Lelouch and his faction were lounging in the common room, talking about various topics, when Eric, the Slytherin prefect, approached them. Some distance away, Malfoy was looking at them, smirking.

"Black." He called. The other prefect stood just beside him. It was a black-haired girl from the sixth year.

Daphne glanced at Lelouch in curiosity. Lelouch waved his hand, signaling that it was no problem. He turned and greeted the prefect.

"Prefect Erik." he said, respectfully. "Is there something you want to talk about?"

The prefect frowned. "I am here just to remind you of Slytherin's rules," he said. "Do you remember? Do not show disunion in front of the other houses and keep your deferences inside. I have heard from Malfoy you confronted him in the hallways yesterday."

So, the boy went and tattled to the prefect. Fool. He is just showing everyone in the room that he is incapable of solving his own problems. In fact, this was a good opportunity for Lelouch to strengthen his position in this house.

Lelouch smiled. "I did no such thing, prefect. I was actually keeping him from tarnishing the good name of our house."

Erik stared at him in the eyes. Other students were also paying attention to their conversation. "How so, Mr. Black?"

Lelouch nodded. "Tell me, if you were walking in the road and saw a man hitting a cat to death with a club, what would you think?"

The prefect just nodded for him to continue.

"Most people would think 'he's a bastard', 'you can't trust such person', 'what an evil man'. He wouldn't be seen as dangerous, powerful, or even respectful. He would just be seen as a worthless person of no value. He would be seen as a coward, right?

The female Prefect nodded.

"So, tell me, prefect, do you think it is alright for the rest of Hogwarts to see Slytherin as trash?"

Theodore frowned.

"Because that was exactly what Mr. Malfoy was doing yesterday." Lelouch completed. "I found him in the corridor, bullying group of Hufflepuff first-years, they were just little girls."

The female prefect frowned and looked at Malfoy, who was glaring at Lelouch, but didn't deny his guilt.

"Hufflepuffs are not that different than cats," Lelouch said with a smirk. Some students laughed at his joke. "They are inoffensive and run from conflict like cats from water."

"Bullying puffs does not make people respect you, no one is going to fear you for it. They are just going to despise you and badmouth you behind your backs." He said, for the benefit of the audience. "Our backs, since we are Slytherin as well."

"You want to be feared?" Lelouch widened his arms, dramatically, while looking at the other students. Even the older ones were paying attention to his words.

"Do you want to be respected?" he asked. "Then sharpen your aggression. Wait for your moment. And strike. Like a snake. No hesitation, no mercy. Snakes don't play with their food."

Lelouch looked at Malfoy, that at this point already regretted pushing Lelouch. "Snakes don't play with their food, but mammals do, Lions do."

Lelouch smirked pointedly at Malfoy. "You do not act like a Slytherin, Mr. Malfoy... Sometimes I wonder if you are not here because you asked the hat." Malfoy was slowly losing color. "Sometimes I wonder if you are not here because you didn't want to disappoint your papa." he completed. "Your behavior is very...griffindorish."

Time to hit the nail in the head.

"You, Mr. Malfoy, are not worthy of Slytherin."

Suddenly, Malfoys expression changed from white fear to red anger. His face was slowly taking the color of a tomato. He jumped from where he was and threw herself, growling, clawing towards Lelouch.

For a boy with so much insecurity like Malfoy, his worth as a person was a very sensitive topic. Lelouch had intentionally tickled it. He smirked. The boy's reaction would only serve to prove his point.

Theodore Nott and another older student held him as he tried to claw out Lelouch's face, growling unintelligibly. Lelouch scowled and looked around at the other students.

"Like I said...very griffindorish."

...

"Look, Fred, isn't this the evil, evil Black?"

The other twin nodded. "I believe so, George. I can smell his evil from here."

Lelouch frowned. He had heard about them. Daphne had cautioned him. Damn it, more Weasleys... Will he ever be free of them?

"The Weasley twins..." he drawled. "I have heard about your...work," he smirked. "I must say the last one you pulled with Draco was quite tasteful." No reason to make himself a target. They already had a lot of reasons to prank Lelouch, though him being in Slytherin was already enough. Some praises go a long way to make friends and they cost nothing.

The one named Fred cleaned a fake tear. "George...George...someone who recognizes the beauty of our work..."

"Yes Fred, I never thought the day would come...And to think it would be an evil, evil Black."

The other put his hand on his chin and stared at Lelouch's face. "Indeed...so evil. Look at that face, George. Its a real-life Demon Lord."

Lelouch had a nervous tick.

"Indeed Fred. I've even heard he was rising a rebellion against the older Slytherins to become the supreme ruler of his house."

"I've heard he gives zero fucks to what anyone thinks of him."

"And it makes everything even worse. I've heard girls saying he looks just like a prince!"

"The world is very unfair for normal looking guys like us, Fred."

"Yeah, we're like seven. He's like eleven points in handsomeness."

Lelouch rolled his eyes and decided to entertain them. "Maybe, if you swear your eternal loyalty to me and my evil empire, I will show you my secrets of attraction."

"Look, look, Fred, he knows how to joke!"

"He's a Slytherin, and a Black, and he knows how to joke, I didn't think it was possible, George"

The Weasley twins were very different from the younger boy, Ronald, and from the one that was prefect, Percival. They didn't take him as seriously as those two, nor did they despise him just for the sake of it. They seemed to be completely ignoring what he said in the entrance ceremony.

Lelouch blinked in realization. They weren't trying to bully or prank him. What they were doing right now was a diplomatic opening of negotiations. They were sounding Lelouch out, trying to see if Lelouch would accept their hand in friendship...

Lelouch almost clicked his tongue. Maybe he was rusty. Maybe he just was way too defensive recently, expecting attacks from every side.

Lelouch smiled and offered his hand. "I am Julius Black, the evilest slytherin. But you already knew it."

The one called Fred grinned and shook his hand. "It is a pleasure to finally meet the evil lord of slytherin."

Lelouch nodded. "When I finally start my evil takeover of Hogwarts, I will call on you to help with the evil, evil pranks," he said.

The twins traded looks and grinned

George smirked. "And if you ever need new minions to execute your evil, evil plans, don't be afraid to count on us, little snake."

...

The next day, during a free period, Lelouch returned to the Room of Requirement, this time alone. It was time to see what books the room brought to him. The books weren't organized in any way or form. The room just threw the books haphazardly on the shelves. Lelouch decided to search through them in the order they were presented.

"Reanimation and necromancy." he said. "disgusting."

He put the book back and took another one. "Secrets of the soul ?" he raised his eyebrows. "sounds interesting." He put the book on the table and went to search for more of them. A lot of the books seemed to come in other languages. One of them looked like nothing more than a sequence of "s'" with different lengths and forms. Others he simply couldn't open. Some of them showed only black pages to him.

Not many of them were about dark arts, as he first had believed. A lot of them were just too much complicated to be put in the free section. Some of them were about potions that couldn't be put in the hands of teenagers, like the love potion or the aphrodisiac potion. Some were about dangerous spells or potions that could harm the user if done wrongly.

"The Occlumens Palace?"

What he found in that book filled him with fear.

He noticed he was completely ignoring the possibility that someone could be reading his mind. How stupid of him. Why not? He had already seen so much absurdity since he first arrived in this world.

What if they could even influence his thoughts like he probably did that day in the park? What if they could do as his father did to him and rewrite his memories? The possibility filled him with fear.

He would not be able to trust his most powerful tool, his own mind.

He needed to learn occlumancy.