Nobody seemed to have any idea what the Sorting involved. Hogwarts: A History had spoken vaguely of a test of character, and other than that, said that the Sorting process was traditionally kept secret from outsiders. Seamus had heard a half-dozen different claims from his mother, each one more outlandish than the last. Neville had simply been told that he should make sure to wash behind his ears—"but Gran always says that, so it might not mean anything at all," he said.