Professor Galatea Merrythought served as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry’s Defence Against the Dark Arts instructor for decades, establishing herself as one of the longest-serving professors in the subject’s notoriously cursed position. Her tenure lasted well into the 1940s, when she retired in 1945 after what appeared to be a remarkably stable career teaching one of the school’s most challenging subjects.
During her final years at Hogwarts, Merrythought taught a young Tom Riddle, who would later become Lord Voldemort. The future Dark Lord was amongst her students during the 1940s, and historical accounts suggest she found him to be a particularly gifted pupil. Her retirement created the vacancy that Riddle himself would later seek to fill, though his application for the Defence Against the Dark Arts position was ultimately rejected by Headmaster Dippet.
What made Merrythought’s career particularly noteworthy was her apparent immunity to the misfortunes that plagued most Defence Against the Dark Arts professors. Whilst her predecessors and successors faced mysterious accidents, sudden departures, or worse fates, she managed to maintain her position for an unusually extended period. This stability allowed her to develop comprehensive teaching methods and build lasting relationships with generations of students.
Her retirement marked the end of an era at Hogwarts, as subsequent Defence Against the Dark Arts appointments would prove far more turbulent. The position’s reputation for bringing bad luck to its occupants only grew stronger after her departure, making her successful tenure all the more remarkable in hindsight.