You don't want me to turn out like Maledict Gaunt.

I don't know terribly much more about Maledict Gaunt than you do, the hat says.  I'm sure she has many fine qualities -

She's actually a bit gobsmacked by the hat saying that - and of course she can't control whether the hat notices that because it's reading her mind -

Is that such a surprising sentiment?

You know it's a surprising sentiment!!

I do!  I know you find it inane and exasperating when people hesitate to speak well of bad people in case their interlocutor pounces on them and accuses them of sympathizing too much with evil.  I know you are enticed by some of what you know about Maledict Gaunt, that she shrouded herself expertly in secrecy and that she was ruthless in the pursuit of her goals.  And in fact I think a dash of ruthlessness can be quite a fine thing in the right circumstances.  I do not think the world would be a better place if there were no ruthless people in it, else I would never sort anybody into Slytherin.

But you don't want me to go to Slytherin.

Do you think you need to go to Slytherin to learn ruthlessness?

Presumably you know -

I am asking you because the predictable result of asking you the question is causing you to consciously consider the answer, and I think that consciously considering the answer would be good for you.

She doesn't like the sorting hat.

That's fine.  You never have to put me on again after I sort you.

No, I suppose I don't need Slytherin house to teach me ruthlessness.

You see, that's the thing new students often don't understand about the houses.  They're not just about who you are, they're about who you can learn to be.

I want to learn to be whatever I was in my past life, but you don't seem enthusiastic about that.

I think you can learn to be even more powerful than you were in your past life.  I think you can be someone who doesn't need to shroud herself in secrecy in order to be trusted or admired or loved, without giving up the capacity to do so if secrecy is a good idea.  I think there are ways of living your life that you regard as limiting, that you can learn to choose for your benefit and wield as tools that increase your capabilities, without sacrificing the particular ways you think and feel and move through the world.  I think there are emotions that you regard on some level as a form of harm that you can learn to embrace and use to empower and enrich yourself, and expand the range of ways you can interact with the world and the people in it.

Sounds like a load of waffle to me.

No it doesn't!  I'm reading your mind!

And you think if I go to Slytherin I won't get any of these amazing benefits of being a nicer person than Maledict Gaunt was.

Wrong again!  I think you are perfectly capable of getting all these amazing benefits no matter what house you go to.

Then will you put me in Slytherin?

Do you remember when you were very small, and you first began to remember your past life, and you remembered the feeling (though you didn't have the words to express it at the time) of being perfectly aligned within yourself toward a solitary purpose that burned bright and sharp like a star?

Yes.

Do you think Gryffindor, the house of determination and courage to do what you know you must, and Hufflepuff, the house of putting in the work no matter how difficult or exhausting, might have some interesting things to say to you about that state of mind?

Are you going to pitch me on Ravenclaw as well next?