Book 5 Mystery :: Luna Lovegood (an analysis - SPOILERS)

[Lunatech]

There seems to be a lot of mystery about Luna. This article will disect all of the peculiarities and try to come up with some sort of logical conclusion regarding what is intended for this character. Be warned, quote directly from the book so if you have not read Order of the Phoenix yet, STRONGLY encourage you to stop reading now.

Lets move on.




Luna lives in Ottery St. Catchpole just outside of the burrow (GoF chapter 6). The main mystery behind Luna is that she knows a lot of information. She is obviously very precocious for her age and a lot of mysteries are derived from the information that she knows. Luna is a 4th year student in the Ravenclaw house and has a sole relative, her father, which is an editor for the Quibbler.

Fascinating things about Luna.

- Luna is capable of seeing thestrals which means she's seen someone die in front of her. Who? Well we may suspect that it's her mother... though she did not state it.
"It's all right." said a dreamy voice from behind Harry as Ron vanished into the coach's dark interior. "You're not going mad or anything. I can see them too."
- Order of the Phoenix (US) Ch.10, Pg. 199

- She knows about Cornelius Fudge's army of heliopaths.
"Yes, he's got an army of heliopaths." said Luna solemnly.
"There are plenty of eyewitness accounts, just because you're so narrow-minded you need to have everything shoved under your nose before you -" (she's telling this to Hermione)
- Order of the Phoenix (US) Ch.15, Pg.345

- Precursor to a possible love interest with Harry.
"Mistletoe," said Luna dreamily, pointing at a large clump of white berries placed almost over Harry's head. He jumped out from under it. "Good thinking," said Luna very seriously. "It's often infested with nargles."
- Order of the Phoenix (US) Ch.21, Pg.453

(to be continued)

[Lunatech]

(continued)


- Luna shows signs that she knows about the Department of Mysteries.
"Okay," Harry said aggressively to Hermione,"Okay, if you can think of a way of doing this quickly, I'm with you, otherwise I'm going to the Department of Mysteries right now -"
"The Department of Mysteries?" said Luna, looking mildly surprised. "But how are you going to get there?"
- Order of the Phoenix (US) Ch.32, Pg. 736.


- Luna's insight and her skills at riding a thestral.
"There are other ways of flying than with a broomsticks,"said Luna serenely.
"The Crumple-Horned Snorkack can't fly," said luna in a dignified voice, "but they can, and Hagrid says they are good at finding places their riders are looking for."
- Order of the Phoenix (US) Ch.33, Pg. 762
"Neville jumped down, shaking, but Luna dismounted smoothly."
- Order of the Phoenix (US) Ch.33, Pg. 762


- Luna knows that there are people in the arch.
"I can hear them too," breathed Luna, joining them around the side of the archway and gazing at the swaying veil. "there are pople in there!"
- Order of the Phoenix (US) Ch.34, Pg. 774


- This pretty much summerizes everything about Luna.
"Yes," said Luna simply, "my mother. She was a quite extraordinary witch, you know, but she did like to experiment and one of her spells went rather badly wrong one day. I was nine."
(for copyright purposes I purposely didn't quote the whole page though almost every line is relevant)
- Order of the Phoenix (US) Ch. 38, Pg. 863


Analysis

So what can we infer from all of this? We can start by identifying the adjectives JKR uses for her. At first she mentions Luna as being dotty. But if you progress through the book you will notice JKR describing Luna as dreamy, solemn, serene, and composed. Luna is actually quite precocious for her age. Luna possesses a very high understanding of Magical Creatures. She knows a lot about Thestrals, Heliopaths, and Aquivirius Maggots. Luna even goes so far as to correct Hermione in three occasions (rather rudely) about what she knows about magical creatures and says to Hermione,"...just because you're so narrow-minded you need everything shoved under your nose befre you -"

You can also infer that she can apply her knowledge (or she's had much experience with magical creatures) by the way she handled her Thestral. She was by far the most adept in the group. Her competance as a witch can't be ignored either. She seemed to be the only one to come out unscathed from the whole incident in the Department of Mysteries.

Let's also consider that Luna knows a great deal about the Department of Mysteries and the Ministry of Magic.

So how does she know all this?

Well we can't know for sure because it's still being written, but we can make some assumptions. I'm going to say that her mother must have worked for the Ministry of Magic. I would go as far as to say that her mother was probably an "Unspeakable" for the Department of Mysteries. The first clue to me that her mom might have worked in the DoM was that Luna recognized the room with the veil and arch. Knowing something about it, and recognizing it is very diffrent. She not only knew there were something lurking behind the veil, she recognized (or at least discovered) what that arch was. If her mother died randomly from a spell, she would have just died. Luna shouldn't be able to recognize the arch let alone understand it because she has no business being there, unless, of course her mother worked there.

Tell me what you think.

Lunatech

[Person#11]

We've said a bunch of stuff about her in the character thread.

[highsorcerer]

Actually, I think Luna is probably a product of her upbringing as the daughter of a wizard tabloid. She's very accepting of things, not skeptical liike Hermoine is. While much of what is published in the Quibbler is obviously garbage (like Sirius being the lead singer of some rock group), some of the stories are quite possibly with a basis in fact. It's quite possible that the Quibbler has published articles on what goes on in the Department of Mysteries.

