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Why wasn't the sorting hat used to prove Harry didn't put his name in the Goblet of Fire?



The question is pretty much what the title says. Harry was not skilled at Occlumency and according to the Potter wiki,



it can use Legilimency to interpret their thoughts and respond to them



Would this not have been sufficient? The hat is sentient and so could probably interpret its findings.



Answer



I think the Sorting Hat would have been able to tell that Harry hadn't put his name in the Goblet of Fire; it might have even been able to have told Dumbledore what it saw. However, Dumbledore had accepted Harry's word that Harry did not put his name in the goblet. Using the Sorting Hat (or Veritaserum for that matter) would have only confirmed what Dumbledore already believed. Harry did not know who put his name in the cup; the Sorting Hat, Legilimency, and Veritaserum would not have been able to elicit the identity of the person who put Harry's name into the cup (Barty Crouch Jr./Moody).


The other issue, I think, is the fact that if a person's name is put into the cup, and then that person is subsequently selected to be a Triwizard contestant, it constitutes a binding magical contract. The person is compelled to compete, whether they want to or not (although what would happen if a contestant refused to compete is unclear). So even if Dumbledore had confirmed via the Sorting Hat that Harry had not put his name in the cup himself, it wouldn't have changed anything. Harry still would have had to compete.


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