Fred and George: The Series (Book One)

The Sorting Ceremony

"Long ago I knew of four founders,

Who built this school for you to learn and thrive,

These for founders though different in mind,

All had one common goal,

To teach some young students of magic,

For many years they were happy,

Separating students into houses,

Each named after them,

Ravenclaw had smart and witty,

Slytherin taught the pure,

Hufflepuff was never picky,

Gryffindor had the bravest of them all,

As the years went on, however,

Soon it fell apart,

Slytherin and Gryffindor led an age old feud,

For once Rowena had no clue what to do,

Hufflepuff could only stand by hopelessly,

And old Sal left the building,

Now years later,

We have this grand old school,

Though Gryffindor and Slytherin,

Still compete at everything!"

The students clapped politely as the hat finished the song.

Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.
"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said, "Davies, Jay!"

"GRYFFINDOR!" The Gryffindor table erupted into applause, Jay skipped off to the table and sat beside a second year student.

"Davies, Rodger!"

" RAVENCLAW!"

"Diggory, Cedric!"

" HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Johnson, Angelina!"

" GRYFFINDOR!"

"Jordan, Lee!" Fred and George watched as their friend got sorted, after a few moments the hat finally announced "GRYFFINDOR!"

" Pucey, Adrian!" A tall pimply kid stepped forwards to try the hat on.

"More like pukey Adrian!" George said as the boy was sorted into Slytherin.

Alicia Spinnet came next and was the fourth student to join Gryffindor. Patricia Stimpson joined Ravenclaw and Kenneth Towler became a Gryffindor.

"Warrington, Cassius!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Weasley, Fred!" Fred heard sniggering coming from the Slytherin table and he tried to ignore it as he made his way on to the stool. The hat fell down and covered his face. After a few minutes the hat had made the decision.

"GRYFFINDOR!" Cheers erupted from the Gryffindor table as he walked past his brother, who was standing alone now, and say next to Jay who grinned at him.

"Weasley, George!" Professor McGonogall cried and her scroll disappeared into thin air. George went forwards, hoping that he would be in the same house as Fred.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat yelled and for the last time Gryffindor house burst into applause. Charlie ruffled his hair and his friends grinned.

As the food appeared on the tables, Jay and Fred swapped places so that the girl was in between both boys.

"I come from a muggle family and I have a younger sister. Just until last summer, I thought magic didn't exist! I play guitar, a muggle instrument and I managed to bring it, I'll play for you if you like. I live in a village called Ottery S.t Catchpole and went go to a muggle school. There are two schools and I went to St Catchpoles not Southgate Primary. In the distance there is this funny house that looks like it is about to fall over, but I like it, I think it is cool. Only me and my sister can see it, my mum and dad say there isn't anything there! When I got my letter my mum said it explained all the weird stuff i could do like making flowers grow and stuff!" Jay rambled on and then looked embarrassed, "I'm sorry, I'm not giving anyone else a chance to speak!"

" it doesn't matter I like the sound of your voice!" Fred said as he blushed. Jay smiled.

"Thank you, Fred, but honestly please do talk."

" Well, you know the funny house you can see, it is enchanted to protect the people inside the barriers from being seen by muggles. That explains why you and your sister can see it. Though if you take muggles through the barrier purposefully, they can see it. Otherwise they will just remember needing to do something! " Fred explained to Jay.

"How do yo u know all this? Wait-"

"We live there. It isn't much but it's home. We rarely go into the village except to go to school. Probably why we haven't seen you before." George chimed in.

Soon the twins found themselves explaining Quidditch.

"You have four balls, a quaffle, a snitch and two bludgers, right?

" Right! "

Seven players. "

"Ok, I think I understand."

"There are chasers, two are beaters, one is a seeker and the other is a keeper. The sport is played on broomsticks and to end the game the seeker has to catch the snitch. The bludgers meanwhile, have to try and knock the players off their brooms so the beaters have to protect their team from getting hit by the bludgers. They try to aim for the other team and have to be powerful hitters. The chaser scores by throwing the quaffle past the keeper into one of three hoops." They explained.

Soon the puddings appeared and Jay went for the banoffee pie and vanilla ice cream, pouring caramel source into the bowl. Fred copied her and found the dessert was quite nice, replacing honeycomb ice cream with chocolate chips as his favourite dessert.

Shortly afterwards, everyone was full and the first years followed the Gryffindor perfect to Gryffindor tower. They were told of how the staircases moved and the prefect gave them little guides to help them remember which staircases moved when.

Then they came to a portrait of a little fat lady who was dressed in a pink puffy dress. "Password?" She said in a posh voice, one that the queen of England would be heard to use. Some of the muggle born students jumped back, including Jay.

" Oh, yeah! The paintings can move and talk, we didn't mention that earlier!" The twins apologised as Jay's look of alarm turned to fascination.

"Venomous Tentacula." Answered the prefect and the portrait swung open like a door.

The common room was a circular room where  students could already be found reading and playing chess. It was home to several squashy armchairs and tables. In one corner, a bulletin board stood where school notices, ads, lost posters, etc. can be posted. The common room was decorated in several shades of red, which was associated with the house. The common room felt comfortable and welcoming as the first years traipsed through.

There were many windows that look out onto the grounds of the castle below, and a large fireplace that dominated one wall. The mantle of the fireplace was adorned with a portrait of a lion. The walls had been decorated with scarlet tapestries that depicted witches and wizards (thought to be the founders), but also various animals. There were also bookcases located in the room, filled with various novels, as well as spare textbooks.