Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory.
Today we’re going to be discussing the five time winner of Witch Weekly’s Most Charming
Smile Award- Gilderoy Lockhart.
Specifically, we’re going to be taking a deep dive in to this enigmatic wizards life,
peeling back the layers of his formative years and figuring out how and..
WHY he turned out the way he did.
We’ll also be looking at what happened to him AFTER his last appearance in the books
and films.
There’s a lot of information on Lockhart, so I’ve tried to narrow it down to just
the most important stuff.
Let’s dive in to it.
Gilderoy Lockhart was a british half-blood wizard born in the year 1964 to a witch mother
and muggle father.
He grew up alongside his 2 sisters, but because they turned out to be Squibs, he inevitably
became his mother’s favourite (being that he was the only other MAGICAL family member).
Lockhart was a clever, good-looking boy, and when he realized quite early on that he was
magical it went straight to his head- inflating his already massive ego even further.
In 1975, at the age of 11, Lockhart first stepped foot through the doors of Hogwarts
school of witchcraft and wizardry to begin his wizarding education.
However, Lockhart quickly realized that Hogwarts was not quite what he had expected.
Upon stepping foot in the magical castle he was met with sheer disappointment- suddenly
coming to the crushing realization that at a school for witches and wizards- he was just
another magical young boy.
In the muggle world, Gilderoy was exceptional, but here he didn’t stand out, and that’s
all he ever longed for.
During the first year Sorting ceremony Lockhart was sorted in to Ravenclaw house- narrowly
avoiding being sorted in to Slytherin.
And true to Ravenclaw, Lockhart did do quite well in his classes.
But what separated Lockhart from other Ravenclaws was that he didn’t value learning itself-
he only valued the attention that good grades brought him.
In fact, after he began his studies at the school, it became quite evident that Lockhart
was in fact quite clever and certainly did possess SLIGHTLY above-average abilities.
But perhaps the most crushing blow of all was that none of what Lockhart achieved was
particularly noteworthy, resulting in him more or less blending in with his peers.
However, it was this mundane ‘normalcy’ that lit a fire inside of young Lockhart-
and from very early on he decided that he wanted to be more- to do more.
He wanted to be great.
Most of his teachers believed in him- expressing that with enough hard work, he could achieve
success, even if he didn't quite reach his grand ambitions.
But a life of normalcy wasn’t what he wanted, and he was quite vocal about his aspirations-
sharing with his classmates his plans to create a Philosopher’s Stone before leaving school,
becoming captain of England’s Quidditch team, and eventually going on to become Britain’s
youngest ever Minister for Magic.
But Lockhart didn’t stop there in his pursuit for attention and validation.
During his studies he carved his signature in to the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch with twenty
foot long letters, created a spell that shot a hologram of his own face in to the sky,
and even sent himself eight-hundred Valentines.
And it was this preoccupation with vanity that gradually veered Lockhart away from hard
work and steered him in the direction of insincere shortcuts.
In 1982, Lockhart finally graduated from Hogwarts, and it was at this point in time that he began
to travel all around the world.
This coincided with him building prominence as an author- telling his readers tales of
his heroism during his worldly travels.
His complete collection of published works included:
-Break with a Banshee -Gadding with Ghouls
-Gilderoy Lockhart’s Guide to Household Pests
-Holidays with Hags -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 -Years with the Yeti
-Who Am I
And even an autobiography called ‘Magical Me’ where he ‘highlights a life dedicated
to the eradication of the Dark Forces.’
These books (with the exception of Who Am I) were collectively written over the decade
spanning 1982 to 1992.
Whenever he returned home to Britain after travelling he would bring home with him a
fresh book documenting an adventure that had purportedly occurred during these travels.
These books were not only self-promoting, but also contained numerous fabricated details
that were solely intended to showcase his ego and highlight his accomplishments.
They were characterized by gross exaggerations, sensationalized accounts, and unfounded speculations
that lacked substance and were nothing more than hot air and meaningless chatter.
But still, the public ate it up, and Lockhart began to gain considerable fame within the
wizarding world.
To them he was a dark wizard catcher, a dragon tamer, a troll conqueror - if there was a
dark and powerful presence in the world, Lockhart had vanquished it all by himself.
The catch?
Only he was there to witness it.
Lockhart had really started to fill the void for attention and validation that he had felt
since he was young, and the genuine praise for his accomplishments came flooding in.
He received an ‘order of merlin’ third class, a wizarding award reserved for individuals
who had achieved ‘great things for the wizarding world’, and was even invited to join the
Ministry of Magic’s Dark Force Defence League.
