Aspies For Freedom

In both the book and the movie, Luna seems like she might be either Aspie or have the very spacy-type, non-hyper ADD.  

The girl who plays Luna is great, BTW - steals practically every scene she's in

As for Snape, he just seems like a sociopath to me.

^Speaking of this -
It would have been interesting if, somewhere in the books, something had been mentioned about what DOES happen with "special-needs" students in the magical world.  We've never seen an obvious example as far as I can remember, though as we've said, you can make a case for Luna being one (maybe Neville as well.)

I feel like a complete idiot -
I totally forgot about Lupin being a werewolf and how Dumbledore made accomodations so he could attend Hogwarts.  That probably qualifies as being a "special-needs student", albeit the magical world's version of it.

Snape's actually one of my favourite characters, in a perverse sort of way - I suppose.

Isn't Luna Lovegood supposed to be Rita Skeeter's (the gossip writer's) niece, or something?

I agree that actress is quite good.

Not the one they portray in the film, but maybe the one in the book is

Luna is not related to Rita Skeeter in either the books or movies. (A good thing.)

In the books Luna's father owns "The Quibbler", the magical world's gossip magazine. In "Order Of The Phoenix", when nobody believes Harry's assertion that Voldemort is back, Hermione and Luna arrange for Skeeter to interview Harry about Voldemort's return, and Luna gets her father to publish it in "The Quibbler" since no mainstream media will touch the story.

Probably that's the source of confusion about who's related to who.  

Haven't heard anything about that- but then I haven't got round to reading book 7 yet.

I wondered if she was an Aspie too!

But after reading the seventh book I wonder if... maybe, she (and her dad) was based off an Aspie who Rowling knew a little, but not well. Her dad especially came across as more of an "NT's perception of an Aspie" than a real Aspie to me...

About Snape, I don't think he's an Aspie. He may have been treated like one but he doesn't act like one. And I don't think he's a sociopath, either.

I would rather like to think that that wasn't the case. Personally, I'm not a big fan of Skeeter. But I think Luna screams AS, especially in the way she is portrayed in the film.

See above. I was incorrect and mistaken.

What a relief

I can at times compare my self to Voldemort when it comes to hating NT stupidity.

I do think Luna have lots of aspie traits. I also think there's something there in Neville and in Snape. I'm not sure what, but I don't see either as NT at all.

Well, if the way many people there treat squibs, muggleborns and halfbloods is any indicative (and why not say people from other houses), "special-needs" wizards must live in hell there (or be kicked back to the muggle world). Besides, I'm not sure, but I think I read it somewhere that Lupin just was accepted in Hogwarts out of Dumbledore's good heart. I think he was pretty much an exception, and would not be there if Dumbledore wasn't the headmaster... Besides, no one can convince me that out of the entire Hogwarts, only one of them would have the probability to have been bitten by a werewolf, since apparenty Hogwarts is the only school for the whole britain (I think that's spelled wrong...). And if anyone else there was a werewolf, they wouldn't make it sound like Lupin was the only one to use the shrieking shack.

Then again, I didn't read the sixth nor the seventh book, so I might have lost something.

We all have a little Voldemort in us.