In 1865, a young girl by the name of Alice Liddell went missing from outside of her home in Oxford, England. Left in the care of her older sister, Margaret, no one could understand how the seven-year-old had disappeared so suddenly. Yet, after multi...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
───THE SORTING HAT remained silent for a little while longer and at that point, Alice was beginning to think that there was something terribly wrong. She could hear the sighs of discontent from the other students that had been patiently waiting their turn, prior to her sitting down on the stool. Not wanting to be the centre of negative attention, Alice's eyes rolled upwards to peer into the dark void of the hat.
"Am I really that difficult to sort?" she questioned. "Seems to be taking an awfully long time."
It seemed the Sorting Hat could sense her nerves as she heard it let out a small laugh that reminded her of the laughter of the Duchess's cook. "Well, I wouldn't want to make the wrong decision. That could have an awful set of consequences."
"If all houses are equally great in their own way, why would it honestly matter which house I am sorted into? Could I not have something to benefit from each one?"
Little did Alice know that the Sorting Hat always enjoyed the involvement of students when it came to their input of what house they were sorted into. It didn't care for students that simply based their decision on that of wanting to stay to the traditions of their family, but he always liked when they had their own questions pertaining to their future.
"Yes, you could, especially in your case. However, it's all about which house would benefit you the most. Which one would help you grow during your time here?"
Alice pondered the question for a moment before giving a small shrug of her shoulders. "I believe I would grow in any of the houses."
"But how much?"
Unbeknownst to Alice, she was closing in on becoming a hat stall as the professors and students looked on. She sat incredibly still on the stool, her hands folded politely in her lap and her back perfectly straight as if she were sitting and waiting for tea. She was unfamiliar with the Sorting Ceremony, not knowing the actual timeframe that it was supposed to take. From what she had witnessed, it hadn't taken nearly as long for the other students to be sorted, so she sincerely wished that the hat would make a decision soon.
"It's a rare occasion when a student carries the traits that would allow them to fit into the four houses equally," the hate informed her, "even taking your family's sorting into consideration, it's difficult to put one house before another."
Alice let out a deflated sigh as she suddenly slouched. The situation began to remind her of the Cheshire Cat again and one of the first conversations she shared with the grinning feline.
"I was wondering if you could help me find my way..." she had asked the cat once she found herself lost in Wonderland after chasing after the White Rabbit.
"Well, that depends on where you want to get to," Cheshire answered resting on the limb of the tree.
