The Sorting Hat

The Sorting Hat is an enchanted hat that used to belong to Godric Gryffindor. It has the intelligence of all 4 founders and of course, it sorted students into the 4 Houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. In fact, because the hat used to be a possession of Godric Gryffindor he made it so that if a Gryffindor student was wearing the hat and asked for help Gryffindor's sword appeared in his hand.

Hat Stall

A Hat Stall is when a new student is sitting and is wearing the hat for longer than 5 minutes because the hat is having difficulty trying to sort the student. During Harry's time, only Hermione Granger who the Sorting Hat was debating between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, and Neville Longbottom who the Sorting Hat was debating between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Other characters that Harry knew were Minerva McGonagall and Peter Pettigrew. McGonagall was between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. As for Peter, it was between Gryffindor and Slytherin.