Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes
Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes is the joke shop established by Fred and George Weasley. Initially a mail-order company, Fred and George began seriously setting up their business in the summer of 1994 [GOF5]. Their mother, at the time believing joke shop ownership an unsuitable career path for two of her sons, destroyed as much of their stock as she could find [GOF6]. Operating in secret, Fred and George managed to continue devising and manufacturing their products, despite their mother's disapproval, and market them to the students of Hogwarts [OOTP12].
At the end of the 1994-1995 school year, Fred and George were given the funding necessary to start their business seriously. Harry won a thousand galleons as the surviving co-winner of the Triwizard Tournament, and neither wanting nor needing the money, forced Fred and George to take it on two conditions: that they didn't tell there mother where they got it, and that they bought their brother Ron a new set of dress robes for the upcoming school year [GOF37].
With Harry's financial backing, Fred and George worked on creating and marketing new joke products all throughout the 1995-1996 school year, using themselves as test subjects, but also paying first year students to test products whenever they were sure Hermione was not looking [OOTP12]. Their most famous (or infamous) creations that year were Extendable Ears, Skiving Snackboxes, Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-Bangs, and the Portable Swamp. Fred and George used the majority of these products in the harassment of Dolores Umbridge. Chief among these were the Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-Bang fireworks, which wreaked havoc throughout Hogwarts, and the Portable Swamp they set off in a school corridor before leaving school permanently near the end of their seventh year [OOTP28,29]. By the time they left (promising a discount to any Hogwarts student who promised to use their products to rid Hogwarts of Umbridge), Fred and George had already procured premises for their joke shop; Number ninety-three, Diagon Alley [OOTP29].
By June of 1996 George and Fred had a successful business on their hands. When they met Harry, Ron, and Hermione off the Hogwarts Express at Kings Cross, they were both sporting "brand-new jackets in some lurid green, scaly material". According to Fred, their business was booming, and they rewarded themselves with the finest dragon-skin jackets they could find [OOTP38].
The first time anyone else from the Weasley family visited the shop in Diagon Alley was during the summer of 1996. This year signalled the start of a dismal and dangerous time in the Wizarding World. Voldemort was back in the open and the Second War was claiming causalities each day. Because of this, the majority of the shops in Diagon Alley were either boarded up or sombre in nature. Fred and George, however, were never good at blending into the background. As Harry observed;
Set against the dull, poster-muffled shop fronts around them, Fred and George's windows hit the eye like a firework display... The left-hand window was dazzlingly full of an assortment of goods that revolved, popped, flashed, bounced, and shrieked... The right-hand window was covered with a gigantic poster... emblazoned with flashing yellow letters:
WHY ARE YOU WORRYING ABOUT
YOU-KNOW-WHO?
YOU SHOULD BE WORRYING ABOUT
U-NO-POO -
THE CONSTIPATION SENSATION
THAT'S GRIPPING THE NATION! [HBP6]
Despite the fear of Voldemort and the Death Eaters that kept many witches and wizards at home, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes was packed full of customers, eager to test and purchase the twins' many inventive products. Customers had a wide assortment of items from which to choose. The store was filled from floor to the ceiling with Skiving Snackboxes (Nosebleed Nougat being the most popular variation), trick wands, a variety of enchanted quills, a Reusable Hangman, edible Dark Marks, and even Muggle magic tricks, to name but a few of their numerous creations [HBP6].
Fred and George, it turned out, weren't merely talented at creating joke products; they also knew how to market their items to reach different customer bases. Their store was divided into various sections. One section was donated to their "WonderWitch products", an arrangement of violently pink products designed specifically for young witches. This section contained an assortment of love potions, ten-second pimple vanisher, Patented Daydream Charms, and a cage of filled with squeaking pink and purple balls of fluff that turned out to be miniature puffskeins called Pygmy Puffs. Hermione was very impressed with the Patented Daydream Charm, remarking "that really is extraordinary magic!" Fred was so pleased with Hermione's remark he allowed her to have one for free, a courtesy neither he nor George extended to Ron [HBP6].
In a darker, less crowded room in the back of the shop, Fred and George kept their more serious product lines. These items, such as Shield Hats (a hat that protects its wearer from minor jinxes and hexes by the use of a Shield Charm), were purchased by the Ministry of Magic for its entire support staff. Realizing there was a market for more serious protective products, Fred and George began developing products to fill the demand for safety. They came out with an entire line of Shield items, including hats, cloaks, and gloves. They also created Instant Dark Powder (for anyone who needed to make a quick escape), and Decoy Detonators, which cause a diversion by exploding [HBP6].
Fred and George, the eternal practical jokers, managed to create a successful business doing what they do best. By the summer of 1996 they had moved out of the Burrow and into the small flat above the shop because they were so busy running the business. They also hired another helper, a young witch with short blond hair named Verity. Fred, George, and Verity all wore a uniform of magenta robes that clashed horribly with Fred and George's red hair [HBP6].
Unfortunately, even Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes couldn't survive Voldemort's takeover of the Ministry unscathed, and business was put aside following the summer of 1997 to allow both Fred and George to join the fight against Voldemort. Both played as active part for the Order of the Phoenix: they took part in Harry's escape from Privet Drive as fake Harrys, with George losing an ear in the process [DH5]; Fred appeared on Potterwatch to report news to dissenters against the Dark Lord's regime; and both fought in the Battle of Hogwarts, where Fred was tragically killed [DH31].
After Voldemort's death, the shop re-opened, with Ron joining George to fill the void left by Fred. Together they re-established it as a booming business, which allowed Ron to move on to the Ministry of Magic to join the Auror Department, leaving George in sole charge. George later married and named his first son Fred, and it would take a brave man to bet against the shop continuing to thrive for years to come [Bloomsbury Chat].
|
