Perseus Potter

Chapter 13

“Percy, what time is it?” Nico asked.

“12:28. Why?”

Without realizing it, Nico started speaking in Italian, his first language. “Merda! Chiameranno presto! Dobbiamo uscire di qui e cambiarci!” he rushed urgently. [Translation: Crap! They are gonna call soon! We have to get out of here and change!]

Percy paled, being fluent in Italian and understanding every word Nico had said. “Scusate ragazzi!" He shouted over his shoulder as he ran out the door, unconsciously switching to Italian to match his cousin. “Ciao!” [Translation: Sorry guys! Bye!]

Nico quickly explained the situation to the group, which would have been helpful, had he been speaking English. “I nostri amici in America chiameranno alle 12:30. Non sanno di Hogwarts o che siamo maghi. Dobbiamo andare a cambiarci con dei vestiti Babbani adesso. Ciao!” When he had finished, raced to follow his cousin out the door. [Translation: Our friends in America will be calling at 12:30. They don’t know about Hogwarts or that we are wizards. We have to go change into our muggle clothes now. Bye!]

“What did they just say?” Ron asked.

Hermione shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. All I know is they were speaking Italian. I know a little bit, but they were speaking too fast for me to understand,” she admitted.

Harry smiled sheepishly and translated for his friends. “Nico was freaking out because they were going to get a call soon from their friends in America, so they had to leave before they called at 12:30.  Percy said sorry and bye. Then Nico explained where they were going and also apologized for leaving so suddenly. He said that he’d be at Care of Magical Creatures so he would see us there.”

They all stared at him. “Since when can you speak Italian?” Fred blurted.

“Umm... since I was, like, six,” he answered shyly.

“So, you’re bilingual?” Hermione asked excitedly.
Harry flushed. “Not really...”

Darren smiled encouragingly at Harry. The older boy was just as timid as he was when it came to praise.

“But you speak Italian and English, making you bilingual,” Hermione said.

“Well, bilingual means that you speak two languages,” Harry said. He clearly didn’t want to be sharing this, but he thought it might come up later and then they would know he was lying. “I speak six, making me a polyglot. Gaelic, Italian, English, Spanish, Latin, and French. Mom read some muggle study about how learning multiple languages as a child was super beneficial or something, so she did as much as she knew. After she died, Percy remembered it and kept it up, having picked up the languages easier than me. He knows even more than I do.”

Fred and George weren’t convinced and thought he was pranking them. It was a natural assumption for the two tricksters. “Prove it,” George said.

A flash of hurt crossed Harry’s face at the realization that they thought he was lying, but it was gone before anyone noticed. He huffed and began to speak, seamlessly transitioning between languages. “Je pensais que tu me faisais plus confiance que ça,” he said in perfect French [Translation: I thought you trusted me more than that]. Then he switched to Spanish. “Me equivoqué.” [Translation: I was wrong]. He started in Latin, saying, “Non sum multum stultus.” [Translation: I’m not that much of an idiot]. He switched to Italian, saying, “Sembra che gli unici a capirlo siano mio fratello e suo cugino.” [Translation: It seems the only ones who understand that are my brother and his cousin]. He then spoke in Gaelic. “Tha mi a’ dol a lorg iad,” he said before standing up and walking out of the hall [Translation: I’m going to go find them].