Chapter 1
The Hogwarts Sorting Hat. A magical marvel. Has sorted every student to walk through Hogwarts’ halls into the best house for them. All mostly true, because what most people don’t realize is that the Hat takes the students’ preference the most seriously. It'll try to convince them to consider the house they more closely fit but if a student is convinced they usually do well anyway.
When the most recent war broke out, more and more students started going to the Lion's Den. It was bound to happen, with the emphasis on the bravery that Dumbledore pushed for in the papers. And when those brave people the papers had talked won the war the situation didn't get better. In the years leading up to Harry Potter's arrival to the school there was an all time high of Gryffindors who were there based on preference and not based on the Hat's judgment. No one really noticed due to the natural dip in non-preference Gryffindors (a natural thing, sometimes certain traits are just less common within an age group, this was an odd time for Gryffindors’ traits to be rare but in the long run it usually doesn't matter).
That was why, when the Hat was placed on Harry's head it wasn't surprised that the last Potter wasn't a shoe-in for Gryffindor, or that he wanted to be. So to the lions the boy went, they'll take care of him.