Chapter 18: Heavenly Music
The entire auditorium fell silent.
The older students from the other grades eagerly watched, waiting for the show to begin, while the new students nervously eyed the dirty, tattered hat as if a troll might leap out of it at any moment. Then, without warning, the hat began to wriggle. Its tip swayed side to side, while the brim undulated up and down, as if it were attempting to dance.
But the more Kyle observed, the more he felt that something was off.
How to describe it? Whoever had designed this sequence of movements clearly had no idea what they were doing. It reminded him of a flounder—a particularly unattractive one at that—flailing around awkwardly. And unlike the more graceful, fluid movements he'd expect, this one was stiff, clumsy, and lacking any sense of finesse.
It was also considerably uglier.
The Sorting Hat, apparently aware that dancing wasn't its strong suit, soon stopped its movements. Instead, it split open a mouth-like gap and began to hum softly before launching into its song:
"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,