OOP: What's different

[marephraim]

No: HPFGUIDX 64459

Mandy wrote:

> Another question i have also is if Luna has been at hogwarts 
> since Ginny has been there why haven't we heard about her before? 
> Nothing (as far as i have found) has mentioned her in the last 
> four books but she played a rather large role in the unveiling of 
> this story. I wonder why she was never mentioned.

MarEphraim responds:

Another post has mentioned the reference in GoF. I would take 
another approach to the question, however. We are only now learning 
about Luna because of her being an acquaintance of Ginny. This is 
really the first story where Ginny has finally 'matured' to the 
point of being taken into the confidence of the Trio. In CoS she's 
merely the damsal to be saved, in PoA there are few references and 
generally she's being shunted aside by the Trio, in GoF she is 
beginning to come into some 'secondary charachter' prominance. In 
OoP,OTOH, we see Ginny fully engaged with the Trio and -- especially 
due to her participation in D.A. -- she is taken seriously. As Ginny 
is seen more as a 'juniour equal' by the Trio her acquaintances also 
rise in prominance, thus we see Luna also rising. 

While 'ageism' does have a major role in teenage life, it is not 
unusual for 'slightly younger' girls to find their way into a group 
of 'slightly older' friends and seen as part of the group (not just 
romantically). I would assert that it happens more with girls 
than 'slighty younger' boys, but I wont bet the farm on it.

Personally,I think Luna is a great addition to the series. 

I'm not so sure about Tonks, especially given her first name, and 
was further unimpressed by her being portrayed as clumsy in the 
opening chapters. It will be interesting to see where JKR takes her 
character.

M.E.