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It’s a common belief amongst the Hogwarts student body that James Potter is, while able to keep afloat in all of his classes, not one of the most intelligent wizards in the school. Not when he attends school, and is close with not to mention, people like Lily Evans, Remus Lupin, and Regulus Black. Despite that, he and Sirius--who also doesn’t seem like the most intelligent person--show their prowess in their own ways. Just because they don’t spend a lot of time studying and James doesn’t have the attention span to take tests or get his homework done, doesn’t mean that he’s stupid.
In fact, James speaks nine languages, though almost no one--not even Sirius, Remus or Regulus--know that. He’s only fluent in three of them, but he’s mostly conversational in the other six, and it’s not uncommon to see him communicating with Peter and Marlene through sign language. He’s also recently bugged Remus into agreeing to teach him Welsh, even if it's just the basics.
When he’s not busy doing school, pranks, or quidditch, he’s pouring over books and working on languages. He has a bookshelf back at home that is covered with translation dictionaries, language basics guides, books--both children’s books and a couple more advanced ones in each language--and workbooks. His most recent fascination is Latin.
Learning languages has been a hyperfixation of his since he was born into a family where both parents were bilingual with two different languages, his mum speaking Hindi and his dad speaking Spanish. They raised him to be trilingual, speaking Spanish, Hindi, and English equally. Speaking any one of those three is second nature, though very few people outside of his close friend group even know that he speaks more than just English.
After that, there was a unique draw to learning new languages. His dad had a family friend who was born and raised in Italy and was all the more willing to teach him a couple things. The two of them still talk but the friend refuses to speak in English when he’s talking to James, even going so far as to pretend he doesn’t understand what James is saying if he does talk to him in English. Then, just before he started at Hogwarts, James started learning French, which is the language he’s most fluent in of the ones he didn’t grow up speaking and he continues to practice it all the time. During the summer between first and second year, Marlene started learning German and James joined her so they could learn together and bounce off each other.
Japanese and Swedish are by far the most random languages that James can speak and they both stem from far before he was in Hogwarts. When he and Peter were seven, they were sent to a summer camp that hosted several language classes. They offered both Spanish and Japanese, for some reason, and James figured that he would take the latter. It was at that same summer camp that he and Peter started learning sign language--which they brought back to Marlene, eventually leading to their silent communication schemes.
Then, at the school he attended before Hogwarts, he had a Swedish teacher that would bring the class delicious Swedish chocolate whenever she would visit her hometown. Being the young children that they were, his class was fascinated by her stories and pictures--the chocolate was a bonus--and there was something about hearing her speak the language that made him want to learn it. However, he didn’t actually start learning the language until he was in his sixth year.
James isn’t fully sure why he moved on to Latin but it’s always interested him, for unknown reasons, and he found some great books in the library to go through. If there’s one thing that’s well documented in Hogwarts, it’s Latin, after all most wizardry comes from the language.
Once again, no one knows about this other than Pete and Marlene. James has never really had any reason to tell people about it and he likes listening in on the conversations and drama between the various Hogwarts students as they talk in their second, or native, languages. Once a month he meets with Pete and Marlene and has a big gossip sesh where James gives them a debrief of all the things that he heard around the school, or he or Marlene will sign to Peter what someone is saying in the moment so they’re all caught up on the situation.
The biggest reason that James likes that people don’t know are the conversations that his friends have without knowing that he can hear them. Regulus and Sirius arguing or flirting with either himself or Remus (respectively), or even just them talking. He’s caught several conversations between Sirius and Regulus where they’re teasing each other which is how he knew that Regulus returned his affections. He goes bright red when Regulus flirts with him, and while most people assume it’s because he likes the sound of Regulus speaking French--which he does, don’t get him wrong--it’s mostly because Regulus says some nasty things to him when he thinks that James doesn’t understand him.
Alternatively, he loves listening to Barty and Dorcas speak Italian. They’re the most entertaining people to listen to when they’re arguing and he adores listening to them flirt with Evan and Marlene. Usually the girl ends up coming to him with a rough imitation of whatever her girlfriend said to her and James has to tell her what she said, sometimes blushing absolutely scarlet at what Dorcas says to his childhood friend. Several times, Dorcas has questioned how Marlene managed to know what she was saying but the girl never fesses up. It’s also the reason that James thought Barty and Evan were dating far before they were because of the way that Barty would talk about, or to, Evan in Italian--hence his severe confusion when Regulus told him that they ‘finally’ got together.
