Alright, here's my canonical discussion topic: Gilderoy Lockhart.

Upon first impression, we get the feeling that he makes everything up and just doesn't know shit at all besides Memory Charms. Evidence: Peskipiksi Pesternomi

However, a few more examples state that maybe he learned things like Incantations and wand movements - or at least one of them - but was just too damn lazy to ever practice them enough to get them right.

For instance, he tries to heal Harry's arm on the Quidditch pitch, but the spell doesn't quite work, so he uses a 4th year Vanishing spell instead.

Also, in the Harry/Draco duel, the snake that he tries to get rid of flies upward - just like the one Dumbledore Vanishes in OotP - but doesn't quite poof away like Dumbledore.

So, likely, it's a little bit of both. Just wanted to see what everyone thought of Lockhart.

Kevin

 

I think you could go either way with canon Lockhart, so there's room for interpretation. Or you could imagine a third option--Lockhart actually is competent, but plays the fool for some as-yet-unspecified reason.

I wrote a fic with the third option. (I won't link to it here, since it's not proper DLP material, but anyone interested can get to it from my ff.net page; it's a one-shot, but the concept has legs and could be expanded into a proper story).

 

Lockhart actually had to work hard to build his reputation. He went around the world, researching all the stories and local legends, then obliviating whole villages. Then he had to write entertaining stories, changing the original tale so that he was the hero. Being a believable fraud is tough to pull off. Really I'm surprised that he accepted the job as DADA teacher. Yeah, it boosted his book sales, but he took a huge risk of being exposed as incompetant. The DADA Curse must have really killed the teaching standard to make Lockhart think he could get a way with it for even one year.

 

Because students and parents would surely complain about it. The other professors already had him figured out by the end of the second term (remember the scene in the staff room after Ginny was taken to the Chamber). He was able to get away with the books and the appearances because of the memory charms. How was he going to get around being labeled a horrible DADA teacher? It would kill his career forever. An entire generation of Hogwarts students now saw the real Lockhart - a useless fop.

He must have decided that the ride was over and it was time for one last check to cash. I bet he never thought the DADA curse was real, that he could get through the year and the worse that would happen would be he was fired for being incompetent. Then he could take all his earnings from the text book sales and retire.

 

cannon lockhart wasn't really fooling anyone amongst the staff, especially not till the end of term.

I think Our favorite gryffindor head of house already had him pegged as an idiot early on.

And remember sprout was grumbling to herself not even a week into lessons.

Students and teachers would surely complain about snape but nothing ever gets done about it.

Lockhart if anything was a bit too sure of himself. Thinking he could continue to fool people with his skills.

He probably didn't think to far ahead when he was offered the DA position. He just saw a way to add the title of proffesor to his already growing list, and took it.

I mean if he thought about anything, he probably thought about how fabulous it would look if he was the man too teach the boy-who-lived his first combat spell.

 

Technically, he and Snape did teach Harry the spell that killed Voldemort. Sad as that may be.

Kevin

 

When you think about it, that is rather depressing.

@Quazi: I dunno...it's debatable how early the staff had him pegged as an idiot. In the beginning, I thought it was more because he was a pretty-boy braggart that turned them off, not necessarily a lack of skill. Remember, Tom Riddle was a pretty boy too, and he wasn't showing nearly half of the talent he had while in school.

As for Lockhart himself, a wizard who performs spells at half-muster is still a weak wizard - regardless of the breadth of spells he knows. At best, he's a poor teacher: just because he couldn't perform high level spells as easily as Dumbledore, doesn't necessarily mean he should have done such a poor job instructing his students. Of course it stands to reason that properly knowing the theory would lead to properly performing the spells, but I'm not gonna open the Magical Strength/Performance can of worms. Again.

 

Hmm. I rather like Perspicacity's suggestion that Lockhart only plays the fool. Perhaps it wouldn't quite in canon, but I'd at least like to see more of that in fanfic.

And Jearom's got a good point, in that Lockhart had to be mentally talented, at the least, to be so believable.

~ Smb

 

That is a rather interesting idea, Lockhart being competent, but for some unknown (hopefully malicious) reason acts the fool.

I do like sesc's idea as well.

I don't think it would be enough to write a novel length story on, but I would definitely read a story like this if it was an extended one shot, or somewhere around 30k-40k words.

 

The blank patches in Ginny's memory weren't only from Tom Riddle...

 

Oh, thank you so much for that lovely mental image. I just threw up a little, in my mouth.

 

I like to think that the Wizarding world is kind of like the Sith as far as competent magic users are concerned.

Only two at any one time.

 

I always got the impression that Lockhart wasn't Hogwarts alumni, surely if he was the teachers would of at least known that he wasn't an exceptional student? Then again he could have been and the idiotic persona that he exhibits is confusing to the teachers who actually know that he was an above average student.

 

I always got the idea that this fact was why the teachers had such a low opinion of him from the beginning. They knew him when he was a dull child, and they know how bad he was at various classes.

 

To hell with the teachers why the fuck did Dumbledore hire him. There's no way that he could have fooled Dumbledore.

 

As Hagrid said, he was the only applicant, and i'm sure Dumbledore didn't want Umbridge there or even another Ministry working because he couldn't hire a teacher.

 

But that was well before the Ministry was super hostile to Dumbledore.