Cringe Worthy Moments (lies)

       I have a lot of moments in my life that literally cause me to cringe when I look back on them. These moments always involve something that may or may not be sin but whatever it was, I made a really stupid decision that ended up making me feel guilty/embarrassed and could have been avoided extremely easily and the flash backs cause a physical reaction in me. At the end of chapter 5 in the Goblet of Fire, Percy has such a moment and I thought I'd use it to display the stupidity of lies:

     "Look at the time," Mrs. Weasley said suddenly, checking her wristwatch. "You really should be in bed, the whole lot of you -- you'll be up at the crack of dawn to get the the Cup ... the match went on for five days last time."
     "Wow - hope it does this time!" said Harry enthusiastically.
     "Well, I certainly don't," said Percy sanctimoniously. "I shudder to think what the state of my in-tray would be if I was away from work for five days."
     "Yeah, someone might slip dragon dung in it again, eh Perce?" said Fred.
     "That was a sample of fertilizer from Norway!" said Percy, going very red in the face. "It was nothing personal!"
     "It was," Fred whispered to Harry as they got up from the table. "We sent it."

       While I personally find this little anecdote highly amusing, as I'm sure you do too and as all the characters who knew the truth did, Percy most certainly didn't. Anyone would be embarrassed to think that someone didn't like them or thought of them as the "new kid" at work and sabotaged you mail with dragon dung so you can see why Percy felt the need to cover it up. Unfortunately for him,  his lie just made him look extremely stupid because everyone else knew the truth. Had he told the truth originally, the twins may have told him the truth in return. If he'd even taken a second to think about how Fred knew, he may not have busted out the lie, but he didn't, and by quickly lying in order to cover up his embarrassment, he created a cringe worthy moment for himself that was much more embarrassing than the dragon dung.
       So, moral of the story, while we constantly are told not to tell big lies because they'll get you in trouble, people often refrain from mentioning that white lies will get you embarrassment.