In Illness and Disability, by J.K. Rowling, she clearly states:
"This is the reason that Gilderoy Lockhart, victim of his own mangled Memory Charm, has permanent amnesia..."
Yet there were situations where the Memory Charm was reversed. For example, in The Deathly Hallows, Hermione reversed the Obliviate Charm on the Death Eaters and the waiter:
"Then, on Harry’s count of three, they reversed the spells upon their three victims, and before the waitress or either of the Death Eaters could do more than stir sleepily..."
Does a spell backfiring not have a cure? Besides Ron and his slugs, the only time a spell backfired that I can recall is Voldemort's, which he was able to cure in the end, and that was a Killing Curse, which is supposed to be incurable and unblockable. Any thoughts?
Answer
Gilderoy Lockhart was a very accomplished Obliviate user.
“So you’ve just been taking credit for what a load of other people have done?” said Harry incredulously.
“Harry, Harry,” said Lockhart, shaking his head impatiently, “it’s not nearly as simple as that. There was work involved. I had to track these people down. Ask them exactly how they managed to do what they did. Then I had to put a Memory Charm on them so they wouldn’t remember doing it. If there’s one thing I pride myself on, it’s my Memory Charms. No, it’s been a lot of work, Harry. It’s not all book signings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hard slog.”
Considering the amount of practice that he had, it would be pretty good by now. It took Voldemort quite a while before he could break through Bertha Jorkins' mind.
He had tortured her. She told him a great deal. She told him about the Triwizard Tournament. She told him the old Auror, Moody, was going to teach at Hogwarts. He tortured her until he broke through the Memory Charm my father had placed upon her.
And Voldemort was the best Dark Arts user at that time, and it took him a while to reverse it.
Also, backfires tend to be different spells than what the user is actually trying to cast.
“I don’t think there’s anything to do except wait for it to stop,” said Hermione anxiously, watching Ron bend over the basin. “That’s a difficult curse to work at the best of times, but with a broken wand —”
Ron, a second year, could not have done that. So it was changed into a different curse, with basically the same intention.
Same with Lockhart. It managed to backfire on him, and transformed into a different curse, and now the staff of St. Mungos don't even know what to do.
More proof from @Voldemort
According to the nurse, he was slowly improving, but he still doesn't remember a thing. He instinctively writes autographs to everybody. The healer responsible also mentions that nobody visits him, and is happy to see that he has visitors (Mistaking Harry, Ron & Hermione for people visiting him).
A motherly looking Healer wearing a tinsel wreath in her hair came bustling up the corridor, smiling warmly at Harry and the others. “Oh Gilderoy, you’ve got visitors! How lovely, and on Christmas Day too! Do you know, he never[ ]gets visitors, poor lamb, and I can’t think why, he’s such a sweetie, aren’t you?”
I don't believe that a normal memory charm works that way, but if someone can disprove me than I'll take this bit off.
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