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harry potter - Did Dumbledore know Lockhart was a fraud?


Dumbledore seems a pretty shrewd guy. Simple question: did Dumbledore know that Lockhart was a fraud and wanted to prove it to the (wizarding) world, or did he genuinely believe Lockhart would make a good DADA teacher?




Answer



Dumbledore knew very well that Lockhart was a fraud. The wizarding world at large might have been fooled by Lockhart's theatrics, but Dumbledore was not fooled in the least. In fact, as Pottermore explains, Dumbledore was one of a very few wizards who suspected what Lockhart was actually doing:



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 was Lockhart was up to. 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.



Other members of the wizarding community disliked Lockhart's exhibitionism--in fact, most of the Hogwarts staff, notably McGonagall, did not want Lockhart to teach at Hogwarts for that very reason. But to prove that Lockhart was, in fact, committing illegal actions in order to further his own reputation would be more difficult. The two wizards Dumbledore knew no longer had their memories, and it would simply be Dumbledore's word against Lockhart's. Yet Lockhart had to be stopped. His Memory Charms were criminal, not merely unethical.


Dumbledore needed a DADA teacher. Lockhart would be no worse than Quirrell, and Dumbledore believed that having him teach would expose him as a fraud. Furthermore, Lockhart could not steal other wizards' memories and accomplishments if he was teaching at Hogwarts. Short of having him tried and thrown into Azkaban (which, sadly, was not possible), proving him a fraud was the best way of protecting the wizarding community. Dumbledore's guess turned out to be correct: except for Memory Charms, Lockhart's magical skills were rusty. The Cornish pixie disaster and the failed duel with Snape both showed the Hogwarts students and staff that Lockhart's supposed accomplishments must be false. Eventually his behavior toward Ron and Harry not only proved his cowardice, but wiped his own memory. Dumbledore wanted Lockhart discredited, not injured, but at the very least the problem was solved. Lockhart's days stealing other people's accomplishments were over.


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