How old were Fred and George when they left Hogwarts, and what year were they in? I’ve been struggling to find out this answer!
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7FWIW I googled your exact title which brought up the wikia page for Fred and George Weasley's departure from Hogwarts which has a date and from there you can click through to Fred and George's pages which have their birth date. From that it is just simple maths to work out how old they were and their year. Whilst the wikia isn't 100% reliable this seems like a good start if you wanted to find out the answer yourself.– TheLethalCarrot ♦Jul 11, 2019 at 12:33
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4 Answers
Fred and George left Hogwarts in their 7th year. We know that at the start of the 5th book, they were 17 years old as they were allowed to do magic outside out Hogwarts.
With two loud cracks, Fred and George, Ron’s elder twin brothers, had materialized out of thin air in the middle of the room. Pigwidgeon twittered more wildly than ever and zoomed off to join Hedwig on top of the wardrobe. “Stop doing that!” Hermione said weakly to the twins, who were as vividly red-haired as Ron, though stockier and slightly shorter. “Hello, Harry,” said George, beaming at him. “We thought we heard your dulcet tones.” “You don’t want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, let it all out,” said Fred, also beaming. “There might be a couple of people fifty miles away who didn’t hear you.” “You two passed your Apparation tests, then?” asked Harry grumpily.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 4: Number 12 Grimmauld Place, Page 68
Now, if they left Hogwarts after April 1st, then they would be 18, but I don't think its ever explicitly stated what month they left
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1Actually, they left after the Easter holidays, which puts it past April 1st.– SQBJul 11, 2019 at 13:38
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if they turn 18 in their 6th year, it wouldnt make sense for them not to have started Hogwarts a year earlier, as everyone is 11 when they start.– TryceJul 11, 2019 at 14:20
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1I'm pretty sure they were in third year the year Harry went to Hogwarts, so they are 2 years older, meaning they were in 7th year in OOTP. Jul 11, 2019 at 15:22
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Looking back, you are right. They were in their seventh year. I have fixed my answer to reflect this Jul 11, 2019 at 16:01
They were 16 at the start of Goblet of Fire, and wouldn't turn 17 until April.
At the start of Goblet of Fire, when the twins get back to the Burrow after giving Dudley Ton-Tongue Toffee, their mother lays into them and Harry asks Ron what is going on. Ron replies that the twins "didn't get as many O.W.L.s as she expected".
It therefore follows that those tests are what students take at age 15. If they took O.W.L.s in Harry's third year, that would put them two years ahead of him.
Seeing as they leave in Order of the Phoenix (book five) they had to have been in year seven at Hogwarts.
To start year seven, you must be 17, or you wouldn't have been 11 to start year one.
Their date of departure and their birthday (April 1st) suggests that they had already turned 18 at that point.
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1It would be helpful to note that the April 1st date isn't in the books and instead comes from Pottermore. You also don't really explain why you think they left after this date rather than before it. Jul 13, 2019 at 11:08
In Chapter Twelve of Goblet of Fire we find the following occurring when the Triwizard Tournament is announced on the first day of school:
“They can’t do that!” said George Weasley, who had not joined the crowd moving toward the door, but was standing up and glaring at Dumbledore. “We’re seventeen in April, why can’t we have a shot?”
In Chapter Thirty of Order of the Phoenix, during the time period immediately following Fred and George’s departure, we have the following statement:
The problem was that with just under a month to go until the exams and every free moment devoted to studying, his mind seemed saturated with information when he went to bed so that he found it very difficult to get to sleep at all.
As I established in this answer, the exams began in early June. Thus, Fred and George left school in May, which would have been shortly after their eighteenth birthday in April.
In Chapter Twelve of Order of the Phoenix they describe that year as their seventh and last year (my emphasis):
“We seriously debated whether we were going to bother coming back for our seventh year,” said George brightly, “now that we’ve got —”
He broke off at a warning look from Harry, who knew George had been about to mention the Triwizard winnings he had given them. “— now that we’ve got our O.W.L.s,” George said hastily. “I mean, do we really need N.E.W.T.s? But we didn’t think Mum could take us leaving school early, not on top of Percy turning out to be the world’s biggest prat.”
“We’re not going to waste our last year here, though,” said Fred, looking affectionately around at the Great Hall.
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This is the best and most complete answer. Some additional info which might be helpful is that Pottermore gives their dates of birth as April 1st and that the following quote (also from Careers Advice) confirms that their diversion for Harry took place after the Easter holidays: "Now, you might have noticed that we have been rather quiet on the mayhem front during the Easter holidays?” “What was the point, we asked ourselves, of disrupting leisure time?” continued Fred. Jul 13, 2019 at 11:03
The twins were 17 at the beginning of book 5 because we can see them (or read that they) apparate inside 12 Grimmauld Place and Molly gets agitated that:
pop “OH! Just because you are allowed to use magic now does NOT mean that you can whip your wands out for everything!”
This means that they are no longer underage. Many websites have stated that Fred and George were born on April 1st which is quite fitting for their prankster and jokey nature!
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Fred_Weasley
The day that the O.W.L examination was disrupted was sometime after the Easter holidays so Fred and George were already 18 when they left school.
This website says that Fred and George were 2 years older than Ron and since Ron was in year 5, the twins were in year 7.
I hope that this was clear enough and helped answer your question. 🙂
answered Aug 28, 2019 at 17:43
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I won't downvote it but this doesn't really provide any additional information than Zac-Beatty Taylor's answer :) Aug 28, 2019 at 17:50
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no worries - I too am just trying to help :) At lot of my early answers were essentially duplicates as well. That's why I didn't downvote. It's an answer, but ideally we wouldn't want have essentially duplicated answers as it can be cluttering and confusing to readers. Comments are a good tool to add color or interesting detail to an answer. If you think you've got something new to add though to a question - of course feel free to make a new answer! Aug 28, 2019 at 18:04