Let's trade
"Switch with me, Georgie," Fred pleaded in his young voice. Their mother had just sewn them Christmas hats; Fred's had bells on it. Fred secretly suspected it was punishment because he had scared Ron into oblivion with a spider a few weeks ago. George yanked his green hat down over his ears, grabbed Fred's and ran outside in the snow. Fred trailed behind and wondered what his brother was about to do. George pulled out his wand and did some quick magic, a harmless spell that the Ministry would assume was performed by their mother. Two of the four bells on Fred's hat flew off and sewed themselves onto Georges. Fred grinned and they both put their hats on, saying at precisely the same time; "Look at us, we're identical!". They ran off, bells tinkling, to torment Ron.
They stood in the Great Hall, waiting to be sorted, thinking of pranks they could pull to make light of the situation, and to loosen the nervous knots in their stomachs. "Weasley, Fred" Professor Mcgonagall called out. They stole a quick glance at each other and winked. George strode up confidently to the hat. Each knew the other so well that the sorting hat didn't realize what was going on, and sorted them both into Gryffindor.
"Trade?" George yelled out at his twin in their first Quidditch match. Fred nodded, and they determinedly switched targets, weaving back and forth, confusing the merciless Slytherin beater who had been assigned the task of taking down Fred. In the moments after the match had been won by Gryffindor, before the loud uproar and celebration, that strange silence in which everyone wondered if the red-clad seeker had indeed caught the Snitch, a Slytherin beater knocked a Bludger at the back of George's unaware head of red hair. Fred saw this, however, and sent his club flying through the air, where it knocked the Bludger off its path. George didn't realize what had happened, and Fred didn't feel the need to tell him. The moment was lost in the lion's roar of the crowd, the cheering and the celebration. Conjured confetti fell around them on the field, specks of gold and red spewing from wands, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff alike. The twins grinned and flew around the field with their teammates.
"Let's trade," George had laughed softly at the Yule Ball, gesturing at their dates. Fred had chuckled right along with him, and so they did. After a few minutes of dancing with each other's dates, Angelina Johnson noticed, and hit them both playfully, but hard, scolding them with a firm "You two..."
"Let's trade," Fred said, holding his Christmas sweater with the huge "F" inscribed on the chest. George grinned back at him, and they swapped sweaters. For hours, everyone thought that Fred was George and George was Fred. Just like those times when they were much younger, they did it to mess with people. Now they were seventeen, and of age, but in light of everything that had happened recently with their father, and the magical world in general, they felt they needed a nice secret joke
"Let's trade," George begged his dead brother. "Let's trade," he begged for the hundredth time. He screamed in his head "I'll switch with you… just come back!". He smoothed out the red hair atop his mirror-image best friend, praying that when he did, Fred would jump out at him, laughing and it would all be a joke. George knew better, but he still hoped. He had to.