1983 - 1991
Fred and George are five when Bill boards the Hogwarts Express for the first time in new robes with a new wand and new books. It's 1983 and the war has been over for nearly two years now. Ronnie and Ginny are both babies still, three and two, and sick besides, so Dad sweeps Fred and George and Percy and Charlie along with Bill to King's Cross that morning in what has all the trappings of becoming a tradition.
Bill bears Dad's fussing with all the grace of a nearly-twelve-year-old, and far more grace than he withstood Mum's distracted-by-sick-babies fuss at the Burrow. Dad fiddles with his plain white tie and says, "You'll look wonderful in red and gold, son."
The next morning, Bill's letter arrives home announcing his placement in Gryffindor. Charlie grumbles that Bill didn't say anything about how the sorting was done. How's he supposed to get into Gryffindor if he doesn't know what to expect?
"Just going to have to be brave, then aren't you?" Mum teases.
Bill entering formal education leads to some changes around the Burrow. It's not necessarily quieter, with the exception of that first few days where everyone was readjusting to one less person occupying space. Ronnie and Ginny certainly tried to make up for any lack of Bill-noise as their illness defied potion cures and made them very cranky babies. Fred and George spent as much time outside as they could to avoid the screaming. To avoid setting off the screaming. To avoid getting in trouble for looking like they might set off the screaming.
They get in trouble for bothering Ronnie and Ginny a lot, even when they're not.
Instead of Bill walking them through reading, writing, and maths lessons, Charlie tries his hand for all of a week before giving it up as a bad job poorly done. Percy picks up the slack there. He even gets on Charlie's case when the older boy tries to weasel out of lessons. Percy, being all of seven to Charlie's ten, shouldn't make a better teacher, but he's better at explaining the whys and hows in different ways until the twins understand. (Percy, being all of seven, shouldn't be teaching them at all. But he is, what with Mum busy with the babies and Dad busy at work. Even Bill shouldn't have been teaching, but such were the duties of the eldest.)
Under Percy, Fred learns that he's best with maths while George coasts along being fairly average until they start learning the basics of potions when Bill comes back for Christmas. In potions, George excels even beyond Percy.
With Charlie's help, Fred and George add potions to their pranking skill set. Little things like color-change solutions and making one food taste like something else. They make Ronnie think broccoli tastes like candy for three weeks shortly after their little brother turns four. Then Mum catches them and grounds them for two months.
Which seems excessive given that Ronnie didn't fuss about vegetables for three entire weeks.
When Charlie goes to Hogwarts that September, a new wand and Bill's old robes and books in tow, Fred and George know full well the Plan is for another Gryffindor. Weasleys go to Gryffindor. That's how it works. Neither Ginny nor Ronnie are sick this time, so the entire family makes the trek to King's Cross to see off the older two boys.
"Make sure to look after your brother, Bill," Mum says, worrying at a smudge on Charlie's cheek with her thumb. Charlie rolls his eyes hard enough that it looks like he'll fall over.
"Course, Mum!" Bill complains. "He can sit with me and my friends at dinner and everything."
Bill's letter comes in at breakfast the next morning. Charlie is, as expected, a Gryffindor. Charlie's letter, later that week, tells a story of a girl in Hufflepuff called Tonks who can shapeshift and is possibly the coolest, if clumsiest, girl he has ever met. Given that, realistically, the only other girl Charlie's ever met is Ginny, that's not saying much.
Dad says something about a first crush and Mum says he's far too young for that sort of thing. Besides, didn't Andromeda Black marry a muggleborn called Tonks? Maybe the girl's in Hufflepuff, but wasn't Sirius Black in Gryffindor? Look how that turned out.
(Nymphadora Tonks is not, in fact, Charlie's first crush. Charlie never really has crushes, none that illicit more than a 'woah, pretty' reaction. He finds his first and only love in his third year with Care of Magical Creatures. Charlie is, however, Tonks' first crush. Perhaps because he is the only boy who never asks her to be someone she's not.)
With Charlie at school and Percy granted immunity from pranks - he won't help with schoolwork if they prank him too often, and Mum is too busy, as always, with Ronnie just starting lessons and Ginny being her baby girl to have the time or patience to help without getting frustrated - Fred and George spend their free time plotting. They form a tentative friendship with Cedric Diggory down the road and use this new friendship to drag Percy out of the house once a week or so. Days spent running around the countryside lead to accidentally tripping headlong into Xenophilius Lovegood on one of the man's more local creature hunts.
