Saturday, July 18, 2015

Luna Lovegood Spotlight


Faith of GeekyZooGirl and Micheline of Lunar Rainbow Reviews are hosting the Harry Potter Month in July!! Of course, Harry's birthday is in July so it's a celebration! I am competing for my House Cup as well for Hufflepuff. As most of you know, I adore Harry Potter so this month will be full of even more Potter goodness at JC's Book Haven.


THIS GIRL right here is my favorite character in the series. 





Harry meets Luna on the train the day he can’t ride with Ron and Hermione since they were made prefects. This is the first time that he doesn’t travel with them and instead finds himself with three others who will soon be very important to his group: Luna, Neville, and Ginny. At this point, he is a little embarrassed with who he is sharing a train car with.

She is a girl that often gets made fun of for her quirky behavior and odd beliefs. She was reading a magazine upside down the day Harry met her as well as a necklace made of butterbeer caps. Kids at the school appear to be hurtful towards her, calling her “Loony” and stealing things from her.
She not only keeps her positive outlook on everything, she OWNS it. She will never be anything other than 100% Luna Lovegood. She's also completely honest...sometimes even when people may not want to hear it. I just adore her. 

“I think I'll just go down and have some pudding and wait for it all to turn up - it always does in the end.” 

She is one of the first to let Harry know that she believes him that Voldemort has returned. Of course, at the time that wasn’t very encouraging because everyone thinks she’s crazy. However, she later helps Hermione with an arranged interview with Rita Skeeter to get Harry’s true story out to the wizarding world.


She eventually becomes a very large part of Dumbledore’s Army.  She helps stand guard outside of Umbridge’s class so that Harry can break in while he’s checking on Sirius. She insists that she is going with him to the Department of Mysteries to help get Sirius back and even comes up with the idea to ride thestrals. Harry thought he was going mad when he could see these dark horse creatures, but Luna let him know that she can see them too. It appears that those that have seen death are the only ones that can see thestrals so they are invisible to everyone else.

After helping at the battle at the Department of Mysteries and being one of the last of Dumbledore's Army to fall, she helps Harry further by giving him hope after Sirius' death when no one else could comfort him. She talks about the loss of her mother and that she knows she will see her again one day:

“Yes, it was rather horrible," said Luna conversationally. "I still feel very sad about it sometimes. But I've still got Dad. And anyway, it's not as though I'll never see Mum again, is it?"

"Er-isn't it?" said Harry uncertainly.

She shook her head in disbelief. "Oh, come on. You heard them, just behind the veil, didn't you?"

"You mean..."

"In that room with the archway. They were just lurking out of sight, that's all. You heard them.” 


The next year finds Harry again in the train with Luna and Neville. Romilda Vane stops by and lets Harry know that he can join them, and he turns her down telling her that he thinks Luna and Neville are cool and are his friends.

He later invites Luna to Slughorn's party when he realized he couldn't go with the person he most wanted to, Ginny. During the party, Luna makes Harry laugh so hard that mead comes out of his nose after Snape dissed his idea of becoming an auror.

“I don't think you should be an Auror, Harry," said Luna unexpectedly. Everybody looked at her. "The Aurors are part of the Rotfang Conspiracy, I thought everyone knew that. They're working to bring down the Ministry of Magic from within using a mixture of dark magic and gum disease.” 

She also has the hilarious time in the book of commentating a Quidditch match.

"And that’s Smith of Hufflepuff with the Quaffle,” said a dreamy voice, echoing over the grounds. “He did the commentary last time, of course, and Ginny Weasley flew into him, I think probably on purpose, it looked like. Smith was being quite rude about Gryffindor; I expect he regrets that now he’s playing them – oh, look, he’s lost the Quaffle; Ginny took it from him. I do like her; she’s very nice…”

Then...

Luna did not seem to have noticed; she appeared singularly uninterested in such mundane things as the score and kept attempting to draw the crowd’s attention to such things as interestingly shaped clouds and the possibility that Zacharias Smith, who had so far failed to maintain possession of the Quaffle for longer than a minute, was suffering from something called ‘Loser’s Lurgy.



She helps some members of Dumbledore's Army as well as the Order of the Phoenix at the end of Half-Blood Prince during the Battle of the Astronomy Tower. Thanks to Harry's Felix Felicis potion, she did not get injured.

In the final year at Hogwarts, she helped Neville and Ginny reinstate Dumbledore's Army at the school in Harry's absence. When she returned home for Christmas, she was abducted and held prisoner with Ollivander at Malfoy Manor.

