Kurt Hummel always found the Start of Term feast to be a joyous occasion. Seated at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, he watched Professor Sprout lead the new firsts years to the front of the hall where the Sorting Hat sat. He could remember when he first entered the Great Hall as a first year. He was amazed by the thousands of floating candles, the enchanted ceiling and how it was filled with a million stars, the roaring fires in the fireplaces, and the hundreds of students. In fact, Kurt was still amazed by those things. It was also during his sorting when he first laid eyes on the most beautiful boy.

Blaine Anderson, at the time, was smaller than the average first year. His black curly hair was untamed and his hazel eyes held nothing but panic when he discovered he was the first to be sorted. Kurt could remember giggling slightly at the triangular shaped eyebrows on Blaine, but despite that, Blaine was nothing but gorgeous. Not much had changed over the last 5 years; save for the hair gel that Blaine started using in the third year. If anything, Blaine Anderson got even more gorgeous.

Over the last five years Kurt had been stealing glances at Blaine when he was in the corridors, in class, on the grounds, in the library, or in the Great Hall. Kurt admired Blaine. No, that was an understatement. Kurt was practically in love with Blaine. He loved everything about the boy. He loved Blaine's personality, eyes, smile, and laugh. He loved Blaine's abilities on the quidditch pitch. He loved everything. However, there were just two things stopping Kurt from approaching Blaine.

One, Blaine was a Gryffindor.

Two, Kurt was a Slytherin.

Even though the war was long over, there was still tension between the houses. Slytherins only hung out with Slytherins and everyone else avoided them. Slytherin house still believed themselves to be superior to everyone else. They remained loyal to their house and only looked after themselves. Some even still believed that being pureblood was a superior status. Socializing with anyone outside of Slytherin for any reason other than class work, or in Kurt's case with his stepbrother, family, it would be social suicide.

And that was yet another reason he couldn't talk to Blaine. Kurt didn't want to become the outcast of Slytherin house.

Though Kurt had to admit, it wasn't just the fear of social suicide that prevented him from talking to Blaine. It was also the fear of rejection. Kurt had played so many "what if" scenarios over in his mind.

What if Blaine wasn't gay?

What if Blaine, like most Gryffindors, hated Slytherins?

What if Kurt wasn't Blaine's type?

What if Blaine hated Kurt?

Kurt knew he could go on and on with those thoughts. He hated it.

"Are you even paying attention, Hummel?" Said a female voice, awakening Kurt from his own thoughts.

Kurt turned his head and saw Santana Lopez staring at him, an eyebrow raised waiting for Kurt to answer her. "Thinking about fucking Anderson again?"

"No!" said Kurt as his cheeks grew red. "Now what have I missed?"

Santana sighed and rolled her eyes. "Nothing much. We got a couple new Slytherins. The hat didn't say anything important, just the same crap about house unity."

Kurt nodded as he watched the plump Professor Sprout take the stool and hat out of the hall. It was then that an aged witch in emerald green robes and black pointed hat stood and moved to the podium that suddenly appeared. She gave one stern look at the students, causing them all to go silent.

"That's better," Professor McGonagall said with a hint of a smile. "I would like to welcome all the first years to Hogwarts, and to our older students, welcome back."

"She's so going to give the same speech as she did last year," Santana whispered to Kurt. "House unity, friendship, blah, blah, blah."

Kurt suppressed a laugh as he continued to watch the headmistress.

"An important aspect to Hogwarts is the unity between houses," McGonagall continued.

"Here we go," Santana breathed.

"It's an aspect we've been lacking over the last few years." There was a touch of sadness in McGonagall's voice. "However, we may have a solution to this situation."

Suddenly everyone in the hall was now paying attention. This was obviously not part of the speech they were so used to hearing.

"This year, we are going to be starting a pod system," McGonagall announced, looking around at the confused faces of her students. "I can tell by your puzzled looks they you do not know what I am talking about. Allow me to explain." She paused. "In every year, there will be pods, or groups so to speak. In each pod there will be a small number of students from each house. Instead of having class with your houses, you will have class with members of your pods and other pods. You might even end up eating meals with your pods.

"Don't worry though, you will still be competing for the house cup and quidditch cup with your own houses. The pod system is to promote house unity by getting each of you in a small group of your peers from other houses. You will find a list of your pods posted in your common rooms this evening. I hope each of you benefit from this new system. Who knows, maybe you'll make some new friends and find out things about other houses that you didn't know before." She paused again. "Now, let the feast begin."

A rush of whispers began to fill the hall as the food magically appeared on the tables.

"She's crazy," Sebastian Smythe said as he began to serve himself salad. "If she thinks we're going interact with these…." He stopped and looked around the hall at the other houses. "She's losing it with her old age."

