Gilderoy Lockhart

"Celebrity is as celebrity does."

- Lockhart's dubious advice to Harry Potter

Professor Gilderoy Lockhart,, (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.

Prior to his tenure as Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry during the 1992–1993 school year, he received many prestigious awards, such as Order of Merlin, Third Class; Honourary Member of the Dark Force Defence League; and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award. He invented an Occamy egg yolk shampoo, which was too dangerous and expensive for open market; it subsequently became his dream to market these products. His favourite colour is lilac.

Lockhart never actually did any of the heroic acts he claimed he had done, but instead used his considerable talent in Memory Charms to force the actual people who had done them into forgetting what they did. Ironically, Lockhart lost all 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?.

Early life
"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

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. Lockhart's mother loved him more than any of his siblings, and this, combined with the revelation of his wizardry and acceptance into Hogwarts, caused his vanity to grow like a tenacious weed. 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.

He entered Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on 1 September, 1975 and was four years below James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Lily Evans, and Severus Snape. He was Sorted into Ravenclaw, but he did, however, narrowly escape from being Sorted into Slytherin.

He had hoped to be greeted by whispers and stares, as in his mind he was already a fully-fledged genius with extreme magical prowess; the fact that he was merely ordinary, that more talented 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. However, Gilderoy was a very skilled flyer whilst at Hogwarts, and was a successful Quidditch player, eventually becoming the Seeker for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team.

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).

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 these exploits failed to grant him 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 (earning him a weeks' worth of detentions), creating a spell that shot a hologram of his own face into 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 shortcuts and dodges, focused on attention and neglecting true learning.

Sometime in his life, he invented a shampoo that guarantees 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. Since then, it was Lockhart's dream to market these overly-expensive products.

Career as an author
"Why, I remember the time when I was writing my second bestseller, Gadding with Ghouls. I believed that the more exposure I got in the press, the better my career would progress. Trouble was, I became overexposed! And it wasn't until I went mysteriously missing for three weeks, subsequently leaking the story to the Prophet that I'd been captured by Trolls in the wilds of Stockton-on-Tees, that I managed to regain my former prominent position as the world's most popular wizard."

- Lockhart talking with Harry Potter at Flourish and Blotts



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. This sole focus on Memory Charms would deteriorate his abillities nearly beyond repair, which spelled the end of Lockhart's fame when Lockhart became a Hogwarts Professor.

He then returned to Britain with a new book each time, all of them self-promoting and filled with a wealth of invented details; 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 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.



Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster during Lockhart's time, happened to have known two of the wizards whose memories Lockhart erased and easily deduced the truth behind Lockhart's books 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).

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 and publicity-hunger 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 what possibly could be learned from such a vain, celebrity-hungry man, in which the headmaster replied there was plenty to learn from even a bad teacher: what not to do, how not to be.



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 of 1992, Lockhart went to Flourish and Blotts to 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.

Early classes
"Let me introduce you to your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.... me!"

- Lockhart introducing himself to his students

Being the only willing applicant for the cursed 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. In a way, he was correct) which moved and smiled (there was even one of himself painting another portrait of himself). He also decorated the office with copies of his publications.



For his first lesson, he gave his second-year class a "little quiz" which had nothing to do with defence, but instead concerned his autobiography, Magical Me, and the parts of his books just referring to him, such as his favourite colour and his ideal birthday present; 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. He then proceeded to release a cage full of "freshly caught" Cornish Pixies into the classroom, causing a large amount of pandemonium, 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 also found him quite obnoxious and could not take him seriously as a professor. Even Rubeus Hagrid, the gamekeeper, who usually refrained from criticising teachers, showed public disdain for Lockhart. Many male students, such as Ron Weasley, also considered Lockhart to be annoying and incompetent, 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 bought into his celebrity-status.



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. 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, 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

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.



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.

After a Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin, in which the Gryffindor Seeker Harry Potter had his arm broken by a rogue bludger, Lockhart offered to help repair his arm. Ignoring Harry's refusal, he ended up removing all the bones in Harry's arm.



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 claiming that he 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.

