OOP: The Importance of Luna Lovegood

[mervin180]

No: HPFGUIDX 63138

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"Joe" <c4bchief at yahoo.com> points out:
>She [Luna] did help in atleast one instance. She assisted Hermione 
>in getting Harry's story published in the "Quibbler." Being that her 
>father is the editor. After that, she was just pretty much comical 
>support. You do have to admit though, for a Ravenclaw she has guts.

My response:

Yes, Luna does help the plot of OoP move steadily along by letting 
Harry's story get published, and letting the truth of V's return be 
known to the wizading public.  Yet, Luna Lovegood is a pivitol 
character in OoP, providing the series with much more than simple 
comic relief.

Luna has a reputation among the students as "loony" and readers 
wonder why she is placed in Ravenclaw.  Ravenclaw is seen as a house 
for "those whose Intelligence is surest" (OoP 205).  Luna in 
Ravenclaw?   Luna, who "gave off an aura of distinct dottiness" (OoP 
185). Luna, who believes in Crumple-Horned Snorkacks?  Yes, indeed 
she is a bonefied Ravenclaw!

The risks that the Trio take throughout the series are seen as 
indicators of their bravery and exemplors of the rightness of their 
being placed in Gryffindor.  However, true "wit" and "intelligence" 
necessitates a certain amount of risk-taking as well.  Part of 
learning involves testing the unknown.  How many great minds were 
once ridiculed as "crazy" or worse, persecuted as heretics because 
they sought to learn about something or to create something that was 
supposed to be impossible? Luna takes a risk when she refuses to 
believe that Crumple-Horned Snorkacks aren't real, but just because 
something HASN'T been done, seen, or created doesn't necessarily mean 
that it CAN'T be done, seen, or created.

And while Luna may give off an "aura" of flakiness, she is more 
perceptive than many characters in the book.  For example, in the 
begining of OoP much of the wizarding world (eg: Fudge), including 
some of Harry's housemates (eg: Seamus), do not believe that 
Voldemort has returned.  It is easier to believe that Harry is simply 
a crackpot In GoF Dumbuldore warns "if the time should come when you 
have to make a choice between what is right and what is 
easy...Remember Cedric Diggory" (GoF 724).  Many in the wizarding 
world do not heed this advice, but Luna, who is NOT in Gryffindor, 
who's parents are NOT (as far as I can tell) members of the Order is 
perceptive enough to challenge the status quo of the MoM.  She 
states, proudly, "My father is very supportive of any anti-Ministry 
action" (OoP 395).  It takes bravery to challenge the status-quo, but 
it also takes intelligence to prove wrong the status-quo.  It may not 
be easy to try to prove to the wizarding world that Crumple-Horned 
Snorkacks exist, but it is certainly right that Luna supports the 
fact that her father "Publishes important stories that he thinks the 
public needs to know.  He doesn't care about making money" (OoP 568). 
I hope that Luna and her father DO find a Crumple-Horned Snorkack 
over the summer...

Also, as "sueeeyqbong" points out in post 62308, Luna is a fine 
example of a self-confident young woman.  She knows what people call 
her behind her back, she is quite aware of the mean tricks they play 
on her (OoP 862).  However, it does not stop her from believing in 
and asserting her convictions, wearing bottle-cap necklaces and 
supporting the quiddich team of another house by wearing an enchanted 
hat.  Simply put, she is not afraid to be herself.   

In line with both Dumbledore and the Sorting Hat's command that 
students must overcome their house differences and work together, 
Luna shows true willingness to join together with others in order to 
achieve the higher goal of defeating Voldemort.  While students of 
Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw all join the D.A, when the 
final showdown comes into play, Luna is the only non-Gryffindor 
fighting along side of Harry for the D.A.  Harry does not want 
Neville, Ginny, or Luna to follow him to the Department of Mysteries, 
but as Neville points out, and as Luna affirms, "We're all in the 
D.A. together, It was all supposed to be about fighting You-Know-Who, 
wasn't it?...We want to help" (OoP 761).  It is Luna who thinks of 
using the Thestrals to travel to the MoM.  Again, she makes the 
impossible possible by believing in and utilizing what others cannot 
see or understand.  And when it comes time for battle, she willingly 
follows the Gryffindor's into the unknown, and when Harry challenges 
Lucius Malfoy and the DE's to duel rather than give up the 
prophesy, "The five wands of Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, AND LUNA 
rose on either side of him" (OoP 782).  Even though she is a 
Ravenclaw, she fights the DEs along side the Gryffindors as an equal. 
And, she is the only student, besides Harry himself, who walks away 
from the battle unscathed.

Finally, it is Luna who helps Harry begin to process the grief he 
feels for Sirius' death.  All of Harry's former support systems, 
Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione, Lupin, Mr. & Mrs. Weasly, and Hagrid are 
unable to help him move past the insatiable sadness and anger  wroght 
upon him by the loss of Sirius.  Luna, however, is able to relate to 
Harry on a level that identifies with the loss of a parent-figure and 
does not force him to accept the irrevocability and honor of Sirius' 
death.  She lets him know that it's ok to be sad by relating how she 
lost someone she loved very much and accepts the fact that "I still 
feel very sad about it sometimes" (OoP 863).  And because she is 
willing to believe in the unbelievable, she ascertains "It's not as 
though I'll never see Mum again, is it" because, like Harry, she 
could hear her loved ones behind the veil.  While she knows her 
mother won't come back to life, she reminds Harry (just as Dumbledore 
points out in PoA) that "You think the dead we loved ever truly leave 
us?" (PoA 427). And upon hearing of Luna's lost possessions, "An odd 
feeling rose in Harry - an emotion quite different from the anger and 
grief that had filled him since Sirius's death.  It was a few moments 
before he realized that he was feeling sorry for Luna" (OoP 862).  It 
is one of the few times in OoP that Harry feels sorry for someone 
other than himself.

Yes, Luna proved to be an extremely pivitol character in OoP, much 
more than simple comic relief.  She crossed house-lines to befriend 
Harry and fight Voldemort and the D.E.  She gives us an example of a 
female student who is not like Hermione, but is still strong and self-
confident.  And she helps Harry to process his grief after Sirius' 
demise.  While we already know that the friendship of Ron and 
Hermione is crucial to Harry's success, I believe that the other 3 
students (Luna, Ginny, and Neville) who fought beside him in OoP will 
turn out to play significant roles in the upcoming war against 
Voldemort and the DE's.  

***Angela***


BTW - A side note on Ginny's growing maturity: When she, Neville, and 
Harry realize that the only seats on the Hogwarts Express are in the 
compartment with "Loony" Lovegood, Neville is ready to go somewhere 
else.  It is Ginny who says "Don't be silly...She's all right" (OoP 
135).  Like Luna, she proves herself to be another good example of a 
strong female character in OoP...but that's another post!