The Lovegoods have a daughter about Ginny's age, Luna, and the middle three Weasley boys, having discovered the joys of friends outside of siblings, are quick to introduce the girls. Mum thinks Mr. Lovegood is crazy and that Mrs. Lovegood isn't much better - although, the woman does have a job, classified, in the Ministry, so that makes her at least marginally respectable despite her choice in husband.
Ginny and Luna don't have many play-dates, but the Weasley boys and Cedric are always welcome to play at the Lovegood house. Despite Mum's opinions, even Percy thinks Mr. Lovegood has a lot to teach about creatures and plants. Mrs. Lovegood introduces Fred to runes and arithmancy - introduces are all of them, really, but neither Percy nor George share Fred's love of maths and the magical equivalences.
Then it's the summer of 1985. Bill and Charlie are just home from school. The children have the run of the land between the Burrow, the Lovegood's and the Diggory's. With the older two back and Ronnie five and Ginny nearing four, Mum fretfully lets the lot of them out to play by themselves. It is one of these days, the Lovegood family off on a trip at Mr. Lovegood's insistence, when seven children go out to play in the orchard and only five return.
Fred and George are not the first to notice. They are seven and have never had to be responsible for anyone but each other a day in the their lives. Percy might notice before Bill and Charlie, but he's used to keeping watch on the twins who are known to wander off four a couple of hours and return covered in mud and scrapes but relatively unharmed.
The oldest two boys, home for barely a more than a week at that point, take a while to notice the absence of their youngest two siblings. It takes them longer to realize that, while Fred and George and Percy have been allowed to run wild since forever, Ronnie and Ginny have decidedly less freedom. Ronnie and Ginny don't know how to stay out of trouble on their own.
All five boys search the orchard and the Lovegood property and the creek and the road up the the Diggory place where Mrs. Diggory is kind enough to allow five frantic children access to her floo so they can tumble, en-mass, into the kitchen, all shouting over each others for Mum and Ronnie and Ginny.
The Plan changed after You-Know-Who's defeat and the war's end. The world became a safer place, safe enough to allow children to play in the yard or at a friend's house. People stopped mysteriously disappearing by December 1981. No one was scared anymore.
No one can find Ron and Ginny. Not Mum. Not Dad. Not the teachers and old war friends. Not people from the Ministry. No one.
Mum almost doesn't allow Bill and Charlie to return to Hogwarts that fall. She refuses to allow Fred and George and Percy out of the house. Not to play with Cedric. Certainly not to escape into the Lovegood gardens, the same Lovegoods who were so irresponsible as to lose their only daughter on a trip outside the country. Especially not to play in the orchard.
And still, even with Ronnie and Ginny gone, Mum doesn't have any more time for her middle three children. She blames them, almost. Blames Percy for not keeping watch. Blames Fred for turning Ron's bear into a spider. Blames George for the potions. Blames Bill for not being responsible. Blames Charlie for being too distracted.
Percy goes from the quiet and well behaved middle child to withdrawn and meek. George hides behind his twin when their mother starts yelling and carefully holds Fred back when the simmering anger-hurt-disappointment rears up and lashes out. All three boys spend most of their time in Percy's room with Bill and Charlie's first year books.
The house is suffocating for children used to running around outside at all hours. Where his brothers shrink themselves down to fit within the new confines of their life, Fred wants to tear his skin off and scream at the stars. Where Fred and Percy can lose themselves in their passion for learning, George thinks his eyes will start bleeding is he ever has to read another book again.
Where the twins can plot and plan and conspire for a far off day years in the future where they can escape, Percy feels every agonizing minute ticking by.
Mum spends her days locked in Ginny's room with the photo album ignoring the children who lost her babies (ignoring the children who feel the loss of their siblings just as sharply, just as painfully as she does, children who have no idea that they shouldn't blame themselves because, really, there was nothing any of them could do. They're children, not monsters, and by the time Molly realizes that, she's lost more than she could ever hope to regain.)
Percy starts Hogwarts in 1987. He has a new wand and old robes and old books with all his notes from the last two years carefully tucked between the pages. Mum stays home while Dad floos everyone to King's Cross. Dad doesn't say Percy will make a fine Gryffindor, Dad hasn't said much of anything these last two years, and is almost never home besides. He still expects another Gryffindor. Bill - tall and lanky with the beginnings of long hair and a shiny new prefect badge pinned to his robes - and Charlie - shorter, but slim despite his broadening shoulders and chest promising an end to his seeker career - stand at Percy's back like guards.
"Write us," George demands.
