Harry Potter: All 7 Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers ranked

4. Gilderoy Lockhart

During Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the second book in the series, Hogwarts’ Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is Gilderoy Lockhart. On the surface, Lockhart was a charming and heroic adventurer who publicized his feats in a series of popular books. In reality, he was a serial plagiarizer who stole stories from other people and used memory charms to make them forget what he’d done. Dumbledore presumably knew about Lockhart’s true nature when he hired him before Harry’s second year, but did so anyway to indirectly expose him.

The only truly useful Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson during Lockhart’s time at the school wasn’t even taught by Lockhart, but by Professor Snape. Lockhart founded a dueling club for the students and Snape assisted in the first (and only) lesson by stunning Lockhart with the Expelliarmus spell. This spell would become Harry’s signature offensive weapon over the years and saved his life against Lord Voldemort on several occasions.

Lockhart’s ineptness was discovered when the other teachers sent him into the chamber of secrets to kill the monster that was responsible for that attacks at the school. Instead of doing his job, he tried to flee Hogwarts but was stopped by Harry and Ron. They took him into the chamber at wand point where he snatched Ron’s wand and attempted to wipe both of their memories. However, the charm backfired because Ron’s wand was broken, resulting in Lockhart accidentally wiping his own memory. He was then admitted into the magical hospital St. Mungo’s.

Although Lockhart was a bumbling idiot, he made it this high on the list because he never tried to kill Harry and he wasn’t aligned with Lord Voldemort, which is more than you can say for some of the turds on this list. He was generally a piece of dirt and his memory is better off wiped, though.

Interestingly, Harry and his friends encounter Lockhart in the fifth book when they find themselves in St. Mungo’s hospital. This storyline did not appear in the Order of the Phoenix movie but is an interesting bit in the book. Lockhart had regained back enough of his memory to pompously offer autographs to Harry and the gang, but not enough to remember being their teacher or that he tried to wipe their memories.