Wait a minute! The Sorting Hat hasn’t shown up yet! For those of you who aren’t aware, Eliezer remarked that a spell translating to “here comes the judge” would be appropriate for summoning the sorting hat, although he did not end up using that spell.
Although we’ve already seen it summoned, it was not for any sort of judging reason. Therefore, I postulate that this first summoning was a red-herring to throw us off.
If all of this is true, then I’d say it’s quite likely that Harry’s last-minute-plan will somehow involve the hat. But how?
Therefore, I postulate that this first summoning was a red-herring to throw us off.
You’re overthinking this. For all you know Eliezer just meant that there was a trial coming up, or even that the song “Here Comes the Judge” mentions a hat in its lyrics.
I see what I’ve done wrong. In the original post, I assumed “here comes the judge” was hyperlinked to a google translate page. I didn’t know there was a song.
The Hat? All putting the Hat on someone’s head would do is pick a House for them—it might be able to convince Hermione that she’s innocent, if she went full Potter on it, but it’d never be able to convince Lucius.
If the sorting hat has enough access / ability to one’s mind to sort children into their appropriate house then it seems entirely possible that it has enough access / ability to identify a false memory. The sorting hat is an extremely powerful artifact which implies that the false memory would have to be a significantly greater power for us to conclude at this point that it can remain hidden from the sorting hat.
The Sorting Hat when it was on Harry said that it couldn’t tell if Harry had any false memories and that it just looks at thoughts as they form. So it is unlikely it can do much to detect such issues.
The hat says specifically: “I can go ahead and tell you that there is definitely nothing like a ghost—mind, intelligence, memory, personality, or feelings—in your scar. Otherwise it would be participating in this conversation, being under my brim.” It says memory specifically. Both a false memory and a ‘scar memory’ could at this point be treated as ‘foreign’ to Hermione.
Are you referring to this slightly earlier quote: “Anyway, I have no idea whether or not you’ve been Obliviated. I’m looking at your thoughts as they form, not reading out your whole memory and analyzing it for inconsistencies in a fraction of second. I’m a hat, not a god.”? Here the hat says it cannot detect deleted memories or do the sophisticated analysis required to discover tell tale ‘inconsistencies’.
If that is the case then the hat didn’t actually say “it couldn’t tell if Harry had any false memories.” It said it couldn’t detect deleted memories and seems to imply that ‘sophisticated analysis’ of all of his memories for ‘inconsistencies’ would be required to do so. The false memory given to Hermione is at the forefront of her mind and doesn’t require the hat to scan her memories (though Hermione could replay memories of event for the hat presumably). In addition the false memory is entirely out of character with Hermione’s personality which is something the hat, at a minimum, should be able to verify. Considering the quote specifically addressing foreign memory, it seems entirely possibly the hat may immediately detect the false memory for what it is.
Wait a minute! The Sorting Hat hasn’t shown up yet! For those of you who aren’t aware, Eliezer remarked that a spell translating to “here comes the judge” would be appropriate for summoning the sorting hat, although he did not end up using that spell.
Although we’ve already seen it summoned, it was not for any sort of judging reason. Therefore, I postulate that this first summoning was a red-herring to throw us off.
If all of this is true, then I’d say it’s quite likely that Harry’s last-minute-plan will somehow involve the hat. But how?
It showed up last chapter.
You’re overthinking this. For all you know Eliezer just meant that there was a trial coming up, or even that the song “Here Comes the Judge” mentions a hat in its lyrics.
The forest: the Sorting Hat is a judge of character.
I see what I’ve done wrong. In the original post, I assumed “here comes the judge” was hyperlinked to a google translate page. I didn’t know there was a song.
Here’s the Lyrics, and they don’t mention a hat. I still think there’s something to this.
I had googled some different lyrics here where they included the phrase “Hey boy, take off that hat”.
I’m not sure how that would make it “oddly appropriate,” but good find.
Still. It’s possible, and it would make sense, depending on how perfect its Legilimency is.
The Hat? All putting the Hat on someone’s head would do is pick a House for them—it might be able to convince Hermione that she’s innocent, if she went full Potter on it, but it’d never be able to convince Lucius.
If the sorting hat has enough access / ability to one’s mind to sort children into their appropriate house then it seems entirely possible that it has enough access / ability to identify a false memory. The sorting hat is an extremely powerful artifact which implies that the false memory would have to be a significantly greater power for us to conclude at this point that it can remain hidden from the sorting hat.
The Sorting Hat when it was on Harry said that it couldn’t tell if Harry had any false memories and that it just looks at thoughts as they form. So it is unlikely it can do much to detect such issues.
The hat says specifically: “I can go ahead and tell you that there is definitely nothing like a ghost—mind, intelligence, memory, personality, or feelings—in your scar. Otherwise it would be participating in this conversation, being under my brim.” It says memory specifically. Both a false memory and a ‘scar memory’ could at this point be treated as ‘foreign’ to Hermione.
Are you referring to this slightly earlier quote: “Anyway, I have no idea whether or not you’ve been Obliviated. I’m looking at your thoughts as they form, not reading out your whole memory and analyzing it for inconsistencies in a fraction of second. I’m a hat, not a god.”? Here the hat says it cannot detect deleted memories or do the sophisticated analysis required to discover tell tale ‘inconsistencies’.
Yes, I’m referring to the second bit.
If that is the case then the hat didn’t actually say “it couldn’t tell if Harry had any false memories.” It said it couldn’t detect deleted memories and seems to imply that ‘sophisticated analysis’ of all of his memories for ‘inconsistencies’ would be required to do so. The false memory given to Hermione is at the forefront of her mind and doesn’t require the hat to scan her memories (though Hermione could replay memories of event for the hat presumably). In addition the false memory is entirely out of character with Hermione’s personality which is something the hat, at a minimum, should be able to verify. Considering the quote specifically addressing foreign memory, it seems entirely possibly the hat may immediately detect the false memory for what it is.
This was discussed before.
Doesn’t look like Harry’s masterplan involves the Sorting Hat.