Knowledge Is the Fundamental Power of Wizards

At exactly three o'clock in the morning, after making an appointment for the next meeting, Ivan said goodbye to Madam Ghost and returned to the boys' dormitory alone with Ravenclaw's diadem.

Throughout the journey, Ivan's mind was filled with the possibility and even the need to tentatively call out to the system for answers.

However, the system ignored him, let alone answer his doubts.

In the end, Ivan had no choice but to give up and put those wild guesses behind him for now.

After all, he had many more pressing matters to deal with at the moment, and could not spare much effort to seek that answer.

One of the most important tasks was naturally to find a way to get rid of Voldemort.

Otherwise, such a powerful Dark Wizard would be hiding in the shadows all day, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

The safety of Isiah and the others was also a concern, as they were all marked with magic and could be reached at a moment's notice if they were in danger.

If the Dark Lord were to launch a shameless sneak attack, Alicia and the others would not even have time to send a signal…

Unfortunately, Ivan couldn't do anything about the Fidelius Charm except hope for good news from Snape.

In addition, it would not be easy for him to keep a fleeing Lord Voldemort in battle.

The previous battle with Dumbledore made Ivan realise his own shortcomings.

However, he was already very strong, and there were only two ways to improve.

It was either to continue to fuse more bloodlines, hoping for more powerful blood magic, or to work on solidifying one's foundations, developing one's existing bloodline power, and amassing knowledge.

The former worked the fastest, but Legendary Points were hard to come by, and the latter took time and effort, but took years to achieve.

Of course, Ivan did not have to choose between the two, as he had always walked two paths.

This was one of the reasons why Ivan was in such a hurry to graduate from Hogwarts, as the advanced classes had done little to improve him, and he would only be wasting his time if he stayed.

As for becoming a professor, it was to stay in this castle.

Hogwarts had the largest library in Europe, and the Restricted Section contained a variety of ancient and dangerous magical books, some of which had been there for thousands of years.

Ivan was convinced that if he could read and understand all of the books in the Restricted Section, his understanding of magic would surpass that of any other wizard in the world!

The importance of the basics is self-evident, and Dumbledore was a perfect example of this. During the last battle, the old Professor did not use the strange and volatile blood magic, but the pressure he exerted on Ivan with every move he made was unforgettable.

Perhaps, as the other party said, knowledge was the foundation of a wizard's strength!

Even his method of merging bloodlines to improve himself was, frankly, inherited from Slytherin.

However, as a student, he had to sneak into the Restricted Section to retrieve a few books to avoid being seen by Madame Pince.

After becoming a professor, one would have the right to access the Restricted Section at any time.

As long as the schedule was relaxed, there was plenty of time to spare.

Ivan also wanted to see if he could complete the task of creating the Army of House-elves.

… .

The next morning, Ivan got out of bed, yawning. Last night, he had a tryst with a female ghost and stayed up until midnight.

Harry, Seamus, and the others were no longer surprised. Having lived together for almost five years, they all knew that Yvonne had a habit of getting up in the middle of the night for a night excursion.

"We'd better hurry. Snape's classroom is covering the Defence Against the Dark Arts class this morning," Seamus shouted at them as he hurriedly put on his uniform.

No one wanted to be late for Snape's class.

Ivan slowly got up from his bed, gently waved his wand, and the robe hanging on the hanger immediately floated over. The blanket and pillow behind him automatically folded and placed neatly on the bed.

The convenience and quickness of magic were evident, and if it had not been for her habit of using it, Ivan would have used a Cleaning Charm instead of washing up.

Harry, Seamus, and Neville watched in envy as Yvonne handled the trivial tasks with the use of her wand, something they could not do with their level of magic.

"Why are you all staring at me? You won't make it in time if you don't leave now," Ivan reminded them, and then, after a moment's thought, took the Ravenclaw Corona from his drawer.

The few of them left in a hurry. After breakfast, they ran towards the Potions classroom and sat down before the bell rang.

Umbridge's position as Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts had been vacant since she was forcibly removed by Aurors from the Ministry for colluding with You-Know-Who.

Unable to find a replacement, the Ministry was temporarily left in charge of each subject.

Unfortunately, Snape was in charge of teaching the fifth year, and Harry and the others complained about it for days.

For Ivan, however, it didn't matter who attended the class, and Snape was better off, as he knew better than to pretend that he didn't notice if Ivan missed a class.

With this in mind, Ivan took a seat in a corner, put on his Ravenclaw diadem, and opened a book he had taken from the Restricted Section.

As Ivan expected, Snape did not even glance in his direction during the morning's Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson, as if he were not in the classroom.

However, Ivan's blatant attempt at distraction attracted the attention of several Slytherin students, who kept turning their heads to look at the corner and even snitched on Snape.

"Hales took care of a Norwegian Ridgeback on his own last year. Are you going to give it a try?" Snape looked coldly at the Slytherin students, as if he would actually get a dragon to teach them if they so much as nodded.

When they heard this, they shrank back and quickly shut their mouths.

Snape must have known that he was letting Ivan get away with something, because he explained after a pause, "Hales is planning to apply for graduation this year, so I've allowed him to read some of the exam prep books in my class."