Gilderoy Lockhart: The Fake Defense Teacher and His Fraud

He has the most expensive smile in the wizarding world, and nothing he tells happened the way he tells it. Gilderoy Lockhart is the only teacher the series shows as a pure fraud, and still he gets readers laughing with him, and at him.

Who he is

Lockhart is a wizard, an author and the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in Harry's second year. He holds the Order of Merlin, Third Class, is an honorary member of the Dark Force Defense League and has won Witch Weekly's Most-Charming Smile Award five times (Chamber of Secrets, ch. 6). According to Rowling he was in Ravenclaw, though the books don't say.

His books tell of deeds he didn't do. He took them from wizards who had lived them, and then wiped their memories.

Key moments

• Chamber of Secrets, ch. 4: he signs books at Flourish and Blotts and pulls Harry into a photo for the next day's front page.
• Chamber of Secrets, ch. 6: in his first class he hands out a quiz about his favorite color and releases Cornish pixies that wreck the room.
• Chamber of Secrets, ch. 11: at the Dueling Club, Snape disarms him in front of everyone.
• Chamber of Secrets, ch. 16: he tries to wipe Harry's and Ron's memories in the Chamber, and Ron's broken wand sends the spell back at him. He loses his memory entirely.
• Order of the Phoenix, ch. 23: Harry and the others find him in St. Mungo's, signing photos without remembering who he is.

Relationships

With Harry he tries to show off and be liked, and leaves a lesson about appearances. With Hermione, who admires him at first, he ends up a disappointment. With Snape the rivalry is obvious.

What almost nobody notices

Lockhart isn't a good wizard, but he has one real talent: the Memory Charm. It is the only thing he does well, and that is why his fraud worked for years. His fall comes when that same talent turns on him through a broken wand.

If there is poetic justice in the series, it is that the man who erased other people's memories ends up with none of his own (Chamber of Secrets, ch. 16).

Does applause move you, or curiosity? Ask the house quiz.