Harry was sitting in the common room thumbing through the copy of Aurors of the Centuries Mika had given him when Niamh came in, her eyes red-rimmed and puffy.  He looked up at her, did a double take, then leapt to his feet, the book falling to the floor in a flutter of pages.  Hedwig made a hiss of protest from where she lay curled up on the floor as the book had very nearly fallen on her but Harry wasn’t paying any attention.  His eyes were on his friend, who looked as though her entire world had fallen to pieces and couldn’t be pieced back together.

“Ni!  Slytherin’s ghost, wha’ happened to ye?”

Niamh simply shook her head and made to walk past him towards her dorm but he grabbed her arm and turned her back around to face him.  She ducked her head but didn’t try to move away.

“Let go, Harry.”

“Na until ye tell me what’s goin’ on.”

“Harry, please…”

“Ni, ye can tell me.  Ye know tha’.”

“I know,” whispered the girl in a barely audible voice.

Harry sighed and asked, “Ye want some cocoa?”

Niamh looked up at him and smiled slightly.

“That’d be great.”

Harry smiled in return and said, “Alrigh’.  I’ll be righ’ back.  Ye go sit on the couch, ‘kay?”

Niamh nodded and Harry left, returning a few moments later with two carefully concealed mugs of steaming cocoa.  He slipped across the common room to where Niamh sat curled up on the couch hugging a pillow to her chest, tears streaking her cheeks silver.  Harry sat the mugs down on the low table in front of the couch then slowly sat down beside her.  He lifted one hand to brush away the tears from her cheek with his thumb and said softly, “Ni.”

Niamh looked up at him and sniffled, more tears pooling in her eyes.

“Ni, what’s wrong?  Ye can tell me.”

The girl shook her head, burying her face in the pillow.  “No,” said her muffled voice.  “No, I can’t, Harry.”

That hurt.  It really did.  It hurt that Niamh could not tell him what was wrong.  But he understood.  He’d often had things he wouldn’t tell Tyls, who had been his only friend on the streets.

“C’mere.”

Harry pulled Niamh close and she sniffled softly before burying her face in his shoulder and sobbing.  He sat there and let her, whispering something in Elven to her.  When she finally sat up, brushing her hand over her now even redder eyes, he smiled.

“Better?”

Niamh nodded, smiling, tears prickling in her eyes.  Harry brushed them away then handed her the cup of cocoa, picking up his own and taking a sip of the hot liquid.

“What was that?”

“Wha’?”

“What you were saying,” replied Niamh, resting her mug on her knee.  “It wasn’t Parseltongue.”

Harry set his own cup rest on his knee and sighed.

“Elven.”

“What?”

“It was Elven.”

Niamh blinked and asked, “Where did you learn Elven?”

“I could always speak i’.  One of me ancestors married an Elven princess.  D..”  He dropped his voice before he continued.  “…Da says that we’ve go’ a bit of the magic left and that speakin’ Elven comes to us as easy as breathing.”

“Wow.  High Elves?”

Harry nodded, taking another sip of the cocoa.

“Wow.”

“I presume ye feel better?” asked Harry with a smile.

Niamh’s cheeks flushed slightly and she ducked her head, fiddling with her mug before taking a sip of the hot liquid.  As she lowered the cup, she replied softly, “A little.”

Harry smiled.

“Tha’s good.”

The two of them sat in silence for a moment then Niamh asked, “Is that my Aurors of the Centuries?”

Harry noted she was changing the subject and went along with it.

“Na.  Mika gave it ter me.  Apparently i’ updates itself whenever another page is made.”

“Whoa.  That must’ve cost a bundle.”

“Yeh.”

“Can I look at it?”

“Sure.”

Harry picked up the book, snagging Hedwig as he did so.  Niamh moved close to him and he laid the book across their knees, setting Hedwig down on the pillow that was stained with Niamh’s tears.  As the girl turned the pages in the book and he laid his right arm along the back of the chair, he stared at the pillow.  Sipping at the cocoa, he looked at the completely oblivious Niamh out of the corner of his eye.

When would she tell him what was wrong?