The sorting hat has placed Reading in the Harry Potter house Slytherin, according to new research.

Sales data on house-specific Potter merchandise obtained by online retailer Lost Universe revealed Reading prefers the ambitious, cunning and often evil witches and wizards.

Slytherin was the second most popular in the UK (32 per cent) beaten only by Gryffindor (40 per cent).

But 57 per cent of Harry Potter fans said they would want to be in Gryffindor and just 8 per cent would ask the sorting hat to put them in Slytherin, according to a YouGov poll.

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According to the data, Birmingham would be the capital of Slytherin, Doncaster the capital of Gryffindor, Sheffield the capital of Hufflepuff and Southampton the capital of Ravenclaw.

Reading is joined in Slytherin by Aberdeen, Bath, Belfast, Birmingham, Blackburn, Bradford, Central London, Cambridge, Carlisle, Chester, Crewe, Darlington, Dartford, Dundee, Durham, Edinburgh, Halifax, Hemel Hampstead and Huddersfield.

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The rest of the house is made up of Inverness, Ipswich, Leicester, Llandudno, Newport, Nottingham, Orpington, Peterborough, Plymouth, Reading, South London, Stockport, Swansea, Swindon, Taunton, Truro, Warrington and Wigan.

Nearby Slough was placed in Ravenclaw.