A Weasley Family Advent
1st December
The boys' descent down the stairs early on Monday morning bears more resemblance to a shouting avalanche than anything else. (Molly knows that avalanches do not shout, but her boys do – a lot.) Most mornings are noisy, but today is worse because they want to get to the Advent calendars. The first of December is a big deal at The Burrow.
Advent calendars in the wizarding world are something special. Bill or Charlie, or even little Percy, would turn their noses up in disgust at the Muggle idea of little cardboard windows with nothing but a pictured bell or reindeer behind it. Even the newer idea of a bit of chocolate for every day would not impress them much, although they would eat the chocolate happily enough.
Wizarding advent calendars have the doors. In fact, to look at, they are very similar to the traditional Muggle items. But when the door is opened…
Prewett (and by extension Weasley) family tradition says that the youngest child goes first. Fred and George have never had Advent calendars before this year, and are wild with excitement at the Quidditch scenes that Uncle Fabian has picked out for them, identical in all but the colours of the players' kit (scarlet with a bit of gold for Fred, gold with some scarlet for George – of course, they both have to have Gryffindor colours). Fred, nine minutes younger than his twin, goes first. With a bit of help from big brother Charlie he finds number one and opens the door. There is a "whoosh" and a golden and green dragon seems to jump out at him, breathing fire, and leaving a trail of sparkles in the air before disappearing back into the calendar leaving only a picture – albeit a moving one – behind the tiny door. George has a similar dragon, although his is red and silver. Percy has a centaur, thundering hooves and booming voice. Charlie has a dragon too, purple and green, twice as big as either of the twins' and three times as noisy. Bill has another centaur, bigger than Percy's and with a voice so loud that the twins cover their ears, and baby Ronnie, who has been sitting in his highchair watching the proceedings with interest, begins to cry.
Molly picks him up and cuddles him, and orders the older boys to the table and breakfast. The excitement of the calendars over, for today at least, they obey with alacrity. Suddenly, they all realise that they are starving.
A/N In my Weasley world, George is older than Fred. No idea if JKR thinks that way or not!