lokifan

So I was doing this meme, and

amorette asked me What is one HP pairing you have always wanted to write but never got to it yet?

My answer, immediately, was: George Weasley and Draco Malfoy. My comment explaining why became massive, so I thought I’d do a post instead.

So it’s no secret that I really like it when parallel characters, literary mirrors, pair off. See all of my favourite pairings: Harry/Draco, Buffy/Faith, Thor/Loki, etc etc. And I think George and Draco have mountains of potential, whether it’s weird post-trauma friendship or hurt/comfort healing love or nasty non-con or dub-con. The biggest reason for that is that there are loads of textual connections between the Weasley twins and Draco Malfoy, especially in their dark sides - but also in their talents.

So first thing: they’re purebloods from old, respected lines. They share a (very upper-class English) instinct to defend their mothers and family reputations, and are willing to go further than usual in order to do it. (The Weasley twins go for Draco physically when he insults their mothers, despite him being fifteen to their adult seventeen; Draco tries to curse Harry when he insults Narcissa.) They’re charismatic and leaders in their house, including among older students. (We see basically the whole of Slytherin go along with fourteen-year-old Draco’s schemes to humiliate his enemies via badges and Quidditch chants, for instance, and there are loads of examples of the Weasley twins getting Gryffindors to follow their lead.) They’re Quidditch players, and they’re very ambitious. They’re cunning and fairly ruthless in that ambition, though they have limits. (Think of the twins arguing over whether to blackmail Bagman to get their savings back, or Draco’s desire to be a big important Death Eater and his casting Imperius on Rosmerta versus his unwillingness to murder anyone. Draco’s clearly further down the path on ruthlessness, but he’s also in a much darker situation than the twins are at the same age.)

They act as one voice in public with their People (George with Fred, Draco with Crabbe and Goyle) and present a united front, probably partly because it gives them an edge in dealing with their large family/Slytherin. It’s telling that in the very few times we see George and Draco with their People and they don’t know Harry is there, they’re arguing - Fred and George over blackmailing Bagman, Draco and Crabbe and Goyle over Draco not telling them what’s going on in HBP. I think it’s definitely a deliberate thing. They understand social power and they’re usually insightful about people, mostly in the context of being horrible to them; the twins attack Percy and Draco attacks each of the Trio based precisely on what matters to them.

Draco and the Weasley twins are bullies, and particularly bullies with a strong sense of in-group loyalty and despising those designated The Enemy. The first time we meet Draco he expresses dislike for the Muggleborn on specifically those terms, that they’re not one of us: “they’re just not the same, they’ve never been brought up to know our ways.” The Weasley twins go further on house rivalry than others - they attack Draco and his friends from behind (despite being seventeen!) and hiss at eleven-year-old baby Slytherins. Both Draco and the twins are mean to Neville, though to different degrees based on their relationships with him - they are not generally kind to the vulnerable. (Fred and George stop teasing Ginny in COS when Percy points out it’s upsetting her, but then she’s their baby sis and One Of Them.) They are also willing to take tremendous risks and even risk their lives for those they consider One of Them; Draco holds onto Goyle in the Fiendfyre though it stops Harry from pulling him onto his broom the first time, and the twins join the Order.

These connections intensify in OotP and HBP, and that’s also where Fred and George’s chickens kind of come home to roost on their dark side.

Draco brings Death Eaters into Hogwarts using the connected Vanishing Cabinets. How does he work out they’re connected? He tells us. Because in OotP, the Weasley twins pushed Montague (hi, could that name be any more of a hint about foolish battle amongst old families and the way it kills their children) into a Vanishing Cabinet.

George tells us, with “a nasty grin”, that they don’t know where they sent him. Draco tells us the only way Montague got out was by near-miraculously managing to Apparate himself without training. He could have died in any number of ways, and he ends up in the hospital wing with serious damage. It is SHEER LUCK the Weasley twins don’t kill someone, despite sympathetic reasons for it (Montague’s on the Inquisitorial Squad). Sound like anyone we know?

And Draco uses what Montague learnt, puts it together in a very clever way with other info he’s got, and manages to use difficult magic to fix something, all crafty and creative-like. Seems like Draco shares some of the Weasley twins’ talents besides Quidditch.

That’s not the only way the twins, in their ruthlessness and ambition, end up helping the dark side. Draco goes to them for Peruvian Darkness Powder. They know it's him and that he'll be using it for dark doings, despite his attempt at subterfuge - but they sell it to him anyway. Because their desire for money and success is so strong, and they're willing to do so much to get it. Which is understandable, and they get severely plot-punished for all this when Draco uses the Powder and the Cabinet. Their brother is maimed and both he and Ginny are almost killed because of it.

We don’t see them bully people the same way after that, as far as I remember, or show quite the same degree of avarice. (Which is a possibly unfair word given their background, but I’m going for it.) I might be wrong though - my memory of DH is blurry and they’re not in a power position the same way. I think you could probably write them learning from the end of HBP, consciously or not - or not.

Draco and George follow their respective families into battle, do their thing, and each loses one of their People - Fred and Crabbe - to war. Fred and Crabbe go out very differently of course - fighting to protect people versus killed by his own desire to destroy - but it’s another way into shippy connection between them after the war.

They share interests and talents - very practical but unusual magic, and Quidditch. They have similar backgrounds. They have relatively similar trauma, enough to make a connection there. And I think, because they share so much of their dark side, that you could plausibly write them being very cruel to each other - you are One Of Them and you also remind me of my own worst traits! They understand power and manipulation precisely, so depending on the power dynamic you gave them, you could easily go to some fun dark places. But George and Draco could also learn from each other I think, and help each other heal post-war with lots of hurt/comfort.

Depends what you’re into. But there is SO MUCH THERE.