J.K. Rowling revealed that when Luna grew up, she continued to pursue her love of animals by searching for the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, although she never found one. The author noted that at some point in her adulthood, Luna accepted the hard truth that maybe they never existed after all.  My heart goes out to Luna because every one of us has had that moment where a fairy tale we chose to cling to our entire lives was reduced to dust. I'm just grateful she was crushed in adulthood when she had the maturity to recognize the truth and accept the melancholia with grace. A crushed childhood takes years of therapy to rectify, but her childhood was rich with wonder and hope.