My personal read at the time, and an interpretation which I personally feel is more in line with the worldbuilding, was that Dumbledore interceded and manipulated the hat and/or the situation, not wanting to allow Harry to go to Slytherin. Some characters will eventually hazard guesses in this direction.
However, we have word-of-god from Eliezer that the intended interpretation (as foreshadowed by the hat saying that self-awareness enhances its sense of humor) is that the hat chose to play a prank, and that the reason this was its first-ever prank is that these were circumstances that had literally never happened before.
Opinion of God. Unless people are being really silly, when the text genuinely holds open more than one option and makes sense either way, I think the author legit doesn’t get to decide.
(Although, nitpick: it seems useful to have opinion-of-god as a term of art just like we have word-of-god as a term of art, but I don’t think it’s your mere opinion that you intended the latter interpretation.)
My personal read at the time, and an interpretation which I personally feel is more in line with the worldbuilding, was that Dumbledore interceded and manipulated the hat and/or the situation, not wanting to allow Harry to go to Slytherin. Some characters will eventually hazard guesses in this direction.
However, we have word-of-god from Eliezer that the intended interpretation (as foreshadowed by the hat saying that self-awareness enhances its sense of humor) is that the hat chose to play a prank, and that the reason this was its first-ever prank is that these were circumstances that had literally never happened before.
Opinion of God. Unless people are being really silly, when the text genuinely holds open more than one option and makes sense either way, I think the author legit doesn’t get to decide.
<3
(Although, nitpick: it seems useful to have opinion-of-god as a term of art just like we have word-of-god as a term of art, but I don’t think it’s your mere opinion that you intended the latter interpretation.)