Severus did not laugh. The rest of them could howl obediently, ready to indulge whatever madness the Dark Lord had planned, but he would not. These little moments of rebellion always unsettled Voldemort, these little traces that Severus Snape was, after all, his own man. Those moments of distrust always resulted in the Dark Lord deepening his belief that Severus was both intelligent and loyal, not like the yammering fools who grovelled to touch the hem of the Dark Lord’s robe. 