 be curious, not judgmental
It had been Max, Vivi, and Kurumi who were all allowed into the room around the same time and got reprimanded by Scabior. Thanks, sir. Max, for one, did not appreciate Scabior's disappointment.
Upon being given instructions, Max took out a new piece of parchment and began to write easily... but... he caught Kurumi out of the corner of his eye. She was writing like a mad woman, and Vivi... well, he would rather have Vivi win. There was too much pressure - now that he was here, he would have felt bad beating either of his yearmates. So Max just kind of... took his time to write, veeeery slowly, until one of the girls was done. And... Kurumi was first, closely followed by Vivi. So... Max just folded up his parchment and put it away.
No use.
It was nice that he got beat by a fellow seventh year, though, rather than a younger student. He couldn't feel too bad about that. The three of them had kept up with each other and led the pack the whole time.
That was something to be proud of in itself.
"Good job, Kurumi - and Vivi, you, too. Sorry you're... sick?" He patted his housemate on the shoulder and (jokingly) offered her a sleeve to blow her nose. "You guys were great." And he meant it. He was quite happy for them.
...But that meant he had homework. Meh. Max took out the parchment he saw no point in turning into Scabior and used it to write down the homework. He put it back in his bag before giving the professor a small frown and half-hearted wave, then he left the room.
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