"Tell us how the sorting works," Fred follows.
Tell us where you're sorted, they mean, but don't say. It's better not to draw attention, they've found.
They know how the sorting works. That first summer after Ron and Ginny, when Mum was still panicked instead of angry and Dad was still gone but for different reasons, Bill and Charlie told every story of Hogwarts they could think of in order to distract their siblings. From the sorting to the classes and teachers and hidden passages and legends and ghost and portraits. Everything. They told stories of friends in other houses and how Hufflepuff and Gryffindor differed, how Hufflepuff definitely has a secret alliance with Slytherin and how Ravenclaws are definitely not the good students everyone thinks they are. They tell stories of the good and the bad and everything in between in attempt to fill the hole left behind by Ron and Ginny.
Fred doesn't tell Percy to make Gryffindor proud. George doesn't tell Percy he'll look good in red. Bill and Charlie don't tell Percy they'll save him a seat at dinner.
Mum and Dad might still expect Percy to follow the Plan the way Bill and Charlie are. Gryffindor. Prefect. Quidditch. But then, Mum and Dad don't really know them anymore.
The hat calls, "Ravenclaw," and Percy is the first to break free of the Plan.
(Should it be any surprise that Bill dives head first into runes, arithmancy, and defense, argues the goblins into a summer apprenticeship days after receiving his OWLs scores despite being a year and a half too young to be of any real use? Should it be a surprise when Charlie spends weekends with Tonks in the summers, learning language after language to exchange letters with creature reserves all over the world? Percy is the first to change the Plan, but Bill and Charlie are the first to truly escape.)
Percy, Bill and Charlie come home for Christmas only because they don't want to leave Fred and George alone. The twins spend the rest of the time in their room. They have all of the second and third year standard texts to study from. They have runes and arithmancy from Bill, and car and healing from Charlie. They read and study and plot and spend holidays soaking up every drop for two years until they stand with their brothers at King's Cross, for the first time all five of them leaving.
Dad has work. Mum stayed home, as she has for the last three years. There are no expectations for the twins, which hurts more than it should.
The hat sits on Fred first and debates the merits of Gryffindor versus Slytherin for all of ten seconds, comparing Fred's throw-caution-to-the-wind personality with his longstanding plans and ambitions. "You'll learn well in Slytherin, young Weasley," the hat says.
When George sits under the hat not a minute later, Ravenclaw is the second choice, the debated choice. George is caution and curiosity, testing the waters before diving in. He thinks and plans and creates but it's all for an end goal, a purpose, rather than because he can. "Slytherin," the hat calls again.
And there they are. The first Weasleys in Slytherin.
Mum writes precisely once, if a Howler can be considered writing. They are, apparently, disappointments and always had been. It's not news, even if it hurts.
No one is sure what to make of them, that first year. They respond to the first, second and final attacks against their persons with humiliation, revenge and blackmail all without getting caught by teacher or peer. They earn points and keep their heads down.
None of the brothers go home for the holidays that year. Nor the next.
Bill graduates at the end of their first year. He's vanished by the goblins even before his NEWTs come in, taking up a position in Egypt. He writes once a week, just as he always has. Charlie graduates the next year and apparates straight from the train platform to Diagon where, the twins and Percy know, he portkeys to a Romanian dragon reserve. George prepares for a resurgence of animosity from their housemates by reminding them of the two years of dirt he has on them. Fred is preparing for those non-Slytherins unwilling to bow to blackmail and more willing to respond with violence now that their oldest brothers and seeming protectors are gone.
They are rightfully shocked when Mum bursts into their room, sobbing, and pulls the pair into a bone crushing hug the likes of which she hasn't given them in years. Percy, alerted by the noise, can only stare wide-eyed at their mother. Without much more than that, Mum shuffles them all into the floo and shouts, "St. Mungo's!" in a wobbly, tear-choked voice.
Dad is waiting for them. It's the only thing that keeps them from assuming the worst.
Maybe George wants to leave the house so bad he has nightmares. Maybe Fred can't sleep without a window open. Neither want their parents hurt.
But instead, they're taken to a large room at the back of the first floor. Headmaster Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Snape are waiting for them, along with the Lovegoods, and an old lady who might be Dowager Longbottom. Professor Snape is wearing a frown at says he is less than pleased with how events are proceeding. His eye is even twitching in that way it does when his perfectly reasonable advice has gone completely unheeded by the absolute morons he works with.
Fred and George has seen this expression multiple times when other teachers try to pin fights on Slytherins rather than on all involved parties.
