Hogwarts: I am Harry's eldest cousin

Chapter 39: Then Slytherin

"I really doubt if the pen is broken, but it will not make a mistake. It is something even older than me."

The Sorting Hat uttered a sentence without a clear beginning or end. If it could show a human-like expression, it would probably resemble 'confused subway grandpa with a cellphone.'

"Whether it is or not doesn't matter, at least I'm here," Dudley said, trying to keep himself calm.

"You make a valid point," nodded the Sorting Hat.

"So, which house will I be sorted into? Hufflepuff?"

Dudley was mentally prepared to be sorted into Hufflepuff.

"Hurry up and put me in Hufflepuff. I'm hungry."

After a brief pause, the Sorting Hat seemed to have discovered something. "I take back what I said. In fact, you are ambitious, capable, and have a tendency to plan things thoroughly. What's the word... ah, yes, foresight. You really remind me of that person."

"Can you read my thoughts?" Dudley felt a slight ripple in his mind. Before going on stage, he had undergone five rounds of 'meditation' to enhance his mental defenses for six times.

"No, I can only read the traits on you," the Sorting Hat explained.

"Traits?" Dudley's mind flashed with numerous guesses.

"Yes, pause for a moment, pause for a moment. The thoughts in your mind are like sesame cans falling to the ground, so complex that it gives me a headache. Completely different from those simple-minded young wizards."

Certainly, Dudley's thoughts were anything but simple.

"Sorting Hat, you said you can't read minds?"

"I'm just a hat, no need to argue with me so much," the Sorting Hat evaded.

"Normally, I should follow the wishes of young wizards like you, but my consciousness is formed by the ideologies of the four founders of the school."

At this point, the tone of the Sorting Hat changed, becoming slower and lower.

Though it was still the Sorting Hat, it gave Dudley the illusion that it had changed hats.

Perhaps it wasn't an illusion.

Or maybe it was a split personality?

"You are similar to that person," the Sorting Hat emphasized again. "Strong-willed, disdainful of dogma. Of course, if you could stop those random thoughts in your mind! Now! Immediately! The hat is about to explode!"

The first half was mysterious, but the latter half was urgent. The tone returned to its previous state.

Dudley didn't like others prying into his thoughts, even if it was just a hat. So, he continued to recall the knowledge he had learned over the years from Pythagorean theorem and calculus to the physiological differences between men and women.

'Dxsinx=cosx, cosx=-sinx, tanx=sec2x'

'When several particles interact with each other, the characteristics possessed by each particle are synthesized into the overall properties, and the characteristics of each particle cannot be described individually.'

Seeing that Dudley showed no intention of stopping, the Sorting Hat sighed helplessly.

"Fine, fine, I won't look anymore."

The ocean of chaotic knowledge almost overwhelmed its consciousness.

It swore that it was the first time in a thousand years it had encountered such a young wizard.