where his civilizations, including our own

I wonder (and please thwack me if this came up in the discussion and I missed it) if Lockhart's guilt is even greater than we suppose, though. The series is full of cases where the Trio radically misjudge people. We know the Trio approached Lockhart about getting Moste Potente Potions from the restricted section because they assumed he was a fool. But was he, maybe, perfectly aware that the kids were risking themselves to solve the mystery, and planning all along to monitor them from a distance and do his usual Memory-charm thing afterward? It's a tenuous theory, I know, and it might be stronger if the potions text were more directly related to the solution, or if Lockhart hadn't tried to run at the end. But I wonder if it's within the capacities of his character?