Gilderoy Lockhart

Gilderoy Lockhart is a character from the Harry Potter series. He is the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
== Canon Overview ==
Lockhart is introduced as the vainglorious and celebrity-hungry author of a number of popular wizarding books, most of which tell tales of his heroic defeat of dangerous creatures. He becomes Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts for Harry's second year. He proves himself to be an inept teacher and is later confirmed to be a fraud who performed none of the impressive feats he describes in his books, but rather modified the memories of the individuals who actually did, in order to take credit for their accomplishments.
Lockhart was able to maintain his façade in part because he was charming and handsome. Both Hermione and Mrs. Weasley were strongly implied to have fancied him before it was revealed that he was a fraud.
When attempting to modify Harry and Ron's memories at the end of Chamber of Secrets, Lockhart's spell backfires and instead erases his own memory. In Order of the Phoenix, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny again cross paths with Lockhart, who has still not recovered his memory and is a patient in the long-term residents ward of St. Mungo's Hospital, alongside Frank and Alice Longbottom. J.K. Rowling has stated that Lockhart will never regain his memory, adding, "He's happy where he is, and I'm happier without him!"Transcript of a Web chat with J.K. Rowling on Bloomsbury.com, via The Leaky Cauldron: J.K. Rowling Web Chat Transcript, 30 July 2007.
:Jessie: Will lockhart ever recover?
:J.K. Rowling: No. Nor would I want him to. He’s happy where he is, and I’m happier without him!
== Fan Response ==
Many fans find Lockhart amusing and he occasionally features in humour fanworks, but he is rarely the subject of serious analysis or character studies.
== Shipping ==
Because of Lockhart's canonical vanity and narcissism, Lockhart/himself is a popular subject of fanworks. Frequently, this involves Lockhart being in love with or sexually attracted to his own reflection: I See Perfection by Fanservice (2003) is one Gilderoy/mirror fanfic example, and Narcissus by Odella (2007, NSFW) is a fanart example. Dream Date by tripperfunster (2010) is another creative (and worksafe) fanart interpretation of Lockhart/Lockhart masturbation. Occasionally, Lockhart/Lockhart manifests as selfcest by magical means, such as doppelgangers, Time-Turners, or Polyjuice Potion.For example, The Official Cookie Jar of the HMS Mirror Image at FictionAlley Park contains both a ficlet involving Lockhart and a clone (Spawn of the Perfect by Marit Sabine a.k.a OhAngstyOne, Feb 2002), and one involving Lockhart and a character who Polyjuices into Lockhart (untitled ficlet by Eli-kun, Jan 2003). A 2003 story written for the Gilderoy Lockhart Fuh-Q-Fest pairs Lockhart with a portrait version of himself: Loving Myself by Fabíola Yume, NC-17. Lockhart/himself has its own FictionAlley SCUSA thread with the pairing name "HMS Mirror Image".HMS Mirror Image (Lockhart/Lockhart) at FictionAlley Park's SCUSA forum. Thread started 17 November 2002 by Marit Sabine.
Aside from shipping Lockhart with himself (implicitly or explicitly), Snape/Lockhart is decidedly the most popular Lockhart pairing. It is largely based on the animosity Snape showed toward Lockhart in Chamber of Secrets. Other relatively common slash pairings include Lucius Malfoy/Lockhart, which has a small LiveJournal community dedicated to it called blond_ambition_,Lucius/Gilderoy has a SCUSA thread at FictionAlley Park, HMS Blond Ambition, started in November 2002 and with two pages of comments. blond_ambition_ on LiveJournal was founded in June 2004 and has only 7 entries. There is a Gilderoy Lockhart/Lucius Malfoy tag at Archive of Our Own but, as of April 2017, no fanworks use the tag and the sole bookmark that did has since been deleted. and Lockhart/Voldemort, which is usually considered a crack pairing.See the Lockhart/Voldemort SCUSA thread, HMS Pink Passions, which has eight pages of comments, and the sorting thread, with a single story, at FictionAlley Park (both threads started June 2004). darklord_news's TR-LV miscellaneous pairings fic masterlist (dated 2005) lists three Lockhart/Voldemort or Tom fics. Archive of Our Own has a Gilderoy Lockhart/Tom Riddle | Voldemort tag with Gilderoy Lockhart/Tom Riddle and Gilderoy Lockhart/Voldemort subtags: as of April 2017 there is only one work that currently uses any of these tags, and 57 bookmarks for a work (or multiple works) that has been deleted.
