Fred Weasley

"Give her hell from us, Peeves."

- Fred Weasley during his and George's escape from Hogwarts

Fred Weasley (1 April 1978 - 2 May 1998) was a son of Molly and Arthur Weasley, and twin brother to George Weasley. A brilliant prankster and inventor, Fred left Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry shortly prior to graduation to become a successful entrepreneur, alongside his twin brother, and opened the joke shop, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes in Diagon Alley. Fred was also a member of the Order of the Phoenix, and fought in the Battle over Little Whinging and the Battle of Hogwarts. He was killed during the latter in a magical explosion likely caused by Death Eater Augustus Rookwood.

Early Life
Fred Weasley, along with his identical twin George, was born April 1, 1978; appropriately enough, April Fool's Day. He was raised at his family home of the Burrow, near Ottery St. Catchpole, Devon. In addition to his twin brother, Fred had three older brothers, Bill, Charlie and Percy, and younger siblings Ron and Ginny. He and George were particularly close to their sister, who was most like them in temperament of their siblings, and delighted in teasing their brothers Percy and Ron. They enjoyed making mischief and were quite a handful for their parents.

Education
Fred was educated at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from from 1989 to 1996, and was sorted into Gryffindor House. He was very popular in school. Among his many friends was Lee Jordan, as well as Angelina Johnson, who attended the Yule Ball with him. During his first year at Hogwarts, Fred swiped the Marauder's Map from Argus Filch's office with George. Four years later, they gave Harry Potter the map, as the brothers already knew the map by heart.

When many students speculated that Harry was the Heir of Slytherin in 1992, neither Fred nor George took it seriously, making jokes about it to lighten Harry up. The same year, they were delighted to hear that their older, stuffy brother Percy had a secret girlfriend because it was an opportunity to tease him.

Fred, alongside his brother George, played for the Gryffindor Quidditch team as a Beater. They both used Cleansweep Five broomsticks. They were so skilled at Quidditch that they were both described as being like "human Bludgers". Fred played for Gryffindor until 1996, when he was given a lifetime ban after the first match of that year along with George and Harry. This was after they began a fight when Slytherin player Draco Malfoy penned the demeaning song Weasley is Our King to humiliate Ron Weasley and then proceeded to insult the Weasley parents and the late Lily Potter.

That same year, Fred and George joined Dumbledore's Army to oppose the dictatorial running of Hogwarts under High Inquisitor Dolores Umbridge and to prepare to fight Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Before the end of his seventh year, Fred dropped out of Hogwarts with George in a final act of rebellion against Umbridge. They left in a flourish of fireworks, vandalism, and chaos, including hexing members of Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad. A small part of a Portable Swamp created in the corridors by the twins was preserved by Professor Flitwick, as he saw it as an example of "extraordinary magic".

Career as a Shop Proprietor
Initially, Fred and George's ambitions to open a joke shop came as a disappointment to their parents, who had hoped they would seek employment with the Ministry of Magic like their father. However, the spectacular success of the twins' business, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, located at 93 Diagon Alley, impressed his parents and made them proud. What had started out as a mail-order experiment in entrepreneurialism sky-rocketed into a very lucrative undertaking. In fact, it was so successful that in 1996, the twins had moved out of their childhood home and into a flat above the store; later, the twins considered buying Zonko's Joke Shop in Hogsmeade, which had closed the previous year.

None of this might have been possible without the funding made available by Harry Potter, who was close friends with the twins and the entire Weasley family, as Harry gave the twins his Triwizard Tournament winnings of 1000 Galleons to start their business with.

Order of the Phoenix


Fred Weasley was a staunch admirer and supporter of Albus Dumbledore, and joined the Order of the Phoenix as soon as his parents would allow him. In 1995, Fred joined his family in fixing up the Order's headquarters at Number 12, Grimmauld Place, pocketing Doxies from behind the curtains for his experimental inventions.

In the summer of 1997, Fred and George took part in the Battle over Little Whinging, becoming two of the "seven Potters" to act as decoys while the Order removed Harry from 4 Privet Drive. Fred flew with his father on a broomstick, and was upset to learn that his twin lost an ear due to a Sectumsempra curse at the hands of Severus Snape during the battle. That same summer, Fred eagerly flirted with two "pretty French girls" who came to the Burrow to attend Bill's wedding to Fleur Delacour, and reminisced about his late uncle Bilius.

"Point is, people, don’t get lulled into a false sense of security, thinking he’s out of the country. Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t, but the fact remains he can move faster than Severus Snape confronted with shampoo when he wants to, so don’t count on him being a long way away if you’re planning to take any risks. I never thought I’d hear myself say it, but safety first!"

- Fred reporting on Voldemort's movements on Potterwatch

When the war reached its worst point in late 1997 and 1998, Fred participated under the codename "Rapier" in Potterwatch, a radio program hosted by his friend Lee that opposed Voldemort's reign of terror. They spread the truth about the Death Eater regime that was not being reported by the Daily Prophet or other news outlets, and encouraged the public to support Harry and to protect Muggles who were falling victim to the Death Eaters.

