Harry Potter Moment of the Week (#17)

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I missed the week we talked about Luna, so I'm going to use this week to share my favorite Luna moments.

When I first thought about Luna and all the amazing things she's done and what she stands for, the moment that stands out to me isn't what you'd normally expect to hear.  The moment I love so much is when Harry, Ron, and Hermione visit the Lovegood house in Deathly Hallows and they see Luna's room while they're "waiting" for her.  They see the mural of themselves on her wall with the word friends written on it.

This moment gets me every time. She's not even in the scene, but it's what it mean to her that makes the moment I love so much.  She was the out cast, the oddity that no one really got, or cared to get, but then she found some people who wanted to take that time to get to know her.  Those were the people she called friends, and she loved it so much that she gave herself a daily reminder that she was loved by friends and that the people she cared for cared for her back.

I'm not saying that Luna not giving a damn about what other people think isn't one of the best qualities someone can have.  And Luna embodies that so well, but knowing that people who don't give a damn also care about other people is huge.  There's this idea that people who don't care what other people think are awesome but hard people with impenetrable walls.  They put these walls up so the words of other don't reach them.  In reality, they are also so vulnerable and that's what Luna is; she is a bad ass, whimsical person, but she is also vulnerable.  This is why I like her so much.  She's got everything, not just a hard exterior.

"Luna had decorated her bedroom ceiling with five beautiful painted faces: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville.  They were not moving as the portraits at Hogwarts moved, but there was a certain magic about the all the same:  Harry thought they breathed.  What appeared to be fine golden chains wove around the picture, linking them together, but after examining them for a minute or so, Harry realized that the chains were actually one word, repeated a thousand times in golden ink: friends...friends...friends..."