Gilderoy Lockhart

Gilderoy Lockhart is the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts in the book and film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Lockhart is a handsome and extremely self-absorbed wizard who has built a reputation for himself as a heroic wizard celebrity. In reality, he is not only a completely incompetent teacher, but a fraud who has used his only real talent - memory charms - to brainwash others and take credit for their accomplishments.

After Ginny Weasley is taken into the Chamber of Secrets, Lockhart immediately plans to leave Hogwarts instead of rescuing her. When Harry and Ron force him to help them find her, he attempts to erase their memories in order to save his reputation. Unfortunately for him, he uses Ron's malfunctioning wand and accidentally erases his own memory. According to J.K. Rowling, he never recovered from this mishap.