Simon gave West a quick thumbs up. Ambition was good. To have such a vision for the future, one needed to have the drive to complete it. That’s what made Slytherins awesome. And West was cool.

He nodded his head as he listened to West when the guy explained how to get around all those tricky, tricky girls. Practice on Gryffindor and Hufflepuffs? Hmm.. That could work but he didn’t want to give CB nor Agatha the wrong impression. That’d be tough. Simon would have to play hard to get and revise his tactics. “Right. I’ll try it. So everyone in Gryffindor except the crazy Zahra girl,” he nodded, making a mental note to stay away from crazy unless he wanted to get burned by fire. And he didn’t like too much fire.

West knew THEM too? Of course, he’d know them you silly person! he told himself and gave West another grin. The seventh year had been there for ALL his years. “Nice. Yeah, Cassia’s got a good sense of humour. It must have been fun to be in the same year as her throughout all your years of schooling,” he said with a nod. He could imagine the innocent mischief that he could have gotten up to (and still could get up to) with the Head Girl. Heh. Pranking people and getting away with it? Perhaps. It’d be like taking candy from a Hufflepuff which was easy. Cue smirk.

…

After taking a couple of steps back, he looked for the nearest exit that he could hurl himself into. What if the Healer got really mad at him for what he did? He nervously bit his lip and waited for her reaction. Would this be the last breath that he ever took? His heart continued to pound and he waited anxiously.

Ethan spoke up, but his comment made Simon only worry more. His mate was just okay? Had something happened? He would have asked more but he was too scared of what may happen next. Simon glanced around the room and saw Cutty smirking. He shot his fellow dormmate a glare to say, ‘shut up’ and then continued being a scared little Snake.

There went his awesome reputation flushed down the toilet along with his confidence and pride. Yeah, Simon had just committed social suicide. BIG TIME. Would Airey Flamsteed even let him play with the Spock and Kirk action figures? Now the man would never [insert Darth Vader ‘Nooooo!’ here] let him re-enact a serious Star Trek scene. He’d have to drop out of Hogwarts, move to Antarctica, and become a resident Cold One because there was absolutely no way to make it out in one piece. The boy just stood there and contemplated his options. He could stay (and await punishment and the wrath of the Head) or he could run. Hmmm… Running away from the scene sounded like a wondrous option at the moment. Oh yes, indeed! The boy eyed his surroundings. The exit was on the opposite side of the room but if he jumped over the couch and Professor Cosgrach, he’d be able to make it. He was mentally preparing himself for the prospect of earning a detention from doing such a thing when West happened.

Wait. What-? What was West doing? Why was he…?

Ohhhh……

He was coming to save his behind from losing all of his awesome reputation. That was really nice of the older Snake. That was probably the nicest thing that anyone had done for him at the school. Simon blinked in awe of the seventh year that came to the rescue. West was his hero! Seriously. Snakes keep together. He lowered his voice so that only the seventh year could hear. “Thanks, West. I appreciate it and owe you one. I don’t know what… happened,” he explained rather awkwardly before flashing the boy a kind smile.

Yep. West was his new role model. Uh huh. West Odessa was awesome but everyone knew that already!