The Thestrals and the Outcasts of Harry Potter
The thestrals, skeletal winged-horses with coats black as midnight. They can only be seen by people who’ve seen death. As a result, despite the gentle creatures they are, they’re feared by people who don’t know a single thing about them.
Thestrals have long been my favorite piece of symbolism in Harry Potter. I’ve always loved how Luna never feared them, just like she never feared Harry. And she never once hated or even got mad at him. Even Ron and Hermione have at one point or another gotten mad at Harry or refused to talk to him, but Luna never did.
Even when Harry showed up at Malfoy Manor, after Luna had already been there for weeks, she didn’t hate him for being the reason of her imprisonment. It was just, Oh, Harry’s here.
This is one of the reasons Luna is my favorite character in Harry Potter. Because like Harry, like the the thestrals, people avoided her because she was different.
Two of my favorite Luna scenes involve the thestrals. The first one was when the thestrals were introduced, before we actually knew what they were. Harry expects to see the horseless carriages at the beginning of his fifth year. Instead, he sees the thestrals pulling them. He basically thinks he’s going insane, but Luna fixes him with her distant gaze. “Don’t worry, I can see them too. You’re just as sane as I am.”
My favorite scene with her, is of course the one in the forest. She tells Harry about the thestrals, about her mom, and mentions that all her shoes have mysteriously gone missing. It almost makes me cry, how nonchalantly she talks about it all, but it just makes me love her even more.
I guess another character who could be represented by the thestrals is Hagrid. Despite how gentle he is, people cast him out the moment they found out about his giant blood.
And like Luna, I can’t remember Hagrid ever turning on Harry. He never once saw Harry as crazy. And I just have to say, when I read about Hagrid, who carried Harry away from Godric’s Hollow as a baby, carrying Harry, who he thought was dead, out of the forest in front of Voldemort broke my freaking heart.
