Gilderoy Lockhart

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

- Gilderoy Lockhart

Professor Gilderoy Lockhart was a famous Wizarding celebrity who authored many books on dark creatures and his encounters with them. He was Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the 1992–1993 school year. He has received many prestigious awards, such as 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. He never actually did any of the heroic acts he talked about, but instead used his considerable talent in Memory Charms to force the actual people who had done them into forgetting what they did. Lockhart lost his memory on May 29, 1993 due to a backfired Memory Charm and is now a permanent resident of St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

Early life
Little is known of Lockhart's early life, and considering his dishonesty, everything he says must be taken with a grain of salt. He claimed that he was once a nobody and, apparently, tried to get himself noticed as a child, but failed, although he developed a precocious talent for Memory Charms.

He attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and was Sorted into Ravenclaw House. However, given his complete inability to cast simple spells, he may not have excelled in his studies. Lockhart also claimed that he was once a Seeker, suggesting that he played Quidditch, and offered to give Harry Potter private Quidditch lessons. A photo he kept in his classroom showed him riding a broomstick and wearing Ravenclaw Quidditch robes, so it is possible that he was once on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, or else that he staged the photo to make it appear as if he had been. He also claimed that he had been asked to try out for the National Squad but turned the offer down to dedicate his life to, in his words, "eradicating dark forces".

Career
Gilderoy Lockhart became an accomplished author. Tracking actual accomplished wizards and witches who did great deeds, Lockhart tricked them to reveal their courses of actions, then erased their memories with his Memory Charms and used what he learned from them to publish such great deeds in his own name and credits. His books were very popular and he reserved a special quill of peacock feather just for book signings.

During the 1992–1993 school year, seven of his books were assigned to become the textbooks for the Defence Against the Dark Arts course for Hogwarts school that year, which resulted in a very expensive book list. As a publicity stunt, Lockhart gifted Harry Potter with a brand-new set of all his books, which were on the required list for Hogwarts students. Harry gave them to Ginny Weasley, both because he could afford his own set and also because he didn't particularly cherish his interaction with Lockhart.

Hogwarts professor
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 which moved and smiled. He also decorated the office with copies of his publications.

For his first lesson, he gave his second-year class a test which had nothing to do with defence, but instead concerned his autobiography, Magical Me and the parts of his books just referring to him. Although he claimed it was a "little quiz", it ran for three pages with fifty-four questions. He then proceed to release a cage full of Cornish Pixies into the classroom, causing a large amount of pandemonium. He was not popular among his fellow Hogwarts staff members, and constantly gave them unsolicited pointers on their specialties. They found him extremely obnoxious and could not take him seriously as a professor. Even Rubeus Hagrid, the gamekeeper, who usually refrains from criticising teachers, shows public disdain for Lockhart.

After the pixie chaos, Lockhart didn't 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 a signed permission from Lockhart for a book in the Restricted Section of the library, which he signed without even paying attention to what book they wanted. As such, the class didn't learn anything about true defence, and Ron claimed that he only learned not to set pixies loose, and would have dropped the course if he was allowed to.

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 answering his fan mails for detention, while bombarding Harry with his advices for fame, and thought Harry would think of this as a treat, much to the contrary. When Harry heard mysterious voices during this detention, Lockhart thought Harry was merely tired.

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, but ended up removing all the bones in Harry's arm. Lockhart founded a short-lived duelling club 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.

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 signature. Hermione slept with this under her pillow, much to Ron Weasley's disgust.

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 disgust 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-feed poison to anyone who dare ask him for a Love Potion. He even had dwarfs wear golden wings and carry harps to deliver valentines throughout the school, which they do (even if they have to do so forcibly), much to Harry's embarrassment when one forced him to listen to one from Ginny Weasley by knocking him down.

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 former. 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.

On May 29, 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. 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 Memory Charm on Harry and Ron. 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.

Despite his incapacitation, Lockhart continued his career as an author, after a fashion, writing the book Who Am I?

Permanent Incapacitation
On Christmas, 1995, Harry Potter saw Lockhart at St. Mungo's in the Janus Thickey Ward. He had regained his memory to the extent that he could write 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 thought Lockhart hadn't changed much, a fact Ginny giggled to.

The Healer who looked after Lockhart, Miriam Strout, stated he never got visitors, suggesting that his family was either dead or didn't care for him, or consists of only Muggles. However, Lockhart still received fan mail, though he had no idea why. He also kept his peacock-feather quill so that he could keep signing autographs, although it had became somewhat battered by that time.

Though his memories were recovering at a slow but steady rate, he never fully recovered. It is possible Lockhart remained in the hospital for the rest of his life.

Known published works
Lockhart was an accomplished author, with eleven of his books shown. Although nine of them were about eradicating dark forces, they were in fact just recollections of his adventures and his personal profiles. He assigned seven of these books to be his textbooks for his Defence Against the Dark Arts course. All of these were published before his stint as a Hogwarts professor. The eleventh book (most likely his last) was published after he left the position there.
 * Break with a Banshee
 * Gadding with Ghouls
 * Gilderoy Lockhart's Guide to Household Pests
 * Holidays with Hags
 * Magical Me (autobiography)
 * The Travel Trilogy
 * Travels with Trolls
 * Voyages with Vampires
 * Wanderings with Werewolves
 * Who Am I?
 * Year with the Yeti

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 times winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award."

