Treasured Thursdays: Harry Potter Style Part 3-A Double Dose

Treasured Thursday is a weekly event created by Touya over at The Reader's Garden that is all about our most treasured. I'm hosting it here now, for those of you who are interested in joining me. This month, as you all know by now, we are ALL about Harry Potter, so we decided to focus on HP specific topics.  This week we're giving you a double dose; our most treasured member of Dumbledore's Army and our most treasured member of the Order of the Phoenix. 


Once again, Tammy got my pick first and it seems I got Lana's as my second choice, so I'm going to do something a little different and talk a little about both Luna Lovegood & Neville Longbottom. 

These two are probably the most loyal of Harry's friends aside from Hermione & Ron. (Ok and Ginny, sorry. You know what I mean.) They have none of the information Ron and Hermione do about what Harry has to do, and still, they are always there to support him and do what must be done to help the cause. They put themselves in mortal danger again and again to help Harry fight the Death Eaters. 


Luna is one of my favorite characters in the books (not so much in the movies). She is so unique and while most of what she says is a bit insane, there are little nuggets of knowledge there, too. 


"Oh, come on. You heard them, just behind the veil, didn’t you? They were just lurking out of sight, that’s all. You heard them."

And then we have Neville. The boy who has had just as tragic a childhood as Harry, without the neglect, of course. Neville was a favorite of mine from the moment at the end of the Sorcerer's Stone when he braved the Hogwarts hallways at night to try and warn Harry about something. Even though he was terrified of what could be out there, he still did it, to help his friends. 


'We were all in the D.A. together,' said Neville quietly. 'It was all supposed to be about fighting You-Know-Who, wasn't it? And this is the first chance we've had to do something real – or was that all just a game or something?'
'No – of course it wasn't –' said Harry impatiently.
'Then we should come too,' said Neville simply. 'We want to help.'

I love both these characters dearly & really hoped to see them become a couple at the end of the series, but unfortunately Ms. Rowling didn't see fit to show us much of their future. 

 Onto my most treasured member of the Order of the Phoenix. I almost picked Dumbledore, but honestly, in my mind, one man stands out above the rest. Since the moment I finished Prisoner of Azkaban, I loved Sirius Black's character. To me it seemed, Sirius had always been something of an outsider, even in his own family. Then he had James and Remus at school, but then once the Potters were dead, he was left with nothing, quite literally. Unjustly imprisoned and left with the stigma of being a Death Eater, Sirius' life was far from fair.

"Believe me. I never betrayed James and Lily. I would have died before I betrayed them."

 I love the relationship between he and Harry. He is sort of a parent substitute/uncle/godfather/brother/friend all rolled into one. What I love about it most, though is that Harry doesn't just need and depend on Sirius to fill those holes in his life; it's definitely a two way street. Sirius needs Harry just as much. They are each other's family. 

Sirius is loyal and brave and somewhat arrogant at times. He can behave more like a teenager than a grown man when he's feeling useless but, he always comes through for Harry. Always. How can you not love a person like that? 

Combo meal, comin’ up!

HA! I love it. Mel has Luna and Tammy has Tonks. But seriously, there are no other people I feel the need to tip my hat to! I love when we’re all different but.. Ach. They have Neville and Sirius so it’s all good! ;D

Luna Lovegood, honestly, I didn’t trust her when she first came on screen. I thought she was just acting so…well…odd, to perhaps get in good graces with Harry and BANG stab him in the back, or something of that nature. But noooooooooo. I was wrong. Per usual when it comes to this series.

After I figured out she wasn’t going to kill anyone I liked, I began to just love her! Though nothing she says is really taken seriously, I believe she is onto something. And like Dumbledore, she comes up with the cutest little lines.

"Mistletoe," said Luna dreamily, pointing at a large clump of white berries placed almost over Harry's head. He jumped out from under it. "Good thinking," said Luna seriously. "It's often infested with nargles."

She’s a wonderful character and definitely a treasure!

As for Tonks…

…I love my fierce women! And if she isn’t that then I don’t know who is. She’s bitchy and fierce, but not to the point where she appears in a scene and I go, “Here we go; time to get pissed at the characters.” Nope. I love her.

Only thing I’m curious about it, why we didn’t see any story with Remus… Uh. In all honesty, seeing the movies first, I didn’t know they were together or even interested in each other until about the end. Actually, I thought he was her FATHER. I can tell this is gonna piss me off when I get to the book this is mentioned in, because lemme tell ya, if my girl got as shafted as it appears she did, I have a problem here… Urgh.

Sorry, sorry, I’m threatening the book before I even get to it. Bad Lana, BAD.

Anyway. Tonks is definitely my most treasured member of the DA- and the only contest? Mel’s got it covered ;)

“Don’t. Call me. Nymphadora.”

Neville Longbottom . Again, his storyline was much better in the books than in the movies; at least they included him in the movies at all! His story and watching him grow and battle his inner demons is almost as prolific as Harry’s. When Harry’s parents were killed and he was unfortunately tied to Voldemort we had a great many other tragedies as well. In the books, this is recognized, not so much in the movies. I really wanted to see him and Luna in the end as well, to see how they’d gotten along since leaving Hogwarts. I guess that is what imaginations are for!

TONKS! You know how I like my strong female characters; if they have a bit of bitch in them, even better! Here is yet another story line that was explored more fully in the books; Tonks and Remus. The movies don’t even show the struggle she had to get her man, he was so hesitant in the beginning; not only because of what he is,  but because of their age difference as well. It is such a great part of the books. I don’t understand why they couldn’t include it in the movies. We were on vacation in Florida when DH came out and I was reading it on the beach, crying like a baby. GAH! I swear they cut more stories from the movies than they left in. I’m aggravated now just thinking about it.

These are our most treasured, who are yours?