However, all facades have to come to an end eventually and it’s entirely accidently that James reveals his French prowess to his boyfriend and best friend.
It starts when the three of them are lounging in the Gryffindor’s dorm with Remus, James and Regulus on James’ bed and Sirius and Remus on Remus’. Regulus is working on homework and asks, “Sirius, quel est le mot anglais pour ‘langue?’”
And James, who had a carefully protected ability to speak French for a whole seven years, passively and absent-mindedly answers before Sirius can, “It’s tongue.” He’s twirling his wand around in his hands, not paying much attention. That is, until he looks up and sees all three of his friends staring, nay gaping, at him. He tilts his head, “What?”
“How did you know what I said?” Regulus asks, having stopped with his homework entirely.
“What?”
The younger furrows his brows, “You answered my question.”
However, James still hasn’t come to terms with the situation and he frowns, “What do you mean? Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because it was in French, Prongs.” Sirius answers, “And it wasn’t a common question. Not one that you would just… hear all the time.”
James pales at the realization. He hums and starts rubbing at the back of his neck, “Uhm… surprise! I’ve been… learning French.”
“For just how long?” Regulus asks, looking directly in James’ eyes with a raised brow, “Most people I know that are just recently starting to learn French wouldn’t have been able to process that question fast enough to answer before Sirius.”
The older bites his lip. He looks between Sirius, Remus, and Regulus for a while before he sighs, “Uhm- since… since like three months before we started school… here.”
“I’m fucking sorry!?” Sirius shouts, “You have spoken French the entire time that I’ve known you and you just didn’t think it was important enough to, y’know, tell me!?”
“Or me?” Regulus asks, “I’m literally your boyfriend.” Then he flushes, “Oh shit… that means, you understand everything I’ve ever said to you?”
James nods and chuckles awkwardly, “I uh… I asked you out because I overheard you talking to Sirius about your crush on me. I wouldn’t have done anything about it but since I learned that you liked me back…”
“Do you have a reason for having learned French?” Remus asks, interrupting the staring contest between James and Sirius, “You did it before you knew Sirius, so it wasn’t because of him.”
James shrugs with one shoulder, “It was just a cool language. And, I mean, it’s got similar conventions to Spanish so I didn’t have that hard of a time figuring it out.”
“Okay,” Sirius says, putting his hands out, “Wait. James, what other languages are you hiding from us?”
“Oh,” James hums. He pauses for a moment, debating on if he wanted to tell his friends, and boyfriend, about all of his knowledge on different languages or if he wanted to keep that for himself as a fun little surprise later on, “I… I also speak Italian. It’s another one that I’ve spoken since before Hogwarts.”
Regulus’ mouth forms an ‘oh’, and his eyes widen, “Oh my Merlin. That’s why you thought that Barty and Evan were dating before they actually were.”
James nods, “You should hear the way that he talks about Evan. Or talks to him.” He grimaces, “Sometimes, I wish that I couldn’t understand Italian because of him.”
“I don’t want to know.” Regulus groans, “Never tell me if he says something gross.”
“Oh, wait until you hear what I have to tell Marlene sometimes.”
“What?” Sirius shouts, “What do you tell Marlene?”
James groans, “Dorcas flirts with Marlene in Italian and Marls has me translate for her and, some of it is innocent, but…” he fakes a shiver, “I don’t appreciate being an intermediate in their flirting. Almost to the point where I’m ready to teach Marlene Italian.”
“What is it with people and saying foul things in the language their partner can’t speak just because they can?” Remus asks.
James groans, “I don’t know. There’s something about saying things that your partner can’t understand that is like… appealing to them. I just know that I hate having to hear it,” he glances at his boyfriend, who’s furrowing his brows as he looks up at him, “unless it’s you. I don’t like listening to other couples doing it, because I don’t need to know that and they say some weird shit.”
“Okay, before we end this conversation because now I’m uncomfortable,” Sirius says, clearing his throat. He levels James with a look, “Is there anything else you’re hiding from us?”
James hums and breaks out into a grin, “Moshi watashi wa ieba Nihongo o hanasu koto ga dekimasu ka?”
“Oh come on!” Sirius shouts, throwing his arms up. James just starts laughing.
After that, it takes a year and a half before Sirius, Remus, and Regulus learn the pure extent of James’ language knowledge--and by then, he had moved on from Latin, had started learning Welsh with Remus, and had moved on to individually learning Dutch--and it’s just more entertaining conversations like the previous one, usually sparked by James saying something without thinking about it or talking to Marlene or Pete about it.