Ooh, see, that part about how characters 'went wandering' in OotP makes a lot of sense, actually. Because that book really felt like a game-changer when I was reading it...and then HBP felt very rigidly constrained, like it was being thoroughly tied up and tamed.

And I just always felt that Luna really was the only one who not only understood Harry on that level, but could deal with it and help him instinctively in the right ways in dealing with it all.

Are we twins? Brain twins, separated in the pre-birth ether? Because, yeah, out of all the characters, Luna seemed like the one who best understood Harry and the nature of difference. Perhaps she wouldn't be able to give him 'normal', but I always felt a little like Harry would never achieve 'normal' at the end of all he'd been through.