Peculiar Perspectives

Luna had been quite content to drift through life unnoticed. She had always been rather more… unusual, than the average witch or wizard. It was a natural consequence of being the daughter of Xenophilius Lovegood and Pandora Ollivander.

So if her gaze drifted behind people, or on their extremities, and she claimed to see things that no one else could, that was both expected and derided at the same time. It was easier for her to stay grounded when she was younger. When she had both parents. Before she was older than nine.

Because the year she turned nine was the same year she lost her mother. It had begun as a normal day. She had been watching as her mother worked on an experimental potion, one that was intended to act as a medication for the lifelong side effects of dementor exposure.

Luna never had managed to figure out what went wrong. Her mother had been brewing the potion the same as the prior tests she had performed when it all went wrong. The potion began sparking when it should have changed viscosity. And then a spark hit the flames upon which the cauldron rested.

It was as though everything happened in slow motion. Her mother noticed the sparking and spun around, casting a deluge of charms at the little cubby where Luna was watching her from, not even getting the chance to cast any on herself or distance herself from her workstation before the potion, and thus the cauldron that held it, imploded.

To say that she would be haunted by the images the event left her with would be an understatement.

After the Incident Luna was at The Burrow, more often than not. Her father, lovely and loving though he may be, was not well equipped to raise her as a single father while still mired in grief. It simply wasn’t the type of person that he was. And slowly, but surely, she began to drift into the background, with only a few people noticing her.

And she had been content to let that be the way of things. Until she met him. Or perhaps them.

The second instance in which her life was changed irrevocably was during her trip to Diagon Alley to acquire her Hogwarts supplies. She had decided to enter Magical Menagerie, mostly on a gut feeling, which is where she saw him. It really was quite an intriguing sight, seeing a translucent, reptilian-looking man attached to the teenager.

More intriguingly, he didn’t seem to be aware of the attachment.

When she arrived at Hogwarts, she was mostly impressed by the amount of ghosts and creatures. But then she encounters the grave-child again. Who was, apparently, Harry Potter. And he requests her aid.

And Luna thinks that, perhaps, she might like to be seen. That maybe, just maybe, drifting by isn’t the ideal.

She agrees to his proposition, of course. Ghosts are ever so interesting, and the chance to follow in her mother’s footsteps, as far as untested magic goes, sounds rather enjoyable to her. That agreement winds up being the impetus for her attending a Deathday Party, where they managed to gain Helena’s help with conducting the aforementioned experiments.

It's also when she hears a hissing noise, and Harry hears a voice, which winds up with them, as well as Neville who had decided to accompany them, being interrogated by the teachers, seeing as the mythic Chamber of Secrets had apparently been opened once more.

The natural conclusion was that the mode of petrification was some form of snake, given the hissing that she had heard, and the voice that Harry had heard at the same time.

The issue of the petrifications was secondary to her and Harry’s primary goal that year, however. That being experimentation surrounding the mysterious shade that seemed to be attached to him. The first round of tests was rather simple. Merely a means by which they were ensuring they were able to carry on with the next rounds.

The most concerning aspect of the results was that whatever the shade that had attached to Harry was, it was very clearly against its will if the clear attempts to separate were any indicator.

Thankfully, the issue of the petrifications was resolved before the next set of tests were conducted. A rather fortuitous turn of events, seeing as the root cause was a phylactery that had been used to awaken a basilisk.

The discovery of the phylactery was even more fortuitous, depending on how one looked at it. Though the next rite that Helena had devised had been made moot, it allowed for its own, unique experiment, which itself revealed information that was rather telling.

Such as the deep red tether she could see connecting the phylactery to Harry’s scar.

A tether that Harry could see, once he had awoken from unconsciousness. His approaching the phylactery had the intriguing effect of brightening and thickening the tether.

The natural assumption, and one that was proven correct after conferring with Harry, was that the phylactery and shade were linked in some way. Both being shards of the same soul was not, perhaps, the manner in which she had suspected they were related, but it made sense nonetheless.

Her second year was relatively uneventful if one discarded the escaped convict. Given the nature of the last test's results, Helena had determined an amulet would be the best step forward, thus meaning Luna mostly spent her time exploring the castle and Forest with Neville, who had the most delightful of auras. So many intriguing creatures were drawn to it. Of course, the year had a somewhat explosive end, in a figurative sense, seeing as it was revealed that Sirius Black was innocent, as well as Harry exorcising a dementor horde.

Third year was somewhat eventful, if only because of the Triwizard Tournament being revived and Harry being entered into it. Beyond that, and the Tasks, there wasn’t much of interest happening.

Well, that was until Harry got kidnapped.

Blaise decided to go the lethal route and threaten to poison the officials, whereas Hermione decided to start reciting laws and statutes, attempting to use the law to force those responsible for the Tournament to act. Along with Neville, she decided that the more expedient manner of perhaps acquiring assistance would be attempting to force Dumbledore, as well as the professors, to act.

It was ultimately futile, as she had expected.

The summer following her third year was rather eventful, in every way possible. She and her father had finally found a lead on how to further her mother’s research, along with Harry undergoing an assassination attempt.

The school year also began in an interesting manner, if one considered dictatorial government actions interesting.

Of course, she hadn’t quite expected that the government agent would begin torturing children. Naturally, she let Blaise know so that he could inform Harry, while she gathered the names of the students scheduled for detention.

Thankfully her part in Harry’s plan was rather minimal. She simply had to ensure that Umbridge’s victim was indisposed. Naturally, the Weasley Twins were where she went for the materials.

They were rather reluctant but wound up giving her an experimental product that wasn’t officially a prototype. Perfect for causing complicated enough side effects to necessitate an overnight stay in the Hospital Wing.

Everything went perfectly fine. Until it wasn’t going fine. Because, apparently, a spell to detect corpses existed.

And then the Aurors tried to arrest Harry and Blaise. Thankfully she was distanced enough from the plot to avoid being a person of interest. As she went to bed that night, Luna thought that, though she might not have found the sort of anchor she had lost, she had certainly found anchors that helped ease the loss.

Maybe being in the background had been nice.

But maybe she preferred to be seen.