Hogwarts doesn’t exactly get lucky with its Defence Against The Dark Arts teachers. In fairness, many of the Defence Against The Dark Arts teachers don’t get too lucky themselves while in the role. The first two DATDA teachers we ever met were the stuttering, timid Professor Quirrell (who we barely got to see actually taking a class), and the arrogant, incompetent Professor Lockhart. As such, the two are very comparable.
As any fan of Harry Potter will know, neither were quite who they seemed to be, and it took the interference of Harry and his friends to reveal that. We’ve compared five reasons Quirrell was the worst, with five reasons why it was Lockhart.
QUIRRELL WAS THE WORST: His Classroom Smelled Of Garlic
It’s a relatively minor detail, but if you’re going to be sitting in a classroom with Quirrell for a year, the last thing you want it for that classroom to permanently stink of garlic.
Unfortunately for Hogwarts students, he apparently kept garlic in the room to ward of a Romanian vampire whom he was terrified of.
LOCKHART WAS THE WORST: He Was Incredibly Annoying
The very first thing we see of Professor Lockhart is his arrogance. Then a bit more arrogance, and then to top it off, some more arrogance.
Forcing students to buy books adorned with his grinning face, constantly having to endure his bragging and watching him as a fails to keep a single lesson of Defence Against The Dark Arts afloat must have been unbearably annoying.
QUIRRELL WAS THE WORST: His Lessons Must Have Been Very Slow
Quirrell’s stutter is something that most Hogwarts students were likely able to get over very quickly. They weren’t anywhere close to the level of annoyance created by Lockhart’s personality as a whole.
However, the practical implications are a different matter entirely. His lessons must have simply been so slow that the students can’t have learned a whole lot during the year.
LOCKHART WAS THE WORST: He Couldn’t Lead A Lesson
Thanks to his lifetime of lying and taking credit for the work of other people, Lockhart was unable to transfer any knowledge to his students, as he didn’t really have any.
The few lessons we saw him attempt to give during The Chamber Of Secrets were therefore failures that didn’t help his students learn anything worth learning.
QUIRRELL WAS THE WORST: He Was Too Shy To Teach
The life of a teacher requires you to stand up in front of a class full of students. The one thing you need to be in order to gain respect and have your students actually pay attention to what you’re saying is confidence.
While the lack of respect Quirrell got from his colleagues and students alike was an asset to Voldemort’s plan, it didn’t help his teaching.
LOCKHART WAS THE WORST: He Was Lying About His Success
Obviously, the biggest flaw in Lockhart’s teaching career was that he didn’t actually do any of the things that he claimed to have done.
This not only impacts his ability to teach based on experience but also proves him to be rather amoral. A teacher, especially a teacher at Hogwarts, needs to be a role model to their students: Lockhart wasn’t.
QUIRRELL WAS THE WORST: He Searched For Voldemort
While Quirrell didn’t start his life as an evil man or take on a career as a Death Eater, he did take a hiatus from his job at Hogwarts (where he was a Muggle Studies professor) in order to search for what remained of Voldemort after his demise.
He was aiming for recognition, but the general idea behind his plan wasn’t exactly one built on logic and safety.
LOCKHART WAS THE WORST: His Lies Meant He Didn’t Really Have Much To Teach
Most of his teaching would have likely come from retelling his experiences amongst the various users of dark magic he had faced, but the fact he was just telling someone else’s story probably meant he wasn’t always being accurate.
If he hadn’t wiped the memories of various wizards then he could have probably had a teaching career simply telling the stories of other wizards, like other teachers do.
QUIRRELL WAS THE WORST: He Literally Had Voldemort On His Head
This is the big one: Quirrell had Voldemort attached to the back of his head. While he didn’t aim for this specifically, it meant he spent the entire year wandering the corridors of Hogwarts with the Dark Lord right there with him.
Upon his reveal of this to Harry, he seemed more than happy to be a part of Voldemort’s plan to murder an eleven-year-old.
LOCKHART WAS THE WORST: He Tried To Wipe The Memory Of Children
While it’s hard to compare memory wiping to literal murder, Lockhart also proved himself to be a stone-cold, evil man with very little regard for the lives of children.
When they found out about his fake life, Lockhart was ready to wipe Ron and Harry’s memories within about two seconds. Luckily, it backfired and he got his comeuppance.