- Lockhart's 'Get Well' card to Hermione Granger

Gilderoy Lockhart is a male wizard with wavy blonde hair and particularly straight and shiny teeth. He is known for wearing flamboyant and flashy robes in a wide assortment of colours. Housewives such as Molly Weasley and teenage girls such as Hermione Granger and Susan Bones found him especially attractive. He also reserved a special peacock quill for book signing, which is a symbol to his vanity. This quill was kept with him even after his incarceration into St. Mungo's, though it was battered.

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

- Ron Weasley to Hermione Granger

Gilderoy is extremely vain and highly self-obsessed. He claimed to have done many great deeds, though in actuality he was a fraud and merely took credit for what other wizards and witches had done. He also makes claims and suggestions, whether about other people's profession or in times of danger, in order to make himself look more important and powerful than he truly is. His attempts to earn himself more fame has also made him use spells without understanding a clue of what he is really doing (such as removing Harry's bones instead of mending them, and launching a snake into the air instead of vanishing it). It is also speculated that he invented some incantations and names for spells that don't even exist (or at least, exaggerate on their effects), such as Peskipiksi Pesternomi, the Transmogrifian Torture, and the Homorphus Charm.

Lockhart's narcissism and insensitive suggestions tend to get on the nerve of many people who are not his fans. His unprofessional actions have earned him dislike from the Hogwarts professors, as well as many students. Professor Snape, in particular, disliked Lockhart for not only taking the teaching post he coveted so much, but also making him look inferior through suggestions, despite physically otherwise. Also, Harry Potter especially despises Lockhart for constantly embarrassing him with false claims about earning fame and dragging him into the spotlight against his will. 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.

He also seem to be somewhat ignorant to the reactions of other people, or misinterpret them easily. When Ron looked revolted at his peacock quill, Lockhart thought Ron liked it (the reason for Ron's revulsion is unclear). When the teachers gave Lockhart a look of hatred for his ignorance, he didn't seem to notice it in the very least.

When faced in true danger that may lead to his death, Gilderoy shows his true cowardice. He attempted to flee from Hogwarts when the other teachers pressured him into the Chamber of Secrets after Ginny Weasley's abduction. Even after the location of the Chamber entrance was discovered, he was willing to leave Ginny Weasley to die in the Chamber, attempting to modify Harry and Ron's memories to cover himself.

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

- Lockhart's response to Harry Potter.

Despite his poor ability in other areas of magic, Lockhart was skilled in Memory Charms, 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 appears to have been a skilled writer, publishing many books consisting primarily of his embellishments of other people's achievements, which he takes credit as his own. Given his propensity for lying, however, it cannot actually be said for certain that Lockhart himself actually wrote any of the books. Lockhart's sorting into the Ravenclaw house is very ironic, as he does not show the intelligence that its students are supposed to.

Magical abilities and skills
Lockhart was apparently not a skilled wizard.

Charms: He, however, had skill with the Memory Charm, which he used to gain glory.

Quidditch (possibly) He claimed to have once been a Seeker. He owned a picture, depicting in Ravenclaw Quidditch robes, making it possible that he played for the House team.

Behind the scenes

 * J. K. Rowling has made it known that Gilderoy Lockhart is the only character in the series to be based upon a real person, and claims that she "barely exaggerated" the personality. She has refused, however, to specify who that is.
 * 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."
 * Hugh Grant was going to play the part of Professor Lockhart at first, but due to scheduling problems he was replaced by Kenneth Branagh
 * Lockhart was in an early draft of the Order of the Phoenix film, 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.
 * Lockhart, despite being a Ravenclaw student (which encourages students with intelligence), does not show to be very brilliant. In fact, he may well be the opposite, seeing his complete inability to cast even the simplest spells. However, he does show the good-looks that attribute to the students of that house.

Etymology
Gilderoy is defined as a highwayman known for being handsome. May also come from the word "gilded," which is defined as having a "pleasing, showy appearance, which covers something of little worth." This is very fitting considering Gilderoy's supposed good looks covered up the truth about his inability to function as a powerful wizard. The name "Roy" is Old French for "regal one" or "king."

J.K. Rowling stated in a radio interview with BBC 4 that she found the name Lockhart on a war memorial. Robert Lockhart is a world renowned psychologist whose particular interest is in the study of memory and levels of processing. She did a lot of research in this area in the late 1970's. He is well known for his work as a cognitive psychologist especially in the areas of human memory and problem solving. This fits because the only magic skills Lockhart was truly gifted in were memory charms. Robert Lockhart received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Sydney in 1961 and 1963. Lockhart is also a town in Australia near Wagga Wagga, which could be a reference to him having supposedly defeated the Wagga Wagga Werewolf in his book Wanderings with Werewolves. 'Lockhart' could also be possible play on words as he seems to have so many women's "heart locked" on him.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Notes and references
Gilderoy Lockhart Златопуст Локонс גילדרוי לוקהרט