In fact, the praise for Lockhart began to stack up so high that his old professors at
Hogwarts began to question whether they had misjudged the confusing young boy while he
attended the school.
With all of the success going to his head, Lockhart even tried out a career as a potioneer-
creating a shampoo that ‘guaranteed’ lustrous locks of hair.
The only issue was that the main ingredient in his shampoo was too dangerous and expensive
to procure, inevitably leading to the shampoo’s commercial failure.
During the decade following Lockhart’s graduation from Hogwarts he would also travel around
the wizarding world and hold book signings, and by 1992 his fame had reached such a level
that you couldn’t walk down the street without seeing his face plastered along the insides
of shop windows.
However, beneath all of the charm and fame there was actually quite a sinister side to
Lockhart that wasn’t ENTIRELY addressed in the books and films.
You see, Lockhart was a memory charm master, and this was one of the reasons that he had
been able to falsify his existence so well.
Lockhart actually wasn’t a troll conqueror or dragon tamer, he was a phony, and all he
did when he travelled around the world was hear the stories of genuinely accomplished
wizards, wipe their memories, then claim the accomplishment as his own.
He had developed a sinister formula for fame where he never had to face the consequences.
That is, until 1992 when he accepted a post at Hogwarts as the new Defence Against the
Dark Arts professor, a position that he was offered by Dumbledore.
But why, you may ask, would Lockhart, whose fame was growing exponentially at this point,
take on a position at Hogwarts?
Well, on Wizardingworld.com it’s explained that he was enticed by the opportunity to
mingle with the famous boy-who-lived- hoping to have some of Harry’s fame rub off on
him and boost his own career even further.
“Lockhart might not have been keen to return to Hogwarts, given how well his career of
stolen glory was progressing, had Dumbledore not dangled the promise of Harry Potter over
his fame-hungry head.
By subtly suggesting that teaching Harry Potter would set the seal on Lockhart’s fame, Dumbledore
had set a lure that Lockhart could not resist.”
The first time Lockhart and Harry actually met each other was at Flourish and Blotts,
where Lockhart had organized a book signing to announce his employment.
It was also here that Lockhart discussed several of his books that had been assigned to his
course for that school year, books which happened to be particularly expensive.
During this event Lockhart also attempted to capitalize on Harry’s fame by taking
as many photos with him as possible- eventually going on to gift Harry a set of his books.
The next time Harry and Lockhart come face to face is when Harry shows up to his class
in second year.
It’s here that he’s met with Lockhart’s exhausting (but kind of hilarious) greeting.
"Me, Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence
League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award — but I don’t
talk about that.
I didn’t get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!"
First order of business for Lockhart upon arrival at Hogwarts was decorating his classroom
and personal office- which he adorned with self-portraits and signed photographs.
His ego not stopping him there, he also made sure to fill the office with copies of his
publications.
In his very first lesson Lockhart showed the class his true colours- giving them a quiz
about his autobiography- a strange assignment for a Defence Against the Dark Arts class.
Only Hermione answered all 54 questions correctly, and Lockhart awarded Gryffindor 10 points.
He then released Cornish Pixies in the classroom, causing chaos.
Failing to stop the Pixies himself, he asked Harry, Ron, and Hermione to clean up the mess.
Lockhart’s idea of class homework included composing a poem of one of his alleged achievements-
offering a signed copy of his autobiography as a reward to the best composer.
Because of Lockhart’s incompetency, I think it’s safe to say that his Defence Against
the Dark Arts class learned nothing that year.
In this same year, Lockhart got up to all sorts of unusual antics- including making
a fool of himself at the first Duelling club meeting, trying (and failing) to mend Harry’s
broken bones, and having Harry help him sign his fan mail for detention.
After Lockhart was hired, many of the staff were baffled with the decision that Dumbledore
had made.
Many of them taught Lockhart first-hand, and knew of his ostentatious tendencies- entirely
unimpressed by the chronicles of heroism that he had since published.
However, it’s later revealed that Dumbledore strategically hired Lockhart for a number
of reasons.
You see, Dumbledore knew that Lockhart was a fraud, or at least suspected it- and the
following excerpt from Pottermore supports this:
“Albus Dumbledore’s plans, however, ran deep.
He happened to have known two of the wizards for whose life’s work Gilderoy Lockhart
had taken credit, and was one of the only people in the world who thought he knew what
Lockhart was up to.”
