The Fabulous Destiny of Luna Lovegood

The Fabulous Destiny of Luna Lovegood

Chapter One: Luna's Childhood

Luna Lovegood was born at 9 minutes past 9 on the ninth of September 1981, to Laura and Lionel Lovegood. A young couple who had only recently finished a trip round the world with a wedding in Haiti, Laura and Lionel dreamed of setting up their own newspaper to talk about the things they had seen and experienced, and the many weird sides of the world.

Laura was tall, with hair that was blonde in the summer and brownish in the winter. She liked swimming underwater, learning spells that were difficult to pronounce, and trying to make Muggle food. She didn’t like being pinched, Celestina Warbeck songs or politicians. Lionel was similar, but his hair was always blond. He liked crossing his eyes, detective stories and crystal balls. He did not like frogs’ legs, golf or morning breath.

Luna grew up in a village that was mostly Muggle, despite its proximity to Ottery St. Catchpole. It was clear from an early age that Luna would take after her parents, with the usual spontaneous outbursts of magic that small wizards and witches have. Unfortunately, Luna’s were so volatile that if she did go to primary school, the Ministry would be there every other day wiping memories and it’d only take one child to dodge them for the Secrecy to be ruined. She had had to be educated at home. To the primary school authorities, Mr and Mrs Lovegood had explained that their daughter suffered from selective mutism, and would only speak at home, and until they could sort the problem out, they would be her teachers. Deprived of the company of fellow children, Luna’s imagination became very active and so, in her mind, she was never lonely.

In fact, Luna had several friends. Some were real, some were, admittedly, imaginary, and some were somewhat in between. For real friends, there were her mother and father, who were often exciting when they weren’t working or asleep, and there was her cousin John, who would visit at Christmas and show her how to draw things. The year before, Luna had asked him how you would draw a wind, because you can’t see it, to which John responded with a lopsided-looking fellow holding an umbrella that had turned inside out. Yes, John was wonderful, but he was not exciting, not like Mr Crane, the toucan and Mr Clementine, the koala, who would join her under the bed covers for an imaginary picnic to avoid getting up and dressed in the mornings.

All the same, their gentle charms were nothing in comparison to the glamorous young lady who lived on a mansion on the hill. Victoria was her name, and she was like nothing Luna had ever beheld before. Even if she wasn’t a real princess, she was as good as any other, and Luna was certain a handsome prince would fall in love with her, as she was beautiful and kind-hearted and everything else he could want. Victoria was not really Luna’s friend, as she was a big girl and Luna was a little one, but Luna sometimes imagined that they could be. Maybe one day, for example, she could have one of Victoria’s dresses when she got too big for them, because what else would they do with them?

Then, when Luna was nine years old and Victoria was twenty, tragedy struck. The first incident had been on the first day of the New Year, of all times. The villagers had been having the usual annual fete, and Victoria had attended with her new fiancé, the handsome Sir Roger Cornfoot. Now, Sir Cornfoot, to Luna’s passionate excitement and only to the knowledge of her and her parents, was a wizard, one from a fine pureblooded family. Luna had asked her mother if Lady Victoria would know, and Laura agreed that she probably did. When Luna asked Laura if they could tell Victoria about them being magical too, Laura said definitely not.

After the midnight excitement had toned down, it was time for everyone to get home. Luna was very tired and grouchy, but even she enjoyed walking out behind Victoria and her future husband, who were framed against the bright night sky. And then everything changed. Luna only got a glimpse of whatever it was that attacked Victoria, because her father had quickly covered her eyes and her mother had covered her ears. The villagers had described a wolf the next day when Luna had walked to the shop with her mother, but her parents were baffled. They put their questions aside though to comfort Luna when Cornfoot had emerged from the manor (which he had been given in Victoria’s parents’ will) to announce that his fiancée had died from her injuries. Luna had screamed and screamed…she had never known anyone die before, and it felt so horrible.

The same feeling, less new but just as raw, returned in a short seven months, when she and Laura had been trying to make ice cream. Laura had initiated a simple Freezing Charm, but the wand decided this was not to happen. By the time Laura got to hospital, she too had died. Luna felt a loneliness like no other, and became further absorbed into solitude.

Even at boarding school, surrounded by people her own age, Luna was much the same. She allowed herself to relax and enjoy the simple pleasures of life, though at first she was hurt by the teasing. And there was Ginny, her brother Ron, Hermione, Neville and Harry. There was Colin, and then there was the war.

So many deaths, so many wounds, so many awful things. The day it ended, in July, was a day no one could forget. It was a miracle that Harry survived, let alone the Weasley family, to whom Luna had become close. Neville…no one knew what had happened to Neville. They were all devastated, most especially Susan, Neville’s girlfriend at the time. She lived in Luna’s building after the war.

Luna didn’t find out much about the Order of the Phoenix. She only knew who they were, not much about the members. Ginny and Hermione’s friend Tonks survived and got married to Professor Lupin, which was lovely, if a bit strange.

Draco Malfoy was gone, and none of her friends mourned him, but Luna still felt that odd feeling she got when someone she had met or known had died. However, like Dumbledore, Luna chose not to be afraid of death, but to see it as a new path, and to enjoy the old path before it ended.

Though the wonderful school would never be the same without its greatest headmaster, Hogwarts survived…Luna couldn’t imagine life without it, but she had to when she left. And six years after she did so, a new chapter of her life began.