He was dramatic, in your face, but also a complete liar. So how did Gilderoy Lockhart’s secret about his past never get out to the general public before?
It is clear by the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets that Gilderoy Lockhart has been lying for years about his achievements. To make matters worse, he uses a spell to have people forget that he didn’t actually do the things he said he did and can then use their stories for his own personal gain.
But how did all these powerful witches and wizards never stop him? He’s clearly not that great of a wizard and, more importantly, he’s weak. We can see that if he was this great and powerful wizard, then he could get away with this whole story. But weak Gilderoy being able to take down all these witches and wizards who have insane accomplishments?
It just doesn’t check out. There has to be a witch or a wizard somewhere out there who remembers that they were the one who did whatever Lockhart claimed. Somewhere in the wizarding world, a witch is reading his book and remembering when she did it herself.
Gilderoy Lockhart was a hack and continued to be so even to children. He was willing to hurt kids in order to keep his secret safe and that may be the greatest offense of all. Sure, he’s a liar and hurt countless others but he was ready to take down kids because they would tell the world of his secrets. So someone better start giving the right witches and wizards their credit.