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 and the Chamber of Secrets


During Valentine's Day, Lockhart, wearing lurid pink robes, completely redecorated the Great Hall with pink flowers and raining heart-shaped confetti as a morale-booster to cheer up the mood against the Chamber of Secrets incident, much to the distaste of Ron Weasley and the teachers. Lockhart received at least forty-six valentines, one of which was from Hermione Granger, and made insensitive comments about Entrancing Enchantments and Love Potions towards Professors Flitwick and Snape, respectively. This made Flitwick bury his face in his hands in embarrassment, and Snape look as though he would force the first person who dared to ask him for a Love Potion to eat poison. He even had dwarfs wear golden wings and carry harps to deliver valentines throughout the school, which they did (even if they have to do so forcibly), much to Harry Potter's embarrassment when one forced him to listen to one from Ginny Weasley by knocking him down. This event is, ironically, somewhat a repeat of his attempt to earn attention during his youth in Valentines Day, being equally as annoying.

When the Chamber of Secrets was opened, Lockhart made false claims about that he knew where the Chamber was and what the monster of Slytherin is 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 uncaring about these security measures. In one instance, he walked up to a scene with a cheery personality and stated, "Sorry I'm late, what did I miss?"



On 29 May, 1993, when Ginny Weasley was taken into the Chamber of Secrets, the other teachers 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 accidentally revealed his life-style of fraudulence. Harry and Ron forced Lockhart to go down to the Chamber with them.



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, causing him to lose all of his memories and become a permanent resident of St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. His departure from school was met with the joy and celebration of many students and teachers, as he was not universally popular at Hogwarts.

Permanent incapacitation
"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

Blissfully ignorant of his own fraudulence, or of anything else, for that matter, Lockhart's many crimes were never actually revealed to the public, likely because his former employer, Professor Dumbledore, felt that Lockhart already had got what he deserved and decided not to make his fate any worse by not telling Lockhart's crimes to the wizarding world, which would have people treat Gilderoy with contempt for the rest of his life for wrongdoings of which he had no recollections. 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 Lockhart.



On Christmas, 1995, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Ginny Weasley saw Lockhart at St Mungo's in the Janus Thickey Ward. He had regained his memory to the extent that he could write in cursive ("with joined-up letters"), and still enjoyed signing autographs. Ron felt somewhat guilty since his malfunctioning wand was responsible for damaging Lockhart's memories, but Harry felt less sympathetic, for it was Lockhart's attempt to remove their memories in the first place that resulted in this backfire. Overall, Harry observed Lockhart had not changed much and voiced this opinion, making Ginny giggle.

It is known that Gilderoy never got visitors, suggesting that his family was either deceased or did not care for him. However, Lockhart still received fan mail including weekly letters from Gladys Gudgeon (further evidence that the foundation of falsehood on which he had built his career as an author never became common knowledge), though he had no idea why. He also kept his peacock-feather quill, though it had become somewhat battered by that time so that he could keep signing autographs.

Though he did retain some memories, Lockhart never fully recovered. Fortunately, however, he is known to be happier that way.

Physical description


"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

Gilderoy Lockhart was a foppish, blandly 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



Gilderoy Lockhart's defining characteristics were his extreme arrogance and exceeding vanity, conceit, egomania, narcissism and self-obsession. He was a voracious self-promoter and claimed to have done many great deeds, though in actuality he was a fraud and merely took credit for other wizards and witches' accomplishments; he went as far as to claim his winning of the Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award five times in a row is more impressive than Harry Potter defeating Lord Voldemort.

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 made-up 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 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 speculated that he invented some incantations and names for spells that do not actually exist, such as Peskipiksi Pesternomi, the Transmogrifian Torture, and the Homorphus Charm. Indeed, much of his books contain 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.

In addition to his self-promoting nature, he was also highly impractical 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" was outright disturbing 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. Even in his time as a student, his antics of garnering attention were causing huge amounts of trouble that earned him scorn and dislike instead of the popularity he desired.

Lockhart's overbearing self-confidence and insensitive suggestions 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 displayed that he believed himself to be above Dumbledore. Lockhart was overall considered a joke by Hogwarts, and when he left due to memory loss, the majority (if not the entirety) of the school was elated to see him go.

"Lockhart'll sign anything if it stands still long enough."

- Ron Weasley regarding Lockhart



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 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 ultimately led to his downfall, as 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 Dueling Club), evidently forgetting the dangers of attempting such a feat (or that the wand was even damaged).

When faced with true danger, Gilderoy showed his true nature, that 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, 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 vanity. 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 antics for fame that instead earned him a small notoriety. He was never an unskilled wizard, just a lazy one, and increasingly directed his talents to shortcuts and dodges; his gifts were wasted away, as the only spell he focused on was the Memory Charm. His abilities were eventually deteriorated nearly beyond the point of recovery, which came past that point when he was struck with his own backfiring Memory Charm.

"My dear boy, do use your common sense! My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I did all those things..."

