(no subject)

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

One thing that bothers me about the twins is that no matter what they do, they get away with it. There are never any consequences. When they sneak Harry out of his house, flying a magic car into a Muggle area, there are no legal consequences and Molly blusters but doesn't do anything. When they more or less ignore how badly Ginny's getting on (as do Percy and Ron), and don't notice she's being bewitched, there's no real guilt.

They give Harry the Marauders' Map - what if he disappeared some day - would they have told the authorities that they gave him a method of sneaking out of school? Or just stayed quiet and hoped things worked out?

They slip Dudley Ton-Tongue Toffees - he could have died, but again no consequences. They win their bet with Bagman (it was never explained how they knew it - maybe they used magical means in an early draft) but never face consequences (given that the Ministry is notoriously corrupt, it's surprising that Ludo is always on the defensive, and never tries to e.g. get Arthur fired or have the twins prosecuted for their illegal testing). And then Harry hands them a pile of cash, because there are no more worthy causes.

In OOTP, they spy on Order meetings (how bad is the security?) but no DEs seem to exploit this. They also drop out of school without qualifications - unlike in real life, where this would lead to months of them sitting about in the Burrow doing nothing, they instead become master businessmen.

In HBP, their shop sells stuff that is obviously dangerous if exploited, but even when the DEs use their powder, no-one blames them for selling it, or questions a society that allows such weapons to be owned.

In DH, Fred is killed, but a heroic death in battle. It would be much more likely for him to be killed in one of the twins' experiments gone wrong - this would actually force George to undergo some sort of reflection or growth as a character - but as it is, it confirms that Fred was great and everything the twins did was great.

Comments

[sunnyskywalker]

Well, they're still dating in PoA, aren't they? And now that Ginny's spilled the beans, they seem to be more open about it - Percy telling them about the bet, then dashing off after Penny calling her name. That doesn't really say "secret romance" or awkward breakup to me. So maybe they were both just relatively private people who didn't want to go advertizing the minute they got together, and Penelope probably didn't have a very high opinion of the twins as a Ravenclaw, and it's not like they would want to make out in either of their common rooms even if they're allowed to hang out in each other's common rooms. Also, given how oblivious Harry is and how little the Houses seem to talk (so Fred and George might not hear either - do we ever seem them just chatting with Ravenclaws?), it's possible all of Ravenclaw knew about them the whole time. And maybe the Hufflepuff prefects.

As for GoF onward... again, how would Harry know? And with Percy being out of Hogwarts and out of the house during the day, he'd have plenty of opportunity to contact Penny on his own, without his brothers bugging him about it. They could have lunch, she could send letters to his office so they didn't have to worry about Molly or the Twins intercepting the mail and being nosy, etc. Or it's possible they also just drifted apart after graduation, as first romances often do, and parted on friendly terms and moved on. Like normal mature people.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

----Or it's possible they also just drifted apart after graduation, as first romances often do, and parted on friendly terms and moved on. Like normal mature people.

The end of their relationship might have had something to do with Voldemort coming back to power and eventually taking over Ministry. Maybe they broke up because they disagreed about Percy's continued support of the Ministry. Maybe she had to flee to another country. Maybe she was killed for being a Muggle-born, but hopefully not.

[sunnyskywalker]

In that case, it could have lasted until early DH, unless at some point between Harry's article in OotP and then she thought the Ministry was already going the wrong way (not pro-Voldemort, but not a good way). Hard to say. (And it's not like his family would know, not being on speaking terms.) Then I suppose it depends on whether she thinks Percy is supporting a regime that will oppress her, or whether she thinks he's trying to stay where he can get the latest updates and warn his friends (maybe he helped her flee the country). Or maybe she knows what Percy's talking about when he said it was hard to get out and forgives him for that. Or maybe in GoF she moved abroad for an awesome job opportunity, which would be a much happier alternative!