Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognise.
My name is John Daniels, I grew up in the foster system after I was given up when I was a baby. I've been in 18 foster homes in my 11 years of life, turns out foster parents don't like pranks all that much.
"John get the mail" my newest foster dad Alex orders.
"Yes sir!" I mockingly salute before running off to get the mail.
"Bill, bill, postcard, bill, -who is Frederick Weasley?" I ask myself looking through the mail, the letter to Frederick is a weird thick yellow paper, the ink is green and its addressed to my bedroom.
"What's the hold-up John?" Alex calls.
"Nothing" I lie walking back into the room and handing him all but the mystery letter, then turning around and heading to my room.
"John" Alice says sounding shocked.
I look up and see my foster mother staring at the letter.
"You got a letter to Hogwarts?" she asks looking at me now.
"Depends what's Hogwarts?" I ask her.
"Let's go to your room, I will explain" she says looking past me to the room Alex is in.
I nod, and we go to my room.
"It's not addressed to me, but it has my bedroom on it" I tell her as soon as she closes the door.
She frowns and looks at the letter, "My brother got a letter like this when he was your age. It's from a school of magic."
I raise an eyebrow, "So I'm going to learn how to pull rabbits out of hats?"
"More like turn hats into rabbits" she tells me, "It's a school for real magic. My brother Andy was a Muggleborn, that's someone who has magic but is from a non-magic family."
"Magic isn't real" I tell her, trying not to think of the weird stuff that I've done over the years.
"So last month when you moved here the walls in your room didn't turn from purple to red after you got upset?" she raise a eyebrow.
"Point" I nod, okay I have magic…what kind of pranks could I pull with magic? "Still, why doesn't it have my name on it?"
She looks at the letter, "I don't know. Andy told me a magic quill wrote all the letters and all the ones for Muggleborns were sent straight to the deputy headmistress, she visited our family with the letter and explained….it's possible your parents were and witch and wizard, so you don't get a teacher to explain, as for the name….I hate to say this but maybe there was a mistake somewhere, maybe the hospital or one of your early foster homes and maybe you got swapped with another baby."
Swapped? Maybe, Frederick Weasley is a weird name, but it's better than John, maybe I should go with Fred? John is boring name I never did like it. I take the letter from her and read through it, "Where are we going to get all this stuff?"
"I know where, I went with Andy a few times" she tells me, "Get your coat, I'll make up a story for Alex."
A hour later we're in London walking around.
"Look for a bar called the Leaky Cauldron, I can't see it-I'm a Muggle, that's what they call Non-magic people. It leads to Diagon Alley, a magic shopping district" Alice tells me.
I nod, and quickly spot a old looking sign, "Found it."
I lend her into the bar and she leads me to the back where a man with a wand is tapping a brick wall, the wall disappears, revealing a magic street full of people in cloaks.
After going to the bank to change Muggle money for wizard money we go get my stuff (most of it second-hand,) our last stop is for my wand.
"Huh, another Weasley? I thought I already saw you just two weeks ago, no matter" a creepy silver haired old man says looking at me. Before starting a speech about the wand choosing the wizard and having a tape measure, measure every part of me
The guy who sells wands is crazy, great.
After a few wands he smiles and walks into the back, "Birch wood, Phoenix feather core, 12 inches."
I take the wand and purple and orange lights shoot out and it fills me with warmth.
The wand maker smiles, "A twin wand set, very rare even for twins."
I pay the man a quickly leave, not thinking on his words.
I spend the next month going over my books, looking for ways to use the spells for pranks and practising everything that looks fun. I also start going by Fred, John never felt right, but Fred does.
After saying goodbye to Alice, I hop on the train to Hogwarts, only a minute before it goes.
I walk down the corridor looking for a empty compartment and freeze when I see someone with my face sitting alone in one.
I open the door and he turns to look at me with wide eyes.
"Wow, you look just like me!" we say at the same time.
I grin at him, "This is so cool. I'm Fred," I sit down across from him.
"George" he tells me still staring, "Why do you look just like me?"
"No clue" I shrug, "Does stuff like this happen is the magic world? People just randomly looking just like someone else."
"Not without potions or spells. I take it you grew up Muggle?"
"Yep."
He looks thoughtful for a moment, "We should go talk to Bill, my brother. Who knows maybe I have a long-lost twin."
I nod and follow him out.
Once he sees who he's looking for he opens the door, "Hey Billy, Charlie do I have a twin?"
"What?" two voices reply sounding confused.
