A/N: Please review! This is my first fic, so any reviews are really great.
Chapter One: Diagon Alley
“Mum! Mum! Can we go now? Can we? Please?” Molly Weasley sighed to herself. At age eleven, Fred and George Weasley were already more trouble than the rest of their siblings combined, not to mention more impatient.
“Coming, dears,” Molly called out to them. “Are your brothers ready?”
“Yeah, Mum. We’re here,” called out Bill. “Can I go ahead?” Molly nodded absently, walking into the kitchen.
“Go on, dear, but don’t leave the Leaky Cauldron.” Bill stepped into the whirling green flames and was immediately whisked away as he shouted, “The Leaky Cauldron!” Charlie went next, followed by Percy.
Fred and George, nearly bouncing up and down in anticipation, each grabbed a handful of Floo Powder. “One at a time,” Molly gently reminded them, but they somehow managed to both squeeze into the sooty fireplace.
“The Leaky Cauldron!” Their two voices echoed as one.
Molly sighed yet again and stepped into the tingling fire, ready for another exhausting day.
***
Tumbling out of the fireplace, in a swirl of soot, coughing, Fred and George looked excitedly around themselves. At that moment, Percy walked in front of them, looking down sternly. “Why did you Floo together again?” he demanded. “You know what Mum says!”
“Yeah we know-” began George.
“Extremely unsafe!” Fred put on a high falsetto, imitating his mother.
“You could get out at the wrong grate!” George put in.
“You’ll get stuck!” Fred continued with a grin.
“Why must I always-” George suddenly stopped and whirled around as he heard another voice in unison with his. His mother stepped out of the fireplace, lecturing the twins with the speech they had heard countless times, ever since they had started traveling by Floo Powder.
“We’re sorry, Mum,” Fred quickly cut in.
“We just tend to do things at the same time without thinking,” added George.
“Must be a twin thing,” they both said, and laughed together.
“Well, I suppose it’s alright this one time. Don’t you do it again! Just come along now, we’ve got lots to buy.” Fred and George now sprouted identical grins. Diagon Alley! They were finally here. Ever since Bill had started attending Hogwarts, the Weasley children had all begged their mother to bring them to Diagon Alley; even Percy had asked once he heard about it from Bill. But Molly held up her policy and only allowed her children to make their first trip to Diagon Alley the year they started school. No matter how much the twins had wheedled her, she hadn’t given in. She wanted it to be a “first-time experience” for them.
Both twins’ minds suddenly snapped back to reality as their mother led them out the back of the pub to a dingy alleyway. Charlie had told them about this place; it was the entrance to Diagon Alley. “We’ll go to Gringotts first,” their mother explained, “then split up, buy our supplies, and meet for lunch.” She proceeded to tap a brick in the wall with her wand, and Fred and George watched in amazement as an archway opened up in front of them.
The twins barely had time to look around them before their mother whisked them all off to a huge white marble building. Guarding the massive doors were two goblins in uniform. Fred and George stared, open-mouthed, at the goblins, having only before seen pictures of them in books. Their mum walked up to one of the counters and placed her key in front of her. “We’d like to make a withdrawal from vault 429, please.” The goblin, after carefully inspecting the key, nodded curtly and pointed to a door on their left.
“Oh, you guys are going to love this,” Bill said to Fred and George, who were still speechless.
They entered a dark cavern, where a cart was waiting for them, with a grumpy-looking goblin inside. They all clambered in, and the cart began to roll. The twins laughed with glee as they whirled up, down, and around, finally coming to a rattling stop in front of a door marked 429 on a bronze plate. Their mother quickly stepped into the vault and gathered enough money for the day’s trip, as the twins gushed to their brothers about the cart ride.
“That was brilliant!”
“Why didn’t you tell us about this?”
“It was like one of those Muggle…er- what do they call them, Fred?”
“The rolling toaster?”
“Roller coaster,” laughed Bill, who had taken Muggle Studies.
“Will you two kindly pipe down,” Percy said primly, “as we are going back now.”
“Wicked!” shouted the twins, and scrambled back in. Their cart sped its way back to the main entrance, and the five of them stepped out into the bright daylight.
“Now, boys, do stick together,” said their mother, addressing Bill, Charlie, and Percy. “And remember, you will first get your school supplies and then you can go where you want.”
“Yes, mum,” the three boys chorused.
“You two are staying with me,” continued Molly, addressing the twins. “What do you want to get first?”
The twins gave their immediate response: “Wands!”
“Ollivander's it is, then.”
***
Later that night, Fred and George lay in their beds, thinking about their day. They had both gotten wands with a core of dragon heartstring; Fred’s was oak and George’s mahogany. Flourish and Blotts had supplied them with not only their schoolbooks but Charms for the Practical Joker and Curses and Jinxes for Your Personal Enjoyment. These, of course, their mother didn’t know about. The other shops were all excellent, but none surpassed Kranker’s Joke Shop, for which they had been saving up most of their pocket money for the last year. Their bags were loaded with Exploding Ink Bottles, Toe-Biting Slippers, and of course the classics like Filibuster Fireworks and Fanged Frisbees. Now all they had to do was wait for the school year to begin.
“G’night, Fred.”
“G’night, George.”