In the end, neither Hermoine or Luna is completely right. I suspect Luna is quite a powerful witch (or has the potential to be), just like Hermoine, but whereas Hermoine is just starting to learn to be more believing (it took Harry's prophecy for her to finally accept Divination might have some basis in fact), Luna needs to be more skeptical. If Harry does end up dating Luna, it will probably spark a sore spot with Hermoine. However, I suspect Hermoine will also start learning the hard way that Luna isn't always wrong... and she, Hermoine, isn't always right. I think that is the lesson Hermoine needs to learn more than anything else.

[Lunatech]

This topic kinda spills over a lot of topics from Luna being a love interest, to death and the portal. The fact that Luna revolves around very key events in the story gives us an idea of how important she really is.

The signs are definitely there.

[Lunatech]

There is definitely tension between Hermione and Luna. Luna blatantly corrects Hermione in three key points where Hermione couldn't fight back. Luna simply knew more than her about those particular topics. I also believe that the agitation that she causes Hermione proves that Luna serves some sort of threat to her, or her attachment to Harry. After Luna and Harry approached the veil together, Hermione quickly grabbed Harry's arm and led him out to look for Sirius.

Don't get me wrong, I still believe that Hermione is meant for Ron. But, it's evident Hermione has an attraction to Harry. Hermione quickly takes the defensive when she's disproven and definitely feels a little threatened by Luna.

Any idea what Luna's Patronus was? I couldn't find it.

[highsorcerer]

I don't think it's mentioned what Luna's patronus is, but I wonder if it would be a Crumple-Horned Snorkack.

I think the only one's mentioned were Hermoine's (an otter) and Cho's (a swan). Neville's was indistinct, but was reported as "hairy". What's interesting is that these are all small animals. Perhaps that's why Dumbledore told Harry his patronus was most unusual; perhaps a patronus of that size is extremely rare. It wouldn't seem like the room of requirement would hold 28 stag-sized patronus's without expanding somewhat.

[Boycey]

Luna Lovegood knows most of her stuff about the ministry from her father being the main editor of the quibbler, so I guess thats how she knows alot of the ministrys secrets not for the fact that her mother was in the ministry, but her father buys information of key people in the ministry, but saying that I do beleive she knows more about that veil and the secrets behind it as with the comment she said to Harry at the end of the book got me to that conclusion. I also beleive that Lovegood seemed a pretty pointless charicture in this book as she was not important in the contents in anyway, but I do believe that she is a chariture that was brought into this book to be an importance in later books, and I also believe that the veil will also come to play later on too, so maybe the importance of Lovegood and the veil will be her relation and noledge of Death, an important context of the next book in my opinion.

[HuffleDuck]

OF course Luna gonna be important in future books.. JK never introduces characters without them having some part in it..She's laying out the clue for us again... There are many clues in the book... hope some of you notice it....

[Lunatech]

The father was my first guess yes, being an editor for the Quibbler and all. But the father seems to act rather oddly. JKR describes him to be a little eccentric from the description Luna gave about her father when Harry's article replaced that of the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks.

"Dad's reprinting!" she told Harry, her eyes popping excitedly. "He can't believe it, he says people seem even more interested than the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks!"
- Order of the Phoenix (US) Ch.26, Pg.583

Being eccentric of course doesn't mean her father's information bad, it just makes us question the source a little. She mentioned it was her mom that was an exceptional witch. She mentioned nothing about her father aside being the editor of the Quibbler.[/i]

[Charis]

i think that Luna's part in the next books might have something to do with Ron. she seemed especially interested in him, more so than Harry. this could cause even more tension between Hermione and Luna, seeing as how its obvious that Ron and Hermy will eventually hook up. their relationship didn't obviously progress too much in this book, aside from Hermione's kissing him on the cheek before the Quidditch match. but Hermione's attraction to Ron became subtly more obvious in this book. she seemed to give in to him easier. so, i think that Luna could play a part in the future with Ron, giving more tension between Hermy and Luna. but, its also obvious that Ron doesn't especially like Luna, so im really not sure. just speculation.

[Mint]

Hmmm this thread should really be in the "Characters" part of the forum.

But anyway.

1)Mistletoe - I think the only reason it was mentioned is to set up the scene with Cho. Luna said that just for us to be aware the it was there, so the "Cho scene" would move smoothly

2)heliopaths - ? This is not proven yet, I think they don't exist

3)thestrals - the fact that she rides them so well means that her father prob. taught her. I mean the Dark Forest is not the only place where they can be found. Her dad prob. shower her them and told her not to be afraid and to try and ride them.

Oh and I thought it was obvious that she can see them cause she saw her mom died. She directly answered Harry's question.

4)arch - She knew what it was? Then why didn't she tell Harry what it was. As far as I understood - she was as surprised as he was. Perhaps she figured in the end since she seems to be really smart.

5)Crumple-Horned Snorkack - .....you know, I think the problem with Quibler* is that it accepts ANY kind of info. So I think that half of it is true while the other half isn't.

I think Luna is just an extremely smart person. Not like Hermoine, she is just very open minded and thinks of stuff that others would dissmiss as being not real.