George & Fred Weasley

Fred and George Weasley are the older identical twin brothers of Ron. Born on April Fools' Day, they first appear in Philosopher's Stone as third-years and are the school clowns and prime troublemakers, more interested in inventing new pranks than studying. Despite their poor results in their O.W.L. exams, the twins are proficient wizards capable of sophisticated magic. In addition, they served as Beaters for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

The pair often comes to Harry's assistance throughout the series; in Chamber of Secrets, they and Ron help him escape his house arrest from Privet Drive, and give Harry the Marauder's Map during his third year. In Goblet of Fire, they begin selling novelties under the name "Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes," first testing their merchandise on impressionable first-years, and once on Dudley Dursley at the beginning of the book. The twins aspire to own a joke shop, and Harry provides their start-up capital by donating his winnings from the Triwizard Tournament. In Order of the Phoenix, the twins are permanently banned from Quidditch after a postmatch brawl with Malfoy, and later eschew the remainder of their seventh year by taking part in a student uprising against Umbridge, during which they light off a mass of fireworks and conjure up a Portable Swamp in a corridor before abandoning their education; a small amount of the swamp is later kept and cordoned off by Filius Flitwick as a tribute. In Half-Blood Prince, Fred and George continue to run their joke shop despite the unrest in Diagon Alley.

In Deathly Hallows, the twins are Order of the Phoenix members and serve as two of Harry's six decoys when he escapes Privet Drive. George's ear is severed by a stray Sectumsempra curse from Snape, originally aimed at a Death Eater, an injury that is irreparable. Meanwhile, the twins are forced to abandon their shop due to the Death Eater-helmed Ministry of Magic's surveillance of the Weasley family, and instead operate another owl-order business out of their Auntie Muriel's house. During this time, one of the twins, speculated to be Fred, shows up in the pirate radio station Potterwatch as "Rapier" . The twins return to participate in the Battle of Hogwarts, during which Fred and Percy Weasley defeat Pius Thicknesse and an unidentified Death Eater, but moments later, Fred is killed in an explosion. Rowling said in an MSNBC interview that she always knew Fred would be the twin who would die, though she could not specify a particular reason. She revealed in a web chat after the release of Deathly Hallows that George never fully got over Fred's death, but succeeded in turning Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes into a "money spinner" with Ron, who eventually quit to become an Auror. George married Angelina Johnson, with whom he had two children, Fred and Roxanne.