Alright I’m two books in and again I am stunned by Dumbledore’s antics. Surely he knew, or at least must have heavily suspected, that Lockhart was useless? So why hire him? There’s maybe a fragile “keep your enemies close” rationale for hiring Quirrell, but Lockhart seems to be just a terrible choice: he annoys the other faculty, he doesn’t provide any strategic advantage, and he doesn’t provide the students with actual defense against the dark arts training, which is the EXACT thing they need most. Seriously big D, what’s going on.
In other news, it is a delight to reread these books.