GF5: Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes – Harry Potter Lexicon

"OH, NOT AGAIN!"
-- Molly Weasley

The Weasleys return home, Fred and George are reprimanded by Mr. and Mrs. Weasley for giving Dudley the toffee, we learn more about the Weasley clan, and they have dinner in the garden.

Calendar and Dates

The action of this chapter takes place later in the afternoon and evening of the same day as the preceding chapter: on a Sunday, the day before the Quidditch World Cup.

Interesting facts and notes

This chapter features the first mention of the Weasley twins' efforts to start a joke shop: Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.

...to prevent himself falling face forward out of the Weasleys' kitchen fire.

The Weasleys' Floo Network connection is in the kitchen of the Burrow, then.

"Ton-Tongue Toffee," said Fred brightly. "George and I invented them, we've been looking for someone to test them on all summer..."

I hope that what Fred meant was that he and George were looking for a beta tester for Ton-Tongue Toffees, not that Dudley was the first living creature or human they tried the toffee out on.

Charlie was built like the twins, shorter and stockier than Percy and Ron, who were both long and lanky.

Which gives us more details about what Percy and Ron look like, as well as Charlie himself.

Bill came as something of a surprise. Harry knew that he worked for the wizarding bank, Gringotts, that he had been Head Boy of Hogwarts, and had always imagined Bill to be an older version of Percy; fussy about rule-breaking and fond of bossing everyone around. However, Bill was - there was no other word for it - cool.

In fact, working as a curse-breaker for a wizarding bank is more like being Indiana Jones than like working for a Muggle bank.

He was tall, with long hair that he had tied back in a ponytail.

So Bill appears to have the long and lanky version of the Weasley look, like Percy and Ron, rather than like Charlie and the twins.

...Harry recognized his boots to be made, not of leather, but of dragon hide.

Judging from this and from the public sale of dragon liver on Diagon Alley (PS5), at least one variety of dragon appears not to be an endangered species.

Before any of them could say anything else, there was a faint popping noise, and Mr. Weasley appeared out of thin air at George's shoulder.

The noise associated with Apparating and Disapparating appears to vary.

"It was four feet long before his parents would let me shrink it!"

Reducio seems the most likely spell for Mr. Weasley to have used for this.

She was a short, plump woman with a very kind face, though her eyes were presently narrowed with suspicion.

Since Mr. Weasley is described as tall and thin, apparently Charlie and the twins Fred and George take after their mother's build while Bill, Percy, and Ron take after their father's.

The other, who was small and red-haired, was Ron's younger sister, Ginny.

And Ginny appears to take after her mother's build, not her father's.

"Great long price-lists for stuff they've invented. Joke stuff, you know. Fake wands and trick sweets, loads of stuff."

Unless Fred and George have confined their actual experiments to their free time at Hogwarts, they've been doing underage magic outside school.

"We've been hearing explosions out of their room for ages..."

For at least the last two years, in fact (CS4).

"Its proper name is Pigwidgeon."

Big name, small owl.

"You realize Bertha Jorkins has been missing for over a month now?"

Bertha could not have disappeared before the seventh of June, because Wormtail didn't set out to rejoin Voldemort until very, very late on the evening of the sixth.

We can deduce from the lack of fuss over Bertha's disappearance that she was unmarried and had no close relatives - a stroke of luck for Voldemort.

"Went on holiday to Albania and never came back?"

The country where Voldemort was rumored to be hiding, in other words.

"I hear she's been shunted from department to department for years, much more trouble than she's worth...but all the same, Bagman ought to be trying to find her. Mr. Crouch has been taking a personal interest - she worked in our department at one time, you know, and I think Mr. Crouch was quite fond of her -"

Hmpf. So Mr. Crouch was responsible for damaging Bertha's memory when she worked for him (GF35, and now takes a personal interest in her - but he apparently shunted her off onto another department when her damaged memory affected her job performance.

"Went down to Transylvania, three hundred and ninety to ten," said Charlie gloomily. "Shocking performance."

Ouch. Even if England had caught the Snitch, they still would have lost, since they were twenty-three goals down.

Exceptional character moments

Mr Weasley, whose first reaction was that his own sons had been guilty of Muggle-baiting when they went after Dudley.

Mr Weasley, who was angry with the twins about the Ton-Tongue Toffee but wasn't really planning on setting off Molly by telling her all about it.

Molly Weasley's rant about Fred and George having no ambition - when that is exactly what they do have.

Bill and Charlie Weasley play-fighting with the tables in the Burrow garden - being childishly silly about setting them up for dinner.

Percy Weasley's complete dedication to his job at the Ministry and new boss Mr Crouch - providing almost equally amusement and annoyance to the rest of the family.

Molly Weasley wanting Bill to look a bit more respectable.

Percy trying to drop huge hints about a secret event taking place after the Quidditch World Cup.

Memorable lines

"Ton-Tongue Toffee," said Fred brightly. "George and I invented them, we’ve been looking for someone to test them on all summer …"

"We didn't give it to him because he's a Muggle!" said Fred indignantly.
"No, we gave it to him because he's a great bullying git," said George. "Isn't he, Harry?"
"Yeah, he is, Mr. Weasley," said Harry earnestly.

"We've been hearing explosions out of their room for ages, but we never thought they were actually making things," said Ginny, "we thought they just liked the noise."

"… with a horrible great fang on it, really, Bill, what do they say at the bank?"
"Mum, no one at the bank gives a damn how I dress as long as I bring home plenty of treasure...."

"Yeah, someone might slip dragon dung in it again, eh, Perce?" said Fred.
"That was a sample of fertiliser from Norway!" said Percy, going very red in the face. "It was nothing personal!"
"It was," Fred whispered to Harry, as they got up from the table. "We sent it."