For het, Lockhart/Rita Skeeter is the most common pairing, usually based on their shared ambition and focus on their own self-interests.Gilderoy/Rita has a SCUSA thread, HMS Up the Creek, started January 2002 with six pages of comments, and a sorting thread, started November 2001 with three fics listed. FictionAlley also has a category for the ship on the archive, "Lock/Skeet", with a single work. Archive of Our Own's Gilderoy Lockhart/Rita Skeeter tag is used on 10 works and 3 bookmarks as of April 2017. One fic for the pairing has been recced on Crack Broom (see the Rita Skeeter/Gilderoy Lockhart memories and p: gilderoy lockhart/rita skeeter tag). Lockhart is also sometimes paired with his canonical fans, including Hermione Granger and Molly Weasley.FictionAlley Park has a Lockhart/Hermione SCUSA thread, HMS Writer and Reader (started April 2005 and with a total of only two comments), and there are 5 works using the Hermione Granger/Gilderoy Lockhart tag on Archive of Our Own as of April 2017. There is one Lockhart/Molly fic each at AO3's Gilderoy Lockhart/Molly Weasley tag and FictionAlley's "Lock/MW" category.
Lockhart is also shipped in myriad other rarepairs. Lockhart/Dudley Dursley and Lockhart/Penelope Clearwater are two examples that appeared in early fanfiction.For example, Recognition by Pogrebin is a Dudley/Lockhart story written in May 2003; Oh, Professor! by A.H. Jenkins is a Penelope/Lockhart story written in June 2003.
== Example Fanworks ==
=== Fanfiction ===
* A Hero? by Anja (2003) — A pre-OotP theory of what happened to Lockhart after he lost his memories.
* Battles with Basilisks by SnorkackCatcher (2006) — An AU retelling of the end of Chamber of Secrets, in which Lockhart is not a fraud.
* When In Doubt, Obliviate by Sarah1281 (2011) — A twist on the classic Raising Harry AU with an unusual choice of guardian.
* Cocktail Time by therealsnape (2012) — A Lockhart & Rita Skeeter fic written for the hp_friendship ficathon.
* Year with the Yeti by ChokolatteJedi (2014) — A fic and art imagining of the book written by Lockhart in canon; written for the Invisible Ficathon.
=== Fanart ===
* Gilderoy Lockheart (2007) by StudioBueno — a cartoon-y sketch of Lockhart
* 5 of Swords by nasubionna (2012) — part of her HP tarot deck, "the card of self-interest"
* Dinner With Lockhart by Berende (2010) — comic depicting the Hogwarts staff's reactions to Lockhart, gen
* Best Friends Forever (2006) by lizardspots — Snape/Lockhart, G
* Narcissus by Odella (2007) — Lockhart/Lockhart, NSFW
* Chamber of Sekrits (2008) by chibitoaster — Lockhart/Ron, NSFW, underage
=== Fanvids ===
* Mr. Gilderoy Lockhart by Dr. Fidelius (2003 or before)This vid was also hosted at Chance's Slash Archive (WBM link). It was incorrectly created to "Dr Fideous" at the Gilderoy Lockhart Fuh-Q-Fest webpage. — Set to Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy" (download required; Wayback Machine link)
* Sexy Gilderoy Lockhart by fizzingwhizbee15 (2007) — Set to Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack" (streaming)
* Hard to Be Humble by Mary S. Van Deusen (2007) — Set to Mac Davis's "Hard to Be Humble" (download required)
=== Meta ===
* Going Overboard about Gilderoy Lockhart by goddlefrood (2007)
* Opposites Attract, a Snape/Lockhart ship manifesto by wildfyre (2005)
=== Other Works ===
* Gilderoy and the Lockharts — a wizard rock group founded in 2007 whose songs are from Lockhart's POV. Songs include "Magical Me", "Sorry About Your Arm", and "Fan Mail".
* A Very Potter Senior Year (2012), the third of the A Very Potter Musical trilogy — Lockhart, portrayed by A.J. Holmes, is depicted as the famous, best-selling author of the novels Twilight and The Hunger Games (which, it is revealed, he has plagiarized from the Muggle world).
== Lockhart-centric Communities ==
* magickal_me at LiveJournal
* lockhartfanclub at LiveJournal
* lockhartfics, a Yahoo! group for Lockhart slash and gen
** Gilderoy Lockhart Fuh-Q-Fest, a 2004 Fuh-Q Fest hosted by the list
* blond_ambition_, a Lockhart/Lucius Malfoy LJ community
* glnssls, a Lockhart/Snape LJ community
* HMS_Snart, a Lockhart/Snape Yahoo! group
*Forget-me-not, a Lockhart shrine
== Links & Resources ==
=== Fannish Resources ===
* Gilderoy Lockhart fanworks at AO3
* Gilderoy Lockhart fic at FanFiction.Net
* Gilderoy Lockhart fic at FictionAlley
* Special Edition: Gilderoy Lockhart at the Daily Snitch
* Lockhart Slash Masterlist, compiled by painless_j
* character: gilderoy tag at Daily Deviant
* gilderoy-lockhart tag at Tumblr
=== Canon Resources ===
* Gilderoy Lockhart at the Harry Potter Lexicon
* Gilderoy Lockhart at the Harry Potter Wiki
* Professor Lockhart at the Pottermore Wiki
* New from J.K. Rowling: Gilderoy Lockhart at Pottermore (log-in required)
* Section: Extra Stuff - Gilderoy Lockhart at J.K.Rowling Official Site (archived version)
* Gilderoy Lockhart at Wikipedia
== References ==
Category:Harry Potter Characters