Three seconds later.
A burst of piercing, maniacal laughter shattered the eerie calm.
"Hahahahaha!"
Bellatrix shook with laughter like a cat that had spotted a mouse, her skeletal fingers clutching the bars so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
"Listen! Listen to what he said! A Hogwarts schoolteacher came all this way to invite us to do homework?"
She turned toward the neighboring cell, a bloodthirsty gleam in her sunken eyes.
"Dolohov! Rodolphus! Did you hear that? He thinks this is his classroom!"
"Perhaps he came to the wrong place?"
Dolohov's voice was rough and hoarse, brimming with contempt.
"Perhaps that old fool Dumbledore sent him to tell us bedtime stories? After all, our master will be here soon. We ought to have a little entertainment."
"A boy barely out of his nappies dares stand before us."
Rodolphus Lestrange stepped out of the shadows and stared coldly at Douglas.
"My guess is you slipped in with some clever little trick. Those useless fools at the Ministry of Magic always leave loopholes."
Their jeers rose one after another, filled with the pure arrogance and cruelty of Death Eaters.
To them, this professor who had suddenly appeared was nothing more than an absurd appetizer before the main course.
Their master would soon reign supreme, and no power in this world could stop him.
A professor?
Who the hell was he?
Douglas did not respond to a single taunt.
He simply stood there quietly, the smile on his face unchanged, as though enjoying a troupe of performing monkeys.
Then he raised his left hand and glanced at his watch.
"Hmm, just right. Three minutes ahead of schedule. Efficiency could stand to improve."
His utter disregard for them enraged Bellatrix completely.
"Bastard! What are you looking at? You're about to die, and you still