It's just recording information.

If I'm recalling correctly, it makes some judgment calls. But I don't have OOtP with me, so I can't give evidence.

From the JKR interview linked somewhere above:

ES: Has the sorting hat ever been wrong?

JKR: No.

ES: Really?

JKR: Mm-mm. Do you have a theory?

ES: I have heard a lot of theories.

JKR: [laugh] I bet you have. No. [laugh] Sorry.

MA: That's interesting, because that would suggest that the voice comes more from a person's own head than the hat itself -

JKR: [makes mysterious noise]

MA: And that maybe when it talks on its own it comes from -

JKR: The founders themselves.

The only problem with either Gryffindor's sword or the Sorting Hat as Horcruxes is when would Riddle have had access to either of them? The sword had, presumably, been stored someplace unknown until Harry unintentionally summoned it from the Hat (or the Hat gave it to him, which is my preferred interpretation) in the Chamber, and the Hat itself never left the Headmaster's office outside of the first day of school until Fawkes brought it to the Chamber. If Riddle had been able to get that job teaching at Hogwarts, I'd be more inclined to think that he was able to get his hands on either or both of these objects. As it is, though, I'm inclined to think that the final Horcrux is something belonging to Ravenclaw.

Harry has been able to break into the Headmaster's office, so I think that Riddle could have gotten up there, too. Especially when he was Riddle and not yet Voldemort.

Is there any mention of the sword before Harry pulls it from the Hat? That seems like just the sort of object that JKR would show us early, to appear later.

I don't think so, at least not in SS/PS, or IIRC at any point in CoS before it showed up in the Hat. I always got the impression that the Hat, being Gryffindor's, was able to transport it from wherever to give it to Harry. Don't forget that "Only a true Gryffindor would have been able to pull that out of a hat."

As to Riddle gaining access to the Headmaster's office, being Head Boy he could very well have done so, but what was the murder that anchored the soul bit into the Horcrux if he had? It would have had to have been done in Hogwarts (I assume), and there was no violent deaths on campus between Myrtle's and Cedric's.

With HP talk slowing down (well, a little), is there any consensus on how we're going to pick the next book?

From the subsequent posts, I don't think HBP discussion is slowing down, I think it's mostly a case of mulling over what has gone before, and some people are still reading.

An HBP A-Z in the style of Gorey. Or at least, the first 6 pictures of her WIP.

Eeeeeee! Oh, how fabulous.

As I can't possibly hope to follow Nilly, I'll just say that the idea of Rupert Grint in the love potion scene delights me to no end.

According to the Keirsey test, I'm a Ravenclaw. I did love this bit in the description of the "Mastermind Rational":

Masterminds are not at all eager to take command of projects or groups, preferring to stay in the background until others demonstrate their inability to lead

Heh. Guilty.

I may need to go back and read OotP. I seem to have forgotten many of the details that HBP referred to.

Masterminds are not at all eager to take command of projects or groups, preferring to stay in the background until others demonstrate their inability to lead

nodnodnod

Aw. That was my little Mohamed last year. Very smart kid, loved him to bits, probably gay (once terms about sexuality have any meaning - at 9 yrs old, not so much) and very much an Evil Mastermind. Somehow he was always at the centre of fights and people getting walloped, even when he wasn't actually doing any walloping himself. He announced randomly one day that he only had to learn the lyrics to 2 more, and then he'd know all of Britney Spears' songs by heart. And when we did 'what do you want to be when you grow up' as part of circle time, he said he wanted to be a fashion designer. Although a few days later he decided that he wanted to be an assassin - I told him he could be both, if he wanted, and that assassins are usually very well dressed, and need special clothes with good places for hiding knives. (He also informed my friend K, self-proclaimed God of Gay, that his shirt was "very Versace".)

...damn, I did love Mohamed. VERY smart kid, with an excellent vocabulary. His written work was for shit, but there was masses going on in his head. Definitely an Evil Mastermind, though.

I had a HP dream last night.

McGonagal was going through Hogworts and seeing every class stressing a tough new curriculum that she hated, seeing the gentler witches and wizards marginalized. She was annoyed at the Ministry of Magic, but for political reasons she was letting them dictate the studies.

however, after one particularly bright but sensitive witch was almost driven out of school, she sought out Harry to assist her in taking back Hogworts once again.

Apparently my dreams are derivative.