The Wisdom of the Hat
An excerpt from Hogwarts, a History:
Hogwarts has been, since its founding, a co-educational institution. That means, from the beginning, both witches and wizards were taught there. However, girls and boys did not always receive the same curriculum. Having boys and girls in the same classroom is a relatively recent development.
In the beginning, Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin trained the wizards while Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff taught the witches. This arrangement evolved over time and produced four specific pre-determined outcomes.
Gryffindor House produced adventurers, treasure hunters and travelers who went where they willed and helped those in need. (Gandalf the Grey is this sort of wizard.) Slytherins were groomed for roles in government. Even before there was a Ministry of Magic, Slytherin wizards served kings and earls as advisors and defenders.
Ravenclaw witches took much the same curriculum as the wizards did. After graduating, they rarely married, but clustered together into covens or worked independently as solo practitioners. Many Muggle fairy tales involve solo practitioner witches.
Hufflepuff girls, on the other hand, were groomed from the beginning to be mothers and housewives. They were taught an extensive curriculum of charms and healing spells, as well as training in child rearing and household management. Hufflepuff witches were highly sought after as wives by both Gryffindor and Slytherin wizards.
This arrangement may sound sexist to contemporary minds, but it reflected the role of women in the broader society. These divisions in the teaching curriculum at Hogwarts continued throughout the Middle Ages and into the first decades of the Renaissance.
In the late 1700's, things began to change in the world outside the castle walls. Writers such as Mary Wollstonecraft began advocating for the rights of women. Change came to the school, as often is the case, by way of the sorting hat.
On September the First, 1798, a short, plump boy named Alfred Appledore was sorted into Hufflepuff. This announcement was greeted by much laughter from the student body. The Headmaster, Grimm, commanded silence with a stern glance, and directed Appledore to the Gryffindor table.
In those days, it was still the tradition that boys be sorted first and the girls second. All was calm for several names, as boys were sorted, one by one, into either Gryffindor or Slytherin. When the Deputy Headmaster called the name of Roald Radcliffe, no one at first came forward. Radcliffe had his nose in a book. He didn't realize his name had been called until the remaining boys pushed him forward. He sat on the stool with the hat on his head, and his nose still in his book. The hat placed Radcliffe into Ravenclaw.
Again, there was laughter. Professor Grimm raised his imposing finger once more and directed Radcliffe to the Slytherin table.
The last boy was sorted, and the Deputy Headmaster moved on to the girls on his list. Just when everyone had assumed that the bee was out of the Sorting Hat's bonnet, it recommended Colleen O'Shaughnessey for Gryffindor.
Instead of laughter, this announcement was greeted with cheers. There were several O'Shaughnessey brothers and cousins in Gryffindor, enough to field two Quidditch teams. They were quite pleased to add Colleen to their ranks. Colleen, still short at that age, with nut brown hair and freckles, jumped off the chair and ran to sit with her brothers. Professor Grimm, however, raised his imperious finger and directed her to the Hufflepuff table.
Typically, by the time the Deputy Headmaster reaches the end of the list of students, everyone is restless and eager for supper. Not this day, however. Every student was on the edge of his or her seat, waiting to see which girl the hat would send to Slytherin.
At last, the final girl, thin, blond, sallow Abigail Van Helsing, whose family are ancestors of the Victorian Era vampire hunters, sat on the chair. To no one's surprise, the hat sent her to Slytherin. Grimm, however, directed her to Ravenclaw.
The feast commenced, and Professor Grim felt he had nipped this rebellion in the bud. He was, after all, an arch conservative, who had no time for ridiculous notions about women's rights. Over the next few days, however, both the staff and the student body began to see the wisdom of the hat's choices.
Alfred Appledore was slow, shy and easily flustered. He simply could not keep pace with the rambunctious, athletic Gryffindor boys. The Sixth and Seventh Year boys, when directing outings in the hills near Hogsmeade, took to carrying young Alfred on their shoulders, so that he would not be trampled or left behind. Bradley Burns, who grew up on a farm, compared carting Alfred around to toting a gunny sack of apples. Thus, poor Alfred earned the name "Apple-sack."
Alfred's only friend, and his greatest defender, was none other than Colleen O'Shaughnessey. Colleen saw the wisdom of having her dormitory with other First Year girls, but beyond that, she considered herself a Gryffindor. She ate with her brothers and cousins at every meal, and she attended classes with the Gryffindor First Years. No amount of threats and punishments from the Headmaster could deter her. Exasperated, Professor Grimm contacted Colleen's parents. Sean O'Shaughnessey responded back with a sternly worded note saying that the Hat was older than Grimm and therefore had more wisdom. And, since that Hat had been Godric Gryffindor's in the first place, it must know a Gryffindor when it sees one.
