Lockhart's incompetence

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 143217

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "ornadv" <ornawn at 0...> wrote:
>
> >Betsy Hp:
> > Honestly, no. Not by the end of CoS. Lockhart's hubris was such
> > that he'd act the expert in front of *actual experts*. He didn't
> > brag on his horticulture skills in front of McGonagall, who might
> > not know enough to call him on it. He bragged in front of Prof.
> > Sprout, who would know *immediately* that he was completely wrong.
 
Orna:
> I have been thinking about this. I don't understand how come, that 
> Lockhart, whose expertise should be to be able to fool people, and 
> convince them of his nonexistent talents, would brag about his 
> skills, in front of the wrong persons. I mean, to get the results 
he 
> got – many books, with practical information about how to get rid 
of 
> various creatures, he must have some capability to win the trust of 
> the people involved, and that would include not bragging in front 
of 
> people about things they are likely to spot. 

<snip>

> Or, perhaps 
> that self-defying strategy has something to do with the DADA-curse? 
> Perhaps the DADA curse let's every person get carried away with his 
> secret, or some characteristic trait, thus being destructed by it, 
> in a way? I mean – it seems that no DADA-teacher looses his job, 
> just by wishing to retire, or even by some unfortunate accident. It 
> seems connected to some dark/secret/characteristic point in the 
> person.

<snip>

> Remain Moody, whose "constant vigilance" and paranoid thoughts, 
were 
> ridiculed and confirmed at the same time, not giving him the chance 
> to teach at all. And, paradoxically, his paranoid habit of drinking 
> from his hipflask enabled Crouch jr. to perform his Polyjuice-
> cheating.

Geoff:
But surely the "dark/secret/characteristic point" with Moody is 
precisely that he /isn't/ Moody; he is an impostor. Crouch Junior has 
learned about Moody's paranoid habits and is copying them to cover 
his real personality.