A Look At Luna Lovegood (longish)

[happydogue at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 84229

Afraid of Luna?  Luna plays the role of the scapegoat kid that is at school that everyone is free to pick on.  Look at how when they met her on the train they were reluctant to sit in the same compartment and as a group they were free to call her Loonie.

They did not just think of the name on the spot, they were comfortable with the name as if they had been using it for a while.  Even after they had become friends, Ron relapse into calling her Loonie while they are in the Dept. of Mysteries. 

At the end of the book when she met Harry, she was looking for her personal possessions that students had taken from her.  Lunas comments to Harry lead the reader to believe that this is not the first time that they have taken her things.  This is not the way you treat someone you are afraid of.

Luna just happens to have the personality that it doesnt matter to her.  She has better things to do and she is going to live with it.  This is unlike two other characters that seem to also have had the same problem.  One was Peter P.  He chooses to become the doormat of the marauders.  By allowing the gang to walk all over him they allowed him to be one of the gang.

The other person treated this way as a youth was Snape.  Like Luna he was smart and different which made him a perfect target for the playground bullies of Black and Potter. Instead of kowtowing to the gang he chooses to fight. Of course he was outnumbered and look what happened to him.  (This whole scenario is similar to the places where a kid has been abused by classmates and ends up going to school with a gun).

In my opinion this whole grouping of people, along with Dudleys treatment of Harry, will be part of Harrys metamorphous from a typical unthinking kid to the adult he needs to be to fight with the dark lord.  Harry knows what it is like to be on the receiving end of abuse and the hole series of events is going to lead to some type of change in his character.

Already at the end of the book when Harry was speaking with Luna, you could begin to see the change in his character.  He was beginning to look at the behavior of Black and his father in a more adult manner.

Just my opinion,

JMM