Victoire & Fred ages

[abhorsen.]

Hi, guys! I am having a headcanon crisis.

 

Right now, I have Victoire born in May 2000 and Fred born in Sep 2000. I've decided that I think I'd rather have them in the same year, which means either aging Fred up a month or aging them both down about a year.

 

The latter would work best with the way I mapped out Quidditch, since Fred is on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, though it'll mean having to build in a little more Weasley family interaction (since Albus and Rose will overlap more, including in the already-written sections). Not a huge deal, though.

 

But I'm concerned that it would make Teddy's feeling for her a little more sketchy - an 17 year old being into a 14 year old is kind of creepy, even if he doesn't act on anything until she's 17 because he feels like a creeper. That said, he currently feels like a creeper, which seems like a bit of an overreaction when he was a 17 year old being into a 15 year old.

 

It would also mean deviating a little from canon, including the epilogue, which I generally don't love to do (though I'm admittedly ignoring the existence of CC as it is) - because they definitely don't start dating until the start of her seventh year and Fred and Victoire miss the train before her sixth year, both of which contradict the epilogue.

 

IDK. Help.

[FireOpal]

Okay, so first, let's focus on the age difference. I think I have some relevant life-experience. I got together with my long-term boyfriend-type person when I was sixteen and he was eighteen, and that was a very tangible age difference at that time in our lives - more than I think the adults around us might have realised. If I had been a whole year younger... well, that would definitely have been quite a bit iffy. I wouldn't reccomend a relationship with a three year age difference for any real teenager at least, that's for sure. It's a bit different when it's in a story, of course, but from this perspective my vote would be to age up Fred.

 

And of course, from a Canon perspective, aging Fred up would work best too, according to what you say, and I'm a stickler for Canon (unless it's completely AU). Another aspect that is also related to Canon but in a less direct way is looking at how people Canonically react to the two of them. Specifically, how nobody seems to focus on their age difference. Case in point: Rita Skeeter is pretty judgy-judgy about the two of them (though it's difficult to tell to what extent she's exaggerating), but she doesn't mention their age difference - which tbh is a little weird even in the scenario where they're fourteen and sixteen, not thirteen and sixteen (ew). One would think she'd milk something like that for all its worth. (I assume we can chalk that up to Rowling being bad at math.)

 

So my vote is for aging Fred up a month, I guess. But do whatever works best for your story!

 

(Oh, and finally, a Fred that's a year younger would possibly detract a little from potential George/Angelina drama from before he was born, which depending on your story could be either a good or a bad thing...)

[abhorsen.]

Just to clarify, they don't actually get together until just before her seventh year regardless - so when she's 17 and he's either 19 or 20.  I pick and choose what I use of Pottermore information, particularly when it comes to next-gen stuff. I have too much written and planned to retool it every time Pottermore or JKR release new stuff. I totally agree if they were actually getting together at 13/16, though - I wouldn't even consider it.

 

That's a good point re: George/Angelina drama, though I'm not sure I want to cover any potential drama in much depth regardless.

 

Thanks! <3

[FireOpal]

Ah, yes, I got that about when they get together!

 

Me and my boyfriend actually turned seventeen/nineteen just a few months into our relationship.

 

And regarding not recommending a three-year difference to any real teenager, it's not so much that it'd be morally wrong or whatever (once they reach a certain age), but more that there's still an issue of different maturity levels that makes a bigger difference than one might think. (I mean, at twenty-five I'd still hesitate to date a twenty-two-year-old, for that very reason, heh.)

 

Sorry if this comes off as too abrasive! If you decide to go with aging Victoire down, maybe take what I wrote as advice that you should let the fact that they have different maturity levels/are at different places in their lives play an even bigger role in their relationship than if she was a year older?