Professor Gilderoy Lockhart

> Fame's a fickle friend, Harry... Celebrity is as celebrity does, remember that.
>
> Lockhart's dubious advice to Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

**Professor Gilderoy Lockhart**, Template:OM (b. ***26 January*** ***1964***) was a ***half-blood*** wizard, a ***Ravenclaw*** student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and later a famous wizarding celebrity who authored many books on ***dark*** ***creatures*** and his supposed encounters with them.

## Gilderoy Lockhart

### Occupation

* Author
* Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts (1992-1993)

## Physical description

### Eye color

Blue

File:Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy-Lockhart (6).jpgFile:Profile - Gilderoy Lockhart-COS Promo.jpg
Prior to his tenure as Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, specifically during the 1992–1993 school year, he received many prestigious awards, such as ***Order of Merlin***, Third Class; Honorary Member of the ***Dark Force Defence League***; and the ***Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award*** five times in a row. He invented an ***Occamy egg yolk shampoo*** at some point. This shampoo, however, was too dangerous and expensive for open market; it subsequently became his dream to be able to market and sell the product. His favourite colour was lilac.
Lockhart claimed he did many heroic acts, but it was later found out that he did not actually do them. He instead used his considerable talent in Memory Charms to force the actual people who had done them into forgetting what they did, while he took credit for the acts. Ironically, Lockhart lost all of his memory on ***29 May*** 1993 due to a backfired Memory Charm cast by Ron Weasley's ***damaged wand***.
Lockhart then became a permanent resident of ***St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries***. He was institutionalised in the same ward as ***Neville Longbottom***'s parents (the ***Janus Thickey Ward*** for permanent spell damage). Following his hospitalisation, he dictated his final book entitled ***Who Am I?***.

## Biography

### Early life Template:C

> It's not all book signings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hard slog.
>
> Lockhart speaking about his life during a detention session, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Gilderoy Lockhart was born on ***26 January*** ***1964*** to a Muggle man and a witch, and had ***two elder sisters***, both of whom were ***Squibs***. As the only one of her three children to exhibit magical ability, Gilderoy swiftly became their mother's unashamed favourite, thus greatly inflating young Gilderoy's sense of self-importance. He and his mother forgot, in their excitement, that Hogwarts was a school for all British and Irish wizards, and thus his introduction into the school along with everyone else was, in his eyes, extremely dull.

### Hogwarts years Template:C

Gilderoy Lockhart entered Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on ***1 September*** ***1975***, a year below ***Jacob***, and four years below James Potter, Sirius Black, ***Remus Lupin***, Peter Pettigrew, Lily Evans, and Severus Snape. He was ***Sorted*** into ***Ravenclaw***, but he came close to being a ***Hatstall***, as the Sorting Hat also found him an excellent fit for Slytherin, but decided against it by a narrow margin.

He had hoped to be greeted by fans and thus become very popular, as in his mind he was already a fully-fledged genius with an exceptional ***magical*** prowess; the fact that he was merely ordinary, that more talented and gifted children were there, and that nobody was particularly impressed by his naturally wavy hair, disappointed him. He did have above-average abilities, and he was cleverer than most of his classmates, but he had a bad flaw in that he would not try unless he was confident that he was the best of whichever particular team, group, or class he happened to be with at the time.

Gilderoy did achieve good marks and his teachers did think that, with hard work, he might be able to make something of himself. Even if he fell short of his ambitions that he would freely share with anyone who bothered listening (he told them that he would succeed in creating the Philosopher's Stone before leaving school and that he intended to ***captain*** ***England's Quidditch team*** to ***World Cup*** glory, before knuckling down to becoming Britain's youngest ***Minister for Magic***). Despite this, according to him at some point during his education he managed to play as ***Seeker*** for the ***Ravenclaw Quidditch team***.

His vanity was such that he valued learning not for education, but because it granted him attention; he craved attention and prizes, and begged the ***Headmaster*** to start a school newspaper purely so he could see his own name in print. When this exploit failed to grant him any attention, he took to grander, more dramatic means of garnering attention. Though he had never been popular with the other students, he did manage to achieve small notoriety by carving his signature in twenty foot long letters into the Quidditch pitch (which also earned him a weeks' worth of detentions), creating a ***spell*** that shot a hologram of his own face into the sky in imitation of the ***Dark Mark***, and sending himself eight-hundred Valentines, causing breakfast to be cancelled due to the number of droppings and feathers in the ***porridge***. He increasingly devoted his talents to insincere shortcuts and cowardly dodges, focused on attention-seeking and neglecting true learning.

### Career as an author Template:C

 File:GilderoyLockhartAward.png
After his graduation from Hogwarts in ***1982*** (with a faint sigh of relief from the school staff), Lockhart became an accomplished author, travelling to exotic parts of the world and, having mastered Memory Charms shortly after his graduation, tricking accomplished witches and wizards into revealing their greatest deeds and then erasing their memories, pretending he had done the things they did in his autobiographies. This sole focus on Memory Charms came at heavy cost. All his other magical abilities had degraded to the point they were beyond repair, which spelled the end of Lockhart's fame when he became a Hogwarts Professor.

Each time he returned to ***Britain***, he brought with him a new book that chronicled an adventure that had supposedly happened over his travels. The books themselves were also self-promoting and filled with a wealth of invented details that were nothing but conceit, self-praise, vanity, gross exaggerations, sensationalizations, and idle speculations that were all hot air and bilge water; known victims of his trickery included an ***Armenian warlock*** and a ***witch with a hairy chin***. His books were very popular, and he reserved a ***special quill*** of ***peacock feather*** just for book signings.

He also received many awards for his supposedly great deeds and was invited to join the ***Dark Force Defence League*** as an honorary member, all the while managing to successfully hide his fraudulence. His former teachers, who were unaware of his status as a con artist, began to think that they might have misjudged him, due to his supposed bravery and resilience in combating the Dark Arts.

According to Lockhart, he initially believed that the more exposure he got in the press, the better his career would progress. By the time he was writing his second bestseller, ***Gadding with Ghouls***, he became overexposed, something that damaged his popularity. He then went mysteriously "missing" for three weeks, after which he leaked to the *Daily Prophet* that he had apparently been captured by ***trolls*** in the wilds of ***Stockton-on-Tees***. The story boosted his popularity once again. Through this experience, he claimed that one must be "*sparing with [one's] public appearances, at first*", as one might become overexposed.

At some point after the release of ***Wanderings with Werewolves***, Gilderoy held a ***Wagga Wagga Werewolf symposium*** centred around his alleged experiences fending off the Dark Forces to talk about his supposed defeat of the ***Wagga Wagga Werewolf***. Many influential people attended, including ***Cecil Lee*** of the ***Werewolf Capture Unit***. During this event, he gave a public demonstration of the ***Homorphus Charm***, which he claimed he could cast so effectively as to cure werewolves. During the same conference, he also said that werewolves were weakened by sunlight, which was incorrect.

Outside of writing, Lockhart was an amateur potioneer. He invented a ***shampoo*** that guaranteed lustrous locks of hair, one of his few claims that proved to be true. Due to its ***main ingredient*** being too dangerous and expensive to procure, it was never produced for mass marketing.

#### Voyages, Vampires, and Valentines!

In ***1988***, Lockhart came to visit Hogwarts shortly before ***Valentine's Day*** as a part of his book tour. He invited six Hogwarts students to his book signing at ***Flourish and Blotts***, claiming the students were randomly selected.

After the book signing, he and the six students went to ***Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop***, where he informed the students that they were special guests and planners of an event called ***Voyages, Vampires, and Valentines!*** held at the tea shop on Valentine's Day. In reality, he was planning to use this as an opportunity to learn the students' stories and Obliviate them afterwards in order to use these stories for a new book. At some point, he talked about his plan on the Grand Staircase, where it was heard by the portrait of ***Sir Cadogan***.

During the event, Gilderoy Lockhart interviewed the students. During the interviews, two of the students involved, one of whom was ***Jacob's sibling***, figured out that Lockhart was using the students and planned to inform Albus Dumbledore. In order to avoid exposure, Lockhart cast a Memory Charm on the students. As the spell was cast hastily, the students only forgot parts of their recent memories. Lockhart soon escaped the tea shop by ***Disapparating***.

#### 1988–1989 school year

Lockhart returned to Hogwarts in the ***1988–1989 school year*** and gave a speech about himself at the ***outdoor celebration of magic***. He demanded to clear the dance area to demonstrate his ***duelling*** expertise, but Jacob's sibling intervened and duelled Lockhart themselves on the ***Training Grounds***. After losing the duel, Lockhart still did not want to leave, so Jacob's sibling ***transfigured*** a ***gobstone*** into a ***skunk***, which sprayed Lockhart, forcing him to leave.

In ***February*** ***1989***, around Valentine's Day, Lockart held a book signing in Flourish and Blotts. Jacob's sibling approached him to ask for advice about love for an essay-writing competition. Lockhart gave them useful advice and was flattered that they asked him.