A healer steps out of the room and her expression changes from exhausted to a near identical copy of Snape's own.
"I see you went against my professional advice and notified the families," she snips. With a great sight, she turns from glaring at Headmaster Dumbledore to pass a displeased glance over the crowd in the hallway. "Very well. Do not crowd them. Do not touch without permission. Do not make sudden movements or movements that could be interpreted as threatening. Do not try to separate them. Do not speak about separating them. Do not imply that you are going to separate them. In fact, don't even talk about removing them from this building, together or otherwise, until a mind healer is both present and has had a session with them prior to that conversation."
She glares again at Dumbledore in tandem with Snape.
"They've had all the necessary vaccination. You may go in. Slowly. Quietly." She says the last with a pointed look at a still sobbing Mum. She is, of course, promptly ignored as the adults all bottleneck the door trying to get in. Fred looks at Snape, who looks very much like he wants to roll his eyes, and then at Percy, who shrugs.
"Professor," George asks, "what is going on?"
"Your younger sibling have been found."
—
15 June 1991
George doesn't know what to think about his long lost siblings. Ronnie and Ginny are both distant memories and an overshadowing presence. He doesn't blame them for disappearing. If they ran off or someone took them, it doesn't matter. They were little kids. Barely five and almost four. What did they know of long-term consequences? And even then, no one could have predicted how Mum and Dad would react, so really what's the point in mis-assigning blame again?
When all the adults are kicked out of the exam room by irate healers the fifth time someone sets off the accidental magic alarms, Fred, George, and Percy are allowed in. Headmaster Dumbledore hemmed and hawed and, somehow, convinced one of the healers that, "Maybe the children would have an easier time connecting to others more their age. Certainly Ronald and Ginevra must have missed their brothers." Which got the three of them into a room with six irate runways while Mum shivered and sobbed into Dad's shoulder.
They interrupt a hushed conversation with their entrance.
"— get a hold on it!"
"Magic always reacts to emotion. This is emotional. I'll figure it out."
Honestly, Fred wouldn't recognize his baby siblings if not for their red hair and freckles. The lot of them have been allowed to dress in real people clothes, rather than hospital gowns now that the exam part of the day is over.
Ginny's hair is short, way shorter than Mum would ever approve of for her little girl. Most of it is cut close to the skin with only the stuff on top falling haphazardly around her ears and into her face. She has a cream robe tossed over her lap like a blanket and is otherwise wearing a dark long sleeved shirt and loose-fitting trousers. Ron is dressed similarly, but with an opposing color scheme. His shirt, just visible under his dark robe, is probably white. At the very least it's quite pale. Possibly blue.
Weasleys don't look good in black. Their complexion is the wrong sort of pale for such a stark color, but Ron and Ginny pull it in a way none of their siblings can. Perhaps, George thinks, it's not their complexion. No, these Weasleys are just as pale and freckly as the next. Maybe it's something else. Not even Ron's lazy sprawl in a dark haired boy's lap or Ginny's bare feet dangling several inches off the floor can disguise the way their gazes snapped to the opening door. The way they stare, recognition sharp against wary expressions.
Yes, maybe it's something else.
It takes a moment for Fred to tear is eyes away from his siblings to fully take in the other four children. The dark haired, green eyed boy Ron is almost definitely holding down, one hand tight around a thin wrist that wavers, just for a second, into gold and black mist before settling at skin once more. The little blonde girl that must be Luna, he's certain of it, perched at the foot of the bed. The girl with more curls than hair sitting prim and proper in the uncomfortable chair opposite her. The mousy boy with steel in his eyes standing just at Ginny's side, defensive but certainly not going to get in her way.
Ron, Ginny, Luna. Probably Neville Longbottom, given Dowager Longbottom outside. The other two are unknowns.
Fred and George may only be thirteen, but they're Weasleys in Slytherin, a lion and an eagle disguised as snakes. They have more enemies than allies and know danger when they see it.
They see it now.
Percy, pretty little Ravenclaw that he is, the quiet, forgotten Weasley, does not see. "Good evening," he says, offering the polite, neutral smile all of his brother's hate. Fred mirrors the Longbottom boy. Percy is tall, being two years older and decidedly lanky, while they are rather less so and it always looks odd when they frame him, so George steps to the side a bit, gives enough space to still provide a united front without coming off as a wall.
"I've had better evenings," the unknown girl replies. Also polite. Also smiling. "They want you to talk to us. To Ron and Ginny."
