One of the Dark Lord's Lifelong Wishes is…_1

Ivan grumbled to himself, but he was surprised by Tom Riddle's concern for Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Tom Riddle didn't seem to mind when Ivan didn't reply for a long time.

[Why would Dumbledore find someone like that to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts?]

Tom Riddle, who worked for Ivan and had been in contact with Lockhart several times, easily saw through the new professor.

He was vain and eager to show off, a complete and utter idiot…

The only thing that made Tom wonder was how the author had managed to write such bestselling books that were universally recognised.

[I think you're better at teaching than this guy…] Tom wrote at the end of the diary.

This was both a joke and Tom's acknowledgement of the young wizard in front of him.

In the course of their previous discussions about learning, Tom felt he had got to the bottom of the matter, and Ivan was no less knowledgeable about basic charms than a normal adult wizard.

Although there was still a long way to go before he could become a full professor, he was definitely better than that idiot Lockhart…

Ivan did not agree with Tom at all,

He knew who was in the position and who was unlucky. He felt that Tom must be trying to sabotage him.

Just as Ivan was thinking this, the system prompt sounded in his head.

[Ding, activated mission: The Dark Lord's Wish

Objective: Tom Riddle teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts directly or indirectly

Task Reward: Legendary Points*1

Task description: One of Voldemort's wishes was to become a Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. However, when he made this request, Dumbledore refused without hesitation!

Voldemort's rage turned his obsession into a curse, and the teacher who taught the class was only allowed to teach for a year at most.]

The sudden prompt surprised Ivan, who had not known Voldemort had such a desire.

When he read Harry Potter in his previous life, Ivan thought that Voldemort wanted to teach at the school to spread his evil ideas, or to steal all of the Big Four's belongings to create Horcruxes to satisfy his hobby of collecting.

He did not expect the Dark Lord to really want to be a Defence Against the Dark Arts professor.

Now that Ivan thought about it, it did seem to make sense. If he hadn't resented the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts professor so much, Voldemort wouldn't have had to resort to such a powerful curse.

The target of the curse was clear: one professor a year, but the process of "chasing" them out may have been intense, resulting in some casualties.

Was Voldemort planning to one day have no one to turn to and remember the snake-faced youth he had driven away?

Ivan's mind was filled with malicious conjectures, and he was even more puzzled as to why Lord Voldemort had stopped using the curse when he already had one.

Wouldn't it be better to curse the position of Headmaster, the school's closure, or even Dumbledore himself?

Yvonne wondered if the curse might have been conditional on its activation.

A once-in-a-lifetime trigger? Or a strong obsession with something?

Looking at the diary in front of her, Ivan had an idea. Why not just ask her in person?

With this in mind, Ivan dipped his quill in ink and wrote on it.

[I heard from the seniors that Defence Against the Dark Arts was cursed. Do you know anything about curses, Tom?]

Ivan was quite interested in the reward of a legendary point.

If there was a way to break the curse, Ivan would not mind applying for a teaching assistant position in his Defence Against the Dark Arts class, and then having a Horcrux assist him in his preparation for the task.

Ivan was equally interested in such a powerful curse, and it seemed that even Dumbledore could do nothing about it, or he would have dealt with it long ago.

Unfortunately, after Ivan waited for a while, Tom replied modestly in his diary.

[Curse? I don't know much about it… so I can't teach you.]

Ivan didn't believe a word of it, but there was nothing he could do about Tom,

The last time he asked about the Fire, Tom refused to talk about it, saying that he didn't know how to use it.

Unable to lift the curse, Ivan reluctantly abandoned the mission.

He couldn't just hand the Horcrux over to Lockhart and let Tom control Lockhart to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts, could he?

Lockhart's recent behaviour may have annoyed Ivan, but Ivan had no intention of setting him up.

What's more, it could lead to unforeseen consequences, which could lead to Tom's resurrection.

These concerns caused Ivan's dislike of the diary to grow.

Fortunately, Horcruxes were of less and less use to Ivan now, and he had a new learning plan, so he immediately decided to freeze Tom for a while to wake the bastard up…

With that in mind, Ivan slipped the diary into his pocket, took out the tattered copy of Advanced Potion-Making, and started reading. Within two minutes, the system prompt sounded in his head…

[Ding, after a period of study, your Potions proficiency has increased… Current Potions Level 4 (1467/1600)]

Ivan was stunned for a moment, and then he looked at the book in his hand with more enthusiasm. He felt that perhaps after he finished reading this book, his Potions studies would be able to advance to Level Five.

…

After a half-day of lessons, Ivan returned to the Great Hall for lunch.

Harry grumbled about the morning's boring lessons. "Doesn't Lockhart do anything but tell stories?"

"Yes!" said Ron, biting into a piece of pastry. "I heard that Lockhart had a cage of Cornish Pixies for the class to catch."

"And?" Yvonne asked curiously, putting down her textbook.

"It got out of hand, and Lockhart was hung from the ceiling by a bunch of elves. Professor McGonagall was the one who managed to get to him in time and put him down!" Ron shook his head sadly, thinking it must have been funny, but he didn't see it with his own eyes.

"No wonder…" Ivan muttered. He had been wondering why Lockhart hadn't been stirring up trouble lately, but now he was telling stories.

Ron was going to continue with some interesting stories about Lockhart, but when he saw Hermione approaching, he told her to shut up or they would start arguing again…

(PS: In Part 6, Dumbledore tells Harry that no Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher has been able to teach him or her for more than a year since I refused Voldemort, indicating that the curse should be real.)