I move to stand next to George in the doorway, the two in here are George's brothers, both with red hair and freckles, "Hi, just met Georgie here and were a little confused about our similar appearance."
They stare at me with wide eyes, "Frederick?" the older one with the Head Boy badge asks with a stunned look.
"Yeah…. well Fred" I look at him, then to George, "He knows my name, guess that answers the twin question."
He nods, "That it does. Anyone wanna tell me why I wasn't told I had a twin, or why he grew up Muggle?"
"He died when you were born" the one with a book about dragon on his lap tells us, "Or we thought he did. The two of you were born in Muggle hospital-long story, you were both fine then we were told Fred died in the night."
"Must have been a swap" I nod.
"Swap?" all three of them ask.
"It doesn't happen a lot, but sometimes a Muggle nurse or doctor gets muddled and puts the wrong name tag on a baby and they go home with the wrong family, or one of them dies" I tell them, yeah, I watched a few true story movies about it, Alice did say it could be why my name was wrong.
"If you got swapped how did you know your name is Fred?" the Head Boy asks.
"It was on my Hogwarts letter, and my old name John was boring" I shrug.
"So umm, what are you…parents like?" George asks awkwardly.
"You tell me, I grew up in the foster system" I tell them.
"What's that?" dragon book asks.
"Wow you wizards are cut off" I comment, "Its where Muggle's send kids with no family, the government pays people to let orphans live in their houses."
Enter awkward silence.
"So…. which one of you is Bill and which is Charlie? George didn't say" I ask trying to change the subject.
"I'm Bill" the Head boy tells me still looking upset.
"Charlie" dragon book answers, "And we've got other siblings too-oh, I should go find Percy" he gets up and walks out.
"Percy?" I look at my twin.
"Our brother, he's two years older than us, we also got another brother Ron, he's two years younger and a sister Ginny, she's a year younger than Ron" George tells me before looking to Bill, "Mum is going to flip when she finds out."
Bill nods with a sigh, "I'll write her once you to get sorted."
"Sorted?" I ask.
"The school has four houses, you get sorted by personality traits" George tells me.
The door opens again, and Charlie comes back with another redhead, must be Percy.
Percy walks up to be and shakes my hand, "Wonderful to meet you Frederick. I am Percival, you may call me Percy."
I laugh, "Wow your formal. I'm Fred, you can call me Fred."
"Percy was born without a sense of humour" George tells me in a voice like he's talking about someone dying.
"Truly tragic" I nod with the same sad voice.
Percy turns red and Bill and Charlie grin.
I pat Percy on the shoulder, "Relax I'm just teasing" I had a foster sister once who didn't have a sense of humour, I tried getting her to lighten up with pranks and teasing, eventually she broke and yelled that all the pranks and teasing was bullying to her, looking back it was. I won't make that mistake again. "We can chat later if you want? I wanna get to know all my new brothers-and sister."
He relaxes and nods with a small smile, "I would like that."
"So, do you like pranks?" George asks with a light in his eyes.
I grin, "Pranks are what got me kicked out of 17 foster homes. Teach me about magic pranks and I'll teach you Muggle ones."
He grins back, "You lot can bond with Freddie later. We need twin time" then he takes my hand and drags me back to our compartment.
The moment he touches my hand I feel something, a spark "What is that?" I think.
George freezes opening the door to our still empty compartment, "What….."
I look at him, "Did you just talk in my head?"
"You talked in mine" he grins, "I think were twin souls."
I sit down, "I can guess what that is. What does it mean for us?"
"Our uncles were" he tells me, "They could share memories, talk telepathically, feel each other's emotions. I guess since we didn't grow up together we have to work our way up to that, still touch telepathy is cool."
"Very cool" I grin before looking up at my hair which is longer than George's, "We're pretty identical. What do you say we really mess with people?"
He grins back, "I'm going to like you. I can feel it."
10 minutes later we have the same haircut and our school robes on, making us completely identical.
We spend the rest of the train ride getting to know each other, planning pranks and with George teaching me about the magic world and my family.
Near the end of the trip the door opens, and Bill sticks his head in, he looks between us, "You two are going to cause me a lot of grief, aren't you?"
"Yep" we grin together.
"Great" he sighs, "Which of you is George?"
"Me" we say together.
He face palms, "Great, okay George look out for Fred. He's new to this, and both of you please don't do anything that will get you expelled in your first year."
"Why do you think I'm going to do something to get expelled, you only met me today" George asks.
