Why I like the Twins (was Fred and George, the Bullies You Do Know)

[Catherine Coleman]

No: HPFGUIDX 43105

I have to say that I was amazed when I read Elkins' post on the Twins. I 
must have somehow missed the February thread, because it has never even 
occurred to me that anyone could see Fred and George as "thuggish cads", 
let alone bullies.  And with apologies to Elkins, I don't think calling 
them cads is at all appropriate, as this implies some kind of dishonesty 
and dishonourable behaviour on their part, which I don't think is shown 
in their canon appearances at all.

A lot of analysis of various incidents has been thrown up here, 
including comparisons between the Twins and Draco and his cronies.  I 
would agree with everyone who says that what Draco does is harmful - 
it's malicious, it is meant to cause pain - even death!  He has tried 
variously to get people expelled/seriously injured/sacked/killed, with 
absolutely no remorse.  He spends much of his time inflicting emotional 
torment on various Gryffindors, as he has a knack of seeing someone's 
weaknesses and exploiting them.  Not pleasant.

I therefore find it hard to equate this behaviour with they way in which 
Fred and George are portrayed.  To me, they have always been loveable, 
mischievous, kind hearted pranksters, who *do* have sensitivity.  I have 
to say that the reason I like the twins is *not* because of their 
humour.  I have never been a fan of slapstick, and I don't find it 
particularly funny.  Overall, however, I do think that Fred and George 
use their humour in a positive, or at the very least, harmless way.  I 
take Dicentra's point about "Toons."  I don't see the Twins as "Toons" 
themselves, but I think that sometimes their actions are a bit 
"Toon-ish."  An example of this for me would be the snowball incident. 
I very much got from that scene that JKR wanted to us to remember this 
when we discover that Voldemort is grafted onto Quirrel's head.  I just 
assumed that as Fred and George are the ones with the reputation for 
being practical jokers, that's why she gave the snowball hex to them. 
Anyway, I digress...

So why do I like the Twins?  Well...

I think that we get the measure of the twins on the very first occasion 
we see them interact with Harry.  What do the twins see when they first 
set eyes on Harry?  A first year boy who is small for his age and thin 
(even pale and delicate looking?) , who is on his own so is presumably 
friendless, who is dressed in shabby, ill-fitting clothes, and who is 
struggling to get a large trunk onto the train.  They may also have 
assumed that he was Muggle born, considering that he didn't know how to 
get onto the platform.

If they were real bullies, wouldn't they have taken malicious pleasure 
in this?  Wouldn't their eyes have gleamed, and the words "potential 
victim" flashed across their minds?  Wouldn't they have immediately have 
picked Harry up on their radar as weak and friendless, therefore prime 
bullying material?  So at worst, they would have used this as an 
opportunity to have a dig and filed this information away.  At best, 
wouldn't they have taken pleasure at his predicament and either ignored 
him or deliberately have watched him struggle?  To me this is what 
bullies do.

But they don't.  They *help* him.  They help this nobody of a first 
year, not Harry Potter - they don't know that he's the famous Harry 
Potter - they don't know if he's going to be sorted into Gryffindor or 
Slytherin - and at this point he most emphatically isn't part of their 
circle of friends and family - but they still help him.  Can you imagine 
Draco or Dudley, reacting in the same way?

I know this is a relatively small incident (it is, however, one of my 
favourite scenes in PS), but I think that it shows a side of the twins 
which I like, even admire.  They show that their instincts are to be 
kind to and take pity on a complete stranger, who *is* younger and 
weaker and seemingly less fortunate than themselves.   This simply is 
not how people with the real bully mentality behave.  If you also take 
on board the fact that they could have thought that he was Muggle born, 
the scene also gives credence to the reasons why the Twins gave Dudley 
the toffee.  Not because he is Muggle born - they don't have any problem 
with Muggleborns or Muggles - but they do have a problem with "great 
bullying git(s)", and quite rightly so.

Another thing about bullies.  They are cowards at heart.  They very 
rarely attack other bullies, for fear of retribution.  I think that Fred 
and George are disgusted by Dudley's behaviour, and disgusted by Draco's 
behaviour, because they find the whole idea of bullying reprehensible, 
and therefore a) try and give them a taste of their own medicine and b) 
try and even the score a little.  They don't always go about things in 
the best way, and I do agree that they occasionally go too far, but I 
honestly believe that their intentions are good.

Another comment about the carriage scene.  What are the Twins' motives? 
To make sure that Draco and his cronies aren't going to cause trouble 
for Harry and his friends.  BTW, I always thought that the Twins seem to 
pick up on how Harry is feeling.  I can just see them thinking that it 
would be a Bad Thing to let Draco verbally loose on Harry after 
everything else he has been through.   Fred and George aren't solely 
responsible for hexing Draco, Crabbe and Goyle.  Harry and Ron help 
"kick" them out of the compartment.  Does that make them bullies too? 
After all, as Draco is out cold, he's obviously weaker than them and 
defenceless, so what they do could be seen as cowardly and mean - 
literally kicking a man when he is down.  I don't suppose many people 
would accept that though, and I would agree - the provocation here was 
immense.  So what is the difference here between Harry and Ron "kicking" 
Draco, Crabbe and Goyle, and the Twins stepping on them?