Santana nodded. "I'm not talking to anyone in my pod. Oh god, what if I get stuck with a bunch of Hufflepuffs."

Sebastian laughed and Kurt remained silent. Kurt was secretly looking forward to this. He this might be a way to get closer to Blaine. Now all he had to do was hope he and Blaine were in the same pod.

"What about you Kurt?" Sebastian asked as he looked his friend. "What do you think of all this?"

"It's ridiculous," Kurt lied with ease.

Sebastian just nodded. "It is. Not to mention I'm going to be spending the next few weeks explaining all this to the first years." He pointed to the shiny prefect's badge on his robes. "Slughorn made me a prefect this year."

"Good for you, meerkat," Santana sighed. "Now unless you're going to use those prefect powers of yours to harass some Gryffindors, then I don't care."

While Santana and Sebastian were bickering with each other, Kurt took that moment to glance over to the Gryffindor table. He spotted Blaine instantly. He was sitting on the end of the table near the doors to the Great Hall. His head was ducked low as he whispered to his fellow Gryffindors. Kurt recognized the people as his stepbrother, Finn Hudson, Rory Flanagan, Thad Williams, and Noah Puckerman.

Probably talking quidditch, Kurt thought.

Kurt knew that Finn was a good friend of Blaine's, but Finn never talked about Blaine. He always talked about his girlfriend, Rachel Berry, and how amazing she was, or he talked about quidditch.

"Staring at Anderson again are we?" Sebastian suddenly said as he followed Kurt's gaze. "Why don't you just fuck him already?"

"I will not just fuck him," Kurt said as he glared at Sebastian. "Unlike you, some of us have class."

"Well, he's totally fuckable," Sebastian went on, ignoring Kurt's comment. "I wonder how long it would take me to get him in my bed."

"Since when did you go for Gryffindors?" Santana asked with a snort.

"Since they are as sexy as Blaine Anderson," Sebastian said smirking at Kurt. Only Sebastian and Santana knew that Kurt liked Blaine. Neither of them approved since Blaine was a Gryffindor. They just liked to tease Kurt about it on the occasions.

"I don't get it, Sebastian, why the sudden interest in Blaine?" Kurt asked.

"Well I just didn't realize how sexy he is until this year," Sebastian said, still smirking. "And seeing as you're not going to make a move anytime soon, I'm going to step in then."

Those words scared Kurt. He couldn't let Sebastian take Blaine away. He couldn't let Sebastian just use Blaine. Kurt was now determined, more determined than ever.

He was going to make Blaine Anderson his boyfriend.

X-X-X-X

When the feast had ended, the students were dismissed to go to their common rooms to get ready for bed and classes the next morning. Sebastian and a female Slytherin prefect led the first years out of the hall quickly. Santana and Kurt hung back for a little bit before heading down to the dungeons themselves.

"What is Sebastian's deal?" Kurt asked as they walked. "Why is he suddenly on a mission to sleep with Blaine?"

"I don't know. Might have something to do with the fact you've been pining after him all these years. You know how Sebastian is. He has to have everything you don't." Santana answered. "And then he's going to rub it in your face."

"Why am I friends with him again?"

"Because he's the only other gay Slytherin you know."

"Right."

When they reached the entrance to the Slytherin common room Kurt groaned. "We don't know the password!" He exclaimed.

"Calm down, lady face," Santana snapped. "I got it off Sebastian while you were in la-la land looking at Blaine." She turned to the solid wall. "Reinheit."

The wall opened up and allowed the two access to the common room. Kurt loved the Slytherin common room. It was tasteful and extremely well decorated. It was also big enough so it never seemed overcrowded. In one of the corners of the room there was a large bulletin board surrounded by students.

"That must be the pod assignments," Kurt said as he and Santana made their way over to the board. Santana grabbed Kurt's hand and pulled him through the crowd and to the front. Kurt's eyes went straight to the sixth year groupings. He then searched for his name and to his surprise found it under the first pod.

Pod 1

Kurt Hummel-Slytherin

Santana Lopez-Slytherin

Blaine Anderson-Gryffindor

Rachel Berry-Gryffindor

Wesley Montgomery-Ravenclaw

Brittany Pierce-Hufflepuff

"Thank god we're in the same pod together," Santana said with a sigh of relief. "I don't think I could handle two Gryffindors without you."

Kurt didn't hear anything Santana said. He was too busy staring at Blaine's name. "This is my chance," he said softly.

"What?"

Kurt looked at Santana. "Nothing," he said with a sigh. "I'm going to get ready for bed. This pod assignment thing has thrown off my moisturizing routine." And with that, Kurt made his way to the boy's dormitories with a small smile on his face. He couldn't wait until morning.