Happy Birthday, Luna Lovegood!

We wouldn’t be here without Luna.  There would be no Potter fans enjoying a website about the series if she didn’t exist as a character because she was crucial, in her own dreamy, ephemeral way, to the defeat of Voldemort.  And in the process she taught us a lot about judging people.

At first, she was an easy character to dismiss or make fun of because of her preposterous beliefs and her odd conception of social skills.  But her status as a Ravenclaw gave us an immediate clue about her underlying intelligence.  And we eventually realised that her unusual beliefs were shaped by the fact that she was only 15, a teenager, and a socially awkward one at that, who was being raised, and influenced by, her doting but crazy widowed father.  Her lack of a mother shaped her, as did her father’s wacky ideas.  She was fiercely loyal to him, despite his status as the publisher of the wizarding world’s equivalent of the National Enquirer.  When she grew up, she never loved her father any less but she came to realise that some of his beliefs were maybe not based in reality.  As a magizoologist, she had an open mind about what creatures might exist but she eventually accepted that her father had probably fabricated a few, like the Crumple-Horned Snorkack, and the Blibbering Humdinger.

Despite being cruelly teased by her classmates, she never retaliated in kind, remaining good-natured, patient, honest, loyal, and kind.  She demonstrated empathy when Harry suffered losses that helped him through some difficult times.

Today, 13 February, is her birthday.  I wonder if there is any significance to it being the day before Valentine’s Day?  Let’s all raise a glass in a birthday toast for Luna.  But make sure it’s not Gurdyroot Infusion.