"Stop, oh my God, Dark Lord, please stop."
Snape reacted the fastest, but all he did was smile.
Lupin was the second to react. He crouched beside Sirius and loudly begged Voldemort to stop. He had indeed felt the urge to draw his wand, and his right hand had even twitched, but then he gave up.
Meanwhile, Pochis stood off to the side, staring wide-eyed at this unbelievable, magical scene.
Heaven knew he'd seen very little magic, and this scene was precious to him.
Still, he thought Sirius's convulsions seemed a little exaggerated. In his opinion, the Cruciatus Curse wasn't that powerful.
Harry was the last to react—or rather, he overreacted the most.
He'd grabbed his wand almost the moment Sirius was struck. It was the battle instinct Snape had drilled into him.
But he quickly realized what he was doing, so he promptly stopped himself from taking any further action.
When he looked toward Voldemort, he saw him holding up his wand and smirking at him.
Harry felt a little awkward. By the time he recovered from that awkwardness, his godfather no longer even had the strength to howl.
"Professor, please don't hurt my godfather anymore. He didn't mean any harm. He just cares about me too much," Harry said loudly.
Voldemort didn't stop punishing Sirius just because of Harry's words. He turned his head fully toward Harry and met his gaze.
"Not meaning any harm is just an excuse, Harry. Everyone has to take responsibility for their actions. I can't evade that principle either, so he needs to be disciplined." Voldemort actually took the opportunity to lecture Harry.
Voldemort had started paying attention to Harry's attitude toward him a long time ago.
For a while, he'd thought the two of them would never be able to get along