and so begins the skipping. [fred/lee]

This kid had to be a first year. That was good.. as long as he wasn’t a Slytherin. They’d have to wait to find out what Houses they were in, but if the guy figured out that there was something bad about those green ties then it was safe to assume he wasn’t going to become one. Fred hadn’t actually talked to a Slytherin, but he had heard enough about them at home. Anyway, they weren’t dealing with a Slytherin. It was just Percy.. but he was almost just as annoying. Fred laughed a little when the kid ran up to peek out the door at the “monster”. Pft, like monsters would be allowed on the train. He’s not really a monster.. he’s my brother. A monster would be more fun. The badges mean they’re prefects—none of them are any fun either. Percy’ll be one of them in a couple years.

It was amusing to talk to another first year who actually seemed new to the whole idea of Hogwart’s. Fred hadn’t been there, but he’d heard stories, seen pictures, and he knew a little about certain things, like the Houses. I’d stay away from the green ties too. They’re not monsters but I heard they’re no fun either. They don’t like anyone. While he gave his little explanation, the other boy, Lee, walked around and it didn’t take long for Fred to realize that he wasn’t the type to sit still. It wasn’t that hard to tell that Lee wasn’t familiar with the wizard world either. Hey Lee, haven’t you got siblings in school? Or is it just you? Just him? That would mean he was either the oldest or the only child, both of which were foreign ideas to Fred.

Brilliant—he’d made a mistake already. The fact that he was related to Percy was not something he needed other people to know. Then they’d start assuming that they were similar to each other and that would just be horrible. Even so, he nodded when Lee asked if Percy was his brother. Yup. He wants to be a prefect because he’s no fun. And it runs in the family.. but it won’t after him. No way I’ll be one of them. He shuddered at the thought of wearing a badge. Him.. disciplining people.. Ha.

When Lee asked the next question, Fred realized that he really hadn’t made Hogwart’s sound all that great. He’d mentioned prefects and Slytherins and…monsters. Those were the bad parts. Me! He responded with enthusiasm before thinking more about the question. Aaaand.. well.. I’m sure there are others. The Quidditch players are fun, I’ll bet. And.. and the Gryffindors. Not the prefects.. but the normal Gryffindors are fun..from what Bill said. Bill’s my brother. I’m gonna be a Gryffindor like him. Percy’s a Gryffindor too, but saying ‘like Bill’ sounds better.

What the kid said next was sort of confusing. He had a sister..and she didn’t go to Hogwart’s? That made zero sense. You’ve got a sister who isn’t a wizard? He’d known it was possible, but he didn’t realize how common it was. Maybe that was why Lee didn’t seem to know much about the school. What about your parents? Can they do magic? Have they showed you anything? He pulled out his wand and played with the tip of it with his fingers. He knew better than to do so because making a hole in the train ceiling would annoy his mother when she found out, so he was sure to be mindful of where he pointed. He nodded again at the next question. I’ve got Percy, and then there’s George. He’s my age. Bill and Charlie used to go here, but they graduated a while ago. They’re more fun than Percy though. We’re not all boring like him. Charlie’s studying dragons.

Man, they really knew nothing about each other. It seemed like they had absolutely nothing in common and Fred was beginning to wonder if nonmagical people had ever even seen birds, or if those were solely for the magical world as well. Growing up the way he did, it wasn’t that obvious which birds were only seen by him because he was a wizard. The more he thought about it, the more he started thinking about birds he knew of. He figured that birds like a phoenix were specific to the magical world because it didn’t seem normal for things to explode spontaneously like they did. He’d never seen the boring-looking birds explode.. so it must have been a magic thing. It just wasn’t easy to tell for everything, because for Fred and George, explosions happened about once a week (this would ironically increase to a few times a day after the twins gained experience and curiosity with magic). Even though distinguishing between the two worlds could be confusing, Fred figured that if he was going to hang out with Lee, he’d start to learn more and more pretty soon.

He was sure Lee wanted to know more too, so he was more than happy to answer the boy’s questions (Not to mention he found Lee to be the most interesting person EVER and he knew that he’d have questions for Lee as well). Quidditch is wicked! It’s the sport for wizards. It’s got a keeper who blocks the quaffles that the chasers toss around and the seekers go after the snitch and the beaters hit bludgers at the chasers from the other team. He chuckled a little, realizing that he wasn’t the best person to give a helpful explanation. Well, you’ll see! It’s brilliant. George and I want to be beaters. It’s the best job since we’d get to knock bludgers at people. He laughed when Lee complained about the House names. The Houses have got odd names.. Dad says they were named by some famous people. They’re probably dead now. Being a Gryffindor was one of Fred’s greatest desires. After all he’d heard from Bill and Charlie, it’d be awful to end up in a different House, and to break the family chain. If we’re both in Gryffindor, we can make faces at Slytherins together and we can use magic on them and it’ll be great! I mean.. I don’t think we’re supposed to use magic like that but it’s so much fun.. and it’ll be even better once we learn spells.

Yeah… Wow! She must think you’re so cool! It sounded pretty cool to Fred. Magic didn’t impress anyone in his family. More times than not, it actually just aggravated his mother because of the way they liked to use magic in the Burrow. They can’t do magic either. Why, can yours? Both my mum and dad can. They went to Hogwart’s when they were younger. We all do magic in our house.. well.. most of us can. Perce, Bill, and Charlie get to have all the fun because they already know what they’re doing. George and I sort of make holes in stuff a lot. It gets Mum all peeved. And getting in trouble with George is pointless because I can’t even tell ‘er I’m George if she’s mad at both of us. He’d had a crazy home life, to say the least. That’s awesome that you’re the only magic one in your house! But if you’ve had no magic, what do you do for fun? He couldn’t think of anything entertaining that he and George had done that didn’t involve magic in some way, whether it was practicing Quidditch in the backyard, messing with potion ingredients they stole from the kitchen or simply playing around with wands they’d stolen from their older brothers.

