Gilderoy Lockhart

Template:St Mungo's permanent patient infobox

"Celebrity is as celebrity does, Harry."

— Gilderoy Lockhart to Harry Potter

Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin (Third Class), was a 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 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; 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 claimed to have 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 his memory on 29 May, 1993 due to a backfired Memory Charm cast by Ronald Weasley's first wand and he became a permanent resident of St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

Biography

Early life

Lockhart in Ravenclaw Quidditch robes.

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, an offer which Harry did not respond to. 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 as an author

Lockhart and his books.

Gilderoy Lockhart became an accomplished author. Tracking actual accomplished wizards and witches who did great deeds, Lockhart tricked them into revealing 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 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 dragged Harry Potter into the limelight during his book-signing of the Magical Me, where the photographer kept taking pictures of the famous pair, and then gifted Harry with a brand-new set of all his books that were required for school, along with his autobiography. Harry gave them to Ginny Weasley, both because he could afford his own set and also because he did not particularly cherish his interaction with Lockhart, but instead felt embarrassed from all the unwanted attention that Lockhart attracted for him. Unaware of Harry's resentment and forfeiting the gifted book set, Lockhart announced that he would become the professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts of Hogwarts, which was met with applaud from the audience.

Career at Hogwarts

Early classes

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

— Gilderoy Lockhart

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.

"Second Year Essential Knowledge Test"

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, then irresponsibly telling Harry, Ron, and Hermione to clean up after the mess while running back into his office. He was not popular among his fellow Hogwarts staff members and constantly gave them unsolicited pieces of advice on their specialties. They found him extremely 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.

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 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. 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 if he was allowed to.

Irritating Harry Potter

Harry helping Lockhart answer his fan mail.

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 advices for fame, and thought Harry would think of this as a treat, much to the contrary. In fact, Harry practically begged Profesor McGonagall to help 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.

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, while ignoring Harry's refusal, but 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.

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

Lockhart going into 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 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.

Lockhart accidentally erases his own mind.

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 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. 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

Gilderoy Lockhart after the Chamber of Secrets incident.

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 observed Lockhart had not changed much and voiced this opinion, making Ginny giggle.

The Healer who looked after Lockhart, Miriam Strout, stated he never got visitors, suggesting that his family was either dead or did not care for him, or consists of only Muggles. However, Lockhart still received fan mail including weekly letters from Gladys Gudgeon, 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 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. 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 twelfth 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)
• Marauding with Monsters
• The Travel Trilogy
• Travels with Trolls
• Voyages with Vampires
• Wanderings with Werewolves
• Who Am I?
• Year with the Yeti

Physical description

Gilderoy Lockhart holding up his Magical Me book.

"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 is a male wizard with wavy blonde hair and particularly straight and shiny teeth. He usually smiles to show off his perfectly good teeth, and it has earned him the Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award. 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.

During his late night guarding of the corridors due to the Chamber of Secrets incident, Lokchart's hair seemed to have lost its sleekness. When showing his cowardice, Lockhart's handsomeness is lost, as he looked weak-chinned and weedy in absence of his usual toothy smile.

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 was 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 other wizards and witches accomplishments. He also made 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 was 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 do not 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. 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 did not seem to notice it in the very least. He ignored Harry's many attempts to contradict his theories of enjoying his company and attention, as well as Harry's pleads for leaving his broken arm alone. Also, while he was making comments about how the school was safe from the monster of Slytherin after Hagrid was arrested and extra security was no longer necessary, when proven wrong almost immediately, Lockhart stubbornly refused to go back on his earlier claims, and continued to complain about how the extra security is tiring him out.

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. However, the Sorting Hat does take into consideration the wishes of the students, as in the case of Hermione Granger and Harry Potter.

Magical abilities and skills

Lockhart's wand, that, according to him, was expensive.

Lockhart was apparently not a skilled wizard, despite being sorted in the intellectual-encouraging Ravenclaw house.

• Memory Charms: The only magic that Lockhart could perform without fail is the Memory Charm, to which he uses to erase the memories of others to gain his fame.

• Quidditch: Lockhart claimed to have once been a Seeker, and was offered a position in the International Quidditch Team. He owned a picture, depicting him in Ravenclaw Quidditch robes, making it possible that he played for the House team. However, given his dishonesty, this claim is debatable.

• Inappropriate Spell usage: Lockhart has demonstrated that he cannot use spells correctly, and that he usually invents them on the spot. The known ones are: Peskipiksi Pesternomi, Brackium Emendo, and Alarte Ascendare. All of them cause either nothing or disastrous effects to occur.

• Fashion: Observing his flamboyant clothes, it's not difficult to imagine him as an expert of fashion and an usual reader of fashion magazines. 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, we can see him also as an expert on hair care and, possibly, make up.

Relationships

Fans

Lockhart signing his books for his fans.

Most of Lockhart's fans are composed of middle-aged housewives, such as Molly Weasley, and young schoolgirls, such as Hermione Granger and Susan Bones. They tend to fall for his good looks and ignore his other traits, such as incompetence and annoyance to others. Hermione, in fact, overlooked the terrible performances made by Lockhart over the year he "taught" her class, and insisted that he merely made once-in-a-while mistakes. Lockhart's notable fans, such as Gladys Gudgeon and Veronica Smethley, wrote many fan-mails to him from time to time. Once Lockhart was exposed to a crooked fraud and suffered permanent amnesia, it is most likely that most of these fans lost interest in him. However, Gladys still sends him letters.

