Outside the room, it was not just the two adults, Sirius and Lupin, who heard Harry groaning. The Weasley brothers, Ginny, and the young couple, Hermione and Su Er, were there too.
At some point, Harry's groaning stopped.
Then the door opened, and Harry staggered out, his face pale, as though he had endured tremendous pain.
Snape followed him, his expression icy, and leisurely straightened his black robes.
Had they not known beforehand that this was to assess Harry's grasp of Occlumency after a term of study, many of them would have misunderstood what Snape had done to Harry in that room.
"I will report the situation truthfully to Dumbledore, Potter," Snape said coldly.
"I suppose you've been enjoying yourself so much here that you've forgotten everything else? Don't try to argue. I saw it perfectly clearly. You've completely forgotten how to defend against an invading mind. Frankly, I don't think invading a troll's head would be much harder than invading yours, because your head is nothing but a heap of flobberworms!"
Even in front of Sirius and all those friends, Snape did not mince his words.
As he spoke, his gaze lifted slightly, and he saw Sirius.
"Oh, yes, I can understand. With a father who was just as arrogant and treated criticism as so much hot air, his son would naturally inherit that hopeless talent. Yes, if you can call it a talent."
"I'm warning you, Snivellus!" Sirius could not take it anymore. He was impulsive and quick-tempered by nature, and his sudden fury left Lupin no time to stop him. He closed in on Snape in an instant, their faces less than a foot apart.
"Dumbledore thinks you've reformed. I don't."
"Oh, what are you doing?!" Mrs. Weasley came thundering over and forcibly pulled the two apart.