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“Where is the map?” Remus whispers harshly to James as they watch Regulus and Sirius walk out of the dinner hall together--Sirius dragging Regulus by his wrist.
“I think it’s in my trunk.” James whispers back, “Should we go grab it first, or just follow them?”
“Probably follow them.” Remus informs him. James nods and the two quickly jump up and start walking out, informing Pete that he can eat whatever he wants from their plates--to which Pete celebrates. They take quick steps, arm-in-arm, to where they think the brothers would disappear to.
And when they finally arrive at the empty classroom they decided their boyfriends would disappear to, sure as shit Sirius and Regulus are in the classroom hissing at each other. James and Remus push the door open and slip in, choosing to sit at the desks in the back of the room and listen to their boyfriends argue in French.
Remus and James look between each other, brows furrowed in concern and a bit of confusion while the two of them argue, getting progressively louder. Remus leans towards James, “I should be concerned but that’s…”
“Hot?” James asks after his friend trails off, a knowing smile on his face.
Remus blushes and nods after a couple seconds, “They’re probably ripping into each other but…” he trails off against, opening and closing his mouth before laughing a bit and shaking his head--like he’s regretting what he’s about to say before he says it.
And James has known him for long enough, “You want Sirius to rip into you.”
“I wasn’t gonna say it like that, but… yeah.” Then Remus glares at him when James gives him a bit of a laugh, “Don’t act like you don’t enjoy them speaking French as well.”
James nods, “It is nice. Their accents are incredibly charming.”
“Especially when they say it low.” Remus says, starting to amp up the theatrics. He fans at his face with his hand jokingly, making James laugh and shove him with his shoulder.
Then Regulus goes, “Au moins, je ne suis pas tout le temps sur le dos de mon petit ami.”
To which Sirius scoffs back, “Comme si tu n'aviez pas réalisé votre fantasme de passer de l'ennemi à l'amant.”
And that, as well, makes James snort in laughter. To which Remus’ eyes widen and his head whips to his friend, then to his boyfriend and Regulus, then back to James. “Did you understand what they just said?”
And James turns to him with a smirk and nods, “I did.”
“Wait, what?” Remus stares at them, “First of all, how long have you spoken French. Second of all, what did they say that made you laugh and finally reveal that you knew French.”
“It was about our relationships with them. Sirius called Reggie and I his ‘enemies to lovers fantasy’.” James informs him, fondly rolling his eyes.
“And are you going to answer the first question?”
“And what was the first question?” Sirius asks, suddenly in front of the desk that they’re sitting in. At some point, the brothers have finished with their conversation and have begun to listen to the one that James and Remus have started to have.
Remus turns to the brothers, eyebrows raised in some sort of smug facial expression, “It was just how long James has spoken French.” The words make both Black brothers whip towards James, who is sitting there with a small smile on his face.
But Sirius is the one to speak out of the two of them, “You what!? You speak French, and you just haven’t told me?” He then whips to his younger brother, “Did you know this?”
Regulus shakes his head, “Not a clue.”
“James, would you like to answer Remus’ question?” Sirius asks, seemingly jokingly tense.
James shrugs, “I’ve spoken French since I was a kid. You can ask Pete.” He stands up and starts walking towards the door of the classroom, his friends and boyfriend following him in tow.
“Peter fucking Pettigrew knows that you speak French and neither of you have casually mentioned it.” Sirius asks, immediately going to catch up to his best friend, hand pressed to his shoulder, “Does Marlene know?”
James nods, “Yeah. Marlene speaks French too.”
And finally, Regulus adds on, “Why do you know French?”
James smiles and turns to look at his boyfriend, still walking, “My family loves traveling, I think I’ve told you that. And when I was younger, we used to go to France a lot. My grandparents are French, on my dad’s side, and we’d go visit them. After that, I picked up on French and grabbed several books and a dictionary to work on my French.” James shrugs, “When my grandparents learned that I was learning French, they started to only speak in it to me. Dad and I still talk in French sometimes.”
“Is that why dad always knows what I’m saying when I talk to myself?” Sirius asks, his eyes bulging.
James nods, “He grew up in France before he was invited to Hogwarts.”
“Why did he go to Hogwarts and not Beauxbaton’s?”
“He was invited to Hogwarts.” James shrugs, “And I think he liked how it looked more.” Eventually they make it to the Gryffindor tower and walk in, “And he’s glad that he did go here.”
Then, after a couple of seconds, Regulus pauses, “Wait. So you have understood everything I’ve said to you. And just acted oblivious.”
James shrugs, “I wasn’t acting oblivious or anything, I just got too flustered by you to say anything about it.”
And Sirius whirls on Regulus, “Just what have you been saying to him?”
“Nothing you need to know about.” Regulus smiles as the four of them step into the Gryffindors’ dorm, where Peter is laying back on his bed.
“What does Sirius not need to know about?” Pete asks, still not sitting up.
“About what Reggie says to me in French.” James smiles, waltzing over to his childhood friend’s bed and throwing himself onto it, “Because our dear friends have just learned that I don’t only speak one language.”
Pete looks at Remus, Regulus, and Sirius, then back to James, “How did they take that?”
James laughs, “They’re a bit shocked.”
“Yeah! We’re a bit shocked!” Sirius shouts, “I have known you for seven years and you have been dating Reggie for one of those and neither of us knew we could understand what we were saying.”
Remus nods, “Yeah, if I knew, I would’ve asked you to teach me French earlier. We both know Sirius refuses to teach me.”
James gives his friend a sweet, teasing smile, “I can do that for you.”
And true to his words days later, James and Remus have started their French lessons, which are going well, and Regulus finds out the entire reason the school gets all flustered when he and his brother speak French; he’s never understood it, being someone who grew up around those that spoke the language and especially considering they are his family. However, he quickly gets to see the other side of the situation when James speaks to him in an accent that quite frankly makes his knees go weak.
But only James is allowed to know that, and he does.
And he uses it against Reggie like the ravenette had used it against him.
Not that he’s all that mad, though.