FINALLY someone else notices Luna's absence

[samnanya]

No: HPFGUIDX 82146

I have posted at least 4 times since June my humbled but increasingly 
exasperated opinion that Luna was obviously not on Hogwarts express 
and finally someone commented....... shows that persistence pays off..
....thanks urghiggi!

BTW even the holiest of holy canon, the HP Lexicon, is wrong in its 
summary of the last chapter when stating that Luna WAS on the train.

JKR has started almost every book with summer events prior to the 
Hogwarts year mentioned on the spine of each book, and Book 6 will be 
no exception. A lot will be happening before the Hogwarts Express 
returns in September.

As for now, Luna is probably still at Hogwarts looking for her stuff.  
There is even canon in CoS supporting a student staying at least a few 
days after the term has ended.

Luna and her dad will almost definitely never make it to Sweden -- LV 
is too ticked about his Azkaban imprisoned death eaters to let off the 
hook the only "free press" in town that caused the disaster in the 
first plane. IMHO her dad will not make it past page 60 in book 6 and 
will be the first victim of the summer. 

There are at least two agendas that JKR can deal with here -- freedom 
of the press (no matter how silly) and persecution of students who are 
different (as ddone so effectively by Jerry Spinelli in Stargirl). The 
soap box may be too tempting for JKR not to step up on it as she has 
done so often before in the series. Both can be accomplished while 
moving the basic storyline forward.

original post <with beaucoup snips>
urghiggi
And where WAS that Luna Lovegood on the Hogwarts Express back to 
London??? At first I thought this was irrelevant -- she is after all 
not one of the "official" Gryffindor group, I figured maybe she was 
just off with the Ravenclaws (though they obviously ostracize her). 
But the more I think about it the more it bugs me.
Guess Luna's weirdness still marginalizes her, despite her great show 
of loyalty to the other 5 in that compartment, and Harry's nascent 
feelings of pity for her.
 
So where WAS she? Ridin' on a thestral back to London? Got excused 
early to go look for snorkacks with daddy in Sweden? No info 
whatsoever. And you know what -- that mention of Ginny in the 
compartment reading "The Quibbler" seems almost to have been put there 
on purpose as an echo of the trip TO Hogwarts at the beginning of the 
year, when it was of course Luna reading the Quibbler. It seems to 
have been inserted as a reminder of who was there before and isn't, 
now. Somebody's got some 'splainin to do....