I pulled Ron and Hermione aside in the Gryffindor common room.
"Okay, we need to talk about whatever just happened."
"Yeah, definitely." Hermione agreed.
"Why?" Ron asked. "What is there to talk about?" Hermione just rolled her eyes.
"Did you see the way the fire turned green? How the shadows literally started moving towards him? How the hat screamed? That's never happened before! What freaked the hat out that bad?" She fired a barrage of questions at me.
"I have no idea! What did he go through to make the hat scream like that?"
There was silence for a moment, because nobody knew the answer. Ron's eyes flicked back and forth between me and Hermione.
"Maybe the bloke got... abused?" Ron suggested. Me and Hermione stared.
"That... makes sense!" Hermione said in an awed whisper. And it was true- that was the smartest thing Ron had said all day. Actually, he hadn't really said anything smart all day, but it was a pretty smart thing he had suggested.
"But is that enough to make the hat go barking mad? Bloody hell, it scared my soul out of my body! Besides, there's been like hundreds- thousands, actually- students at Hogwarts. Some of them have probably been abused, and the hat has never reacted like this." I told him.
"Yeah, I suppose." Ron looked downcast.
"Hey, mate, it was still a great idea. Better than what we've got." I patted him on the shoulder.
"Besides, did you what the hat said to Will Solace? It's never listed the qualifications of someone in front of the whole student body. It must've felt really obliged. Wonder what he did." Hermione interjected.
"I noticed that too," I told her. Ron rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Bit of a weird day, isn't it? We should probably go to bed." Ron grinned and agreed, and we headed our separate ways.