"Di," said James, carefully, and put his hand on her shoulder. Her choice of words made her sound panicked, and that was never good - it was no use pretending too much: it just made people suspicious, and besides, they had no reason to think Finn was the right audience for it.
"Thanks," he continued, with a wry nod to Finn. "It was before - well, I s'pose we all knew people before. Whatever happened to them was probably sad." That was a safe enough guess: even if the Longbottoms remained free, they were being hunted, like the rest of the Order.
He was a little surprised when Diana turned away to hug their flatmate - it was still strange, to be both afraid of people and friendly with them at the same time; before fear had been reserved, however mistakenly, for people outside your own circle - but it could hardly hurt, after all, to treat the bloke nicely. Although James would pass on sobbing on his shoulder.
"Do you want some tea, sweet? Or coffee?" he asked Diana, taking his hand away as she embraced Finn. "Since it's more-or-less morning for you lot?"
Aside from being something of a panacea for misery, tea was both normal and distracting: in comparison with the rest of their lives, a morning tea taken at odd hours was practically reasonable. And it made the news about the Longbottoms sound a little more like a bit of sentiment than the genuine worry it was.