Wow.. you.. have a lot of brothers. The funny thing was.. he’d only told Lee about four of his siblings. He laughed at Lee’s comment, nodding. I’ve also got a younger brother and a younger sister. Ron won’t start Hogwart’s until we’re third years and Gin won’t start until our fourth. Yea, he had a lot of siblings. That was something he was actually used to hearing. He continued to be amused when Lee didn’t know about dragons. Yea, dragons.. Note to self—dragons are the magical type of birds. Like, with the scales and the breathing fire.. Yea, those are the ones! Not all of them breathe fire but most of them do. Some are really big and scary. Charlie’s in Romania studying them—he’s like a genius when it comes to them.

Fred chuckled as Lee asked about Quidditch being the only sport. When you really think about it, it did seem strange to only have one sport, but Fred didn’t know of any other sports, and Quidditch seemed to have a large enough following, so it wasn’t like people ever got bored of it. There was enough going on during a game to hold attention. Do.. muggles have more than one sport? I mean.. everyone loves Quidditch! Even if you don’t play.. it’s great fun to watch. There’s so much going on.. it’s exciting! When Lee mentioned being a seeker, Fred’s eyes widened. Whoa! That’d be brilliant. Everyone loves the seeker. If you catch the snitch, you win the game! To Fred, Quidditch was the most exciting thing in the world.

That sounds fun! It was awesome to know that Lee would be willing to break the rules to have a little fun. That meant that they could definitely be friends if they were going to get enjoyment out of the same activities. Unfortunately, they might not get as many opportunities if they weren’t in the same House. The twin shook his head. You don’t pick—the Sorting Hat does. You get sorted depending on what kind of person you are. Except.. I don’t really get it.. because Percy got put in the same House as Bill and Charlie.. but I guess it knows what it’s doing. Fred wasn’t really worried about being put into Slytherin, because he knew that by not wanting to be like them, he probably wasn’t.

Fred laughed. The train ride is really long. They’ll start telling us to put our robes on once we get close. He couldn’t wait to start learning magic..to start controlling it. It’s really wicked, real magic. You can do anything with it. The spells can be hard to say though. When Percy says them, they sound all fancy and long..but that’s probably because it’s Percy. You’ll really impress her after no time! Even though you’ve got to be careful.. since magic isn’t allowed outside school when you’re under seventeen. That rule did always seem annoying, but it wasn’t heavily enforced in the Burrow. Then again.. the rule was to keep muggles from seeing anything. Muggles didn’t get anywhere near the Weasley home, so they could pretty much do whatever they wanted as long as it didn’t attract too much attention by like.. blowing up a muggle town or something.

It must have been cool growing up in a house with magic, but it wasn’t like Fred knew enough to know the difference. It sounds really awesome, Fred corrected with a laugh. That all sounded so cool! Well—the parts he knew about sounded cool.. like games and blowing stuff up. And he was sure the sports must have been cool even though he couldn’t name one. Cartoons? He asked with confusion before chuckling again. Blowing stuff up is really fun. Yea.. people make stuff fun.. but sometimes a whole lot of them can get annoying. You can’t get away from them. For the most part, it was everyone else trying to get away from Fred and George.. yanno..for the concern for their well-being.. but sometimes if Fred and George wanted to mess with stuff alone, they had to go a little ways from the house. Of course, whenever Fred thought of being alone, it was with George—never truly by himself.

I think it’s an amazing job too! He sees them every day, for the most part. I’ve seen one once.. it was a baby one that Charlie brought back to the house for a little while. Mum had a fit and told him to get it out before it started setting stuff on fire. They live all over the world, mostly in the mountains in places where muggles don’t usually go. Fred really wanted to see a real dragon, one that was huge and dangerous, but he’d only seen pictures—mostly ones that Charlie had sent back. It wasn’t exactly easy to get very close to a full-grown one.

Fred didn’t think Percy was ever going to stop talking. Maybe it was because it was his brother—nah.. it was because it was Percy. He’d already heard all that stuff anyway from his older brothers.. stuff about rules and the common room and their classes. He was probably also talking about how to find stuff, but Fred would figure that out later after getting lost a billion times, so listening to the directions the first time was pointless. Everything was so big and nothing like he’d pictured in his head and it was nearly impossible not to be distracted by it all. He didn’t need to pay attention to anything once they were sorted. Lee was in Gryffindor which just proved that he was awesome and that the two were going to get along. Fred walked alongside George and his new friend in the back of the group before being pulled into another hallway. Knowing George would cover, he followed Lee with curiosity. What.. what is it??

At first, he thought Lee was joking. He laughed and waited for Lee to tell him what was so exciting.. but that didn’t happen. Instead, the picture got all sassy at Lee and Fred realized that he was serious. He knew that the muggle world was boring..but really? Apparently there was a lot that Fred took for granted. It can do that. How’s it doing that? Yea, yours can’t? He turned to the picture with a quick explanation that Lee was Muggleborn before turning to him with a grin. Well, you’ve gotten us away from the monster.. and I don’t really want to go back.