#### Employment by Dumbledore

> Nice big smile, Harry, together, you and I are worth the front page.
>
> Lockhart demonstrating his vanity in front of Harry Potter in Flourish and Blotts, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

 File:Magical Me.jpg
Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster during Lockhart's time, happened to know two of the wizards whose memories Lockhart erased and easily deduced the truth behind Lockhart's fame and decided to make Lockhart pay for his crimes. He correctly believed that dragging Lockhart into a normal, school atmosphere would reveal his fraudulence, and with a vacancy in Defence Against the Dark Arts having opened up in June 1992, tracked down the author and offered Lockhart a job at Hogwarts (something Lockhart had not been too keen to do, as he saw how well his career as an author was progressing and because those who knew him from his time as a student like Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape were still there as well).

Dumbledore slyly hinted that Harry Potter was a second-year student at the school, and being a teacher to the "famous Harry" would propel Lockhart's fame into the stratosphere. Ego, fame-hunger, and glory-thirst overruled caution, and Lockhart took the job. The other teachers remembered Lockhart as the obnoxious attention seeker back then, regardless of his "later achievements", and were baffled at Dumbledore for inviting Lockhart to teach; Minerva McGonagall, in particular, asked Dumbledore what possibly could be learned from such a vainglorious man, in which the headmaster replied that there was plenty to learn from even a bad teacher: what not to do, how not to be.

Hagrid correctly deduced that Lockhart only got the job because he was the only applicant for the ***jinxed*** position due to the fact that no one at the Ministry who was a specialist in Defence Against the Dark Arts with impeccable credentials or who was a trained professional who worked in either the ***Auror Office*** or the ***Dark Force Defence League*** wanted the job because of what happened to Quirinus Quirrell at the end of the 1991–1992 school year.

 File:Harry Potter takes image with Lockhart.jpg
Lockhart thus became the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher for the 1992–1993 school year, and several of his books were assigned for the course that year, resulting in an unusually expensive book list (his books alone amounted to 35 galleons). In ***August*** 1992, Lockhart went to ***Flourish and Blotts*** to sign books to his fans and announce his employment; it was there that he met Harry Potter for the first time. He became quite excited and dragged Harry to the front, taking as many pictures as he could with the famous boy and then gifting him all of the set books in an attempt to garner some of Harry's affection. The incident, in fact, embarrassed Harry, who gave his books to Ginny Weasley, both because he could afford his own set and also because he did not particularly cherish his interaction with Lockhart.

### Career at Hogwarts Template:C

#### Early classes

> Me, Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award — but I don't talk about that. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!
>
> Lockhart arrogantly introducing himself to his second-year Defence Against the Dark Arts students, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Being the only willing applicant for the jinxed position, Gilderoy Lockhart became Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry during the 1992–1993 school year. His classroom and office at Hogwarts were decorated with pictures and ***portraits*** of himself (before the class started, Fred thought that the teacher must be a fan of Lockhart, for which he was certainly correct) which moved and smiled (there was even one of himself as a classical artist painting *another* medieval version portrait of himself). He also decorated the office with copies of his publications.

 File:Harry-potter2-lockhart pixies.jpg
For his first lesson, he showed everyone in his class what he really was. He first did this when he gave his second-year class a "***little quiz***" which was filled with questions that had nothing to do with Defence Against the Dark arts, but instead concerned his autobiography, ***Magical Me***, and the parts of his books just referring to him, such as what his favourite colour and his ideal birthday present was; he simply wanted to see how much the class has read his books. Despite his claim of "little", it ran for three pages with fifty-four questions, and only Hermione got all of them correct.

Lockhart, delighted with Hermione's perfect score, awarded Gryffindor ten house points. He showed his true colours a second time when he then proceeded to release a cage full of "freshly caught" ***Cornish Pixies*** into the classroom, causing a large amount of pandemonium. He showed his true colours further a third time when he tried to stop them with a ***spell*** that had absolutely no effect on the pixies and then irresponsibly instructed Harry, Ron, and Hermione to clean up after the mess while running back into his office.

He was not the least bit popular among his fellow Hogwarts staff members and constantly gave them unsolicited pieces of advice on their specialities. Harry and his friends (except for Hermione Granger) also found him quite obnoxious and could not take him seriously as a Professor. Even Rubeus Hagrid, the Gamekeeper, who usually refrained from criticising a teacher, showed public disdain for Lockhart. Many male students, such as Ron Weasley, immediately saw that Lockhart was an annoying and an incompetent fool whose reason for doing so poorly was because he had no idea what he was doing, and gave him very little respect outside of his presence. However, Lockhart's charms had attracted many schoolgirls such as Hermione Granger and Susan Bones. Muggle-born students who have recently been introduced into the wizarding world, such as Justin Finch-Fletchley and Colin Creevey, also admired Lockhart due to their lack of experience with the magical community, and easily ate up his tall tales.

 File:Harry-potter2-lockhart professor.jpg
After the pixie chaos, Lockhart did not bring any more live creatures into class, but instead read from his books and re-enacted several portions of his "achievements", sometimes dragging Harry to help him with it. The only reason Harry agreed to do so was to get signed permission from Lockhart for a ***book*** in the Restricted Section of the library, which Lockhart signed without even paying attention to what book they wanted (Hermione claimed she was interested in reading more about ***slow-acting venoms***, but in reality she wanted to learn how to brew ***Polyjuice Potion***).

His idea of ***homework*** included composing a poem of one of his alleged achievements and offered a signed copy of his autobiography as a reward to the best composer. Due to Lockhart's overall poor performances, the class did not learn anything about true Defence Against the Dark Arts, and Ron claimed that he only learned not to set pixies loose, and would have dropped the course had he been allowed to. Lockhart's once powerful potential had been wasted from years of misuse and neglect, resulting in him being unable to properly teach (or even understand what he was attempting at times).

#### Irritating Harry Potter

> You could've fried an egg on your face.
>
> Ron Weasley commenting on Lockhart embarrassing Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

For the majority of the year, Lockhart kept hounding on Harry, trying to use him to boost his own fame, much to Harry's humiliation and irritation. Lockhart made it look as though Harry was trying to use his fame of defeating Lord Voldemort to make a name in the wizarding world, that the ***Flying Ford Anglia*** he rode on to school was a publicity stunt, and that he was enjoying his companionship with Lockhart and ignored much of Harry's attempted contradictions to these ridiculous hypotheses.

 File:Harry replying to Lockhart's fan mail.png
After Hagrid told him that Harry was more famous than him without trying, Lockhart personally requested Harry to help him answer his fan mails for detention while bombarding Harry with his advice for fame and thought Harry would think of this as a treat, much to the contrary. In fact, Harry practically begged Professor McGonagall to be in Ron's detention in assisting ***Argus Filch*** in cleaning the Trophy Room instead, though the strict ***Transfiguration*** teacher refused. Harry then suffered several long hours of dull boredom, addressing envelopes. When Harry heard mysterious voices during this detention, Lockhart thought Harry was merely tired. Following the disastrous episode in which he released "freshly caught" Cornish pixies in class, Lockhart staged dramatic readings from his books and often chose Harry to participate in re-enactments, much to Harry's aggravation.

 File:Brackium Emendo.gif
After a ***Quidditch*** match between ***Gryffindor*** and ***Slytherin***, in which the Gryffindor Seeker Harry had his arm broken by a rogue bludger, Lockhart offered to help ***repair*** his arm. Ignoring Harry's refusal, stating that Harry didn't know what he was saying, he accidentally ***vanished*** all the ***bones*** in his arm with the ***charm*** *Brackium Emendo*.

 File:Alarte Ascendare COS 1.gif
Lockhart founded a short-lived ***Duelling Club*** for students. He made a fool of himself at the very first meeting by firstly being ***disarmed*** by Severus Snape and then falsely claiming that he had allowed Snape to do so. He also angered a ***snake*** conjured by Draco Malfoy by launching it into the air rather than vanishing it, causing it to aim at Justin Finch-Fletchley. Lockhart was also indirectly responsible for bringing out Harry's full-fledged Parselmouth ability because if he had vanished the snake successfully, there would be no need for Harry to run at the snake and demand it to leave Justin alone. The snake was subsequently successfully vanished by Snape immediately afterwards.

When Hermione Granger was in the ***Hospital Wing*** for a malfunction dosage of ***Polyjuice Potion***, Lockhart sent her a ***get-well card***, with an unnecessarily long introduction of himself as a signature. Hermione slept with this under her pillow, much to Ron Weasley's disgust.

#### Valentine's Day

Template:Dialogue a-b-c-b

When the Chamber of Secrets was opened, Lockhart made false claims that he knew where the Chamber was and what Salazar Slytherin's monster was all along. He even claimed that he knew Rubeus Hagrid was guilty all along when the ***Minister for Magic*** arrested the gamekeeper, even though it was only done as a precaution. While the other teachers were serious and tense from all the attacks, Lockhart was the only one who remained relaxed and unconcerned about these security measures. For instance, after Ginny Weasley was taken into the Chamber, he walked into the Hogwarts ***staffroom*** and simply told the other present Professors "*So sorry — dozed off — what have I missed?*", showing his complete lack of awareness and smug nonchalance.

