author's note: okay so this fic contains French. at least kind of? you'll probably understand more later, but Lily and Marlene are speaking in French the majority of the time, even if it's written in English. James is kinda just automatically translating the sentences to English in his head, but hopefully that's clear enough. honestly, i'm not even sure what this fic is. i'll probably re-write it after a few weeks or so but yeah.
also! i'm not the best at french. this required me to use a language i learnt only the basics of 3 years ago and google translate. pardon me if any of the french/translations are wrong.
written for hogwarts, prompts at the bottom
for afreeeeeen aka the truest potato
esthétiquement plaisant
James had no clue why he even opted to learn French.
Well, he did actually. Sirius had insisted they all should have at least one class together. French seemed liked the easiest, even though James only knew inklings of it.
It was a... regrettable decision. Honestly, it was a lesson he should've learned a long time ago. Listening to Sirius Black was and always would be a terrible idea.
It wasn't that it was hard, but on top of his many other classes learning another language was driving him slightly crazy. Spanish would've been easier. Probably.
Now, he's stuck at the library while Sirius and Remus are off doing whatever they do without him. He's gotten pretty good at French
Quite frankly, the damn books lying in front of him seemed to be laughing at him. He had been reading French so much lately he could've swore he could actually hear the words.
In fact, they sounded ridiculouslyreal. Almost as if—
"C'est stupide. Le français est stupide." A pause. 'I wouldn't mind flunking finals if it meant I don't have to practice French every single day."
Oh. Oh.
He shifted in his chair, leaning slightly closer to the direction of the voice.
"Oh fuck off, Marlene. Les cours de français seraient plus faciles si tu écoutais vraiment en classe."
French lessons would be easy if you actually listened during the class.
He recognized that voice. Of course he did. He turned his head to the get a glimpse of the owner of the voice, but he then realized he didn't want to be caught staring so his head ended up doing a jerk kinda thing. He tried, as discreetly as possible, to look at the person who had spoken. He was only able to get a glimpse of her hair, but that was all the confirmation he needed.
It was, of course, Lily Evans.
x
To be frank, he wasn't quite sure why it even mattered that the most gorgeous and witty girl he had ever met was speaking French. They were both taking the same French class. They both had their French finals upcoming. Actually speaking French was a good way to practice the language. It didn't really matter, yet for some reason it felt like it did.
James shook his head before packing up the books which lay in front of him. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and headed back to the dorm, knowing he wasn't going to get any work done for the rest of the day.
x
James, once again, found himself in the library. This time he was determined to actually be productive.
Both Sirius and Remus had ditched him, again. They had actually seemed excited when James told them he was off to the library, leaving him to wonder what on earth they did without him. His mates were preposterous, they were.
He flipped his notebook open, trying to comprehend what he had written when he heard voices float toward him.
"Honestly, Lils," McKinnon drawled out, "This is tedious. We've been practically living at this table for the past week. Finals aren't until a month. You've perfected the language, I don't know what you're doing still reading."
Lily muttered what sounded like, "Sod off, McKinnon."
James shifted his chair as much as he could to the right so he could see them better.
"But really! I mean, there are other subjects too. You haven't even touched those."
Lily looked up at McKinnon, sighing. "Other subjects I can handle. Bio, Lit, and practically everything else, I get. French just.. Confuses me. I don't want to mess up."
Matlene rolled her eyes before reaching in front of her and slamming the book in front of Lily close.
"Hey!"
"No more French today. We're going to get the relaxation we deserve."
"But—"
"You really are persistent aren't you, Lils? We're still speaking in French, aren't we? That's counts as both speaking and listening comprehension. But neither one of us are going to open those books again. At least for today."
Lily wore an expression he had never seen her wear. Defeat.
"Fine. But just because I'm getting tired of it too."
Marlene grinned. "Right, okay. You know, I think I saw Potter sitting over there?" She said, scanning the library to look for him.
James moved his head to face his book as quickly as possible, praying they hadn't caught him looking.
"I don't like him," Lily said quite blatantly.
Marlene snorted, "Right, you just stare at him during entire classes for no reason whatsoever."
James' heart started pounding. What?
"You're practically in love with him!"
Did he translate that wrong? Vous êtes pratiquement amoureux de lui. Yeah, that was definitely correct. Maybe he was hallucinating the entire conversation.
"Will you be quiet? And no I'm not! I just find him… esthétiquement plaisant."
"Esthe— what?"
"Esthétiquement plaisant," Lily repeated before speaking in English. "Aesthetically pleasing."
In all seriousness, James probably would've died right there and then if he didn't know his Mum would've been extremely disappointed if that was the cause of his death.
Marlene snorted again. "Right."
"Will you shut up? He can probably hear us."
"He's all the way over there and he looks like he's half asleep. It'd be practically impossible for him to hear us."
"Yeah, but—"
"Even if he can hear us, which would require him to have super hearing, the damage is done."
"Whatever. And I don't—"
"You don't fancy him? Is that why you doodle his name in your notebook and keep on muttering to yourself about how fucking hot he is?"
"No I don't!"
"Oh, save yourself the trouble Lils. You're as red as a tomato already."
James can't concentrate on what Lily's reply is because he thinks he's about to explode. In the best way possible, that is.
x
It's day three of the library. And this time he hasn't come to study. After talking to Remus, he is back at the library to talk to Lily. Sirius had suggested to just ask her out, but she'd probably just say no and he'd be left standing there humiliated and hurt. Even if Remus, who was probably the wisest person James knew, had told him that there was a huge chance Lily fancied him.
Just thinking there was a small possibility that Lily even liked him in that way made his stomach do flips.
He also noted to remember to thank Sirius for making him take French.
After lots of contemplating, he decided to go over and just say hi. The plan was to then slowly and steadily work up his way to asking her out, over the course of several months. It was probably not the most daring and courageous thing to do, but James had a track record of messing things up; and this was one thing he could not afford to fuck up. So, for what was probably the first time in his life, he was taking the safe route.
Of course, when he finally got the courage to talk to her when Marlene went out for a smoke, he completely lost his control of the words that came out of his mouth.
"Esthétiquement plaisant, huh?"
word count: 1200 words, according to gdocs
a/n: leave a review, please! (but not you, afreen)
assignment 9: Wandlore - Wand Woods: Task 2 - Apple: Write about learning another language
insane prompts: 792. (scenario) You and your friend always sit at the table a couple down from mine and gossip in [insert language here], which happens to be a language i'm currently learning. i've been eavesdropping to try and improve my listening comprehension and oh my god are you actually talking about how hot i am?