Houses Competition. HoH, Ravenclaw, Round 10. Drabble, Prompt: Truth, WC: 330
Draco Malfoy, addressing the problems he has with truth.
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I'm a compulsive liar. Always have been. Always will be.
I lie to my father. I tell him I support him in his actions, that I love the life we live, and that we are close enough to be brothers. I tell him that I do not lie to him, which is a lie in itself. In fact, I cannot remember a conversation in which I told him the full truth - all of my thoughts, feelings, and experiences on the matter we were discussing. Including anything involving school.
How is school Draco? he would ask. Things are going well. I'm happy, I would reply. My heart would be pounding at the lie, my hands would sweat, but he wouldn't know either of these things. He would simply look up from his note-taking, nod once, and I would leave his company. Or he would ask me about classes, about my friends, and I would lie more.
The lies are not necessarily the thing I would want to do in a perfect situation. It's difficult to tell whether I am addicted to lying or not, but I am certainly not happy to be truthful. And there, I think, is the crux of the problem. The truth is painful, and my father would not hear it even if I was shouting it into his ears. He would not recognise that my words would be the truth.
Truth is painful. Truth is hard.
If I was being truthful, he would hear that I don't want to be like him. That I have fallen in love with a muggleborn. That I find Harry Potter to be a man of good conviction and cause. That I dislike my Slytherin roots, and that I respect Dumbledore. I hate my friends, and I wish I was not tied to evil in the way my father is.
I am certain that I will never tell him, and that my truth will never be free.
I will never be free.
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Thanks for reading!