Meanwhile, a different scene was unfolding at the student tables in the Great Hall.
Harry absentmindedly poked at the sausage on his plate with his fork, soon reducing it to mush.
His mind was filled with the task Professor Moody had given him-keeping watch on Snape and Malfoy.
He occasionally glanced at the staff table, where he saw Professor McGonagall and Snape speaking to Professor Douglas with stern faces.
Harry thought Snape must be throwing his seniority around to give his maternal cousin trouble again.
This only strengthened his conviction that something was wrong with Snape.
Across from him, Hermione's brow furrowed even more tightly.
The story about confirmation bias that Professor Douglas had told in class weighed heavily on her mind.
She looked at Harry's focused expression, then at the increasingly heated argument at the staff table, and waves of unease washed over her.
She felt that Harry was being led down a dangerous path.
Ron, sitting beside them, fidgeted restlessly.
He felt he was finding it harder and harder to follow his two friends' thinking, though he had never really been able to follow Hermione's thinking before, either.
Just as Snape was about to speak again and escalate the conflict,
a gentle voice rang out, breaking the deadlock.
"Oh, Severus, Minerva, why do you look even more bad-tempered than that new Fanged Geranium in my greenhouse?"
Professor Sprout walked over with a flowerpot in her hands, smiling.
Several faintly glowing little mushrooms poked their heads out of the pot, as though watching the commotion.
She stepped between the three of them, set the Glowing Little Mushrooms on the table, and joked:
"Oh dear, look at you, ganging up on our poor little Douglas again. He's still a child, you know."
Professor McGonagall's stern expression softened slightly, while Snape