SPOILER!!: D'awww
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Grangerfn1 
Ella was sweet, wasn't she? Max was glad she had let one of the nicer, wiser boys into her life rather than some of those... hooligans he saw running around the grounds every day. No, Harvey should be good for her. But that didn't mean Max wasn't going to worry about Ella. Even the kindest of boys could surely break hearts. "I hope I don't either - but I will if I have to. No one can hurt you on my watch, okay?" He smiled softly, suddenly wondering why he never had the opportunity to be a big brother.
He would've been a good one.
Boy, she sure was excited about Quidditch, wasn't she? She was like a... bubbly, extroverted version of Ellie. Her enthusiasm was contagious; a matching smile on Max's face followed Ella's, and he laughed, shrugging innocently. "Hey, it had to be said - for all I know, you might have secret intentions to come after me and allow your chasers to have some chance at scoring," he teased, gently nudging her side with his elbow.
And then she had a surge of questions, and Max raised his eyebrows, trying to remember them all at once. "Well, no - not quite. I've been here, y'know," he chuckled. "I can't exactly sneak off to go see her. But I'm not too worried about it - once I graduate, I anticipate going to see her then. And yeah, she's in love with it. I think she said practices are... eight hours long? Every day? And while I think that's unbearable, she couldn't be happier. I think she would've wanted practices to be that long here, if Professor Vindictus had allowed it."
He adjusted his position, leaning back and resting his palms behind him on the seat of the bench. "I'm not sure about her teammates - I haven't asked about that, but... I assume, since she seems absolutely psyched about everything, that they're good, too." His face softened at Ella's final comment on the matter. "I'm sure you can be. Perseverance, a love of the game, and a good attitude can get you there. You seem to have all those traits already, so... just keep the goal in sight." That was one of Max's more lame inspirational speeches, but... it would suffice for the time being. Ella was still young; she had a long way to go. She didn't need to worry about not reaching her big dreams just yet.
With his eyebrows raised once more, Max watched with interest as Ella seemed to have a weird, silent combination of a breakdown and a tantrum. When she spoke, his eyes lowered to the ground. He was caught between feeling extremely embarrassed and ashamed with himself and wanting to chuckle at little Ella's kind pep talk. He settled on sort of a half-embarrassed, half-smiling expression, and he refused to make eye contact even after she was finished. The fact of the matter was that Ella was very sweet and Max knew he was fairly well-liked by all, but... by a girl? In the romantic sense of the word 'like'? That was unheard of. He was ALWAYS the good, reliable best friend/big brother figure. Girls weren't interested in him that way.
So while Ella's words were very nice and he appreciated them, they kind of... went in one ear and out the other, though they did make his cheeks and ears turn red. "Thanks, Ella. That means a lot." Of course he wasn't going to express his doubts on the matter. Max wasn't going to bring Ella down with him. She didn't need that.
When she offered a hug, he smiled, finally looking up at her. He rose to his feet, pulled Ella to him, and gave her a nice, tight embrace. "Thank you," he said again. What a good kid.
Ella BEAMED up at Max, feeling her cheeks go a bit pinkish after hearing his words. It was quite nice, knowing people were looking out for you. It made the third year feel a little more at home, safer even.
"Thanks, Max. Really... And I'd do the same for you, y'know." Ella might be little for her age but she'd totally go all Ellasaurus Rex on anyone who ever hurt Max. That was a promise. No, a pinky promise.
O___O Secret intentions!? Ella feigned annoyance for all of...two seconds before smiling mischievously at the older Claw.
"Maybe..." Shifty.
"You'll just have to wait and see, won't you?" And his nudge caused Ella to giggle before she nudged him back.
Duh! Of course Max hadn't been to a match yet! Ella could be really daft sometimes. She smiled sheepishly at him, shrugging her shoulders. Whoops.
"EIGHT HOURS?!" Ella blurted out, interrupting Max.
"Sorry...I just, that's...wicked!" And probably really exhausting but still!
"Oh erm...continue." Pretty please!
So everything seemed pretty awesome with Ellie, that was good. Not that Ells really knew her well or anything, but she did admire the older girl. She was someone else to look up to, even if they hadn't had a friendship or anything. Oh! And Max's speech? It made Ella grin at him. Seriously, he totally knew how to make her feel like her dreams weren't too big.
"Thanks Max, you're quite smart." And an awesome friend. He knew this, yeah?
The small blonde waited for some type of reaction from Max and smiled warmly when she noticed the red creeping up on his face and ears. Heh. So he blushed too, eh? She wasn't alone!
"You're welcome, Max." BEAM.
"And you're a great person so...well great people deserve to hear that they're great once in a while...y'know, in case they forget it or something."And maybe Ella wasn't as good with her words as Max was, but she'd sincerely meant what she said.
EEP! Max was seriously a great hugger. Ella kind of smiled to herself, squeezing him back.
"Welcome, Max the Great!"