A Cytherea game of hide-and-seek

Author's note: Sorry my dear readers. I uploaded the wrong version for chapter two. I will therefore just edit this, with a continuation being added as well! Hope you understand.

The day was glorious. The lake was glittering lushly in the evening light, as the grounds around was brimming with the sounds of lives so often unseen. The birds sang in an intriguing harmony, the foxes rustled the leaves intriguingly, an all of them were welcoming the moon. Yet there were, unusually, no blonde witch there to enjoy it. No, Luna was nowhere to be found.
Since she began working at Hogwarts, evening swims in the nude had been a wonderful routine, both enjoyed by her and the few daring teenagers that had the courage to break curfew to try and sneak a peek at her. Due to her skills with a wand, she could bathe anytime without fearing the cold, but she preferred to go “au natural” as long as possible. The natural experience should be kept just that, natural.
So what did the curious woman do an evening this beautiful?
Well… She played hide and seek.
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“So when have Hermione ever had the need to work evenings? It doesn’t really suit the girl once thought for the seat of minister.” Luna pointed out to the fiery girl standing beside her.
“Well, it was what she said.” Ginny responded. “She might be in her office growing ice cream for all I know, but I can’t really imagine that. And she did seem rather swamped at dinner before, didn’t she, so I would take her for her word. Not like you to mistrust friends though, huh?”
As Ginny fired of that last bit with a teasing smile, Luna scoffed. They both stood outside the room of requirement, which usually worked as their “battleground”, sometime near the sunset. As teachers at the prestigious school, they did not need to worry about bed times or such feeble matters, they could stay up and play for as long as they liked.
Ginny had already walked the steps that needed to be done for the room to be just as she liked, and the two young women walked together into the room. As they stepped over the threshold Luna answered: “There have been a weird tension between you and Herm since your last time, so I can’t help to wonder about it. Your stories can’t really explain either; just kissing shouldn’t change a friendship, I believe. Interesting setting you have here, by the way.”
Interesting was just the word for it; the room was more or less unrecognizable, it was not even a room anymore. Not being walls and ceiling anymore, the room had transformed to something that just could be likened to a small lake a beautiful summer day. A widespread meadow was only interrupted by a lake, with a tree placed nearby, everything about 50 meters from the door. A door that was the only thing telling them that they had not actually stepped outside.
The sky was deep blue, like only the most perfect days, only interrupted by the singular cloud here and there, and some birds flying high above their heads. The lake was small but familiar, inviting in its setting with small ripples coming from wind that was not there. The tree swayed majestic by the lake. All in all, a very impressing setting, but as a hiding ground it seemed lacking. Except for the tree, there did not seem to be any hiding places above ground, and that the lake being so small told of fewer underneath.
“Yeah, I like it” Ginny said. “It is actually a real place I’ve chosen; a place not far from home. I used to go there, or here, on the warm summer days to, you know, bathe nude. The lake’s just about two meters deep, so it would never be too cold and out in the countryside most could care less about if one ran about stark-naked.”
She walked forward towards the lake, gesturing at Luna to follow her.
“And I guess you’re wondering how I ever thought it was possible to hide anything here?”
“The thought did cross my mind…” Luna answered.
As the women walked, nothing even remotely sketchy appeared. The place was calm, and open. Unfit, some might say.
“But you were always one for trying things. I remember when you tried to hide a piece of parchment in a desert.” Luna concluded. Ginny laughed:
“Heh, yeah. It was all great and glorious in theory, until Hermione decided that a sandstorm would be a fun way to end that game. Not that hard to pick out a paper when everything else around is, well, flying sand. You’re one to talk; you tried to hide a broom as a tree branch.” The red haired woman smiled towards her friend, while keeping the pace steady. As Luna grumbled in response, the women reached the lake soon enough. They silently took in the scene: the grass blowing gently from a wind unknown, the lake glittering from a sun going down to new watch over other worlds. All was calm, until Ginny spoke:
“Well, the criteria for a good hiding place are all dependent on what I’ve hidden, isn’t it so? So for all you know, this might be the perfect place to hide a straw of grass or a drip of water, which, I can imagine it would be.” Before Luna could interrupt her, she doughtily continued:
“But I haven’t, so don’t worry. I’d think that would be rather tame. No, as you’ve heard, last time Hermione hid a spell. The idea… worked fantastically then, so I’ve taken that idea and tweaked it a bit. You’ll be looking for an inscription…”
Luna had not seemed to listen, wandering around and looking seemingly curious on mostly everything around the lake, but it did not anger Ginny. The blonde had been like that since the first time Ginny met her and Ginny knew that she had heard every word.
“An inscription…” Luna muttered, without elaborating.
“Yeah, a phrase of sorts, that will help your game, this game – our game – evolve.” Ginny concluded. She looked curiously on the blonde woman, being especially attentive for any reaction the last bit would procure, but nothing. Luna looked as far away as ever, seemingly searching for Merlin-knows-what at the bottom of the tree. She did not seem to find anything, because she was unfazed as she looked at Ginny.
“So, I need to find a scribble?” She asked. “Or, as you so poetically stated, an inscription?” She added.
“Yeah! Easy, right?!” Ginny happily stated. She seemed to be rather pleased with Luna’s reaction or she just played on Luna’s apparent distrust of the concept of hiding words in meadows and lakes. “But I can see your problem. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? And this place paints a rather beautiful picture so … you have some work to do.” She finished with a smile that was borderline devilish.
“I think your thinking is somewhat flawed there” Luna responded, to what Ginny reacted with theatrical look of despair. Clearly she was in a very good mode, as she donned her best sorrowful face and said: “Oh Minerva! Whatever happened to that young girl, so happy, so curious, so innocent, that made her like this? Thinking is flawed, from the girl that argued that Nargles needed their own space in the common room! I’m sad. And hurt. And sad, again! Oh Merlin what spell might’ve you cast, to turn this once so glorious girl into this?”
At this magnificent portrayal of a friend filled with woe and worry, Luna could not help but smile. She went over to Ginny, took her in her arms and gently, but a little mockingly, said: “There there”
“And whoever did ever learn you about joking with people?” Ginny said, in an almost normal voice while brushing of the blonde’s mocking hug. A hand that did seem reluctant to go away, so it lingered on Luna’s shoulder.
“That year in Sweden did wonders for you, really” Ginny continued. “That you would ever learn to not take everything so literal is a wonder equal to the boy-all-know growing up shagging Neville Longbottom.”
“And yet, both did happen. Well, I had to learn humour, and more specifically irony, the hard way. I wouldn’t have survived in Sweden without a proper understanding that almost nothing a swede says can be taken at face value – if they say anything at all.” Luna did not seem to mind the hand left on her shoulder. If one squinted, it almost looked like she leaned into it. “But anyway, I imagine that there are more to this than just an inscription. Do I get a clue?”
At this Ginny removed herself from the astonishing pretty woman beside her, and walked up to the tree. Putting a hand beside a formation of bark that did not quite look natural she said:
“What do I know? You’ll have to look for yourself”
She then walked to the lake and sat down, facing away from the tree, whistling to the scenery. A bird not close answered, which was noteworthy, as they were still inside a room. And Luna walked towards the tree.