#### The Chamber of Secrets

> The adventure ends here, boys! I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl, and that you two tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body — say good-bye to your memories! *Obliviate*!
>
> Lockhart's attempt to erase Ron and Harry's memories, his final mistake, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

 File:Lockhart is in trouble.jpg
On ***29 May*** 1993, after the aforementioned occurrence, the other teachers, after giving him stony looks of hatred, told Lockhart to go down to the Chamber and deal with the monster, in response to his arrogance and many claims that he knew how to solve the problem. Instead of trying to rescue Ginny, Lockhart attempted to run away from the school, but was caught by Harry Potter and Ron Weasley when they came to his office to give him information regarding the Chamber, and he revealed his lifestyle of fraudulence.

 File:Myrtle explains how she died.jpg
At wand point, Harry and Ron forced Lockhart to take them to the bathroom. Once there, Harry asked Myrtle about her death in the hope that she would confirm his hypothesis. She claimed that she heard a boy's voice speaking a strange language and then saw a pair of great yellow eyes. When he further inspected the lavatory, Harry found a broken tap with a snake engraved in the handle. He spoke to the engraving in Parseltongue, and the entrance to the Chamber opened, the entrance behind the sink was a pipe big enough for a man to crawl through. Ready to take the plunge, Harry and Ron forced Lockhart into the opening and followed.

 File:Obliviate backfire.gif
There, Lockhart seized Ron's ***broken wand*** and attempted to perform a total Memory Charm on Harry and Ron, planning on taking a piece of basilisk skin back up to the surface and tell everyone that he was too late to save Ginny and that the two "tragically" lost their minds at sight of her mangled body. The wand backfired and the charm hit Lockhart instead, blasting him against the rocks and causing him to lose all of his memories, giving him complete amnesia. Lockhart was eventually rescued from the chamber with Dumbledore's pet ***Phoenix*** ***Fawkes***, along with Ginny, Harry and Ron after Harry slayed the Basilisk, with him proclaiming, the whole situation was "just like ***magic***".

An amnesiac Lockhart then arrived in Minerva McGonagall's ***office*** with Ron, Harry and Ginny, where a returned Dumbledore was present, who then derided the clueless Lockhart of his recent memory loss, having achieved his mission of exposing his fraudulence, before sending Ron to take him to the ***Hospital Wing***. His departure from school was met with the joy and celebration of many students and teachers, as he had ceased to be universally popular at Hogwarts. He was then became a permanent resident of ***St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries***, in the ***Janus Thickey Ward***, for permanent ***spell*** damage.

### Permanent incapacitation Template:C

> But as he stepped on to the landing he came to an abrupt halt, staring at the small window set into the double doors that marked the start of a corridor signposted SPELL DAMAGE. A man was peering out at them all with his nose pressed against the glass. He had wavy blond hair, bright blue eyes and a broad vacant smile that revealed dazzlingly white teeth.
>
> Lockhart in the ***Janus Thickey Ward*** at St Mungos, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Blissfully ignorant of his own fraudulence, or of anything else, for that matter, Lockhart's many crimes were never actually revealed to the public, presumably because his former employer, Professor Dumbledore, felt that Lockhart had already got what he deserved and decided against making his fate any worse by exposing him to the wizarding world and see him treated with contempt for the rest of his life for wrongdoings he had no idea he had even committed. This is evident by how not even the ***Healers*** at St Mungo's had been informed about the details around his admittance, as ***Miriam Strout***, one of the employees at the long-time ward he was admitted to, spoke casually about how Gilderoy had been "*quite well-known a few years ago*" and were optimistic to the prospect of Gilderoy's signs of improvement later in his treatment. Due to this, the ex-professor was allowed to continue his career as an author, after a fashion, getting someone to help him write the book ***Who Am I?***. Based on Miriam's statement, it appears that the wizarding world in general came to forget about Lockhart.

## Physical description

> There was a big photograph on the front of a very good-looking wizard with wavy blond hair and bright blue eyes.
>
> A physical description of Gilderoy Lockhart, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

 File:Gilderoy Lockhart COS promo.jpg
Gilderoy Lockhart was a foppish, handsome wizard with wavy blonde hair and particularly straight and shiny teeth. He was known for wearing flamboyant, flashy and incredibly extravagant robes in a wide assortment of colours.

However, during his moments of cowardice, Lockhart's handsomeness was lost, as he looked weak-chinned and foolish in the midst of his ineptitude.

## Personality and traits

> Yes, yes, I know what you're thinking! 'He's an internationally famous wizard already!' But when I was twelve, I was just as much of a nobody as you are now. In fact, I'd say I was even more of a nobody! I mean, a few people have heard of you, haven't they? All that business with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named! I know, I know — it's not quite as good as winning ***Witch Weekly'***s Most-Charming-Smile Award five times in a row, as I have — but it's a start, Harry, it's a start!
>
> Lockhart displaying his arrogance as he talks to Harry, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

 File:Gilderoy Lockhart COS promo 2.jpg
Gilderoy Lockhart's defining characteristics were his extreme arrogance, exceeding vanity, conceit, egomania, narcissism, impudence, insensitivity, inconsideration, and self-obsession. He was a voracious self-promoter and claimed to have done many great deeds, though in actuality he was just a fraud who merely stole the credit for other wizards and witches' accomplishments and whose claims about himself were for the most part nothing but conceit, self-praise, and vanity and whose claims about other things were idle speculations, gross exaggerations, and pure sensationalism; he went as far as to claim his winning of the ***Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award*** five times in a row was more impressive than Harry Potter surviving an attack by Lord Voldemort himself.

He also made outrageous claims and suggestions, whether about other people's professions or in times of danger, in order to make himself look more important and powerful than he truly was. Like Stan Shunpike, Gilderoy tends to come up with fabricated concepts on the spot rather frequently just to impress his admirers. Even as a student, he already made far-fetched claims of his goals such as creating a Philosopher's Stone before graduation, intending to captain England's Quidditch team to World Cup glory, before knuckling down to becoming Britain’s youngest Minister for Magic, none of which he actually accomplished. His attempts to earn himself more fame also led him to attempt spells without fully understanding them (such as removing Harry's bones instead of mending them, and launching a snake into the air instead of making it vanish).

It is also possible that he invented some incantations and names for ***spells*** that did not actually exist, such as ***Peskipiksi Pesternomi*** (a proven nonsense incantation), and possibly the ***Transmogrifian Torture***, along with the ***Homorphus Charm***. Indeed, many of his books contained a large number of invented details to promote his supposed feats. Lockhart was very proud of his books, since his falsely-acquired achievements recorded within were highly popular with its readers, and would always make reference to them whenever giving advice based on his so-called experience.

> Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape, He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about duelling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don’t want any of you youngsters to worry — you’ll still have your Potions master when I’m through with him, never fear!
>
> Lockhart foolishly underestimating Snape's far superior duelling skills, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

In addition to his self-promoting nature, he was also highly impractical, to the point of being reckless, in many situations. When the Chamber of Secrets opened, he made many pointless suggestions and false volunteers despite the seriousness of the situation, and his "morale booster" outright disturbed classes instead of building up confidence. His school lectures and materials were simply selling his overly expensive autobiographies while reading out chapters from these uninformative books and even theatrically reenacting them, thus lacking any educational purposes. He insisted on mass-producing his own ***shampoo*** despite the ingredients being too dangerous and expensive to procure, especially for something as superficial as hair-care.

With a little flattering, Hermione Granger was able to get Lockhart to sign a permission form for a book within the ***library's*** Restricted Section, to which Lockhart did not even bother to look at the ***book*** she wanted, much less question her for reasons for wanting a potentially dangerous document, which other teachers would not be so reckless. Later, being the only teacher to not take the reopening of the Chamber of Secrets seriously, he neglected his duties of leading his students to their next class when Harry and Ron flattered him, as Ron pointed out, in order to fix his hair. Even in his time as a student, his antics of garnering attention caused huge amounts of trouble that earned him scorn and loathing instead of the popularity and the praise that he desired.

Lockhart's overbearing self-centred personality and insensitivity irked most of the people he encountered who were not included among his fans. His unprofessional behaviour earned him the dislike of the Hogwarts faculty, as well as many of the students. However, his arrogance did have limits and he recognised that Albus Dumbledore, his employer and Headmaster of Hogwarts, was a greater wizard than he was, as he never considered himself to be a better wizard than Dumbledore. Also, like many magical folk (human and nonhuman alike) Lockhart feared Voldemort to the point where he could not call him by his name. Lockhart was overall considered a joke by many people at Hogwarts, and when he left the school due to memory loss, the majority (if not the entirety) of the school was happy to see him go.

