The atmosphere at the top of the tower was a little strange.
Voldemort instinctively hugged his arms and glanced at the two of them.
But his eyes were vacant, and he felt a deep sense of humiliation.
The humiliation of being stripped bare, inside and out, and put on display.
The great Dark Lord who could cross the boundary between life and death.
The dark emperor whose name the entire European wizarding world dared not speak.
Now, through Dumbledore, he had actually been reduced and deconstructed into an air-raid shelter boy frightened out of his wits by Muggle bombs?
Absurd!
This was blasphemy!
Voldemort pushed Snape's venomous tongue and oppressive tone to their limits.
"What a deeply moving investigation, Headmaster."
He sneered, looking utterly unconcerned, with the Hogwarts Headmaster sitting opposite him.
"Are you writing a tearjerker for the Dark Lord? Reducing the wizarding world's greatest exploration of dark magic to cowardice born of fearing Muggle bombs? What does that prove, other than that Muggles are barbaric and destructive, and that pure-blood wizards absolutely must rule the world?"
"That your overflowing compassion has already corroded your ancient brain?"
Faced with this barrage of attacks, Dumbledore's expression instead grew somewhat more interested.
But Douglas slammed his cup of cola onto the table, splashing the brown liquid inside, looking furious.
"Professor Snape is right."
"Headmaster, you're trying to absolve him of his crimes, aren't you?"
This time, even Voldemort froze.
Douglas planted his elbows on the table and covered his mouth with his hands.
"You're using an extremely ornate, sweeping narrative, using words steeped in tragedy like the Second World War, the Great Depression, and social unrest to manufacture a perfect historical exemption from responsibility for an anti-wizard, anti-humanity serial killer."
"Whitewashing?" Dumbledore frowned. "Doug, I'm merely stating the objective factors that