In the seventies, when Voldemort was at the height of his "career," he was often seen attending all manner of family gatherings. Whenever he appeared, he was almost invariably the center of attention; even the host of the party became little more than a backdrop.
The Smith family gathering had invited the Weird Sisters. The young people crowded around them, little different from Beatles fans surrounding their idols.
Sally was clearly much more interested in this. She dragged Cedric along to listen, while Pomona spotted an unexpected person beside the stage—Diego Kaplan. He had actually gone to dance. His grandmother Felicia stood beside him, encouraging him to perform onstage with a middle-aged man.
Pomona had always hoped Hufflepuff would produce more graduates like Random, or fair judges like Amelia Bones. It was not because she enjoyed "collecting" them like Slughorn did.
For a long time, becoming the head of the Ministry of Magic's Department of Magical Law Enforcement had meant becoming the next Minister for Magic. But that rule changed with Barty Crouch Sr. He left people with an impression of being uncompromisingly hardline, which caused Lawrence Boulton, who succeeded him, to be overly lenient in his judgments—and clearly manipulated by Fudge.
She had once held hopes for Diego Kaplan, but that seemed to have been her own one-sided wish. Diego had other plans for his future.
"Is that Enrique Kaplan, the famous duelist?" He pointed at the silver-haired old man beside the three members of the Kaplan family. The man looked neither sorrowful nor joyful.
Kaplan's grandfather had once been an Auror as well, but after Voldemort fell, he "retired." He was also the one who had cultivated Diego's interest in dueling.
Diego's father had no intention of following in his grandfather's footsteps. He preferred dancing, and that had