Hogwarts staff

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

— Professor McGonagall expressing her happiness at sending Professor Lockhart away.

The staff of Hogwarts.

During the 1992–1993 school year, Lockhart taught Defence Against the Dark Arts in Hogwarts, or rather, made an utter mess out of the subject due to his incompetence. Lockhart tends to get on the nerves of the teachers by making it look as though he is superior to them in every one of their fields, while proving otherwise by his terrible performances. As such, the teachers found him extremely obnoxious and could not take him seriously as a professor. Lockhart's insensitive nature has embarrassed Snape and Flitwick in Valentine's Day, when he made comments about Love Potions and Entrancing Enchantments regarding them, respectively, while disgusting the rest by just overdecorating the Great Hall, and releasing dwarfs throughout the school to deliver Valentines and interrupting classes in progress. Even Rubeus Hagrid, who normally never criticise a teacher, publicly expressed disdain for Lockhart. Lockhart, on the other hand, did not seem to notice the resentment the teachers had for him, and instead kept on annoying everyone.

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. 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 sending Lockhart to his death and out of their sight, especially when he had walked in casually while the other teachers were devastated by Ginny's impending doom, which led them to glare at him with hatred, all the while ignoring his protests. Professor McGonagall, who would never speak ill of a colleague, expressed her happiness of sending Lockhart out of the way.

The only reason Lockhart was hired was because he was the only applicant for the cursed position, and the other teachers saw through his facade of a hero almost immediately, but put up with him due to headmaster Dumbledore's decision. They were highly pleased to see him leave when he suffered amnesia, going as far as to join in the students' applause of the announcement.

Hogwarts students

Harry Potter, who hates Lockhart very much.

Lockhart has a mixed relationship with the students of Hogwarts: about half of them admire him for his celebrity status, while the other half resent him for being obnoxious. However, by the end of the year, when Lockhart left school due to amnesia, pretty much every student gave their round of applause at this news, due to him revealing his own fraudulence.

The half of the students who admire him are mostly girls like Hermione and Susan, who fell for his good looks, and people who believed in the accomplishments in his books, such as Justin Finch-Fletchley and Colin Creevey. They remained ignorant to Lockhart's true colours, even when he revealed them little by little throughout his terrible performances. When it was revealed that he was a fraud, it is most likely that they abandoned their faith in him.

The other half of the students simply find Lockhart to be annoyingly unpleasant. 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 what he truly is during their first lesson, when the professor gave a test completely irrelevant to the subject, and then releasing pixies throughout the classroom in a pandemonium manner. Ron was disgusted by Lockhart's decoration of the Great Hall during Valentine's Day, just like the teachers, and expressed his desire of dropping out of Lockhart's class due to it being useless from the way it was taught. This dislike escalated to hate when Lockhart attempted to abandon Ron's sister, Ginny, in the Chamber of Secrets, to die, while Lockhart himself flees; Ron ruthlessly forced Lockhart to go first into the Chamber as a test subject and forcing him to stand up when the cowardly professor collapsed from fright. Ron was pleased to find Lockhart dismissed, though felt somewhat guilty for it being his wand that caused him to lose most of his memories.

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

— Harry Potter confronting Lockhart.

Harry Potter, in particular, especially despises Lockhart for constantly embarrassing him with false claims about earning fame and dragging him into the spotlight against his will. This resentment started since the book-signing in the bookstore before school, when Lockhart made a spectacle out of Harry as a publicity stunt. It only compounded when Lockhart continued to embarrass Harry throughout the year at school, doing more damage than help by removing Harry's arm bones instead of mending them when they were broken by Dobby's Bludger, and making it look as though Hagrid was the one who attacked the students through the Chamber of Secrets. Neither Harry nor Ron had any qualms of attacking Lockhart and forcing him into the Chamber, going as far as to use him as a test subject by making him go in first. Harry felt no sympathy when Lockhart lost his memories from a backfiring Memory Charm, due to it being his fault for attempting it on them in the first place.

Behind the scenes

Gilderoy Lockhart

Gilderoy as a Lego mini-figure in Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4.

• Lockhart is portrayed by british actor Kenneth Branagh in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; he was originally to be portrayed by Hugh Grant, but due to scheduling problems he was replaced.
• 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."
• Lockhart's movie version seem to be more likable 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 that Harry was in detention with him. It may be due to the fact that Lockhart's useless classes and his most annoying 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 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. It should be noted however, that while in his youth, though he probably possessed the intelligence to gain entry to the house, he chose to focus his energies on deception rather than study.
• When Lockhart suffered memory loss, he seemed to have forgot about magic being real, as expressing Fawkes's flying as "just like magic". This, coupled with his possibly muggle relatives not visiting him at St. Mungo's, might indicate that he was originally a muggle-born with no knowledge of magic.

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 (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game) (Appears on a portrait)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Mentioned only)
• Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (Appears on a portrait)

External links

• Extra information about Lockhart from J.K. Rowling