- Lockhart's response to Harry Potter

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 if 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 Lockhart was rather put out, and again when Hagrid told him that Harry Potter was more famous than Lockhart without trying. 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.

After losing his memory, however, Lockhart became a much nicer and happier person even if he didn't particularly know it. Upon seeing Harry and Ginny after the spell hit him, he said hello to them very 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 at it 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 has not changed.

Magical abilities and skills
"Yes, now you mention it. I'm rather gifted with Memory Charms."

- Lockhart in 1992

In his youth, Gilderoy was acknowledged by his professors as having been cleverer than most of his classmates, having been of above-average in intelligence and ability, and for having had the potential to become a great wizard by his teachers, had he just decided to work hard to get there. Years of misuse and abandonment and sole focus on the Memory Charm eventually diminished and rusted his magical abilities nearly beyond repair. Thus making him unskilled in most fields of magic, but he did retain some of his old magical prowess until the loss of his memories.
 * Charms: Lockhart's main area of expertise appeared to be Charms, as he retained a good amount of skill in it even after losing much of his former talent. On his own admission, Lockhart was particularly gifted with the Memory Charm, an ability that he spent years perfecting. He eventually reached the level where he could cast the tricky charm without fail on any situation. He even managing to do so to accomplished wizards and witches upon catching them off-guard. His talents and skills in Charms allowed him to conjure a non corporeal Patronus, a very advanced piece of magic. He could adequately perform simple, minor enchantments such as the Verdimillious Duo Spell and Softening Charm and displayed sufficient knowledge in their use to thoroughly teach his students how to use them. He was also capable of performing a charm that sent the target flying high into the air. However, he was most likely unable to perform more complex magic.
 * Defence Against the Dark Arts: Although he was unskilled in most fields of magic and was not a competent teacher on how to defend against the Dark Arts, Lockhart did had a degree of experience and expertise in how to defend from the Dark Forces. He likely acquired from his experiences, as evidenced by the fact that he was able to teach his class how to use Rictusempra, Petrificus Totalus, and Verdimillious Duo Spell to defend themselves effectively. Harry Potter even admitted that Lockhart did teach him how to use those spells quite well. His abilities and knowledge was adequate enough that he was at least able to be an honorary member of the Dark Force Defensive League for an unknown period of time without arousing suspicion.
 * Care of Magical Creatures: Although Lockhart was most likely not able to handle dangerous magical creatures the way his books, which were actually based on feats other wizards and witches did, he still displayed a reasonable amount of knowledge on magical creatures and appears to have learned the theory of the way to handle creatures his books wrote. He was able to explain to Harry Potter how to handle Fire Crabs, Imps, and Orange Snails.
 * Spell creation: As a student at Hogwarts, Gilderoy invented a spell that sent skyward a glowing, holographic image of his own face, similar to the Dark Mark.
 * Potions: Lockhart possessed at least a reasonable amount of knowledge and abilities in Potions, enough that he was capable of creating his own basic brews, such as an Occamy egg yolk shampoo that would give the drinker lustrous locks of hair, which was one of the very few things that he made that proved to be true but it was too dangerous and expensive for the open market. His claims, however, that he had made the Mandrake Restorative Draught so many times that he could do it in his sleep were likely false.
 * Healing magic: Lockhart had a fair amount of knowledge, if only mediocre ability in Healing Charms, as he attempted to use a spell to mend Harry's broken arm when Dobby made a Bludger attack him. However, his abilities in this field was clearly limited, as instead of healing Harry's bones, he vanished them completely, something that he said could happen if the user had not sufficient skill.
 * Nonverbal magic: Lockhart could cast spells without having to speak them out loud, which is N.E.W.T. level magic and very difficult. This proved that he did retain a vestige of his once good magical skills by the time he returned to teach at Hogwarts, denoting them as only nearly 'beyond repair'.
 * Flying: During his youth, he was a very skilled broomstick flyer, with him becoming the Seeker of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team whilst at Hogwarts, then displaying his superior flying ability. It is unknown if he retained his flying talent in adulthood, considering his neglect of most of his other magical abilities.
 * Intelligence: Lockhart teachers acknowledged him as being cleverer than most of his fellow students and he got good marks on his schoolwork. As an adult, the full extent of Lockhart's cunning and resourcefulness, qualities that also nearly made him a Slytherin, was shown in his journey for fame. He was capable of easily deceiving the whole magical community (apart from Dumbledore) that he was a highly accomplished wizard and courageous hero. He did this despite having lost much of his youth's magical prowess, while in actuality he was a fraud who stole the achievements of other courageous and accomplished wizards for his book. 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 came so close to incriminate himself.
 * 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 undeniable intellectual dedication through his endeavour to take taking credit from other accomplished wizards: Having amassed a great deal of knowledge in magical feats and creatures, he was aware of various complex spells such as the Homorphus Charm and Transmogrifian Torture, among many other things. 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, suggesting he had at the very least a fair amount of theoretical expertise on magic in general. In fact, one can not put it past him to have been an actually rather knowledgeable and well-read individual who used the written word of witches and wizard far wiser than himself on a wide variety of subjects until he knew them more or less by heart, so he could refer to factual truths and attribute his familiarity with them to his alleged first-hand experience with them throughout his journeys, both as part of the "wealth of invented details" he filled his books with and to seem more impressive in conversation.
 * Tracking skills: Lockhart was known to have been very good at tracking down highly courageous, accomplished and selfless witches and wizards whose outstanding bravery and skill was such that their achievements would ensure him another bestseller if credited to Lockhart himself, yet were modest enough not to boast about it to everyone, allowing Lockhart to steal their glory without those around him recognising his fraudulence.
 * 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.
 * Author: Lockhart's biggest 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?.

