what if the reason nobody can tell fred and george apart is because they really are interchangeable
not in a ~it doesn’t matter~ way but like. molly and arthur used to worry that fred and george might turn out to be squibs because they weren’t doing any accidental magic as children, but they were, THEY TOTALLY WERE, it just wasn’t anything flashy, instead they were just like idly switching bodies all the time
and like sometimes it doesn’t make much of a difference, whatever, wake up in the opposite bed you went to sleep in, but it gets like dangerous and weird if you’re on a broom or in the pond or letting your mum teach you to cook or trying to be mad stealth, so for a long long time everybody presumes they’re clumsy maybe-squibs and that they’re doing their twin lying thing when they try to explain what’s going on, so they learn to handle the issue their ownselves
they just. don’t go anywhere without the other. they start each day deciding which body is going to be which (because at this point they really don’t know which body is technically fred and which is technically george), and they learn to reorient FAST when they switch, and what things set them off, and eventually they learn how to act like nothing’s up even when one of them’s in the air and one’s on the ground or whatever, and then they burn past that til they can finish each other’s sentences — til they can switch midsentence — til they can play beater together — til they can switch in a split second in the middle of a game — til there’s room for other kinds of accidental magic to start showing up
at hogwarts they keep each other awake in history of magic by switching back and forth. in potions they take turns brewing and keeping lookout for the slytherins. in transfiguration and charms they keep their grades up because one of them will always get a spell right on the first try so they switch and make it look like both of them do and then they practice on their own later in private. it keeps the mystery alive.
at first they thought lee was just a lucky guesser but no, lee can always tell one twin from another twin — it’s not exactly telling fred from george, because while they are definitely two distinct personalities neither one of them feels like fred all the time or george all the time — but lee knows who he argued with yesterday or who he lent his notes to or who’s best to ask for help in astronomy and who’s best at runes.
the weasleys are pretty bad at it for the longest time, but then bill comes home from his first year cursebreaking and he can tell, and over a holiday he teaches his trick to charlie so charlie can tell. alicia and katie and angelina can tell. the twins honestly don’t know if oliver can tell or not; so long as they’re doing what they’re supposed to on the quidditch pitch he doesn’t really care about much else. harry can tell. luna can tell. tonks can tell.
the problem is there’s no way for this to end happily
YES THERE IS
THERE IS INDEED A WAY FOR THIS TO END HAPPILY LISTEN UP
so after fred dies, george hates being trapped in one body, feels claustrophobic, misses fred so much he thinks it might drive him insane
but then one day
george blinks and he’s somewhere he wasn’t a second ago, he’s in a place full of white light and he can’t orient himself, can’t ground himself, feels dizzy and sick and overwhelmed but it only lasts for about thirty seconds.
then he’s back in his own body.
and he looks down at his chest, his legs, his arms, there’s an ear missing so it’s definitely still his living body, but there’s something written on his arm, scrawled in messy quill ink.
“i love you. i miss you.”
george flips out, washes off the ink and immediately writes a message in reply— “how’s death going?”
he walks around with that message written on his arm for weeks, always keeping a quill pen somewhere nearby, waiting, waiting, before it finally happens again. the switch. george is alive, so he can’t handle being in the afterlife, he feels dizzy and sick and it’s the worst feeling in the world, but it doesn’t last long, and when he gets back to his living body, there’s a long message from fred waiting on his right thigh, the ink still drying.
this goes on for years, never as often as either twin would like, but it’s enough. fred helps george figure out how to propose to angelina, fred helps plan the wedding. sometimes it’s fred in george’s body when angelina kisses her husband. sometimes she suspects, but she doesn’t mind in the slightest.
it gets easier as george gets older. the times when he switches into fred’s afterlife don’t hurt as much. he almost feels comfortable there, almost feels oriented. he knows he’s getting closer to dying.
then when george is past ninety, lying on his deathbed, he writes a careful message on his palm. “i’m coming soon. where are you?”
they switch, it lasts for almost five minutes this time, and when george gets back into his own body, he sees the instructions fred wrote over his heart.
“you’ll wake up in king’s cross station. take the second train and get off at the third stop. i’ll be waiting.”
THIS IS THE BEST GODDAMN HARRY POTTER HEADCANON I HAVE EVER READ I AM C R Y I N G
Omg. I’m done with this fandom. Always making me cry. Always.
i thought i’d make an faq filled with every excuse in the book about reposting, for those who still don’t understand why it’s bad…or for people who don’t know what to say in retaliation to these! so here we go.
first of all, an artist doesn’t even NEED to explain themselves. in the same way with someone who says “dude, make sure that soda is diet” or “please don’t tickle me”. they don’t want you to do it. you don’t need to test them by ignoring them. the reason doesn’t matter: it’s the person’s wish with THEIR things. if you had any respect for others, you’d just take it at that.
