Travels with Trolls

• Type: Book
• Author: Gilderoy Lockhart
• Genre: Autobiography (claimed)
• Publisher: Obscurus Books (Pottermore)

Travels with Trolls is an autobiographical work by the celebrated author and celebrity Gilderoy Lockhart. The book purports to recount a heroic adventure in which Lockhart confronts and defeats a dangerous troll. The narrative serves to bolster Lockhart's public image as a brave and highly accomplished wizard with extensive experience in handling Dark creatures. However, the events described in the book are entirely fraudulent. As Lockhart later confessed to Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, he never performed the heroic acts he wrote about. His method was to find the actual witches and wizards who had accomplished these feats, interview them to learn every detail, and then erase their memories using a Memory Charm (Obliviate). He would then publish the stories as his own, taking full credit and reaping the rewards of fame and fortune. Therefore, the true protagonist of the events in Travels with Trolls is an unnamed wizard whose memory was wiped by Lockhart.

Published prior to 1992, Travels with Trolls became a bestseller in the wizarding world, cementing Gilderoy Lockhart's status as a beloved public figure. In the summer of 1992, the book was added to the required reading list for second-year students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, as Lockhart had been appointed the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. Along with his other works, it was prominently displayed at the Flourish and Blotts bookshop in Diagon Alley, where Lockhart held a very popular book signing event before the start of the school term.

Travels with Trolls is one of the seven required textbooks for Harry Potter's second year, as detailed in his booklist from Hogwarts. Harry first encounters the physical book at Flourish and Blotts, where Molly Weasley expresses her admiration for the author. During a publicity stunt, Lockhart presents Harry with a complete, signed set of his works, including Travels with Trolls, free of charge. The book, along with Lockhart's other publications like Year with the Yeti and Holidays with Hags, is crucial in establishing his character as a vain and self-obsessed fraud. Its content serves as a stark contrast to his actual incompetence, which becomes increasingly evident throughout Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The eventual revelation that the entire premise of his literary career is built on stolen stories and Memory Charms marks the complete collapse of his public persona and serves as a key plot point in the climax within the Chamber of Secrets. The book exemplifies the story's themes of fame versus true ability and the deceptive nature of appearances.

• In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the cover of Travels with Trolls features a large, theatrically posed photograph of Gilderoy Lockhart winking. (film)
• Travels with Trolls is part of a collection of alliteratively titled autobiographies by Lockhart, which also includes Gadding with Ghouls, Break with a Banshee, Holidays with Hags, Voyages with Vampires, Wanderings with Werewolves, and Year with the Yeti.