> Lockhart'll sign anything if it stands still long enough.
>
> Ron Weasley regarding Lockhart, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

 File:LockhartQuidditchCloseup.jpg
He also seemed to be completely oblivious to the reactions he elicited from other people or misinterpreted them completely. When Ron looked revolted at his ostentatious peacock quill, Lockhart thought that Ron was admiring it. He ignored Harry's many attempts to contradict his theories of enjoying his company and attention, as well as Harry's pleas for Lockhart to leave his broken arm alone, and also completely failed to notice the looks of hatred he received from the rest of the faculty for his ignorance.

He asserted that Hogwarts was safe from the monster of Slytherin after Hagrid was arrested, claiming extra security was no longer necessary, and though proven wrong almost immediately, Lockhart stubbornly refused to retract his earlier claims, and continued to complain about how the extra security was tiring him out. His ignorance, arrogance, and self-serving nature ultimately led to his downfall when he attempted to use Ron's ***damaged wand*** to perform the complex Memory Charm despite seeing the backfires it has caused over the year (mainly in the Duelling Club), evidently forgetting the dangers of attempting such a feat (or that the wand was even damaged).

When he faced with true danger, Gilderoy showed his true nature of a self-serving coward. He attempted to flee from Hogwarts when the other teachers pressured him into entering the Chamber of Secrets after Ginny Weasley's abduction (though this was more to get him out of the way so the teachers could get the real work done), and claim that his books can be misleading, contradicting his past vain support on them. Even after the location of the Chamber's entrance was discovered, he was willing to leave Ginny Weasley to die, attempting to modify Harry and Ron's memories to cover himself.

Although Lockhart started out as a clever and very skilled student, being sorted into ***Ravenclaw*** house, his main flaw was that he would never try in his studies (or anything) unless he was the very best at it, having been spoiled by his mother's overly affection and his own ego. Even in his childhood, he already expected the students and teachers to greet him with admiration and excitement, as he deluded himself into thinking he is a genius above all others of undeserved rights, and was very disappointed and dulled when he was not given any special treatments. He studied not for education, but for attention and awards, and spent much of his time with annoying vanity projects for fame and glory that instead earned him a small notoriety. He was never an unskilled or untalented wizard, just a lazy one who increasingly directed his talents to insincere shortcuts and cowardly dodges; his gifts wasted away, as the only spell he focused on was the Memory Charm. His abilities eventually deteriorated nearly beyond the point of recovery, which went past that point when he was struck with his own backfiring Memory Charm.

> Teach? Me? Did I? Taught you everything you know, I expect, did I? Well, how about those autographs, then? Shall we say a round dozen, you can give them to all your little friends then and nobody will be left out!
>
> An Amnesiac Lockhart demonstrating his remaining vanity and extravagance, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Despite his ineptitude in most other areas of magic due to long-term neglect and misuse, Lockhart was skilled in Memory Charms, it being the one spell he focused on for his entire life, and was conniving enough to deceive other wizards and witches to thoroughly reveal their work to him before erasing their memories and claim the credits for himself. He also appeared to have been a skilled writer, publishing many books consisting primarily of his embellishments of other people's achievements, taking credit for them as his own. Given his propensity for lying, however, it cannot be said for certain that Lockhart himself actually wrote any of the books, though he did understand that the readers would not be nearly half as interested in his books if they realised his feats were no more than fictionalised plagiarism. He also added many invented details in such feats to promote himself further, distorting facts with fictional concepts. Lockhart's fraudulent lifestyle has proven a certain degree of cunning, resourcefulness and disregard for rules, qualities that fall under the specifics of Slytherin, which he was narrowly able to avoid being sorted into.

In addition to his other flaws, Lockhart may have had a spiteful streak in him. After learning from Hagrid that the Gamekeeper hadn't read any of his books and that Harry Potter was more famous than Lockhart without trying, Lockhart was put out and later insisted that Harry serve detention with him so he could show off his fan mail to Harry and gloat about it. After Hagrid's arrest, Lockhart openly claimed to be certain that Hagrid was truly guilty, but whether this was a real hint of ill will or another sign of Lockhart's ignorance is unknown.

By his own claims (written in his many published works), his favourite colour was lilac, his secret ambitions were to rid the world of evil and to market his own range of hair care potions, and that he desired harmony between magic and non-magic peoples as a birthday present. Given his egotistical and self-serving cowardice attributes, some of these may have been fabrications to boost Lockhart's own reputation as opposed to truth. His empty ambitiousness shown since his studentship, such as claiming to create a Philosopher's Stone before graduation, captain the England Quidditch team into championship before knuckling down to become the youngest Minister for Magic yet accomplishing none of which he speak, it is very likely his "secret ambition" and "ideal birthday present" were just the same meaningless claims to gain attention.

After losing his memory, however, Lockhart became a much more humble and happier person, even if he did not particularly know it. Upon seeing Harry and Ginny after the spell hit him, he greeted them cheerfully and spent most of the time humming to himself absentmindedly. When addressed as Professor, he expressed surprise at the idea and remarked that he must have been hopeless, without any reluctance at all. Despite forgetting his desire for fame and attention, he continued to enjoy signing autographs and responding to fan letters, a trait that Harry noted had not changed. However, by the time of the publication of his last book *Who Am I?*, Lockhart appears to have gone ***insane*** due to not having any memories.

## Magical abilities and skills

> Harry, Harry, it's not nearly as simple as that. There was work involved. I had to track these people down. Ask them exactly how they managed to do what they did. Then I had to put a Memory Charm on them so they wouldn’t remember doing it. If there’s one thing I pride myself on, it’s my Memory Charms.
>
> Lockhart explaining to Harry Potter his gift for Memory Charms, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

