"Crack!"
With a sharp sound of space tearing apart, two figures were flung unceremoniously out of the distorted air and slammed onto a patch of half-withered grass.
Before Lucius Malfoy could even register the nausea from that dizzying journey, an irresistible force knocked him brutally to the ground.
"Ugh-"
He let out a muffled grunt, and his precious snake-headed cane slipped from his hand and rolled far away.
Voldemort's tall, skeletally thin figure loomed over him, seething with rage so immense it almost seemed to set the surrounding air alight.
"You!"
It was no longer a human voice, but a hoarse, piercing hiss mingled with utter humiliation and fury.
On that chalk-white, serpentine face, his scarlet slit pupils contracted violently with anger, giving off a cold, predatory gleam.
The tiny glowing words beneath his skin-"Welcome Mr. Tom Riddle back to the Riddle Family"-flashed wildly in time with his pounding heart, like an inextinguishable brand of shame mocking all his greatness.
"Master! Please, master, calm yourself!"
Lucius did not bother retrieving his cane. Scrambling onto his hands and knees, he prostrated himself and spoke in a trembling voice full of fear and humility.
"Master, we had to leave that place immediately! It was a trap!
"That bastard Holmes wasn't trying to catch Wormtail at all! His target was Nagini! It was you!"
He deliberately presented his actions as an act of loyalty, protecting his master at all costs in a moment of utmost peril.
Voldemort's chest heaved violently, his newly formed lungs filled with icy flames.
Yes, he knew.
In that instant, he too had realized Holmes's true objective.
Deceived, humiliated, publicly informed that all his fallback plans had failed, and finally, even his future Horcrux had been snatched away like a rat...
"Aaargh!"
Voldemort let out an uncontrollable, inhuman roar.