BUT for some people, they don’t want to respect others at face value, and want their reason. (which, i might add, is rude.) so let’s get into that:
but i’m giving you exposure! isn’t that good?
no.
you’re not giving artists exposure. for people like myself, freelance artists, you’re hurting us. about a year ago, i sent my portfolio off to an indie game. in it, i had a piece of work that had been reposted (that i didn’t even know about). i was told much later that they “looked into it” and saw that my work was posted by someone else, which means now they have no idea who the artist was, and THEREFORE can’t be sure my work was legit. i lost a potential job to a repost.
doesn’t matter if you say “i didn’t draw this”. sometimes, they don’t even look. they just look to see if it’s on any site other than your own. and that’s terrifying for artists. so don’t endanger our livelihood for instagram likes.
besides, you’re not even giving exposure if you didn’t credit, cropped out the signature, or somehow made the resolution so low to where you can’t even see the signature. which brings me to…
but i credited you!
some people still don’t want it reposted even with credit. the last answer should show you one of the many reasons why.
you’re dictating what i can/cannot put on my page! this is MY page!
and it’s MY art you posted. you can’t take something i did and do whatever you want with it. imagine if you took someones drawing, photocopied it, and spread it all around the town without their permission. they’d have every right to be angry, right?
but you posted it online, which means anyone can do anything with it. so if you don’t want it reposted, don’t post it online!
i have to post my art onto my websites to build a fanbase, something crucial to an artist. it shouldn’t be on ME to not post it in the first place, it should be on YOU to not repost it. you’re just echoing victim-blaming arguments.
you’re basically saying “if you don’t want to be bullied, don’t exist.” which is a terrible thing to teach people, rather than “be nice and respectful towards others.” yes, i know our world isn’t perfect. but that’s no excuse to contribute to vile things.
well i would be honored if someone reposted my art. and my friend doesn’t mind reposts, so why should you?
good for you! good for them! but did you know there’s more people in the world other than just you and your friend? we have wishes and feelings too, so you don’t get to project your own emotions onto what WE should be feeling as well. i love peaches. some people don’t like them. that doesn’t mean that now they have to eat peaches because i don’t mind them.
what an artist creates automatically belongs to society, though.
go steal the mona lisa and tell me how that works out.
everyone can VIEW it, yes. artists want others to view their work! we just don’t want you to do stuff with it we asked you not to do.
WELL THEN SPEAKING OF THAT, since i can’t put your work on redbubble and sell it for myself, why do you have an umbrella of the starry night?? huh?? you STOLE van gogh’s work! (yes people have legit said this to me)
putting my work on items and selling it is totally illegal. van gogh’s work is owned by companies now, who have authorization to print it on things. and i’m just ONE freelance artist who is, you know, still alive and not giving permission to do that. you can’t compare a dead artist from the 1800s to a digital artist in 2017. apples to oranges, my dude.
well i SAID “credit to the artist” so i DID give you credit!
because saying “the artist” really tells people who i am and lets them visit my websites! thank you so much!
but all sarcasm aside, that doesn’t do anything other than show you were too lazy to find the artist. same thing with “source: the internet” and “who drew this xD” or misspelling my url on purpose or putting the credit under a cut. OR cropping the image the cut off my signature! you didn’t give me credit.
it wasn’t on the website i wanted it on! you should have more social media.
i’ll have the social media i want to have. not up to me to make more accounts on more things just so you won’t disrespect me.
but i don’t remember where i got it. besides, i reposted SOOO much work and saved it all a long time ago. how can i find it now?
reverse google image search is so great.
also, if you didn’t know the artist, that’s a HUGE reason not to repost it in the first place!! you didn’t even know if it was okay since you never got to see their position on that!!
take down your video with stolen fan art. take down your entire fan art twitter account. i don’t care “how hard it was to save those images” or “how many views you have now”. you got all that attention from someone else’s hard work. searching for art will never be as hard as making it. if it were that easy, you’d be drawing all the art yourself.
but i asked the artist and they didn’t say anything! i assumed it was okay.
yeah, i feel you. it’s the same thing as when you ask your mom if you can borrow some money, she doesn’t answer, so you just steal it from her purse. no answer means the answer you want to hear, right?
wrong. don’t take “unresponsive” as a yes. that’s disgusting.
well i honestly don’t care. artists are just selfish. i’ll repost their art if i want to, just to show them how much i hate their stance on reposting. and (insert another really edgy statement here from someone who only says things to get a rise out of people since their life is empty)
one day you’re gonna come across an artist who has no chill and wants to sue, and can actually do it, since some people put their work under HEAVY copyright. and i’m gonna kick back in my chair with a nice capri sun and watch it all happen, since you have that kind of attitude towards people.
yes, this whole thing seems a bit. well. “salty”, as some would put it. and i have every right to be irritated over this. all these questions are asking “WHY should i respect their wishes? give me a reason” or “but here is my excuse rather than just taking it down”. time after time, artists are villainized just for telling people not to repost.
like i said, the artist not wanting you to repost it SHOULD be reason enough! we’re so tired of having to fight people just to have respect for our art. we have to deal with tracing constantly, so can you please take reposting off our plates? i know bad things will always happen, but that’s no reason to make it worse by contributing.
artists are generously putting our art out there for free. if you want to keep seeing our art for free (btw we don’t HAVE to, all the big artists could just up and leave and go to patreon), maybe show us some respect? because we get pretty dejected when we see strangers getting attention from something we did, and it makes us want to remove everything we show you guys. you say “don’t post it then!” but would be mad if all fan art disappeared.
if you want to keep the art, respect the artist making it. there’s a real person behind that drawing.
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