* ***Magical* aptitude**: Noted to have been rather above average in both intelligence and magical ability during his formative years, all things considered, Gilderoy Lockhart was never a bad wizard, just an exceedingly lazy one that got so out of practice that his skills became largely ineffective. He was judged by his teachers whilst at Hogwarts to have had the potential to become a great wizard had he just decided to work hard to get there. Gilderoy was noted to have gotten good marks on his schoolwork in his youth, and to have been, while not the most outstanding student of his year, still noticeably cleverer than most of his classmates. Although years of subsequent neglect and sole focus on the Memory Charm eventually diminished his magical skills to the point that he grew quite inadept at using them, it was nevertheless the case that his magical ability had only grown rusty *nearly* beyond repair, meaning that Gilderoy possessed an aptitude for magic that was, while never fully realised, still very much there, and that he could have salvaged the situation and reached his true potential as a wizard had he only applied himself.
* ***Charms***: Lockhart demonstrated most of his genuine magical abilities in the field of charms. By the time Lockhart returned to Hogwarts, his magical skills had become irreparably neglected, with his only real focus being the Memory Charm, an advanced charm which he spent years perfecting. He eventually reached the level where he could cast the intricate charm without fail on any situation, considering himself highly gifted with it. Indeed, not only did he manage to do so to accomplished wizards and witches upon catching them off-guard, enabling him to propel himself to fame by stealing their credit without suspicion, but he on at least one occasion wiped the memories of a whole room with a single spell. Lockhart was also able to produce a non-corporeal Patronus. Lockhart was also able to cast a number of simple enchantments successfully, such as the ***Tickling Charm***, ***Softening Charm***, ***Verdimillious Charm***, ***Verdimillious Duo Spell***, **Verdimillious Tria** ***Knockback Jinx***, ***Tongue-Tying Curse***, ***Full Body-Bind Curse***, and the ***levitation*** spell ***Alarte Ascendare***. Lockhart furthermore claimed to have the ability to cast the immensely difficult ***Homorphus Charm***, a charm that could change Werewolves to human form. Having taken credit for the defeat of the ***Wagga Wagga Werewolf*** from a more accomplished and courageous person, however, it was unlikely this was the case. He did, however, know the theory of the charm well enough to accurately instruct others on how to use it, as ***Cecil Lee*** of the ***Werewolf Capture Unit***, said he learned it from him and could cast it himself.
* **Defence Against the Dark Arts**: Lockhart claimed himself to be an expert in the field of fighting the ***Dark Arts***, although given his fraudulence and lack of genuine experience, he was an incompetent Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts. His lessons were nonsensical and lacking in useful intellectual content, nonetheless, he had at least some theoretical knowledge of this subject. He was a honorary member of the ***Dark Force Defence League***, and his knowledge and skills in this field were adequate enough that it allowed him to retain his membership for long enough time without arousing suspicion. Furthermore, Lockhart claimed to have considerable understanding in this field, such as by his claim of to have knowledge of a lethal curse known as the ***Transmogrifian Torture***, and the relevant ***counter-curse*** to it, but given his deceit, his claims were not fully verified.
* ***Magizoology***: Although Lockhart's ***charm*** was not even able to control a simple cage of Cornish ***Pixies***, he still displayed a reasonable amount of knowledge on ***magical*** ***creatures***. He appeared to have at least learned the theory of how to understand and handle them based on the books he wrote, which were based on actual feats other wizards and witches achieved. He was able to teach his students about various dark creatures he had supposedly encountered in his DADA lessons, such as ***Banshees***, ***Ghouls***, ***Hags***, ***Trolls***, ***Vampires***, ***Werewolves*** and ***Yetis*** to some degree, but fell short of teaching them practical manners of defending themselves from them, meaning his experience in this field was limited.
* ***Spell creation***: While still a student at Hogwarts, Gilderoy invented a ***spell*** that sent skyward a glowing, holographic image of his own face, similar to the ***Dark Mark***. Given how spell creation is a particularly advanced, complicated and even dangerous branch of ***magic***, his ability to invent his own ***spell*** was proof of his potential superior magical potential and ability in his youth.
* ***Nonverbal magic***: Gilderoy Lockhart was capable of casting spells without having to say the incantation aloud, which is highly advanced, ***N.E.W.T.***-level magic. Rusty from neglecting his magical prowess, however, he did so with varying success. For example, although he performed the charm ***Alarte Ascendare*** without fail, he later accidentally ***vanished*** the bones in Harry's arm after casting a spell to ***mend broken bones*** inaccurately. He could also cast a non-verbal ***Knockback Jinx***.
* ***Potions***: Lockhart possessed a reasonable level of talent in potion making as an amateur ***Potioneer***. He invented a ***shampoo*** made of ***Occamy egg*** yolks, which provided ***hair*** with "locks of lustrous luminosity", showing success with the potion's creation. However, the product proved to be a failure, proving to be too expensive to put on the market, along with the procurement of the main ingredient being too dangerous. Furthermore Lockhart claimed to have the ability to "whip up a ***Mandrake Restorative Draught*** in my sleep", but this claim like his others, was most likely false.
* ***Healing magic***: Lockhart had a fair amount of knowledge, if limited ability in medical magic. This was apparent when he after a moment's examination of Harry's arm was able to both correctly conclude that his arm was broken, as well as to perform the ***appropriate spell*** to mend the injury, although his lack of experience led him to cast it incorrectly, thus accidentally ***vanishing*** the bones.
* ***Flying***: According to Lockhart, sometime during his Hogwarts years, he played for the ***Ravenclaw Quidditch team*** as ***Seeker***; which means that Gilderoy might have been a skilled ***broomstick*** flyer and ***Quidditch*** player in his youth. He also cultivated the image that he enjoyed flying later in life, to the point of christening his broomstick with a personal name, posing mid-flight and photographing himself travelling the world by broom.
* ***Apparition***: Like most accomplished adult wizards and witches, Lockhart was capable of apparating successfully at will.
* ***Duelling***: Although Lockhart claimed to be a master duellist himself, his actual skills in this field were far from outstanding. During the ***Outdoor celebration of magic***, he was able hold a friendly duel against ***Jacob's sibling***, and was able to cast basic offensive spells against them successfully, but he allowed himself to be beaten easily by Jacob's sibling, and they themsleves were a highly talented duellist despite their young age. However, any duelling skills Lockhart appeared to have had appeared to have entirely vanished in the 1992–1993 school year when he held a ***Duelling Club*** meeting with Severus Snape, as he was effortlessly floored with the ***Disarming Charm*** by the far superior duellist, and was also totally unable to teach students how to ***block*** spells, embarassing himself most terribly in front of the entire club. Lockhart was also granted an award by the ***British Wizard Duelling Association*** at some point, but this was possibly a forgery, considering his considerable dishonesty about his achievements and talents.
* **Love**: Lockhart claimed to know a great deal about love and gave Jacob's sibling helpful advice on the subject. He likely stole such knowledge from other wizards.
* **Intelligence**: Lockhart teachers acknowledged him as being cleverer than most of his fellow students and he got good marks on his schoolwork. The full extent of Lockhart's cunning and resourcefulness was demonstrated in his adulthood when he managed to successfully take credit for the achievements of other wizards. His unscrupulous cleverness was prominent enough that he was nearly sorted into Slytherin, which was demonstrated in his pursuit for fame. He was capable of easily deceiving nearly the entire magical community (apart from Dumbledore) that he was a highly accomplished wizard and courageous hero, while in actuality he was a fraud who stole the credit for the achievements of more courageous and accomplished wizards for his books. It was only because Dumbledore decided to expose him by luring him into becoming a teacher at Hogwarts, knowing he would make a horrible teacher, that he was finally exposed.
* **Tracking skills**: Lockhart was able to track down other witches and wizards whose achievements he fraudulently took for his own, showing he was skilled at tracking down certain individuals.
* **Knowledge**: In addition to his seven years worth of education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he learned, not for the sake of learning but for the attention it brought him, Lockhart also displayed an intellectual dedication through his endeavour to take credit from other accomplished wizards. Having amassed a great deal of knowledge in magical feats and creatures, he was knowledgeable of the existence various complex spells such as the ***Homorphus Charm*** and ***Transmogrifian Torture***, among many other things, even if he couldn't put them into practice himself and only knew the basic theory. Willing to educate himself if it could bring him attention, honours and glory, he gave irking suggestions on how his fellow professors to improve in areas on which they themselves were experts, and being able to maintain the facade of being accomplished in a multitude of fields suggested he had at the very least a minimum of knowledge in those disciplines.
* **Actor**: Lockhart was also highly adept in acting and deceiving others, as he was able to fool the wizards and witches whose heroic deeds he used as a basis for his books to tell him thoroughly how they achieved their feats so he can pretend that he did it perfectly before modifying their memory and making them forget. His acting skills also contributed in his ability to completely hide his fraudulence and ineptitude in most fields of magic from almost all of the Wizarding World with his tall tales, making him world-wide famous, with only Dumbledore seeing through Lockhart's facade. His charisma also helped to boost his popularity in the eye of the wizarding public. It was only when he took on the position as a teacher did his act finally fell apart, as he lacked the required experience to know actually how to deal with the Dark Arts.
* **Author**: Lockhart's most significant skill apart from his speciality with Memory Charms was that he was an extremely accomplished author, which was the career he chose after leaving Hogwarts. His skills as an author were such that he was able to completely hide both his fraudulence and magical ineptitude to the general public by claiming credit in his books for deeds which other witches and wizards had done. He did this to the point that he was initially idolised by the majority of the wizarding world and many Hogwarts students. Even after his memories were erased, Lockhart still retained some of his writing skills despite his popularity having fallen, which was shown when he wrote and published the book ***Who Am I?**.*
* **Artist**: At a glance, Lockhart appeared to be a talented and accomplished painter, often painting exquisite portraits of himself in his free time (including a moving picture of himself, painting a picture of himself). His talent in painting ***portraits*** of simply himself further showcased his extravagant vanity and his love of aesthetics.

## Possessions

 File:Gilderoy Lockhart.jpg
* ***Wand***: Lockhart's wand was made of ***cherry*** ***wood*** and had a ***dragon heartstring*** ***core***. According to him, it was expensive.
* ***Luggage set***: Lockhart possessed a large set of fine luggage to hold his many belongings from his years of ill-earned fame, mostly related to his vanity. These include his many robes of varying colours, portraits and photos of himself, and a false hair piece. He tripped over one of the trunks when Harry disarmed him.

* ***Peacock quill***: Lockhart possessed a quill crafted from a ***peacock***'s ***feather***. He saved it for special occasions, such as signing autographs and was rather proud of it. He completely misread Ron's revolt at the quill as admiration. After his memory loss, Gilderoy continued to use the quill to sign autographs, but it became battered since.
* ***Lilac Ink***: Lockhart owned a bottle of lilac ink, which he used to sign his many autographs with.
* ***Broomstick***: Lockhart owned an elegant ***broomstick***, which he even vainly christened with a personal name. He would have used this broomstick whilst he played Quidditch as a Hogwarts student.

* ***Hair Care potions***: Lockhart owned various ***hair*** care ***potions*** which he used for cosmetic purposes, such as ***Wizarding Sculpting Gel*** and ***Occamy egg yolk shampoo***, the latter which he even invented himself.
* ***Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor's Office***: During his year spent in the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Lockhart occupied the office connected to his classroom by a flight of stairs, which he decorated with ***portraits*** of himself.
* ***Order of Merlin* medal**: Lockhart was given an Order of Merlin, third class, medal by the ***British Ministry of Magic***, for his alleged achievements.

