How Come We Never Realized That Gilderoy Lockhart Almost Revived Voldemort?
The disgusting yet charming excuse for a teacher that he was, Gilderoy Lockhart only failed in his idiotic attempt to resurrect the Dark Lord thanks to his cowardice.
It’s no one’s secret that Hogwarts was not getting the best Defense Against Dark Arts teachers while Harry Potter was studying there.
Actually, the majority of them had more in common with the Dark Arts themselves, and out of the seven Professors who undertook this role, only one was a genuinely good person, wizard, and teacher.
Remus Lupin aside, in those seven years, Hogwarts boasted four direct servants of the Dark Lord (Quirrell, Crouch Jr., Snape, and Carrow), one indirect (Umbridge), and one absolute cretin who almost achieved more success than any of Voldemort’s actual minions when it came to resurrecting the man — Gilderoy Lockhart.
Lockhart can be called a con artist at the very best, but in fact, he was one of the most cowardly and dangerous characters in the franchise.
By the time he got into Hogwarts, he’d already left dozens of victims behind — granted that he altered their memories to take credit for their adventures and feats and not killed them, but still.
In Hogwarts, however, the situation changed dramatically: in his cowardice, Gilderoy Lockhart, the hopeless idiot that he was, almost helped Lord Voldemort’s resurrection. When he tried to take out Harry and Ron in the Chamber of Secrets, he was this close to allowing the Dark Lord’s plan to come to fruition.
If Ron’s wand wasn’t broken, it wouldn’t have backfired, and the two kids would’ve been left unconscious in the Chamber. Ginny Weasley would’ve died, and Tom Riddle would’ve come back to life. On his way out, he would’ve found the person who destroyed him the first time, Harry, and fed him to the Basilisk. The end.
While Lockhart knew nothing about Voldemort even being there in the first place, his pathetic attempt at running away from the castle at the expense of the three (and potentially, way more) kids' lives almost led to the Dark Lord’s resurrection, the death of the Chosen One, and the inevitable dark era for the entire Wizarding World.
Good thing Lockhart was an utter idiot because the consequences of his cowardice would’ve been truly disastrous. Fortunately, he only ended up dooming himself.