"Come on Fred!" yelled mom from downstairs, "I want to get to Diagon Alley early!" Fred Weasley was in his bedroom brushing his hair in front of a mirror. Staring back at him was a tall, skinny boy with short ginger hair and light brown eyes. No matter what way he brushed his hair, it always swung back to the way it was before; dangling a few inches above his eyebrows.
Fred heard the door of his bedroom open, and when he turned to see who it was, it was almost exactly like he was still looking in the mirror. It was George Weasley, Fred's identical twin stood framed in the doorway.
"Yeah Fred, come on. I want to get my wand." George told his brother. Even his voice was similar, but it their voices were just about distinguishable.
"I'm coming, I'm coming," Fred said, slightly frustrated because he was being ushered out of tidying up his hair. "Yeah, I want my wand too. At least we get something brand new." Fred threw his brush onto his bed and strolled past George and down the stairs, closely followed by his brother.
When they reached the bottom, they walked quickly into the living room and found a short, plump woman with shoulder-length, curly, ginger hair. This was their mother and she was holding a small, grey pot. Behind her was their father; he was a tall, balding man, who also had a small amount of ginger hair. Next to him was Percy, the twins' older brother, who looked remarkably like his father. He was tall, thin with vivid red hair and wearing a pair of horn-rimmed glasses. Standing next to their mother was Ron, the youngest of the Weasley brothers. He also had the same traits as the rest of the Weasley's; ginger hair and a face full of freckles. The youngest Weasley and the only girl was standing in front of Ron. She had a long mane of vivid red hair and was small for her age.
"Oh, finally!" said Mom, "I told you I wanted to be in Diagon Alley bye ten o'clock and now it ten thirty!" She ushered the twins over to the fire place and said to George, "George, you first and take Ginny with you." George walked quickly over to his mother, took a clump of powder from the pot mom was holding and threw in into the fire, which flared higher than any normal fire should and shone bright, emerald green. George steered his sister into the fire and stood next to her.
Fred had seen this happen too many times to be shocked that the two of them were standing in a high, bright fire and suffering no damage at all. "Tuck in your arms and don't un-tuck them until we get out." George muttered to Ginny. She nodded as George said, loudly and clearly:
"Diagon Alley!" The moment he finished saying "Diagon Alley", he and Ginny started spinning and were engulfed in the emerald flames. After several seconds, they were gone; and so were the emerald green flames. The flames in the fire were now red.
"Fred, you next, and take Ron," mom ordered Fred. Fred strolled over to his mom and took out a clump of floo powder from the pot and threw it into the fire like George. He then stood in the emerald green fire and felt sudden, comfortable warmth.
"Come on, Ron." Fred said simply to Ron. But Rom was arguing with his mother.
"I don't need to go with Fred! I can use floo by myself!" he was shouting at his mother. But mom was adamant.
"In, now!" Mom ordered. She pushed Ron into the fire next to Fred. Fred gripped tightly onto Ron's shoulders and bellowed, "DIAGON ALLEY!"
Fred felt a huge rush and was being knocked into Ron and Ron into him. He saw hundreds of rooms as he and Ron flew through fireplace after fireplace. After half a minute or so Fred and Ron fell out of the fireplace at the back of the Leaky Cauldron inn.
Sitting down on a bench near the brick wall which was the entrance of Diagon Alley, were George and Ginny, sitting in silence and waiting for the rest of the family. Fred walked up to the bench and said to George, "Budge up, George."
"Budge up, Ginny." George said to Ginny. Ginny moved up the bench followed by George. Fred sat down next to George as Ron threw himself into the space between Fred and the arm of the bench.
"What's up with 'Ickle Ronniekins'?" George asked, mimicking his mother's voice when saying her old nickname for Ron when he was four years old.
"Shut up!" Ron moaned at George, his ears glowing red with embarrassment. Fred knew how much Ron hated the nickname and how embarrassed and annoyed he got when it was mentioned. Fred and George loved to annoy Ron; it was there fun when they were bored.
"Ron wanted to take the floo alone but mommy's Ickle Ronniekins wasn't allowed," Fred explained and at that moment, a burst of green flames flew up into the fire and out fell Percy. He fell out with his glasses askew and his hair full of soot. Percy seemed to have felt the soot in his hair because, after he fixed his glasses, he shook his hair. Only some of the soot came out of his hair.
"Need any help with that Perce?" Fred asked and approached Percy.
"No–I–don't–need–your–help," Percy growled whilst slapping the soot out of his hair. Fred raised his hand and started slapping the soot out of Percy's hair, with much more force than necessary. "Gerroff!" Percy yelled while trying to knock Fred's arm out of the way. With his other hand, Fred grabbed Percy's arm, pulled it away and carried on smacking Percy's head, before mom and dad burst out of the fireplace together and pulled them apart.
"Fred, what were you doing?" mom yelled angrily. She was glaring at the two with disgust.
"Percy needed help getting soot out of his hair so I helped him," Fred explained while trying, quite unsuccessfully, to shake free of his mother's grip.
Finally, after being yelled at for several minutes of being yelled at, mom tapped the right bricks on the wall, (three up and two across), they entered through the archway into the familiar cobbled street of Diagon Alley. Fred had been here several times before; with Bill when he needed to go to Diagon Alley to get his things. He was the only one to get his school equipment first hand. The rest of the Weasley's got stuff from the second hand shops or hand-me-downs. The only reason the Weasley's ever went to Diagon Alley was to get their wand and sometimes a new pet, in their first year, and to get the books they needed for that year.
Fred had been to Diagon Alley two other times as well; the second time was with Charlie and the last time with Percy.
George was a different build from the rest of the family and needed another set of robes, which he would get from the Second Hand Robe Store. So mom sent dad to go with George to the Second Hand Robe Store as she didn't trust him with Fred and the rest of the family; they were always able to persuade him to go to Gambol & Japes, the Diagon Alley joke shop and the favourite shop of all of the Weasley kids, except Percy, who was nicknamed by Fred & George, "Perfect Percy" as he always followed the rules, whether it be school rules, ministry of magic rules or even the rules his parents at home. Percy went with dad so he could keep an eye on them both and making sure they don't go anywhere except for the Second Hand Robe Shop.
First, the Weasley's went to the Cauldron Shop to get Fred's cauldron, (pewter, standard size two), then to the Apothecary for Fred and George's potion ingredients. They then went to the stationary shop for new quills, pots of ink and fresh parchment and then, to Flourish & Blott's for their books. Once they had bought the books and got outside, Fred George and dad returned with a large box containing George's robes. They helped carry some of the other supplies and they made their way to Ollivander's, the wand maker's.
As they made their way towards the end of the cobbled street, opposite from Gringott's Wizarding Bank, was a small side road. It was dark and a narrow, with hag's and warlock's coming in and out of the street. The alley was on a down slant and only a few shops visible from Diagon Alley. Some shops had spiders in the window, others shrunken heads and on the right hand side and small sign sticking out of the largest visible shop saying the shop was called 'Borgin & Burkes'. Fred and George gawped at the side street and Fred started, "Mom –"
"-Can we-" George continued.
"-Go down-"
"-there?" The twins finished together. Mom stared at them in shock and anger as she knew what was down in the side road known as Knockturn Alley.
"No." She said firmly and forcing the twins further up the road along to Ollivander's. The twins moved away reluctantly but did so without complaining. Fred knew that they ought not to argue with their mother when she spoke in that tone.