Chapter Text
Max didn’t really know when it happened.
He doesn't know when Sergio stopped being just a Sebs’s and Lewis’s friend, some random guy that he would often see at the library. He doesn’t know when he stopped being just some guy.
He doesn’t know when he started being Checo, the cute guy with freckles who was always helping and taking under his wing to young kids, the guy who was really got at quidditch but never really had a good team able to win something until last year. Checo who always had a smile, and Checo the guy who would never speak badly of you even if you did. A gentle soul was the way Seb had described him once. Max thought was a fair description of him, although, he considered, it was nothing compared to how nice and sweet Checo really was.
Except that maybe he did know. Checo had grown extremely fast in him after he consoled him after a bad quidditch game, Slytherin had lost to Hufflepuff that night although Max was the one who captured the snitch, by the time he was able to do it Hufflepuff had gotten a big advantage on them, one that took the victory and the finals away from them. On his way to celebrating Checo saw Max by himself, and instead of ignoring him like most of the people would have done, and did, he stopped and talked to him for a while consoling and listening to him.
Checo had done a wonderful game, it had lasted around 4 hours and he managed to keep their marker at 0, that’s were, very clearly, Max’s team had failed. He did a wonderful save after wonderful save, he had been amazingly fast, especially if you consider that the whole Slytherin team had the newest of brooms, a special gift from Lando’s dad each year since he joined the team, and they were the only winner of the championship in the last five years. They hadn’t really played badly during that game, the Hufflepuff team was just better than them in every single aspect, and that’s what probably hurt the most, that a team like Hufflepuff was so much better than them. Hufflepuff ended up winning the championship that year, and Checo with his amazing saves leave to home like a hero.
So that’s how he found himself the night of the game, sad between Checo’s surprisingly strong arms, Checo who should have been celebrating that by first time in years Hufflepuff was finally on the quidditch finals, Checo who had been the player of the match and for surely was being expected to celebrate the whole night with his friends. Instead of that he was there, consoling Max because he didn’t win. It may or may have not been the first time that someone had taken the actual time to sit and listen to Max ramble about his feelings.
So maybe that was the reason of why Max started to notice him more and more, it was the bare minimum, he knew it, but nobody had ever really done the bare minimum with him. Maybe that’s what made it special.
He keeps it a secret, during months it has been his best keep secret. He doesn’t think anyone has really noticed, nor his friends, or his teammates, and especially not Checo, and nobody needs to do it. He knows it’s not like Checo it’s going to like him back, he himself is very much flipped for a girl on Max’s class, Carola. She was a very nice, pretty, and sweet girl, and last time they when to Hogsmeade, they spend the whole afternoon together. They probably spent the whole summer messaging and writing to each other. He was pretty sure their parents were friends so maybe the spent it actually together.
He just got to spend all his summer nights smoking and imagining that Checo liked him back, he imagined before sleep that he would ask him out, and they’ll go and get some candies and a drink together. That maybe he actually got to spend this summer with his mom, and he invited Checo to his house and introduced him to his mom and sister, that they got to spend a nice evening playing boardgames, maybe going to the cinema or just listening to music.
Ohhh, he had it bad for Checo. Really bad. It was so bad, and he knew it.