## Known published works

> For full details, see my published works.
>
> Lockhart referencing his advice to his books, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

 File:Break With a Banshee.png  Lockhart was an accomplished author, with twelve of his books shown. Although nine of them were supposed to be about eradicating ***dark forces***, they were in fact just recollections of his experiences (of which he stole from other people) and his personal profiles, somewhat an extension of his autobiography, and contained a good deal of invented details as opposed to pure facts. All of these (with the exception of ***Who Am I?***) were published at some point between 1982 and 1992, before his stint as a Hogwarts professor. Due to the immense popularity, the books were very expensive; he gifted an entire set to Harry Potter as a publicity stunt at Flourish and Blotts, which Harry donated to Ginny Weasley.
Lockhart assigned seven of these books to be his textbooks for his Defence Against the Dark Arts course, though it was simply an excuse for him to sell his works to the students, as none of them had any educational usefulness. He gave an overly long "little quiz" during the first lesson to test out how much his students took in from his collected works, but most showed little interest and did poorly. After the first lesson ended up in disaster, Lockhart simply read from these books aloud and sometimes reenacted the contents to the class in a theatrical manner.

## Relationships

### Fans

 File:GilderoyLockhart WB F2 LockhartAtHisFlourishAndBlottsBookSigning 080615 Land.png
Most of Lockhart's fans were composed of middle-aged housewives, such as Molly Weasley, and young schoolgirls, such as Hermione Granger and Susan Bones. They were charmed by his looks and impressive claims but neglected to notice other dimensions of his personality, like his narcissism and general incompetence. Lockhart's notable fans, such as ***Gladys Gudgeon*** and ***Veronica Smethley***, regularly wrote him adoring fan mail. Once Lockhart suffered permanent amnesia and disappeared from the public eye, the majority of his fans most likely lost interest in him, though some of them continued to send him letters at the hospital.

### Hogwarts residents

> That's got *him* out from under our feet.
>
> Professor McGonagall expressing her happiness at sending Professor Lockhart away, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

 File:Dumbledore, McGonagall, Sprout and Snape COSF.jpg  During his time as a Hogwarts student, Lockhart was already unpopular with the school's residents, students like The Marauders and Severus Snape and the staff alike, almost immediately due to him being a spoiled child with a brat's sense of entitlement, self-delusions, and obnoxious personality. He was expecting everyone to whisper and stare about him and found it dull and disappointing when they did not, especially when they were not particularly impressed by his naturally wavy hair, of which he was very proud. His attempts to gain himself more attention did him little good; instead they made him more of an annoying troublemaker when he begged ***Headmaster*** Albus Dumbledore to start a school newspaper solely for his own name to appear in its print, carved his name into the Quidditch pitch (earning him a weeks' worth of detentions), shooting a hologram of his own face into the sky like the Dark Mark, and sending himself eight-hundred Valentines, causing breakfast to be cancelled due to the number of droppings and feathers in the porridge. His squandering of his own talents and refusal to take his studies seriously also earned him the scorn of his teachers, when they once hoped that if he had worked hard, he might have made something positive of his gifts. Lockhart's graduation was met with a faint sigh of relief from the entire staff. It was easily apparent that all of them would not hesitate to and perhaps even looked for opportunities to punish Lockhart out of sheer annoyance of his troublemaking and attention seeking personality, with the only Professor who didn't resent Lockhart and was willing to tolerate his antics appeared to be Dumbledore, as he apparently saw Lockhart's antics as amusing rather than irritating, evidenced by the fact that Lockhart's pleads for Dumbledore to start a school newspaper was the only time where Lockhart managed to get away unpunished. When word of his supposed accomplishments of Defence Against the Dark Arts have reached his former educators' and, in Snape's case, peers ears, they began to think that they had misjudged him due to his seeming resilience and bravery, unaware he was a mere charlatan who stole the credit of accomplishments made by true heroes. This misunderstanding, however, did not change their opinion on his annoying, attention-seeking personality, and they would later see him as the incompetent fraud he was.

> Dear me. Impaled upon your own sword, Gilderoy!
>
> Dumbledore mocking Lockhart after his memory loss, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

    When Lockhart had erased the memories of two wizards Dumbledore knew personally, Dumbledore, having never been fooled by Lockhart's tall tales and always being suspicious of how Lockhart came to fame due to knowing just what kind of a person Lockhart was, easily deduced the truth behind Lockhart's fame and saw through his charade and decided to track him down and make him pay for his crimes. Dumbledore offered Lockhart a position as the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, under the correct belief that school is the best location to expose the fraud for what he was. Lockhart was reluctant at first, as he was more interested in his successful career as an author, but was instantly swayed when Dumbledore mentioned Harry Potter's fame, which Lockhart would believe as a boost to his own. The other professors, who remembered Lockhart as obnoxious, were baffled at Dumbledore's choice to invite Lockhart back to Hogwarts, and Minerva even asked what possible benefits could students gain from such a vain man; according to Hagrid, the main reason for Lockhart's appointment was that he was the only applicant for the jinxed position after what happened to Quirrell something the other teachers agree on, but still thought Lockhart's personality outweighed the desperate need for a new teacher. Dumbledore appeared to be the only one who Lockhart didn't express superiority to and possibly held some level of respect for his old headmaster.
During his tenure in the 1992–1993 school year, Lockhart made an utter mess out of the subject due to his incompetence and ignorance. He also annoyed most of the teachers (some of whom remembered during his time as a student) by making unsolicited advice to look as though he was superior to them in every one of their fields while constantly proving otherwise with his consistently terrible performances. As such, his coworkers found him extremely obnoxious and could not take him seriously as a professor. Lockhart's insensitive nature embarrassed Snape and ***Flitwick*** on ***Valentine's Day***, when he made comments about ***Love Potion***s and Entrancing Enchantments regarding them, respectively, while disgusting everyone else by just overdecorating the Great Hall, and releasing ***dwarf***s throughout the school to deliver Valentines, interrupting classes in progress. By the end of the year, the other teachers were pleased to see him leave, going as far as to join in the students' applause of the announcement.

> Givin’ me advice on gettin’ kelpies out of a well. Like I don’ know. An’ bangin’ on about some banshee he banished. If one word of it was true, I’ll eat my kettle.
>
> Hagrid's disdain for Lockhart, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

    Even Rubeus Hagrid, who normally would never have criticised a teacher, publicly expressed disdain for Lockhart and did not believe any of Lockhart's fabricated claims, saying that he would eat his ***kettle*** if one word of it were true. Lockhart, on the other hand, did not seem to notice the resentment that the teachers had for him, and instead kept on annoying everyone. When Hagrid was sent to ***Azkaban*** based on ***Cornelius Fudge'***s misguided beliefs, Lockhart adamantly believed Hagrid to be guilty of opening the Chamber of Secrets, despite future events and the continuous tension of the atmosphere proved otherwise. This might have been the result of Hagrid claiming that he never read Lockhart's books and that Harry would not be giving out signed photographs due to being more famous than him without trying, both of which made Lockhart disappointed.
Template:Dialogue a-b

    Gilderoy was particularly disliked by Professor Snape for not only taking the teaching post he coveted so much but also for his constant and presumptuous attempts to advise Snape with largely nonsensical suggestions: In fact, Lockhart was probably on top of the list of the DADA professor that Snape resented the most, with the only possible exception being ***Remus Lupin***, who even then still got along better with Snape than Lockhart despite Snape's resentment. Snape looked as though he was prepared to kill Lockhart during the Duelling Club, as Harry described, and something even Lockhart eventually saw when he looked at Snape's expression. He was the most miserable of the teachers of Hogwarts when Lockhart held a Valentine Day celebration, to the point Harry described Snape at this point as "looking as if he had been forced to drink multiple ***Skele-Gro***" and when Lockhart encouraged the students to ask Snape to teach them how to brew ***Love Potion***, Snape looked as if he would force-feed ***poison*** to anyone who dared to ask him. When Ginny Weasley was taken into the Chamber of Secrets, Snape immediately sent Lockhart to deal with the monster within. The other teachers agreed unanimously, in the hopes of scaring Lockhart away, especially considering he had walked in obliviously while the other teachers were devastated by Ginny's impending doom; it was during this situation that they were all glaring at him with genuine hatred, something that he remained oblivious to. In revenge, they took Lockhart's earlier claims and used it against him, while ignoring his attempt to stammer his way out with feeble excuses.
While he was unpopular during his time as a student, Lockhart, as a teacher, had a mixed relationship with the students of Hogwarts: about half of them admired him for his celebrity status, while the other half resented him for being obnoxious and fake. However, by the end of the year, when Lockhart revealed his own fraudulence and left school due to his accidental self-induced amnesia, pretty much every student gave their round of applause at the news.
The half of the students who initially admired him were mostly girls like Hermione Granger and Susan Bones, who fell for his good looks, and Muggle-born students who actually believed in the accomplishments in his books, such as Justin Finch-Fletchley and Colin Creevey. They remained ignorant of Lockhart's true colours, even when he revealed them little by little throughout his terrible performances. However, when he was finally exposed as a fraud, the boys most likely abandoned their faith in him.
Much like most of the faculty, the other half of the students simply found Lockhart to be annoying. Many of them showed little knowledge or interest in his history or published works, as they all did rather poorly on his ***"little" quiz*** that purely consisted of questions about him. Him not teaching them anything useful had caused a rift for their education experience. Even those who showed no outright sympathy either for or against Lockhart, such as the ***Slytherin***s, appeared to have no respect for and could easily enjoy and mock him behind his back, as Draco Malfoy mocked Harry for being dragged into the spotlight by the professor, and along with the other Slytherins cheered when Snape effortlessly grounded Lockhart at the ***Duelling Club*** with the Disarming Charm.
It appears that the only one in the Staff and virtually all of Hogwarts who had any amount of pity and compassion for Lockhart and his current state was Dumbledore himself. While he had purposefully intended for Lockhart to be exposed as a fraud to the Wizarding World and evidently disapproved of Lockhart's attention-seeking , Dumbledore notably chose not to expose Lockhart's crimes to the public. Despite Lockhart's fraudulent nature, Dumbledore likely thought that the loss of his memory was punishment enough. Since Lockhart would not remember either the so called accomplishments or his fraudulent behaviour, it would be cruel to expose him to a likely sentence in Azkaban. It is also notable that unlike all the other professors, Dumbledore was always civil and cordial to Lockhart despite knowing of his crimes, further implying while Dumbledore decided to expose Lockhart, he bore no personal animosity to him and only did so to protect more heroes from being denied their rights to be acknowledged for their deeds. Lockhart himself clearly admired and respected Dumbledore, as he never claimed to surpass Dumbledore and was always polite to him and he never annoyed him directly or indirectly, which is a sharp contrast compared to his interactions with the other teachers, indicating that despite his vanity, Lockhart's acknowledgement of how great Dumbledore also came with the acknowledgement that Dumbledore obviously surpassed him, a fact that was very much true. It appears that before he lost his memories that Dumbledore was the only staff member that Lockhart ever had any respect for.