Battle of Hogwarts
Fred, along with his family and friends, returned to Hogwarts in the spring to participate in the final battle. He and George were assigned to defend the castle's secret passages by Kingsley Shacklebolt. When the Death Eaters forced their way inside, Fred fought next to his brother Percy, who had recently been reconciled with the family and combatted his former boss, Imperiused Minister for Magic Pius Thicknesse. Fred was killed in an explosion probably created by Augustus Rookwood. His death was avenged when Rookwood was captured and confined by Aberforth Dumbledore, and was presumably sent to Azkaban.

His brother George's son was named in honour of him: Fred Weasley II.

Physical description
Fred Weasley, similar to all the Weasley children, bore a head of flaming-red hair and freckles. He was short and stocky like his brothers George and Charlie.

Personality and traits
Fred Weasley was perhaps the more outspoken, daring, and sarcastic of the twins. During the rescue from the Dursleys in 1992, George picked the lock on Harry's bedroom door with a hairpin, while Fred insisted Muggle tricks were important to know, even if it was "a bit slow". Fred also "dropped" a Ton-Tongue Toffee for Dudley Dursley to find and eat. Fred also concocted the scheme of trying to fool Albus Dumbledore's Age Line to get into the Triwizard Tournament, though it was unsuccessful.

George Weasley
"We've been hearing explosions out of their room for ages, but we never thought they were actually making things, we thought they just liked the noise."

- Ginny Weasley on the twins' experiments

George Weasley was Fred’s twin, best friend, and partner in crime. The two were very close and did just about everything together. They often finished each other’s sentences and spoke in a back and forth way that could confuse others at times. Together, Fred and George designed many ingenious pranks and shared the ambition to found a joke shop together. They were also both Beaters for the Gryffindor Quidditch team and close friends with Lee Jordan.

George was devastated by the death of his twin in the Battle of Hogwarts, and would never truly get over this loss. He eventually named his son after Fred.

Other Siblings
Like his younger siblings, Fred tended to look up to his older brothers Bill and Charlie. However, he and George delighted in teasing Percy, who was closer to their age and quite different from them in personality. The twins were the angriest with Percy when he became estranged with the rest of the family over their support of Albus Dumbledore instead of the Ministry, but they were also the first to accept his apology just before the Battle of Hogwarts. During the battle, Fred and Percy fought side by side, and Percy was devastated over his brother’s death, fiercely protecting his body and furiously pursuing Augustus Rookwood.

The twins also enjoyed teasing their only younger brother, Ron. Notably, they nearly manipulated him into taking an Unbreakable Vow, transfigured his teddybear into a spider, and teased him over his embarrassing crush on Fleur Delacour. Fred was quite close to his sister Ginny, who was similar to the twins in temperament. They were protective of her, as well, and disapproved of her love life.

Harry and Hermione
Fred and George were friendly with Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, Ron’s best friends, to the point of considering them like younger siblings. The twins cheered Harry up when many suspected he was the Heir of Slytherin in 1992, and gave him the Marauder's Map to help him sneak into Hogsmeade the following year. They also stood up for Harry when others doubted his claim that Lord Voldemort had returned or challenged his authority in the D.A.. Both twins risked their lives in the operation to remove Harry from his relatives’ home in 1997.

Although Hermione generally disapproved of some of the twins’ antics, since she was a Prefect, she got on fairly well with them. They were outraged when Draco Malfoy called her a “Mudblood” in 1992, to the point of attempting to physically attack him. Fred and George also tried to get Hermione to relax, joking around with her about things such as their late uncle Bilius’s penchant for making mischief at weddings. Hermione also admired the twins’ cleverness and creativity in their spell work, though she did not agree with how they put it to use.

Etymology
The name Fred is generally considerared a short form of the name Frederick. It is the English form of a Germanic name meaning "peaceful ruler", derived from frid, "peace", and ric, "ruler, power". It has been a very common name for rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, Germany, Austria, and Scandinavia, such as Frederick the Great of Prussia. Fred is also sometimes used as a diminutive of Alfred, derived from the Old English Ælfræd, meaning "elf counsel", or Alfrid, meaning "old peace". Alfred the Great was a ninth-century king of Wessex who battled the Danes and translated many Latin books into Old English. In Norweigan, Danish, and Swedish, Fred means "peace".

There has been some suggestion that Fred and George are named after their maternal uncles, Fabian and Gideon Prewett, who were killed in the First Wizarding War, who may have been twins, and who share Fred and George's first initials.

Behind the scenes

 * Fred is played by James Phelps in the film versions of the books.
 * Fred and George each earned fewer O.W.L.s than the rest of their brothers.
 * When Harry and his friends lose 150 House points in 1991, he loses favor with the Gryffindor Quidditch team. While understandable, it seems odd that Fred and George turned on him.
 * In the book, J.K. Rowling described the twins as "shorter and stockier" and Percy and Ron as "long and lanky", but in the film, Fred and George were a lot taller and longer than Percy and Ron.
 * In her drawing of the Weasley family tree, J.K. Rowling put the year of Fred's death down as 1997. In canon, he actually died in May of 1998.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Notes and references
Fred und George Weasley Fred Weasley Фред Уизли