DH reread CH 21-22

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 186794

Alla wrote:
<snip>
> For example, for quite some time I had been wondering what the hell was the point of introducing Luna in the series if there was any point besides just introducing her for the sake of introducing new character.
> 
> I mean, I get that her eccentricities can be funny (I for the most part find them annoying), and certainly I get the point of looking beneath the surface and for Harry to learn that she is a nice sweet person, etc.
> 
> I also remember JKR saying something along the lines that Luna was meant to be an opposite to Hermione, logic to faith, etc. <snip>

Carol responds:

You're right about the contrast between Hermione and Luna (Hermione finally doubts something that she found in a book!) and about Hermione finally being wrong or understanding that she was wrong without actually saying so, but I think there's a lot more to Luna than being a foil to Hermione.

I think she represents not only childlike faith (which, in terms of the afterlife, turns out to be true), but innocence, one of those things, like love and House Elves (and death), that are beyond Voldemort's understanding.

She serves several important purposes, IMO, in addition to the one you mentioned of Harry's slow recognition of her worth as a person. In OoP, she's the one who comforts him with her certainty that she'll see her mother again in the afterlife and that, by extension, Harry will see his godfather, too. She, like Harry, can see Thestrals and hear the voices behind the Veil, giving them a bond that he doesn't share with Ron and Hermione, but, unlike Harry, she intuitively understands what Hermione knows only by reading, that the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (Wonder if she's ever read John Donne? :-) )

In DH, she rises to the occasion in a different way from Neville, whose latent qualities as a leader arise out of necessity. Luna, in contrast, shows the virtue of fortitude, enduring hardship and suffering with courage and serenity. Mr. Ollivander, who thanks her for her companionship with a new wand to replace her lost one, might not have survived or at least maintained his sanity without her. At any rate, her sweetness and eternal optimism make the last portion of his captivity bearable.

And there's the story of her father, too, deprived of his treasure and driven to violate his principles in his desperation to get her back. He's like a mirror to Narcissa, whose love for her son drives her to desperate measures. But while Xenophilius's behavior, however understandable, is morally questionable, Luna's never is. She's inspired lunacy; she's untainted innocence; she's faith and intuition; she's selflessness incarnate. So, yes, she's the opposite of Hermione (except that Hermione, unless you count her attempts at revenge, is also untainted), but she's also, IMO, the polar opposite of Voldemort. 

And, of course, she does a few useful things like Stunning Alecto Carrow, casting a Patronus when Harry can't, showing him what the tiara looks like (all her talk and her father's about the diadem of Ravenclaw having never clicked in Harry's or Hermione's mind), and, near the end of the book, understanding that Harry needs to be alone with Ron and Hermione and distracting everyone with the "Blibbering Humdinger."

Carol, who thinks that the Rotfang Conspiracy may be the funniest moment in all the books