"And why do I have to watch him? I'm sure Freddie can take care of himself" I ask playing along with my twin.
"Your pranksters, I know you George and I saw the look in Fred's eye." He tells us, "And your new to this world Fred, there's a lot you don't know, especially with pureblood politics our family is known, and it can make things complicated."
"What's pureblood?" I ask.
Bill looks between us, "You were pretending to be each other…. This is going to become a regular thing isn't it?"
"Yep" we nod.
"So, what's pureblood?" I ask again.
"It's the word for someone with no Muggle blood in them, our family is pureblood, but we're also blood traitors. A lot of the old pureblood families hold a prejudice against Muggleborns, they don't think they should allowed to practice magic and have a slur against them, 'Mudblood' our family doesn't believe in blood purity or that Muggleborns and Muggle's are less than us, so we're blood traitors" George explains.
"And our family are very well known blood traitors, which means purebloods at school will know our last name and may say some rude things to you" Bill adds.
People suck with magic too, great. "Lovely…. wait I thought the number of magic people was small compared to Muggles, how can they keep their lines 'pure' without inbreeding?"
"What's inbreeding?" Bill asks.
"It's where family has kids with family, cousins marrying cousins. That kind of thing" they went over it in school last year, it sounded gross.
"Oh" Bill and George share a look, "We don't. All purebloods are related in some way, we just don't really think about it anymore."
George nods, "It's weird to think about. I think Mum and Dad are something like fourth cousins? Not too sure."
That is gross, if I ever get married it will be to a Muggle or Muggleborn. I am never going to even date a pureblood. Bill and George still don't look like they see the big deal, well I guess when you grow in with something one way it's hard to see it as wrong.
It's not too long later that a hat has finished singing and our names are called.
"Another Weasley? Oh, but you're Muggle-raised. Different, but at the same time the same. Yes, I know what to do with you better be Gryffindor!"
I smile and go to the cheering red and gold table and sit next to Percy and shake his hand when he offers it, "Looks like you three will be seeing a lot of me."
"Looks like we will" Charlie agrees.
"Gryffindor!" the hat calls again, and George comes and sits next to me.
"Hey Freddie, looks like we'll be roommates" he grins.
"Looks like Georgie" I grin back, I'll be rooming with my new twin brother and I have three more brothers in the same house. This is going to be a good year.
"Looks like it's just the three of us in the boy's dorm" Lee Jordan, the only other Gryffindor boy in our year tells us after the sorting.
"Looks like" George and I nod together, wow only known him a day and we're already talking at the same time like TV twins.
"I'm George" I tell him, "And this is my brother Fred."
George nods with a grin.
"I'm Lee" he nods back, "So I knew the Weasleys had a lot of kids, but I don't remember twins."
"Like you said there are a lot of us" I shrug, "Can be hard to keep track of for those not in the family."
George puts his hand on my arm under the table, "Are we not telling people about you growing up Muggle?"
God that is going to be weird to get use too, "We will. But I know from a past foster family that the idea of twin pranksters who grew up together frightens teachers and other kids more than twins who are just learning each other's pranking style."
George grins, "Oh we are going to have so much fun!" then he turns to Bill and whispers something to him.
Bill rolls his eyes but nods and turns to our other brothers.
"He won't say anything" George them turns back to Lee and starts talking about broomsticks.
The next day a very old owl collapses in front of me at breakfast.
"It's our family owl" George whispers to me taking the letters from it. "Your letter dear brother" he says handing me a letter.
I look at the letter in surprise, my birth parents wrote me?
Charlie smiles at me, "Go on, open it Fred."
"We all sent Mother and Father letters, telling them of you and making Mother promise not to charge the school and take you in her arms" Percy tells me, not looking up from his book.
I look to George, "Seriously?"
All my brothers nod, "Mum is very protective of her kids. The chances of her showing up here and hugging the hell out of you is high" Charlie grins.
Overprotective sounds kind of nice, I never had that before. Though if she gets in the way of pranks I won't be very happy.
I open the letter.
Dear Fred.
Hello love, it was a shock to get the letters from your brothers telling us about you and we are overjoyed your alive and happy.
Your mother wanted to come and see you right away, but your brothers suggested giving you time to know them first them us, as not to overwhelm you and we reluctantly agree.
We told Ron and Ginny about you already and they've decided to write you a letter a week, to get to know you better and we would love to do the same.
We love you son and look forward to getting to know you.
Love Mum and Dad.
I smile at the letter feeling warm inside, having a big family is going to be great.
ONE-SHOT.