### Harry Potter

> Harry yearned to throw ***Gadding with Ghouls*** right in Lockhart's stupid face.
>
> Harry Potter's feelings towards Lockhart, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

 File:Professor Gilderoy Lockhart and Harry Potter COS promo.jpg  Harry Potter particularly disliked Lockhart for dragging him into the spotlight against his will, beginning with the book-signing during which Lockhart made a spectacle out of Harry as a publicity stunt, and for making Harry seem as though he was constantly seeking attention only to finally get told by Hagrid that Harry was more famous than him without trying; the only reason Lockhart returned to Hogwarts to teach was under the presumption that getting close to Harry would boost his own popularity. Lockhart only further infuriated Harry by doing far more damage than help when he vanished Harry's arm bones instead of mending them when they were broken by Dobby's tampered Bludger, requiring him to use Skele-Gro. Their first lesson was enough to make Harry realise that Lockhart was an incompetent fool who had no idea what he was doing, he would spend much of the school year avoiding Lockhart to the best of his power, and practically begged Professor McGonagall to allow him an alternate detention when he was assigned to help Lockhart answer his fan-mails, which Lockhart thought was a treat, when Harry thought otherwise. Lockhart would often drag Harry to the front of the class to reenact some of the more dramatic portions within the textbooks' contents in a theatrical manner, as part of the "lecture", something Harry would have refused if he did not have a very good reason then. Lockhart even offered Harry some private Quidditch lessons, to which Harry refused. Harry would further dislike Lockhart for insisting that Rubeus Hagrid is guilty of opening the Chamber of Secrets, simply based on the Minister's incorrect move of arresting Hagrid as a preventive measure, and barely resisted the urge to throw a book into his face.

> So you’ve just been taking credit for what a load of other people have done?
>
> Harry Potter confronting Lockhart, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Because of his growing hatred for Lockhart, Harry would use Lockhart's ignorance against him with pleasure, by requesting him to sign a permission slip for a library book ***in the*** Restricted Section ***that no other teachers would so easily do, and then have Lockhart return to class prematurely so Harry and Ron can sneak off from all security measures set. When Snape easily sent Lockhart flying backwards at the*** Duelling Club***, Harry didn't felt any sympathy for him despite the fact that it was Snape who did it. Upon Lockhart inadvertently revealing his fraudulence in his refusal to enter the Chamber of Secrets, Harry's dislike and fury intensified, and swiftly*** disarmed ***Lockhart with such force that he sent the man falling back on his trunk. Neither Harry nor Ron had any qualms about attacking Lockhart and forcing him to enter the Chamber, and they even made him go first as a buffer for any approaching harm. Harry's sympathy was extremely limited when Lockhart lost his memories after his Memory Charm backfired, as it was entirely his fault for attempting it on Harry and Ron in the first place in addition to his intent to flee and leave Ginny for dead.***

### Ron Weasley

> I haven't learned anything from him except not to set ***pixie***s loose.
>
> Ron Weasley dismissing Lockhart's lessons, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

 File:RonBrokenWand.jpg  Ron Weasley, who was already annoyed the book-signing at Flourish and Blotts made it look as though his family was unimportant, saw Lockhart for what he really was during their first lesson, when the professor gave a test completely irrelevant to the subject, and then released a boisterous group of ***pixie***s he was unable to contain. When Snape easily sent Lockhart flying backwards at the Duelling Club, Ron didn't felt any sympathy towards him despite the fact that it was Snape who did it. Ron's disgust deepened over the year, when Lockhart's continuous ineptitude annoyed him repeatedly, going as far as wanting to drop out of Lockhart's class because of it, feeling very revolted (alongside the rest of the staff) with Lockhart's over-decorative "morale booster" on Valentine's day, sickened by Lockhart's overly lavish peacock quill (something Lockhart completely misinterpreted as admiration), and reached a critical level when Lockhart attempted to flee while allowing Ron's sister to die in the Chamber of Secrets; when they finally discovered where the fabled Chamber was, and that Lockhart inadvertently admitted himself as a fraud, Ron demanded that Lockhart go first into the Chamber as a test subject. However, three years later, upon meeting Lockhart in the St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, Ron showed some guilt for Lockhart losing his memories due to his Memory Charm backfiring from using Ron's damaged wand. However, Ron's sympathy towards Lockhart was extremely limited considering Lockhart attempted to wipe out his memory along with Harry's and nearly cost his younger sister, Ginny's life.

### Hermione Granger

> Why have you outlined all Lockhart's lessons in little hearts?
>
> Ron Weasley upon seeing Hermione's timetable, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

 File:COS-Promo Hermione-Granger Known-Cropped.jpg  Unlike Ron and Harry, Hermione Granger was a big fan of Lockhart, showing excitement at the prospect at meeting him at ***Flourish and Blotts***, saying that he has written almost the entire book list. When Lockhart taught at Hogwarts, Hermione, unlike Harry and Ron, completely dismissed his mistakes, when normally she would become annoyed whenever anyone cast a single spell wrong, such as after Lockhart's first lesson, she insisted that Lockhart just wanted to give them some hands-on experience by bringing pixies to the class, and refused to see that he did not know what he was doing. She also dismissed his blunders as the usual honest mistakes, such as when he de-boned Harry Potter's arm, and talking about "*all the amazing things he's done*."

 File:Lockhart and Hermione.jpg
> To Miss Granger, wishing you a speedy recovery, from your concerned teacher, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award.
>
> Lockhart's 'Get Well' card to Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Ron Weasley also noticed that she had outlined Lockhart's lessons on her timetable with hearts. It was presumed she was shocked when Lockhart was exposed as a fraud. It was possible, however, that she simply fell for his good looks, as she was described to be breathless when she saw him at St Mungo's, despite Lockhart's true nature already having been revealed. Hermione claimed that she admired "the amazing things he had done", but she had showed signs that she only admired his good looks, no matter what she said to the contrary. Also, when she claimed that she didn't like someone just because they're handsome in their fourth year, Ron coughed the word "Lockhart".

### Miriam Strout

When Gilderoy was admitted into ***St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries*** due to his self-inflicted amnesia, the ***Healer*** in charge of his ward, Miriam Strout, took great care of him. She was very motherly to him, catering to his condition with an affectionate tone, leading him back into his room when he slipped out while speaking kindly to him as though he was a child out of place. She also took pity on him for the fact that nobody visited him, not even any of his family members.

## Media

Gilderoy Lockhart Harry Potter and the Chamber of SecretsMeeting Gilderoy LockhartHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Gilderoy Lockhart Classroom sceneLockhart's First ClassGilderoy Lockhart Loses His Memory Harry Potter and the Chamber of SecretsLockhart loses his memory
## Etymology

**Gilderoy** was a name that J. K. Rowling found in *Template:Wplink*. According to the dictionary, the name belongs to two different Template:W who were both described as incredibly handsome.
*Gilderoy* is an Irish and Scottish name that refers back to *Gilroy*, which means "son of the red-haired servant", or "son of the king's servant."
Interestingly, *"Gilderoy"* is similar to the term "gilded", which means both to cover something in a thin layer of gold to appear valuable and golden (when in reality it isn't), and "wealthy and privileged", both of which apply well to Gilderoy's character.
J. K. Rowling found the name Lockhart on a war memorial at a church in Edinburgh, and found it to be "a hollow kind of name", befitting of the character. Others have noted that 'Lockhart' sounds like 'lock-heart', which is reminiscent of Lockhart's use of memory charms to lock his victims' memories, though that is largely held to be coincidental.
The word *Lockhart* is of Scottish origin and is said to mean "brave" and "hardy", which is ironic compared to his character.

