Houses Competition

House: Ravenclaw

Category: Themed

Prompt: Tsunami

WC: 1652

Friends — or good ones at least — don't lie to each other. That was just a universally know fact. But nobody can be perfect all the time, right? Certainly not Remus John Lupin. From the very first time he had met his friends, he had lied to them.

"So, how did you get your scars?" they would probe.

"I had a bad run in with a wolf when I was younger. The wolf came off worse."

It wasn't completely a lie or so he had told himself. He had been sure he would end up never talking to them again, so he didn't mind telling the initial lie. But then he was sorted into Gryffindor with the rest of them. Then they had all shared a dorm. Then they had become his friends. The lie was more than he intended.

The foundation of solitude and loneliness that Remus had desperately tried to build his years at Hogwarts on was shaken, starting to crumble and fall. And, despite himself, he couldn't help but like it. For the first time since he had been bitten, since his life had changed forever, he finally had friends. Everything was just about glorious… Until he returned from the first full moon.

"Where have you been, we were worried sick!" James asked, incredulity in his tone, the second Remus walked back into the dorm, fragile and bruised. That was so like James, always caring, always looking out for him. Knowing how much they cared made Remus feel sick to his stomach at all the deception. He was living an odious lie and he would give anything to be able to tell his friends the truth, not matter how horrible it was.

"My mum's sick, I went to go visit her, back in my house in the countryside," Remus said, setting down his second-hand satchel on his trunk and practically collapsing on his bed. The softness of the crimson sheets and pillows a much needed relief for his aching muscles. He was exhausted, physically and mentally. Of course, he knew in the Shack that it was too deserted to harm anyone, but the change and transformation itself left him utterly wobegon.

"Do you need to borrow my notes for the third period Transfiguration class?" Sirius asked. "I saw that you weren't there and made sure I got some really good ones. We all know that Mcgonagall is a monster when you miss classes. I hope she doesn't tell you off."

Remus' stomach flipped over at Sirius' kind gesture; he wasn't sure how to feel. It was like his mind was split straight down the middle, confused whether to feel glad or horrified with himself. Half of him knew that the lies were necessary if he wanted to stay at Hogwarts and be a normal boy. The other half of him hated himself for lying, so often and so badly. His friends trusted him, and he had betrayed them, over and over again. If they ever found out, they would surely hate him? They would detest him for the creature he was, and for his ongoing deception of the truth. If they ever discovered his secret, he would become an outcast all over again. And yet, despite Remus' concerns, life had gone on, as he knew it always would. And, amongst a school wide prank, he almost forgot his troubles. But, of course the next moon came, and the same excuse followed.

How's your mum? "She's doing okay. I guess." Three moons, four more lies. Remus hated to think about how many more would escape his lips in the seven long years that he would be at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Far, far too many for his liking was all that he knew. The thought of it was nauseating. Remus didn't know if he could live like this for the rest of the term, nevermind the rest of his entire school career.

/

Sirius quirked one elegant, aristocratic eyebrow when Remus told all three of his friends that he was staying behind at the school for the Christmas holidays. "Didn't you want to see your mum, though? I thought she was really ill and that was the reason that you're gone so much of the time."

"I'm going to visit her and my Dad over New Years," Remus said, the lie leaving an unpleasant, almost bitter, taste in his mouth and his stomach twisting horribly. It settled in his gut like grit. The lies kept on building, more and more, and he was suffocating under the heavy weight of them on his shoulders. "We have a family tradition, you know, but I wanted to be here for Christmas."

He didn't, of course, because he had lied. It seemed that lying was all he did nowadays. Each word he spoke were deceitful and untrue. Despite all of his hopes that he would be a normal boy once he stepped off the scarlet steam train and arrived at Hogwarts, those dreams remained unfulfilled and completely dashed. Remus was as different, as far removed from their lives of laughter and pranks and homework as he could be. The life he was living was not truly a life, but merely a lie.

So, when New Year's Eve came around, he did not spend it with his loving family in their countryside cottage or with his raucous friends up in their dorm in the vibrant Gryffindor tower, Instead he spent New Year's Eve howling and fighting to be free of his magical cage, the one that imprisoned him almost as much as the lies that weighed him down. That was when the small, wooden shack outside the picturesque village of Hogsmeade had become known as 'the most haunted house in all of Britain'.

This time it was Dumbledore that told and spread the newest lie. Of course, it had to be done for Remus and that did nothing to help the resentment at all the untruths he was forced to tell growing inside of him. It didn't assuage his guilt in any sense. In fact, it made him feel all the worse. This kindly man was being asked to be Remus' scapegoat, lying to the masses, and disguising the truth from the most important people in Remus Lupin's short life. "Some particularly violent ghost had to be removed from Hogwarts castle and placed into the Shack, with many protection charms, of course, for all the students and professors' safety and well-being. As always, that is our priority, but I would advise no student to go near the Shack, unless they wish to die a most painful death." That speech from Dumbledore, though just another layer of lies, helped him somewhat. Nobody so much as dared to approach the newly named shrieking shack. However, Remus didn't mind, it kept every person at Hogwarts safe from him. If someone was to venture too close, a foolhardy Gryffindor or a seventh year who'd had a bit too much to drink, Remus couldn't even bear to think about what might happen. More lies, probably, more cover-ups and omission and deceit.

He had first feared his secret had been discovered at the end of first year when his Mum and Dad, both healthy as ever, had come to pick him up from the train. Both James and Sirius had seen them.

"Good to see you're feeling well, Mrs. Lupin" James said as he and his family passed them. He quirked an eyebrow towards Remus.

That summer guilt and fear washed over Remus like a tsunami. Now that he didn't have school to distract him the full and complete guilt pressed down on him. By the time second year rolled around, Remus wasn't sure he could go back. Of course he did, it was what his parents expected. They had given him everything, it was the least he could do.

James and Peter were excited to see him. Sirius was practically bouncing off the walls, James said it was because he had been couped up all summer. All of it just made Remus feel worse. The flood that had begun during the summer only got worse. He was almost glad when they cornered him in the dorm after the November moon. It meant he could finally stop lying, even though he would be kicked out of Hogwarts.

"We know you're a werewolf, Remus," Sirius said, his arms folded.

"How?" Was all Remus managed to say, the tsunami hitting him full force all over again, although this time even more lies backed it.

"Well, first of all, you disappear every twenty-nine days. Second of all, you never seem concerned about your 'sick Mum' except when you 'go to visit her'," Sirius explained.

"And the professors don't seemed concerned at all," James said.

"Well at any rate," Sirius said, waving off James' comment, "the point is you can stop lying."

"Are you going to tell everyone?" Remus asked, his voice shaking.

Sirius scoffed. "No, I'm just gonna get your help when we study werewolves in defence next year," he said, walking over to his bed and pulling out his Herbology notes. "Peter, do you have any good notes from Herbology?"

Remus' mind scarcely could grasp what had just happened. Had they really forgiven him? After everything? He watched as they gathered on Sirius' bed. Maybe he could be normal. He approached the bed tentatively. James noticed and patted the mattress beside him, beckoning him over.

"Remus," Sirius said after a bit, "You know we wouldn't tell anyone, right? I mean, it's not like you're any different than you were last week."

"I don't want you to lie for me," Remus said.

James stared at him blankly for a moment. "Remy, how many people are gonna ask us 'by the way, is your friend a werewolf'?"

The four boys burst into raucous laughter at James' voice as he said the last phrase.