It doesn't have Legilimency and it doesn't speak. Rowena imbued it with unparalleled sensory abilities, allowing its power to penetrate and cover the entire British Magical World."
"It is responsible for monitoring every infant born in Britain. When a child first exhibits magical talent, it will fly out of the inkwell and attempt to record that child's name in the Book of Admittance." The Sorting Hat rubbed against the acceptance quill's feather.
"The descriptions of them both in "Hogwarts: A History" are just a brief mention, and the information you know is just a superficial understanding. I'll explain more to you."
The chatterbox Sorting Hat spoke at an astonishing speed, its lips flapping up and down, even causing the wounds on its face, or rather the patches, to almost deform.
"The acceptance quill's judgment is much more lenient than the Book of Admittance's. Just a tiny magical sign is enough to move the acceptance quill, at which point the Book of Admittance may snap shut, refusing to be written in until it receives clear evidence of magical ability."
The Sorting Hat smacked its lips, "Unlike the arrogant Book of Admittance, when the acceptance quill monitors all infants in the territory who might possess magic, it also grasps the information about their parents' families."
Gary nodded, indicating he understood. The Sorting Hat excitedly swayed from side to side, "Found it! Found it!"
"Alfrina Greengrass… born May 1960, enrolled 1971… ..., this is also…"
Gary could read the expression of surprise on the Sorting Hat's dirty face. "What's wrong?"
"…In the acceptance quill's memory, both of this girl's parents are Squibs…"
"Squibs?" Gary unconsciously raised his voice, clearly startled as well.