The green eyed boy pushes at Ron until their brother heaves himself upright with a sigh, hand never leaving that skinny wrist. There is a shuffling on the bed - Ginny moving closer to curls, Longbottom sliding towards Luna - so that the two boys can sit between them. It's almost like a line in the sand, Fred and George and Percy on one side, six small nearly-almost-could-be eleven-year-olds on the other. Well, not Ginny because she's nine. But the others.
"Let's talk then," green eyes says. His smile catches somewhere between nostalgic and false, but he meets their eyes one at a time. The other children relax. "Introductions first."
It's an order. It's definitely an order. He stares expectantly. This expression, Percy catches and he straightens, shoulders back and proper. "I am Percy Weasley. These are my brothers, Fred and George. We will be attending Hogwarts with you. At some point," he adds hurriedly, belatedly remembering the healer's warning.
"My name is Hermione Granger," curls replies. Spokesperson, George decides. She stands to the side and waves a hand at the others. "You know Ginny, I suppose. And Ron. This is Harry Potter. Next to him is Neville Longbottom. And, finally, Luna Lovegood."
Ron and Ginny watch them with narrowed, weary eyes that look nothing like the small children, toddlers really, they remember. They nod when introduced, but otherwise sit so still. They hated sitting next to each other before.
But, then, that was before. It's been six years and the three Weasley boys know how easy it is to change in six years. (Ravenclaw, says the hat. Slytherin. Slytherin.)
Luna taps Neville Longbottom on the shoulder twice and crawls behind him to drape herself over Harry Potter's shoulders. She whispers something in his ear as Neville asks, "What's Hogwarts like? The professors say some of us will be starting this year."
Fred knows expressions. The wide, inquiring eyes, the half smile, the curled shoulders, like he's uncertain. He sees that look on Percy often enough to know that Neville is faking it. Not totally. Not like Harry Potter - and there's going to be a huge fuss over Harry Potter this year because that boy is not Dumbledore's golden lion - who's hair is still a little misty at the edges. Neville Longbottom is curious, he wants to know, but he wants to know an answer to a question he isn't asking.
"Hogwarts," George starts with a glance over at his twin. Fred shrugs. He thinks of Bill: junior curse-breaker at Gringotts in Egypt, Head Boy, Prefect, Gryffindor. He thinks of Charlie: just starting a career with dragons, Prefect, Seeker, Gryffindor. He thinks of Percy, the forgotten Ravenclaw Weasley, who might have a girlfriend when Penelope Clearwater gets tired of waiting around, who might be Prefect this year, but has mostly just kept his head down and tried to avoid attention. He thinks of himself, of Fred, standing back to back in the Slytherin common room that night two years ago, terrified but determined, knowing that they couldn't rely on anyone but each other. He thinks of succeeding and says, "Hogwarts is a second home if you follow the Plan."
"George!" Percy scold, but it's half-hearted.
"No, Perce," Fred says. "He's right. You're given a certain level of safety if you follow the Plan. If you don't, well, you remember your first year. You sat with Bill and Charlie for six months before Penny decided you were friends. Your house is at least neutral. George and I—"
"You're not in Gryffindor?" Ron asks, frowning in a way that implies confusion rather then anger. "None of you. Where were you sorted?"
Harry Potter leans forward, watching, Luna looming over his head like a little ghost. Ginny glares at their brother for just a second before sharing a look with Hermione Granger. Neville Longbottom just nods to himself and wraps a hand around Harry Potter's other wrist. Giving or taking comfort, George wonders. Restraining or reminding?
Percy, again, notices none of the nuances. Or, if he does notice, he ignores them with a level of Gryffindor-Weasley bullheadedness that he has previously showed no sign of possessing. "I suppose you two remember Bill and Charlie being sorted then?" he asks and Ginny nods. Odd, considering how young she was. "Well, I am in Ravenclaw, a fifth year, actually. Fred and George are in their third year. They were—"
"We're in Slytherin," Fred challenges.
And instead of the expected reactions, the reactions they have gotten from every cousin or family friend, the kids relax. Harry Potter grins something sharp and feral. Ron and Ginny exchange relieved looks, like their sorting is some gift they weren't expecting.
They're moving now, shifting about like children are supposed to, not locked tight like little statues. Neville's feet thump against the bed frame. Luna pets at Harry's hair. Hermione folds herself into a pretzel in her uncomfortable chair and settles. Ron and Ginny smile at their siblings for the first time.
"Tell us about Hogwarts, please?" Neville asks again and, in the face of actual children, the three brothers do.