As their apologist, let me take a brief look at some of their other 
"victims."  Percy - well, I see much of that as being affectionate - the 
Christmas scene in PS in particular.  Unless there is an argument that 
they want Percy to spend Christmas with them so they have their "victim" 
up close and available, much in the same way that Aunt Marge does with 
Harry in PoA?  As much as I love Percy (and I am a paid up member of 
PINE), I do think that whatever his motivations (one of which I am sure 
is insecurity), he does come across as being pompous.  I think that the 
Twins have been vainly trying to teach him to be able to laugh at 
himself a bit more - to become a bit more relaxed and not to take 
everything so seriously.  Perhaps they know that he is unhappy, and that 
if he lightens up a bit, some of the cloud would lift?  Ditto Neville. 
Anyone could have ended up with the Canary Cream - Neville picked it up. 
But I see Neville as someone else who needs to be able to laugh at 
himself a little bit more - it's a confidence builder.

Before you think that I'm doing a major whitewash job here, let me tell 
you that the odd thing about them has worried me.  The Puffskein 
incident is not pleasant - I remember talking to Amy about this once, 
when we both hoped that Ron was joking.  This probably isn't the case, 
but it isn't inconceivable.  Also, poor little Malcolm Braddick.  In the 
context we are given, this isn't very pleasant, but I'm afraid that I 
saw it again as the Twins being a bit thoughtless, and behaving in a 
Pantomime-ish way, not as being particularly malicious.  And we don't 
hear about them hissing at other Slytherins.  Could this be a clue about 
the Braddicks as a whole?  Is there some history there which is going to 
come out later.  Otherwise, why wouldn't JKR make a point of saying that 
the Twins hiss at all first years who are sorted into Slytherin?


If you read on here, you are going to believe that I'm biased in favour 
of the twins.  I suppose that I am in a way, as the following Real Life 
analogy will show.  When I was at secondary school, I was bullied a 
great deal.  Break times in the playground were absolute torture.  Then, 
as I was a musician and joined the school orchestra, I got to know a 
couple of other boys - 4 years older than me - who noticed how I was 
being treated by my peers.  These two were a real life Fred and George - 
not twins, but a real double act.  They were always playing practical 
jokes on people (my favourite was when they took the inside of the piano 
out just before choir practice, burying the keys in the flower beds 
outside) , they had great senses of humour, they broke school rules and 
several of our teachers used to pull their hair out over their 
behaviour.  However, they were never, ever malicious, they never did 
anything either physically or verbally which would actually hurt anyone 
else.  They never picked up on people's weak points and exploited them 
(and where are the examples of Fred and George doing just this?).  In 
short, they were never deliberately unkind.  Everyone loved them, even 
their exasperated teachers.   Anyway, they took me under their wing, let 
me hang out with them to keep me away from the bullies, gently teased me 
(they seemed to know just how much I could take - I was very shy and 
introverted in those days and they helped get me out of it), and 
literally stopped my first two years of secondary school from being 
hell.  I was talking to one of them recently (he found me on 
Friendsreunited), and he said that they could see what was going on with 
the bullies, and as I was a fellow musician, and therefore "one of 
them", he thought that it was important for them both to quietly watch 
out for me.  Well, they did, to the extent that on occasion they 
threatened the *real* thugs who were bothering me.  They hated bullies, 
and were strong enough to stand up to them on my behalf.  No way did I 
ever see what they were doing as bullying as well.  It wasn't - they 
were simply standing up to bullies in the same way that I think Fred a 
George do.   I've always been grateful to them for this.

Anyway, as soon as I met Fred and George, I equated them with these two. 
They are also capable of acts of kindness - giving Harry the map for 
instance, when they know he is miserable about not visiting Hogsmeade, 
getting angry with Oliver Wood for encouraging Harry to play on when 
Dobby's bludger is after him, rescuing Harry from the Dursleys, telling 
Harry that he wasn't the only one badly affected by the Dementors, 
pretending that Harry is the Heir of Gryffindor, so they can show him 
how ludicrous they think the idea is.  I call some of this kind and 
big-hearted of them - and if they treat Harry like this (it's from his 
POV, remember) what's to say that they don't behave in an equally kind 
way towards others?

So, perhaps I am biased in their favour, but I've gone very carefully 
through the books we currently have at our disposal, and I honestly 
can't see that my analysis of their behaviour is wrong.  Thoughtless and 
a bit OTT at times?  Yes.  Bullies?  Definitely not.

Catherine