Silence fell over the Headmaster's Office. The loudest sound was Nagini's hissing as she flicked her tongue.
"Snape, how dare you assert..." Barty Crouch Jr. broke the silence of his own accord, looking at Snape as he questioned him, "that he isn't the sort of person who says one thing and does another?"
"You're clearly not perceptive enough. You've been blinded by Vizet Lovegood's hypocritical act... Not that it's surprising. Those professors are like that, after all. They always like hearing pretty words."
His tone was filled with disdain. "Attending class on time just to curry favor with the professors, putting on the face of a model student—it's simply an insult to Ravenclaw!"
Snape's expression remained unchanged, as if he had not heard Barty Crouch Jr.'s questioning of him at all, nor his assessment of Vizet.
Instead, it was Voldemort, silent at that moment and wearing an indifferent expression, who made him instinctively sense danger.
Barty Crouch Jr. grew agitated, spittle flying as he spoke. "Snape, can you really not see it?"
"Vizet Lovegood's heart is both empty and repressed! That's exactly why he needs to rely on methods like 'attending on time' to gain approval and prove himself!"
"He's obviously well versed in that. It's precisely a mediocre talent like him, with an empty head that can't retain magical knowledge, who would resort to such vile, lowly methods to conceal his own incompetence as much as possible!"
As Barty Crouch Jr.'s words grew increasingly fierce, Snape was no longer the only creature sensing danger. Nagini felt it too.
Nagini no longer pressed affectionately against Voldemort. Instead, she straightened up, her head hovering in midair.
She assumed a wary posture, as if instinct were driving her to flee the source of danger, yet because of the intimidation Voldemort himself possessed,