Witch hat
A witch hat (), in popular culture, is the style of hat characterized by a conical crown and a wide brim (like akubras and gats).
The origins of the witch hat as displayed today is disputed. A common theory is that it is an exaggeration of the edgeless hats associated with the Welsh and later the Puritans, or an exaggeration of the conical hats believed to stimulate the brain of the wearer. These "thinking caps" are the precursors to the modern dunce cap. Church despised pointy hats given that the points were often related to those of the devil's horns. The witch hat is a more brimmed version of the cone-shaped hats commonly worn by male-gendered wizards and magicians, as the hat was more brimmed for it to be female-appropriate. As of the Victorian era, fairy tales began depicting black-colored conical hats and crones as symbols of wickedness in their illustrations. Another possibility is that in Luna, a town of the Etruscan civilization, there were coins on one side depicting a goddess commonly associated with witches, named Diana, wearing a brimless, cone-shaped hat.
Magical objects in Harry Potter
The Sorting Hat is a sapient artefact used at Hogwarts, which uses Legilimency (essentially, the ability to read minds) to determine which of the four school houses – Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin – each new student is to be assigned for their years at Hogwarts. The hat resembles a dilapidated conical leather wide-brimmed wizard's hat, with folds and tears that make it appear to have eyes and a mouth. During the opening banquet at the beginning of each school year, the Hat is placed on every first-year student's head. The Hat announces its choice aloud, and the student joins the selected house. The Hat speaks to the student while they're being sorted and is willing to take the student's preferences into account when it makes its decision. Sometimes it does not have the need to do so: for instance, the Hat barely touched Draco Malfoy's head before sending him to Slytherin. The Sorting Hat had a difficult time placing Harry, almost placing him into Slytherin house before he requested specifically and emphatically not to be. The Hat instead placed him into Gryffindor, the house of his parents. Rowling has stated the reason for the Hat's indecision as to which house to place him into was because it sensed the part of Voldemort's soul within Harry.