The Twins: Good or Bad? (was:Re: parental roles in HP books - Molly)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 136790

> >>Betsy Hp:
> ><snip>
> >Fred apparently used Ron's puffskein for bludger practice.  Which 
> >means, effectively, that Fred hit a small furry animal with a     
> >cricket bat until it was dead.  Not very pleasant, IMO.  

> >>Sherry:
> i don't remember this at all, but if it happened ... if Ron was    
> five, the twins were seven.

Betsy Hp:
I *poured* through HBP looking for the quote and couldn't find it, so 
apparently I confused the puffskein incident with the Unbreakable 
Vow.  However, FB&WTFT (Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them) has 
hand scribbled notes between Harry and Ron that say:

"I had one of them once" [there's an arrow pointing to the Puffskein 
entry]
"What happened to it?"
"Fred used it for Bludger practice." (p.34)

There's no indication of age, but I'd assume this occurs pre-Hogwarts 
for both Ron and Fred.

> >>Sherry:
> My brother accidentally killed my canary when he was around that   
> age, six or seven, I think.  I doubt that the twins purposely set  
> out to kill Ron's pet.  They were thoughtless and irresponsible,   
> but then, what seven year old kid isn't?  

Betsy Hp:
I think, for me, it seems like part of a somewhat disturbing trend.  
Fred and George feed a firecracker to a salamander, they cause a team-
mate to nearly bleed to death.  They nearly kill a fellow student for 
trying to take house points from them.  They help, though very 
indirectly, Death Eaters invade Hogwarts.  They also help Harry sneak 
out of Hogwarts when a mass murderer is after him.

At the same time they're highly entertaining and Harry likes them 
quite a bit.  So while I'm personally a bit disturbed by them (and 
consequently have a lot of sympathy for Percy) I'm not sure that JKR 
means them to be anything other than merry pranksters.  What strikes 
me as a rather disturbing list of injured parties JKR may look at as 
jolly good fun.  Honestly, I have no idea how I'm supposed to take 
them.  Once again, I guess we'll have to wait for book 7 and JKR's 
end game.

Betsy Hp