Luna Lovegood was wandering the corridors of Hogwarts, looking for something.
She wasn't quite sure what she was looking for. She had had a clear idea when she left Ravenclaw Tower, and it had completely vanished.
Did it matter anymore? . . . She was looking for something.
After some indecisive wandering, she found herself in front of the blank stretch of wall that concealed the Room of Requirement. Luna had fond memories of the Come-and-Go Room; in her fourth year, this had been the meeting place of Dumbledore's Army. It was really a shame that they weren't meeting anymore. Maybe that was what she was looking for, a shadow of friendships unmaintained.
She began the customary pacing-back-and-forth, concentrating on her need.
I need to find something . . . I need to find something . . . I need to find something . . .
The door appeared. Luna stepped cautiously into the Room. It was the DA room, altered almost beyond recognition. Towering piles of miscellaneous detritus climbed to the arched ceiling, a veritable kingdom of lost things.
"I wonder where you came from," she said softly. She was speaking to the room, the objects . . . the world at large, really.
"Who's there?"
It was a male voice, a low, urgent hiss that reverberated slightly. Luna began to walk gingerly forward, weaving her way towards the sound of the voice.
"I said, who's there!"
The voice broke, then wavered off. The speaker, whoever he was, was tense with fear.
"Me," said Luna simply, trying to put the speaker at ease. She followed the voice in a new direction, playing Marco-Polo with him.
"Who are you?"
Fear, yes, but also curiosity. Luna wove around a teetering pile of debris, nearing her goal.
She paused. There were two distinct paths ahead in this convoluted maze, and Luna needed another hint.
"A friend." It was the first response that came to mind. The speaker was silent, apparently considering her simple yet cryptic answer.
It was true, Luna reflected. The Room had brought them together, she and the faceless voice, and she certainly did not intend to harm him. This made them friends of a sort, did it not?
The voice came again. It was slightly nasal with irritation now. "Seriously, who are you? Goyle? If that's you, drop it. I don't have time for bloody games."
Luna took the left-hand path, considering her next reply.
"I adore a game. What shall we play?"
"You're not Goyle, then." He hesitated. "Do you have a name?"
"Name your game," she said dreamily, the two words knocking pleasantly together in her mind.
"Coy, aren't we?" The voice was more distant now, growing fainter and more reverberant. Luna bit her lip slightly in anticipation. He would play her game.
" 'What is water?' said one koi to another," she quipped, angling her path towards the voice.
"Water is watever you wish it to be, little koi."
"And I can be whatever I wish myself?"
"Wish yourself far away from here, if you have any sense."
"I wish you would come out."
"Wish on, my fish. I am unmoved."
"Yet constantly moving."
"I've played your game, o fountain of epigrams. Consider yourself sated and begone."
"I refuse to brook disappointment, at this point."
She was getting closer.
"Welcome to my brook, little fish. Now, please leave."
On a sudden impulse, Luna ducked around a corner and quite literally ran into the source of the disembodied voice.
She had found what she was looking for.