## Behind the scenes

 File:Lockhart.gif
 File:LEGO Lockhart.png
 File:Gilderoy Lockhart LEGO minifigure 2020.jpg
 File:Gilderoy Lockhart LEGOY1.jpg
 File:Gilderoy Lockhart.png
 File:Lockhart pop.jpg
 File:LockhartBluePOP.jpg
 File:Lockhart-Jim-Kay.jpg
* Lockhart is portrayed by ***Northern Irish*** actor ***Kenneth Branagh*** in Template:COS; Originally, he was to be portrayed by Template:Wplink, but due to scheduling problems he was replaced. One of Grant's middle names is, coincidentally, "Mungo".
* Jason Isaacs has said that he initially auditioned for the role of Lockhart before accepting the role of Lucius Malfoy instead.
* Observing his flamboyant clothes, it is not difficult to imagine Lockhart as an expert of fashion and a regular reader of fashion magazines (and indeed, many fans found him to be a stylish character in the film series). Furthermore, he received ***Britain's Best Dressed Wizard Award*** sometime before 1992. Considering that his secret ambition is to market his own range of ***hair care potions***, he may also be an expert on hair care and, possibly, makeup.
* As one of Lockhart's stated ambitions was "harmony between magic and non-magic peoples," he may be in favour of greater rights for Muggles, though is not known to have done anything to specifically champion the cause. Given his ego, he probably regretted that his fame was limited to the wizarding community. This said, and despite his other failings, he never once demonstrates any pure-blood prejudice. He in fact dotes on students such as Harry Potter, who is also a half-blood, and Hermione Granger, who is Muggle-born. Lockhart himself is half-blood.
* Since Lockhart went to Hogwarts from ***1975***-***1982***, he attended Hogwarts around the same time as Lily Evans, Severus Snape, and the Marauders, who they have been in their fifth years when he began attending. This could explain Snape's disdain towards him. Snape also started teaching Potions when Gilderoy was in his seventh year, and he may have taught him if Gilderoy took N.E.W.T. level potions.
* ***J. K. Rowling*** has stated that Lockhart's name was taken from a church in Scotland.
* J. K. Rowling has made it known that Gilderoy Lockhart is the only character in the series to be based on a real person, and claims that she "barely exaggerated" the personality. She has refused, however, to specify who that is. Furthermore, she stated that basing the character on this man "made up for having to endure him for two solid years.
* A rumour circulated that the character of Gilderoy Lockhart was based on J. K. Rowling's ex-husband, but this was roundly refuted on her website. She termed the rumour "toxic", "hurtful," and "damaging". Although it is not public who was the basis for Lockhart, Rowling inadvertently revealed it was not her first husband.
* Harry does not seem to hate Lockhart as much in the film like he does in the book, although he is far from friendly to him.
* Lockhart's portrayal by Kenneth Branagh in the second film are notably more likeable and comical than his book version, as he had several more moments of sincerity than his book counterpart. This was seen when, for example, he after some time spent boasting of himself suddenly drew his wand and adopted a solemn demeanour while teaching the second years, thus showing that rather than simply using his classes to as an excuse to promote his published works like the book version did, film Lockhart at least on some level wished to make his lessons engaging for the students. Later, he wished Harry good luck in an earnest manner as Harry took the stage to duel Draco Malfoy during the duelling club, and displayed what seemed to be genuine concern and sympathy when Harry's arm was broken and, contrary to the book, seemed more concerned about mending Harry's arm than he was about the surrounding crowd seeing him do it. He was also notably and willing to clear Harry from Snape's insinuations that Harry was involved in Mrs Norris' petrification, informing Snape that Harry was in detention with him. It may be because Lockhart's egotism and his most annoying treatment of Harry were toned down, but his fraudulence and willingness to let Ginny die in the Chamber of Secrets still preserves him as detestable.
* After losing his memory, Lockhart starts making ***tea***. Also, he is the only teacher who is referred to by their first name. His hair is implied on many occasions to be a wig, as it keeps nearly falling off his head.
	+ Also in the game, Lockhart is one of the few characters (along with Hermione Granger and Quirinus Quirrell) incapable of flying a broomstick competently, only being able to fly above the ground and swerving heavily while doing so, being unable to fly higher in the air.
* As well as this, he is the only Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher to have no connection with Lord Voldemort (Quirrell housed Voldemort in his head, Lupin's former friend Peter Pettigrew was Voldemort's spy, ***Dolores Umbridge*** worked for the ***Ministry*** after Voldemort ***took it over***]], ***Moody*** was impersonated by a ***Death Eater***, then murdered by Voldemort and Snape was Voldemort's former Death Eater and a spy in his ranks). Lockhart has no known connection with Voldemort, because Ginny opened the Chamber of Secrets, and he never saw Riddle's diary.
	+ Lockhart did, however, share Voldemort's trait of wanting to be special, as he was upset to find he was not the only wizard in the world.
	+ Also, in the games Lockhart is not confronted by Harry and Ron as he is in the book and resultantly, he is never revealed or even mentioned to be a fraud, explicitly.
* While out and about during the writing of Template:COS, J. K. Rowling saw, in a church in Edinburgh, the surname "Lockhart", which she said was a beautiful surname. That was how she came up with the surname of Gilderoy.

## Appearances

Template:Imagecat

* Template:COS Template:1st

## External links

* Extra information about Lockhart from J.K. Rowling, Available via Web Archive

## Notes and references

Template:Reflist
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1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Gilderoy Lockhart Fact File at Template:PM (archived)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Template:HPPS, p. 74 Template:See image
3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 3.21 3.22 3.23 3.24 3.25 3.26 3.27 3.28 3.29 3.30 3.31 3.32 3.33 3.34 3.35 Template:WW
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Template:COS - 'So, Harry,' said Lockhart, while Hermione folded the note with fumbling fingers and slipped it into her bag. 'Tomorrow's the first Quidditch match of the season, I believe? Gryffindor against Slytherin, is it not? I hear you're a useful player. I was a Seeker, too.'
5. ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 5.15 5.16 5.17 5.18 5.19 5.20 5.21 5.22 5.23 5.24 5.25 5.26 Template:COS
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Template:COS - "There was a big photograph on the front of a very good-looking wizard with wavy blond hair and bright blue eyes."
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Template:COS
8. ↑ 8.00 8.01 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09 8.10 8.11 8.12 Template:COS
9. ↑ Lockhart wears Ravenclaw Quidditch robes in a photo taken for Template:COS, which can be seen in the "Lockhart's Classroom" feature on Disc 2 of the DVD, and in the picture-in-picture feature on Disc 1 of the Ultimate Collector's Edition Blu-ray.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 Template:OOTP
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 "J.K. Rowling comments on Lockhart's hair, Hogwarts House, mother via Pottermore" at SnitchSeeker.com
12. ↑ 12.00 12.01 12.02 12.03 12.04 12.05 12.06 12.07 12.08 12.09 12.10 12.11 12.12 12.13 12.14 12.15 12.16 12.17 12.18 12.19 12.20 Template:COS
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Template:COS - Chapter 37 (*End Credits*)
14. ↑ "Exclusive: JK Rowling on Harry Potter character Gilderoy Lockhart - audio", at The Guardian (*A Celebration of Harry Potter*)
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 Template:COS
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Template:HM
17. ↑ Template:HM
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 Template:HM
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Template:HM
20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Template:HM
21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 21.4 21.5 21.6 Template:COS
22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Template:COS - Chapter 11 (*Gilderoy Lockhart*)
23. ↑ 23.00 23.01 23.02 23.03 23.04 23.05 23.06 23.07 23.08 23.09 23.10 23.11 23.12 23.13 23.14 23.15 Template:COS Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "COS10" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "COS10" defined multiple times with different content
24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 Template:COS
25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 25.4 25.5 25.6 25.7 Template:COS
26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 26.3 26.4 Template:COS
27. ↑ Template:COS
28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 28.3 Template:COS
29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 Template:COS
30. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `LEGOY1`
31. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `LEGOY2`
32. ↑ Template:HM
33. ↑ Template:HPE Template:See image
34. ↑ Template:COS Template:See image
35. ↑ Template:COS photo shoot Template:See image
36. ↑ Template:COS DVD (Disc 2 - Lockhart's Office)
37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 BBC Radio 4 interview with J. K. Rowling, summer 2005
38. ↑ Harry Potter Reading Club live web chat, 11 October 2012 (source here)
39. ↑ J.K. Rowling 2012 Interview – Harry Potter: Beyond the Page