Possessions

 * Wand: Lockhart's wand was made of cherry and dragon heartstring. 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 fraudulent 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 possesses a quill crafted from a peacock's feather. He saved it for special occasions, such as signing autographs and is 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 has become battered since.
 * 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 Ministry of Magic, for his alleged achievements.

Known published works
"For full details, see my published works."

- Lockhart referencing his advice to his books



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, 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 have 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.


 * Break with a Banshee
 * Gadding with Ghouls
 * Gilderoy Lockhart's Guide to Household Pests
 * Holidays with Hags
 * Magical Me (autobiography)
 * Marauding with Monsters
 * One Hundred and One Practical Uses for Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans
 * Travels with Trolls
 * Voyages with Vampires
 * Wanderings with Werewolves
 * Who Am I?
 * Year with the Yeti

Family
Gilderoy was born in the Lockhart family, with a Muggle father, witch mother, and two elder sisters, both of whom were Squibs. His mother loved him more than she did her two daughters, which, when combined with Gilderoy's revealed wizardry and acceptance into Hogwarts, lead his vanity to grow like a weed. Both mother and son were too excited to remember that Hogwarts accepts all magical students from Britain and Ireland, and she was as deluded as her son in thinking that he was special amongst all children of his age. Due to Mrs Lockhart's overly love and pampering, she completely spoiled and deluded her son, which would lead to a very negative impact on his future.

When Gilderoy was admitted to St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries due to self-inflicted amnesia, none of his family members nor relatives visited.

Fans
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 was exposed as a fraud and suffered permanent amnesia, the majority of his fans most likely lost interest in him, though Gladys continued to send him letters.

Hogwarts residents
"That's got him out from under our feet."

- Professor McGonagall expressing her happiness at sending Professor Lockhart away



During his time as a Ravenclaw student, Lockhart was already unpopular with the school's residents almost immediately due to his self-delusions and obnoxious vanity. 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. The only Professor who didn't despise Lockhart when he was a student appears to be Dumbledore, as he apparently saw Lockhart's antics as being amusing rather than irritating, evidenced by the fact that he kindly denied Lockhart of his demands that Hogwarts publish a school newspaper and Lockhart got away with this plead unpunished, much unlike the other professors, who would not hesitate to punish Lockhart as they disliked his troublemaking and attention seeking personality. When word of his supposed accomplishments of Defence Against the Dark Arts have reached his former educators' ears, they began to think they have misjudged him due to his seeming resilience and bravery, unaware he is 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 is.



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 books and saw through all of 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 is. 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 cursed position, something the other teachers agree on, but still thought Lockhart's personality outweighed the desperate need for a new teacher.

During his tenure in the 1992–1993 school year, Lockhart made an utter mess out of the subject due to his incompetence. He also annoyed most of the teachers (some of whom remember his time as a student) by making it look as though he was superior to them in every one of their fields while 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 Potions and Entrancing Enchantments regarding them, respectively, while disgusting everyone else by just overdecorating the Great Hall, and releasing dwarfs 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. Even Rubeus Hagrid, who normally would never have criticised a teacher, publicly expressed disdain for Lockhart and didn't believe any of Lockhart's claims, saying he'd eat his kettle if they were true. Lockhart, on the other hand, did not seem to notice the resentment 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 prove 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, both of which made Lockhart disappointed.



