Extra Credit Blog- Luna

A character that I noticed growing quite a bit throughout the second half of this series would have to be Luna Lovegood.  While she was only introduced in the fifth book, her presence and the growth of people accepting her cannot go unnoticed.  When Luna was first introduced in the fifth book, she was considered to be an outcast even by Harry and his friends who were usually a very accepting, friendly group of people.  She was deemed to be very weird and believed in a bunch of made-up, magical junk that her father had been telling her about and "researching."  Throughout the almost the entirety of the fifth book she is almost viewed in a negative light by all of the main characters (Harry, Ron, Hermione) until her and Harry connect on a deeper level when they both realize that they can both see thestrals, or at least understand what each had gone through to be able to see the thestrals.  This lets Harry realize that Luna isn't as bad as everyone makes her out to be.  She then occupies the small group of students who make the trip to the Department of Mysteries and fights Death Eaters with them.  It's in the sixth and seventh books where we see Harry and the gang really accept Luna as being one of their friends and doing what she can to help them in any task they have at hand.  This is especially true when she somewhat assists Harry in finding the Horcrux that is located in Rowena Ravenclaw's lost diadem.