He seemed to be enjoying his meal

There was a certain man.

Handsome and good-looking, he had been a prefect during his school years and had later become the school's Head Boy.

His grades were outstanding. Not only had he earned top marks across the board in his Ordinary Wizarding Level exams, which represented the lifetime standard of most wizards, but he had also achieved the same in his Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests.

Even a star student like Hermione Granger could not match those results. Yes, at least we could predict that she would never get a top grade in Divination. She had not earned an Ordinary Wizarding Level qualification in that subject.

At the same time, this man was sociable, ambitious, and well liked by the vast majority of his professors.

Most importantly, he had even been Peter Pettigrew's master for a time.

Did you think this man was Voldemort?

No, he was Percy Weasley.

He was an exceptional individual built from the same mold as Tom Riddle.

Percy even had more advantages. He had a wonderful, loving family and belonged to the Weasley family, one of the powerful Sacred Twenty-Eight.

His parents were important members of the Order of the Phoenix led by Dumbledore, the greatest wizard of the century. His older brothers worked at Gringotts and a Dragon Farm, and he had a fabulously wealthy aunt with no descendants, whose fortune awaited inheritance by the Weasley brothers...

After all, the Gaunt family might have had an impressive name, but their circumstances were downright miserable. Their past glory left them too proud to take menial work, and they lived in worse hardship than Dark Wizards on the fringes of society.

Percy Weasley seemed born for the position of Minister for Magic.

Provided he took the right path...

Well, his choice in the original story had