One of my favorite scenes is when Harry stops by the Lovegood home and sees her bedroom for the first time. This is when he realizes that Xenophilius is lying to them about where his daughter is. He goes up to her room and on her ceiling is a painting of herself, Ginny, Neville, Ron, Harry, and Hermione with the word "friends" in a gold chain linking them all together. It gives me the feels every time.

Meanwhile, she is helping to take care of Ollivander in the basement of Malfoy Manor. Dobby helps them escape and we know that he dies doing that. Luna gives his eulogy.

She then helps in the final Battle of Hogwarts. Luna was instrumental in helping Harry find The Lost Diadem. She took Harry to the Ravenclaw Common Room (which makes you answer a riddle in order to get in) and showed him a replica of it. She later wards off some dementors with a group of Dumbledore's Army and gently reminds Harry that he has to think of something happy in order to produce his. After Harry defeats Voldemort, she ends things by creating a distraction so that Harry can get some peace and quiet with Ron and Hermione.

She's there in the background for the majority of the huge battles lending her wand skills as well as her knowledge. She always has her friend's backs and also ends up as a guide for Harry when no one else can get through to him. I'm so glad that she forms this close bond with these amazing friends that have learned to appreciate her for who she is.

She is fierce, loyal, intelligent, honest, weird, and incredibly lovable.


14 comments:

  1. She sure is! And sweet & cute as a button to boot! :) Lovely post - your passion is beautiful <3

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  2. Christina @ Between BookendsJuly 18, 2015 at 6:02 PM

    Luna has some of the best moments in the books, especially in HBP. By that time everyone is (mostly) used to her and likes her the way she is. Even Ron, who can be harsh sometimes, finds her peculiarities amusing. And at Slughorn's party instead of being embarrassed, Harry has fun.

    I wish they could have shown the paintings on her ceiling in the DH movie. It's such a beautiful scene. Also, the scene where Luna and the DA save the trio from dementors in the last battle is one of my favorites. It makes me cry every time.
    Great post spotlighting a great character!

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  3. This is such an awesome post- Luna rocks! I love how she never tried to be anybody but herself. Her talk with Harry at the end of OotP is one of my favorite Luna scenes; she said exactly what he needed to hear at that moment.

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  4. Yes she is definitely sweet and cute as well!

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  5. Hermione and Ron were the last two to come around. I was upset at first with how Hermione treated her, but it makes a lot of sense. She lives everything so logically and based in fact and Luna is anything but. Ron was quite rude to her in the beginning, but I loved the way she just brushed it off and suggested it was for varying reasons to do with him. I remember him laughing so hard at her Quidditch commentary and mentioning that Luna had definitely grown on him. I'm so glad the whole group eventually did grow to love her for who she is. I wish they would have had that in the movie as well!

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  6. She's an inspiration to remind readers to just be yourself and not care what anyone thinks. I really like that moment between her and Harry as well. She has a weird way of knowing what Harry needs.

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  7. She was def a sweet and interesting character

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  8. Alex @ The Book BannerJuly 19, 2015 at 7:55 PM

    I absolutely love Luna too! I've just met her again (I'm rereading Order of the Phoenix right now.) She is such a beautiful character, being exactly who she is without regard to other people's jeers and mockery. I love that she is so comfortable with herself. I also really dislike the fact that people call her Loony, even Ginny does at the beginning of Order of the Phoenix. Obviously, those that know Luna, know that she is amazing and fierce. I just feel sorry for those that have chosen to disregard her because she's being 100% herself. Luna rocks!

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  9. Seriously, she is the best character ever! You hit the nail on the head.

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  10. I love all the crazy things that come out of her mouth :D

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  11. I'm on Goblet of Fire right now, waiting to get to meet her again! Her being so comfortable with herself is definitely what drew me to her. I didn't like how everyone was so horrible to her at first either, but I am so glad that they all came around to love her!

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  12. I got chills reading this post Jaclyn. Honestly. Chills! Luna is SUCH an important part of this series and SUCH a valuable friend to Harry. I love how offbeat and unique she is but especially how she OWNS it as you said. I think the best thing for me was how she believed Harry without question when no one else but the trio and Dumbledore would ♥♥ Her bravery in joining the DA and going to the Ministry is amazing, I just admire her so much. Another favorite moment was Harry taking her to the ball. He could have picked ANYONE so the fact that he chose lovely Luna says a lot about her...and about Harry too! She's incredibly loveable, I don't blame you one bit for loving her so much - I do too! Fantastic post!!

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  13. Awww this is so sweet and SO true!! Such a great summary of this beloved character. I loved her commentary for Quidditch and all the other bizarrely funny things she says, but most of all I love that she was able to comfort Harry with her very mature understanding about death.

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