Character Profile | Fred & George Weasley

Welcome to Harry Potter Month! Throughout my annual re-read of the Harry Potter series I plan on posting little character profiles on those characters I love most and ones that I absolutely cannot stand.

I thought I would start off HPM with my all-time favorite characters ever.

The Characters: Fred & George Weasley First Appearance: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Favorite Quote: "Give her hell from us, Peeves." - OotP

Since the beginning of time Fred and George have been my all time favorite characters. There was once a time where I had sticky notes in my book annotating every single moment the twins appeared. Gradually, as I became less crazy, I eventually peeled each sticky note out and threw it away, but I left one. I'll get to that in a moment.

As many of my friends and family know (and some taunt me about. It amazes me that I'm still married somehow), Fred Weasley is my favorite of the two. My dad has always been curious as to why that particular twin is my favorite when there's almost never a point in the book where they are a separate entity. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure why Fred is my favorite. Maybe it has to do with the fact that he speaks more in the books or maybe it's because he has the wittiest one liners. Maybe it's because he's the yin to my yang: outgoing, hilarious (though I'm pretty damn funny too I think), and popular (whoa, this took a weird turn). Or maybe I just like the name Fred more than I like the name George. Who the hell knows. Obviously I don't. I just know that Fred Weasley is my favorite and he deserved so much better.

Let me preface the next section by saying there will be some serious SPOILERS coming up, but this book series just celebrated its 20th anniversary. There are eight movies, three fan-made musicals, thousands of fan-fictions, and one kind of awful Broadway play. If you don't know the basic spoilers about the Harry Potter series by now then you live under a rock and, honestly, I would like to sit down with you and ask you about your life.

Ok, Story Time:

Way back in 2007, my mom came to visit me in Georgia. I was spending the summer with my grandparents like I did most summers in my childhood and, towards the end of my trip, my mom came to visit/pick me up to take me home. I remember seeing her appear from behind the security gate, her suitcase rolling along behind her and a bright orange book in her arms. After several weeks where I dramatically declared to my grandmother that I was forgetting what my mother's face looked like (what child isn't some kind of dramatic at that age?) I was more excited to see that big orange book in her arms.

It was here. The last Harry Potter book.

By that point in my childhood I was a little too old to be read to. My mom and I had read chapters of the Goblet of Fire and the Order of the Phoenix to each other over candlelight, but I wanted - no - needed to consume this book as quickly as I possibly could. Instead we agreed to read it at the same time. Every night before bed she and I would read a chapter together, silently sitting in the bed waiting for the other to finish the page so we could flip to the next one. Finally, on the day we were supposed to fly back, my mom and I found the quietest corner in the Atlanta airport and tried to finish the last quarter of the Deathly Hallows. It wasn't until we were airborne when it happened.

Fred Weasley died.

I didn't fully register it at first, but then it hit me. He was gone. The one character I had never guessed would die had. I let out a distressed, "NO!" and my mom, who hadn't quite reached the end of the chapter frantically began scanning the page. She instantly reached out for me when she read the words I refused to believe. A flight attendant swung by to check on us, obviously sensing some sort of distress and gave a light "I don't know how to handle this situation" laugh when my mom explained it to her. I wasn't crying, but I was obviously distraught. Before this series, I hadn't lost a character that I loved. Every character I had met before had gone through their journey, had their adventure, and returned home a changed person. This was my first big loss.

Look, if you are laughing at me right now then you haven't truly experienced a good book. You haven't truly gotten invested in a character. I admit, I am a little bit of a dramatic person, but if you have ever enjoyed reading about a character and then having to read their unexpected death, then you know what I'm talking about. A decade later (damn, a whole decade?), I'm not so much sad as I am fucking mad.

Why did Fred have to die?

I get the general idea behind J.K.'s thought process. War is a terrible thing that ruins families. She wanted to make sure that everyone was aware that this wasn't just the end to a fantasy series. In real life war doesn't just end with the bad guy dying and his henchman suffering their punishment. In real life war is also those innocent lives lost. It is families torn apart and lives forever changed. I get that. I know that some had to die.

But, come on, Fred Weasley?

Throughout the entire series Fred and George were never separate. They ran through Platform 9 3/4 together, they stole the Mauraders Map together, they entered the Triwizard Tournament together, they opened Weasley's Wizard Wheezes together, they joined the Resistance and fought in Dumbledore's Army together. The one time they were not together, George lost an ear. Even Molly Weasley couldn't imagine a life where one of her twins was there and the other was not - seeing both of their dead bodies when she took on the Boggert in Grimmald Place on her own.

Sure, the death of one of the funniest characters in the series can signify that this is a serious matter. The time for jokes and laughter is over. The stakes are high here. But don't you think that the death of Sirius Black proved that point way back in Order of the Phoenix? Or even the deaths of Lily and James Potter all the way back in the Sorcerer's Stone? We learn throughout the series more and more gruesome details about their murder, but we still had to read about the senseless murder of Fred Weasley?

Oh yeah, and that sticky note I was talking about earlier? It has one single black dot on it and tells me that it's ok to skip a couple of pages so I don't have to read about Fred's senseless murder.

Ok, but what about the movie version?

Movie versions of books are rarely as good at the books and the Harry Potter series is no exception. James and Oliver Phelps were great as my beloved twins and I still follow them on their respective Twitter and Instagram accounts (James, if you somehow ever find this blog, hit me up). I own and love all the Harry Potter movies, but they definitely aren't as good as the books. That's just a given. However, I want to give the second Deathly Hallows movie props for one thing.

Towards the end of the movie, when everything is going wrong, we get to watch all our beloved characters fighting against Death Eaters. We flash past Tonks and Lupin (who I'll get to in another post) and finally we see Fred, defenseless and scared, knocked back on the ground surrounded by Death Eaters. And then...that's it.

Later we see a scene of Fred lying on a cot in the Great Hall surrounded by family. George is in tears, utterly inconsolable, but you know what? I don't believe Fred is gone. I did not see him die so he has not died. In my head canon - and now it is real canon because I said so - he was knocked out. In a coma, you may say. But he will recover and then one day he'll wake up and return to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and live happily ever after with a Muggle woman he charmed once in London with his magic tricks.

A girl can dream right?