Dumbledore personally knew two people that Lockhart had stolen potential fame and valour
from- and so he must have known that Lockhart’s stories were falsified because he knew the
actual witches and wizards that had accomplished these feats.
Dumbledore wanted to expose Lockhart for what he had done, but he wanted it to come out
naturally, he wanted to put Lockhart in a vulnerable position so that he would effectively
expose himself.
You see, talented wizard though he was, Lockhart had spent so many years perfecting memory
charms, that his ability in other aspects of magic was very unimpressive.
“Dumbledore was convinced that Lockhart needed only to be put back into an ordinary
school setting to be revealed as a charlatan and a fraud.
Professor McGonagall, who had never liked Lockhart, asked Dumbledore what he thought
students would learn from such a vain, fame-hungry man.
Dumbledore replied that ‘there is plenty to be learned even from a bad teacher: what
not to do, how not to be’.”
But Lockhart picked a particularly bad time to return to Hogwarts, because you see, this
was the year that the Chamber of Secrets had been re-opened.
It was a tumultuous time at the school, and everyone was living in fear of Salazar Slytherin’s
Basilisk.
However, this couldn’t have been a better time to expose him- as whenever things got
heated- Lockhart was quite obviously uncomfortable and unsure of what to do.
The other professors, as well as some of the students noticed this - and he was eventually
told to go to the chamber of secrets and deal with the monster himself.
I think he was given this mission partly so that they could get him out of the way.
In response to being told to go in to the chamber, Lockhart returned to his office in
an attempt to gather his things before fleeing the school- however, it was here that he was
subsequently exposed as a fraud by Ron and Harry.
The boys forced Lockhart to come down in to the chamber with them- and this is where things
really went south for him.
Hoping to take control of the situation, Lockhart grabbed Ron’s broken wand and attempted
to perform a memory charm on them.
"The adventure ends here, boys!
I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save
the girl, and that you two tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body
— say good-bye to your memories!
Obliviate!"
However, given that the wand was broken, it backfired on Lockhart instead.
The faulty wand sent him flying into a pile of rubble- and subsequently caused him to
lose ALL of his memories.
Complete amnesia.
He was no longer the brave, troll conqueror and dragon tamer - in fact, he didn’t know
who he was.
After Harry had taken care of business in the Chamber, Lockhart was saved by Fawkes
and brought to McGonagall’s office.
It was here that it became apparent to staff and students alike that Lockhart had completely
lost his marbles- and Dumbledore instructed Ron to take him to the hospital wing.
After careful inspection- it was decided that Lockhart wouldn’t be able to operate in
society in the state that he was in- and he was subsequently sent to the Janus Thickey
Ward in St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies - a ward dedicated to those suffering from
‘permanent spell damage’.
Lockhart remained there for many years, and he is briefly mentioned again in the following
passage from the Order of the Phoenix:
“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.”
It has been expressed that Dumbledore never exposed Lockhart for his crimes after being
sent to St.Mungos- and even though Lockhart had stolen the glory of many- Dumbledore felt
that Lockharts fate was already bad enough- and that there was no reason to further step
on an already downtrodden man.
By exposing him- the only result would be hate and contempt towards a man that knew
nothing of what he had done.
Lockhart paid his dues by losing his memory, and his life.
Because Lockhart had never been exposed- he was allowed to write again, and subsequently
continued his path as an author once he had recovered..somewhat- writing the book ‘Who
Am I?’ with the help of the staff of St.Mungos.
During Christmas in 1995 Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny saw Lockhart in the Janus Thickey
ward- and despite the total loss of his memory- he seemed just as Lockhart as ever- offering
up autographs and the like.
He had regained just enough memory to remember writing in cursive.
"Teach?
Me?
Did I?
Taught you everything you know, I expect, did I?
Well, how about those autographs, then?
Shall we say a round dozen, you can give them to all your little friends then and nobody
will be left out!"
Sadly, Lockhart never got many visitors- but he still got fan mail from a witch named Gladys
Gudgeon, and developed a close relationship with his carer Miriam Strout.
Though Lockhart never made a full recovery- he did sign autographs for the rest of his
days- and it has been expressed that he was happier that way - blissfully ignorant but
more than happy to reap the benefits of his illustrious fame.
To this day, no one knows if he ever properly left St.Mungos.
And that’s it for this video!
Did you guys ever wonder what happened to Lockhart?
Do you know about his early life?
Let me know in the comment section below
Until next time- remember
There is plenty to be learned even from a bad teacher: what not to do, how not to be