Fred and George Weasley (both born April 1, 1978)^{[1] (http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/extrastuff_view.cfm?id=7)[2] (http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/faq_view.cfm?id=63)} are fictional characters in the Harry Potter series of novels, created by J. K. Rowling. They are the twin sons of Arthur and Molly Weasley. They are younger brothers of Bill, Charlie and Percy. They are older brothers of Ron and Ginny, who are both members of Harry Potter's close group of friends.

Fred and George are the school clowns, more interested in making new jokes than studies. It is, therefore, not surprising that their birthday is April Fool's Day. They are the beaters on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Much to their mother's disappointment, they are her only sons who weren't made prefects. Their appearance and personality are so indistinguishable that they can fool even their mother, who once sent them sweaters monogrammed "G" and "F". The twins switched sweaters and called themselves "Gred" and "Forge".

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Fred and George begin selling their own jokes by mail order, under the name "Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes". They help Harry to get some revenge against his first cousin Dudley Dursley by "accidentally" dropping several Ton Tongue Toffees—Dudley, a glutton on a forced diet, soon has a foot-long tongue protruding from his mouth; at the Quidditch World Cup they impress Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports at the Ministry of Magic with their fake wands.

Despite their mother's wish that they should follow their father in working at the Ministry of Magic, their ambition in life has always been to run their own joke shop. Harry (who had inherited more than enough money for his needs) makes this possible by giving them his winnings from the Triwizard Tournament.

Apparently they now have such a shop in Diagon Alley that they started working at after they escaping from Umbridge. There is, however, some evidence that the Diagon Alley joke shop was already in the works, and Umbridge's treatment of them just provided a good reason to drop out of school.

The pair provide Harry with useful assistance throughout the series; in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban they give him the Marauder's Map, and in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix they provide distractions so that Harry can use the Floo system unmonitored in Dolores Umbridges' office. They were members of Dumbledore's Army, a group started by Harry, Hermione and Ron to provide the practical instruction in Defence Against the Dark Arts, which Dolores Umbridge had removed from that course's curriculum. Later in the year, their practical jokes were used by them and others to harass Umbridge, eventually leading to their leaving Hogwarts under threat of whipping. After leaving, they helped against her by offering discounted jokes to students who wanted to continue annoying Umbridge.

See also

• Weasley family

References

• ^[1] "Extra Stuff: Some Random Facts About The Weasley Family" (http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/extrastuff_view.cfm?id=7) from the J.K.Rowling Official Site (http://www.jkrowling.com/)
• ^[2] Information about the Weasley children's relative ages (http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/faq_view.cfm?id=63) from the J.K.Rowling Official Site (http://www.jkrowling.com/)