Into the Mind of Luna
She had straggly, waist-length, dirty-blond hair, very pale eyebrows, and protuberant eyes that gave her a permanently surprised look.
One might tend to think that people who are oddly cute, immature and tend to daydream are less in touch with reality than others.
I believe that sometimes, maybe often, that these people might be more in touch with reality than anyone else.
Of course, it’s all a matter of opinion.
Diving deep into the fantastic world of Harry Potter, everyone plays a role that factors into the ending of the popular series, including our aforementioned friend who reads the Quibbler upside down.
Although the entire series revolves around Harry’s perspective, occasionally merged with Voldemort’s, we get multiple looks and ideas at how Ron and Hermione perceive the same events compared to characters like Ginny, Neville Dumbledore, Snape, etc.
So it’s fun to take a guess at how certain events in the Potterverse would have affected different characters in their specific timeline.
When you read the books for the first time, you are very likely to be blown away by certain plot twists and character developments. This means you may not notice specific details or people in various corners of intriguing chapters.
As a good number of Harry Potter fans are familiar, rereading the books call attention to things you may not have noticed before.
“All my shoes have mysteriously disappeared.”
“I suspect the Nargles are behind it.”
This is one of many adorable quotes that caused me to disregard Luna as I kept reading eagerly. Crazy, awkward and odd. I knew the type of person and I longed to stay away. I didn’t find her essential to the plot of the book.
Something vividly interesting about this series is that just as a child matures into a teen and slowly into a young adult, each book gets deeper and slightly darker in comparison to the previous one, each more foreboding and ominous.
J.K Rowling doesn’t just attempt to draw about more elaborate plots but also tries to pin down thoughts and feelings through reactions of characters to different circumstances.
In the case of Luna, you come across something quite sad.
Luna Lovegood watched her mother die due to a spell that went horribly wrong at the tender age of 9.
Death is a complicated concept to grasp at any age, let alone for a child. The idea of someone being there and then not being there, permanently, is not something that they can easily reconcile with. What I find fascinating is the way it shapes the unique perspective of how Luna views life.
One of the first things that come to my mind when Luna Lovegood is mentioned is in this short extract where Harry encounters her towards the end of The Order Of The Phoenix, himself a bit disoriented after Sirius Black’s death.
Harry is annoyed, sad, disturbed, and desperately looking for a way to connect with Sirius, constantly checking the two-way mirror his godfather gave him, asking Nearly Headless Nick if it’s possible for Sirius to stay on as a ghost, if Harry can still talk to him, in a nutshell, in denial of the fact that Sirius has truly gone, when he meets Luna.
Luna is serenely putting up posters, asking people to return her possessions that they have hidden purely because they think she is odd.
For just a small minute, we, along with Harry, cast aside all our worries and troubles and gaze with pity at this strange blond girl, just putting up posters, bearing no ill-will to others, no scar or remnant of the fight she was recently in as part of Dumbledore’s army, simply just Luna as is.
In this tranquil moment in time, when Harry offers to help her search, as all of us would, Luna replies with a smile,
“They’ll come back, they always do in the end.”
Luna goes on to offer her reflection of death, remarking to Harry after all it’s not like she won’t see her mother again, replying to his doubt by enquiring if he didn’t hear the voices behind the veil as well and proceeding to walk away.
But for me and I think for Harry, as he stops his search for a way to connect with Sirius, a strange acceptance lies in Luna’s belief about the return of her possessions. Somehow it brings a certain peace about the finality of death.
As an added note, Sirius does return after his death via the Resurrection Stone, a final encouragement to Harry, fulfilling Luna’s little assurance.
“For wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure.”
One thing I absolutely love about Luna is that she is not completely oblivious. On the contrary, she is rather perceptive of social nature and behaviour. This, coupled with her blunt honesty, enables her to speak abrupt truths that can make those around her very uncomfortable.
This little following bit is heartfelt nostalgia of some of my favourite Luna moments, do humour me, but do you remember how when a bunch of snobby girls told Harry he didn’t have to sit with Neville and Luna, and Harry defends them? And then Luna remarks, “People expect you to have cooler friends than us.” and Harry shortly replies, “You are cool.” (Yay!)
Harry’s subsequent choice of bringing Luna as a guest to Horace Slughorn’s party purely for the purpose of causing chaos and to have a friend he’s comfortable with, someone who won’t mistake the invite for a date, and someone who was purely excited to go with someone as a friend for a party, is something that brings me pure unadulterated joy.
Luna’s Eulogy For Dobby
‘Thank you so much, Dobby, for rescuing me from that cellar. It’s so unfair that you had to die, when you were so good and brave. I’ll always remember what you did for us. I hope you’re happy now.’
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
In a world where few really cared about elves, where even Sirius Black disregarded Kreacher (with good reason, some might argue), Luna stands out fairly well.
From a very limited interaction with Dobby underneath Malfoy Manor, she instantly treated him with as much respect as she would have another human being, closing Dobby’s eyes as he passes over the threshold of life.
And as Harry notes, Luna puts into words what Harry wanted to say to Dobby as he buried him.
We live in a world where hatred and disgust come in different forms and sizes, be it gender, race, profession, or much more. But I wonder often if everyone looked the same, wouldn’t these barriers simply disappear? And if so, even though we look different, behave differently, live separate lives, should we not treat another human being, as just that, another human being?
Luna’s simple approach (or maybe infinitely complex with multiple layers) to simply meeting another sentient being is something that I believe we can carry on, treating all equally with adequate respect.
These are some of the few things I wanted to point out from the incredible journey of the girl who helped Harry Potter find Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem, the girl whose name Harry and Ginny provided as a middle name to their own daughter (Lily Luna Potter), in essence, the quirky content blonde girl who had hand-painted portraits of her dearest friends, Harry Potter, Hermoine Granger, Neville Longbottom, Ron Weasley on her bedroom ceiling.
Of course, in the end, a few might argue that all this conjecture is as far-fetched as random symbolism drawn from poems that we were force-fed in school.
And to that, I say, to each his/her/their own.
Happy Nargle hunting, stay away from Wrackspurts and don’t forget, never trust an Auror, they are all part of the Rotfang conspiracy!
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