Meanwhile, in Slytherin House, things were not going well with Roald Radcliffe. Political machinations and shifting alliances have always been a part of the social fabric of Slytherin House. One must play the game or face a brutal ostracism that can last a lifetime. The political game, however, held no interest whatsoever for Radcliffe. When he didn't have his nose in a book, he had his hand in the air, shouting out answers during lecture and demonstrating as often as possible what an insufferable know-it-all he was.
Radcliffe's troubles were nothing to the chaos that erupted around Abigail Van Helsing. Van Helsing's whispered rumours, innuendo, and pointed attacks at her rivals' emotional weaknesses created a storm of tears in Ravenclaw Tower.
On a Saturday, in the first week of November, the Prefects met to discuss the situation. They came to the unanimous decision that the Hat had been right. The only way to restore peace to the campus was to place the four students back into the Houses that the Hat had originally recommended.
At first, Grimm resisted the notion, as it ran against the traditions that he was so keen to uphold. After a flood of owls from parents concerned for the welfare of their Ravenclaw daughters, Grimm was forced to reconsider. He called the Heads of Houses, the Head Boy and Girl, and the prefects together. They needed to decide how this new arrangement would work.
The common rooms, dormitories and bathrooms had always been single sex. There were no Girls bathroom in the Gryffindor or Slytherin common rooms, nor was there a Boys bathroom in the Eyrie or the Den.
"And where," asked Grimm, "would these four sleep? While they are still children, this may not be a problem, but what about when they grow older? We shall be putting foxes in the hen house, and hens amongst the foxes."
The Gryffindor prefect was an O'Shaughnessey, and he reacted to this with indignation. "No harm shall come to my little sister from anyone in Gryffindor!"
The Head Boy, a Slytherin named Baingarden, would not be outdone by his rival. "We have no blood ties to Van Helsing," he solemnly intoned, "but no harm shall befall her by force or by spell from any Slytherin. She shall be a little sister to all of us."
Appledore and Radcliffe seemed too harmless, the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff prefects thought it comical that they would attempt to seduce anyone. "I'm sure we could make arrangements to preserve the privacy and propriety of all involved," declared the Head Girl (Portia Redbank, a Ravenclaw).
So, it was decided. The girls’ area of each common room was laid with enchantments to ward off over-amorous boys. (It was felt that no enchantments were needed to keep girls from the boys' dormitory. Girls, from the beginning, were felt to have more sense.) A boy’s bathroom was installed in Ravenclaw Tower and the Hufflepuff Den, and a girl's bathroom was installed in Gryffindor Tower and in the Halls of the Serpent.
Colleen was welcomed with open arms into Gryffindor House. She continued to defy Professor Grimm's orders to take a more wifely curriculum. Every day, she attended classes with the boys. Quick witted and athletic, having grown up with older brothers, she was well equipped to be the first girl Gryffindor.
The Ravenclaw girls were quick to warm to their little bookish little brother, whose intellectual curiosity was so like their own. They made a little nook in the Eyrie for him, and kept it well stocked with interesting books.
Abigail Van Helsing was indeed accepted as a Little Sister by her Slytherin brothers. For the rest of her years at Hogwarts, she remained dearer friends with the boys of her House than with any girl. She was often seen roaming the grounds, wearing an emerald dress, trimmed in silver, at a center of a pack of boys.
The solemn promise made by Baingarden was honourably held by all the boys in his fraternity. Through the years, as more and more girls have entered Slytherin House, the Oath remains - a Slytherin boy shall not harm, by force or spell, any of his Slytherin sisters, at the risk of a bitter, life-long exile.
Alfred Appledore was quite relieved to be dismissed from Gryffindor House. Though, in the beginning, he was embarrassed to be the first boy in Hufflepuff, he quickly warmed to his new sisters. They doted on him, and the friendships he formed with those girls was so strong, he began taking the same curriculum that they did. Despite the disapproval of the Headmaster, he and Colleen O'Shaughnessey (another girl with whom he developed a lifelong friendship) switched places. She took his spot in the "boys’ curriculum" and he took hers in the "girls’." Appledore became such an expert at Charms that he would later return to Hogwarts as an instructor.
In subsequent years, more and more boys and girls were sorted in this fashion, until all four houses had roughly equal numbers of witches and wizards. The divisions between curriculum also fell away until both sexes were taking the same set of classes.