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; 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. 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 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 and Susan, who fell for his good looks, and people 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. When he was finally exposed as a fraud, they most likely abandoned their faith in him.

Much like most of the faculty, the other half of the students simply found Lockhart to be annoyingly unpleasant. 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 consists of questions about his personal biography. His ineffectiveness in teaching them anything useful had caused a rift for their education experience. Draco Malfoy, while showing no sympathy either for or against Lockhart, mocked Harry for being dragged into the spotlight by the professor.

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 crimes, Dumbledore notably chose not to expose Lockhart's crimes to the public, likely seeing the act of condemning Gilderoy Lockhart to eternally being despised by the Wizarding World for crimes that he will never remember doing as being unnecessarily cruel and that Lockhart had got his punishment with his memory wiped out, implying that while Dumbledore disapproved of Lockhart's hunger for vanity and found Lockhart's fraudulent lifestyle to be bad enough that he decided to put an end to it, he did not truly hate him either and pitied him for now being incapable of doing anything as any remnants of his old magical brilliance are gone and his cunning, which he used to masquerade himself as a very capable wizard at the cost of denying many their chance to shine as heroes, are now harmless. 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 never directly or undirectly annoyed him, which is a sharp contrast compared to his interactions with the other teachers, indicating that despite his vanity, Lockhart's acknowledgment 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 particularly disliked Lockhart for dragging him into the spotlight against his will (the moment they first met), 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; 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 removed 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 incompetent, 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.

"You're a fraud! You've just been taking credit for what other wizards have done!"

- Harry Potter confronting Lockhart

Harry would use Lockhart's ignorance against him, 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. Neither Harry nor Ron had any qualms about attacking Lockhart and forcing him to enter the Chamber of Secrets, and they even made him go first as a buffer for any approaching harm. Harry didn't have much sympathy 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.

Ron Weasley
"I haven't learned anything from him except not to set pixies loose."

- Ron Weasley dismissing Lockhart's lessons



Ron Weasley, who was already annoyed since the book-signing at Flourish and Blotts made it look as though his family was unimportant, saw Lockhart for what he truly was during their first lesson, when the professor gave a test completely irrelevant to the subject, and then released a boisterous group of pixies he was unable to contain. 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, Ron felt somewhat guilty for Lockhart losing his memories due to his Memory Charm backfiring from using Ron's damaged wand. However considering Lockhart was going to do the same to him, Ron's sympathy was limited.

Hermione Granger
"Why have you outlined all Lockhart's lessons in little hearts?"

- Ron Weasley upon seeing Hermione's timetable

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 booklist. When Lockhart taught at Hogwarts, Hermione dismissed his mistakes, when normally she would become impatient 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 deboned Harry Potter's arm, and talking about "all the amazing things he's done."



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 already having been exposed as a fraud. 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 after their second year, Ron coughed the word "Lockhart".

Miriam Strout
"Gilderoy, you naughty boy, where have you wandered off to?"

- Miriam Strout finding Gilderoy wandering around

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 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.

Etymology
Gilderoy was a name that J. K. Rowling found in . According to the dictionary, the name belongs to two different 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.

Behind the scenes

 * Observing his flamboyant clothes, it's 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.
 * Since Lockhart went to Hogwarts from 1975-1982, he would have attended Hogwarts around the same time as Lily Evans, Severus Snape, and the Marauders, who would have been 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 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.
 * Lockhart is portrayed by Irish actor Kenneth Branagh in ; Originally, he was to be portrayed by, 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.
 * Lockhart's movie version seems to be more likeable and comical than his book version, as he was 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 useless classes and his most annoying treatment of Harry were cut from the film, but his fraudulence and willingness to let Ginny die in the Chambers still preserves him as detestable.
 * Lockhart was in an early draft of, as he was in the book, but was written out of the final version. Had he remained, it would have been the first time Kenneth Branagh and ex-wife Emma Thompson were in the same film together since their divorce in 1995, along with Helena Bonham Carter, Branagh's former mistress.
 * In, 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.
 * 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 does, however, share Voldemort's trait of wanting to be special, as he was upset to find he wasn't the only wizard.
 * In the video game adaption of, it is very much evident that Lockhart is very vain as nearly the entire classroom is taken up by paintings of himself, as in the book, but it is much more exaggerated.
 * Despite being a useless teacher in the book and film adaptation, in the video games he teaches Harry some very useful spells which are important to the gameplay, such as {Petrificus Totalus and the/Verdimillious Duo Spell (ps1 version) and Rictusempra (pc version).

Appearances

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Notes and references
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