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Fly free my precious bumblebee, for there are oft those who will wish to clip your wings. But you won't let them. Fly, fly free above the rest, tethered with all their silly nonsense. You may one day slow down for those who truly deserve it, but it will be naught but a brief respite as you fly, fly free my little bumblebee. They can try to keep up, but they shan't begrudge you the freedom of movement through dimensions they cannot perceive as you fly- fly free, my little bumblebee. And those who would chain you down, well just slip through them upside down, for they can't keep up- and they'll simply try. But you won't let them. My little bumblebee, don't you dare let them. - Pandora Lovegood
Luna had always seen things others couldn't. Others wouldn't . But that didn't stop her from seeing them all the same.
It mattered not that the Weasley boy branded her looney, thinking himself oh so clever. Nor that the Diggory boy treated her like fragile glass.
Nor did it matter that Mrs. Weasley would pat her head condescendingly and say, “that’s nice dear,” when she tried to warn her of the Blibbering Humdingers in her garden.
She was two , not stupid. She could clearly see the white motes of light by the hole in the garden wall. She knew that white light, or Blibbering Humdingers, were used to distract people.
She herself often forgot about the hole in the garden wall, as is the magic of the Blibbering Humdingers, but she never forgot about dancing fey-like creatures themselves.
No it did not matter one whit what anyone else thought, as Mama listened. Mama paid attention. And Mama asked.
“Slow down a moment, bumblebee, explain to me what it is you see. Not just their name, but what they look like sweetie.” Mama was brushing her hair nice and silky.
“Can I have a ribbon today?” She asked looking up at mama. Mama smiled and nodded, “but what were you saying about the Blibbering Humdingers darling girl?”
“They are white and floaty and always dancing!” She smiled at her mama. “There was something else too...” Luna thought about it for a moment. “Oh yes! They distract people!” Her toddler hands were thrown wide.
“Lovely observations, little bumblebee. And you said you saw them by the Weasley’s garden wall?” Mama asked and Luna nodded her head fiercely.
Mama finished braiding the ribbon through her hair before kissing her temple. Luna giggled, as it always made her giggly when mama kissed her temple.
“Why don’t you go practice with your paints my little bumblebee. Mama has some work to do.”
“‘Kay!” Said Luna, zipping off to get the finger paints.
She was four, not stupid.
She knew that the Weasley twins were stealing things from around the burrow. Even things she herself owned.
They liked to “experiment” with them. But she also knew if she told Mrs. Weasley she’d get a “ that’s nice dear” and ignored. Just like every time she told Mrs. Weasley anything.
So when Mama asked where her pretty red ribbon went she blamed the Nargles. Of course, it wasn’t really the Nargles. Nargles only infest mistletoe, they were a bright pink color with a mischievous feel to them and they often trapped people until they kissed.
But she didn’t want Mama to worry so said her white lie.
Mama knew better. She summoned her pretty red ribbon right back and then smiled at her. “Don’t worry my little bumblebee, I have an idea.” And she kissed her forehead.
A month later Mama cast a spell on every one of her belongings. “This spell will bring your things back to your room every Sunday at noon, my little Bumblebee.”
She was six when mama smiled and said “I did it!”
What mama did was at first unclear, but then mama gave her a necklace of butterbeer caps.
“Look my darling bumblebee!” She exclaimed, “We can finally see what the Blibbering Humdingers are distracting us from!”
And see she did, the hole in the wall. She wasn’t sure how she had ever forgotten, it was large enough for a troll to pass through comfortably.
She tried to tell Mrs. Weasley, but Mrs. Weasley didn’t want to be told. “Don’t go making up stories dear. It’s okay when you’re playing with Ginny but adults need the truth.” Then she got turned out to the garden to go play.
Not even Mama could make her listen. “You have to stop pandering to her fairytales, Pandora.” Mrs. Weasley would say. Luna and mama would both frown, but the hole in the wall remained and the garden gnomes would troop back through it day after day.
When Luna was eight she saw the Wrackspurts for the first time. It was a letter that daddy opened, it was a ghastly purple hue. “Daddy, why is that letter purple?” She asked, trying to remember Mrs. Weasley's etiquette lessons.
She was never quite sure why only she and Ginny got those. Surely the boys could benefit too.
“Hmm pumpkin?” He asked distractedly while looking at the letter.
“I said, why is the letter purple?” She didn’t like how the purple was floating up from the letter and flying into her daddy’s ears.
Daddy wasn’t paying attention. His eyes seemed to glaze over a bit as he opened the letter.
“DADDY!” She said, frustrated.
“Yes dear?” He asked absently while peeling off the wax stamp.
“Why is that letter purple?” She asked for a third time, getting frustrated.
But daddy didn't answer.
And that was very unlike Daddy.
Later she learned from mommy that the purple was a curse that made daddy go all wacky in spurts. So she called the nasty purple wrackspurts. She learned later that not all wrackspurts worked quite the same, but they all made one's brain go fuzzy with too much interaction.
Mama had a cure for that, too. A pair of lovely radish earrings that prevent the wrackspurts from going into the wearer's brain. She made one for herself and one for Luna and even one for Ginny, though Ginny often forgot to wear hers.
Unfortunately the wrackspurts were already in papa’s brain, and they wouldn’t come out.
So papa wasn’t always there anymore.
But it was okay, she had mama.
Luna was nine when she saw the Gulping Plimpies for the first time. Most Plimpies were bottom-feeders but the Gulping ones were far more insidious. They stayed near the tops of the water and dragged the unwary down.
They were ghostly fish-like apparitions that looked just like regular Plimpies but you couldn’t just tie their legs into knots like the merpeople did. They couldn’t be touched, they could only touch .
Mama said they weren’t really Plimpies at all, but were water spirits that wanted to play. But the spirits didn’t understand that not everyone could breathe underwater.
Mama showed her how Gurdyroot would keep them away and keep the pond safe for little girls to swim in.
So she took the Gurdyroot and went swimming with Ginny.
It was okay just like Mama said.
It wasn’t okay, as she approached the Rookery where mama had been working on a new spell.
She had always been able to see Mama’s magic, and feel her love the moment she got close.
But she could see mama, laying in the shade of a big tree.
But she couldn’t see Mama’s magic and she couldn’t feel Mama’s love. It was cold and empty and it felt like the time she had been nearly dragged into the icy watery depths by the Gulping Plimpies.
Mama was dead. Mama wasn’t coming back.
The first time her shoes got stolen when she was just a first year at Hogwarts she was sad for a moment, but glad she had found Mama’s spell in an old journal and remembered to cast it on them. They’d be back, Sunday at Noon.
So instead of worrying about split Threstral hairs, she got herself dressed and headed out in her stockings.
She barely got out of the common room when she had to brace herself against the wall. Up through her feet she could feel the magic and love of Hogwarts. It was so warm, so motherly. It felt almost like Mama was alive and helping her explain what she was seeing once more.
So she decided, as she wandered the halls humming to herself, no she wouldn’t report the theft. It would all come back afterall. And this hug was worth all her things going missing a million times, if only to experience it once more.
So when a prefect stopped her in the hall and asked where her shoes had got to, she simply smiled and said “the Nargles took them. But don’t worry, they’ll bring them back.”