Nightmares (HP) (Drarry)

twenty two: and i serve you

Luna Lovegood hears and sees things that others do not. The fact that she and she alone experiences the things she does does not make her experience -- or those things -- any less real.

In fact, she's far more There than any of them. She has heard whispered secrets of the generations before her, and those to come. 

She's special. Not in an infantilization way, not in a special snowflake way. I have no pity in my tales to you, Reader. She has no need for it and my heart is not a leaky faucet; sometimes, there is little pity to spare.

She's special. It's not because of anything she alone chose. It's not because of her magic, because her core is all but unrelated to the situation is entirely unrelated to magic as it is. If Luna "Loony" Lovegood was a Muggle, then I reckon she would be seeing the same thing she does know. She will be regarded as an outsider no matter what world she resides in.

Luna calls what she sees -- and hears, and feels, and experiences that Sets Her Apart -- a religion. I suppose if I was in her shoes, and may I never be, I would call it the same thing. But, even so, the title... it is not entirely accurate. 

Luna also calls what she sees, hears, lives, and experiences, a lifestyle. I find it more fitting. Because a religion implies a set lifestyle to follow, and I disagree that Luna living her life as it is is anything even related to Set In Stone.

Luna's religion is everything she sees that others -- the others that promise her an overthrown government and the others that hide her shoes where she cannot find nor reach them alike -- do not. She talks about some because some give her permission to be talked about. They like the attention, so perhaps Nargles and Wrackspurts are more human (more There) than both you and I. Attention Seeking is often an insult thrown around like it has weight, which is arguably untrue, but I think that what people, Purebloods and Muggles alike, fail to recognize is that we are all attention seekings. The person you're degrading is not special. 

So, some creatures of the dead and "un" so like to be talked about. Attention Seekers, though one can not and will not blame them for it. Others like to be heard only for Luna's ears, telling things she was not supposed to hear but does anyway. They are not from there. They're special, just like dear "Less Loony Than Assumed Loony." They are from here, the same place as you and I, Reader, and Luna is special in the world she shares with Harry because she is from here, too. 

Luna calls hearing the calls from worlds not the one she exists in, and the world she thinks she used to reside in herself, a religion because that is what others like to call it. She described it once to a particularly sympathetic sixth year and they said she heard the voice of God. Luna's not sure she disagrees, so she ran with it.

Luna calls it a religion because she hears the voice of God.

Luna calls it a lifestyle because whatever They say -- these voices that do not like to be spoken about -- is trurth. They have never told a lie and it is unlikely they plan to. She takes their advice and applies it. It is her way and has been and will never cease to be.

She's special. But not that special. Not one of a kind special.

Because, after all, Dolorus Umrbidge does exist.