(A/N) Well, I said I'd have another chapter up either today or tomorrow, and here it is! This one was probably the hardest one to write so far! It looks like my only reviewer got her wish! Everybody do me a favor: review for this chappie, and I'll get chapter 8 up within the next couple days. I'm not putting up chappie 8 until I get at least 4 reviews. That's my norm for each chapter. Well, here it is!

Chapter Seven – Insecurity

"Oh, I live a lie; oh I live a lie,

Oh why even try?

But I've been leaving thoughts below

Still I feel I should know."

Default – Live a Lie

"And then she actually agreed to walk back with me, and … are you even listening?" James questioned his best friend, who was currently staring out the window.

"What?" Sirius asked obliviously, causing James to roll his eyes. "Uhh, o-oh yeah! I was listening!"

"Whatever," mumbled James. "What are you looking at anyway?" He strode over to the window as well, and saw Lily, Julie, and Alli sitting by the lake, chatting. He followed Sirius' gaze exactly, until he saw,

"Alli Carter! You're staring at Alli Carter?"

Sirius turned red. "No! No, of course not!" He didn't sound very convincing, and James, as his best friend, could easily tell he was lying. He didn't have time to ask for explanations though, because Sirius quickly got up and nearly ran from the room.

"Since when does Sirius get embarrassed over a girl?" James asked the empty room, confused. It wasn't like his womanizing friend to blush when girls were mentioned, or avoid any mention of his staring at them. Usually he was quite open about the fact that he was staring at a certain girl. I just hope Sirius knows what he's in for, he thought. Alli isn't one to put up with obvious flirting and the kind of antics he's famous for. If she doesn't like him back, he's in for the biggest refusal of his life.

XXXXXX

It was the end of Herbology, and Lily, Julie, and Alli were sitting together, waiting to find out what their homework was.

"I want you all to do two rolls of parchment on the uses of these plants in spells and potions, and the importance of them, due to me, October 7th." Professor Jordan told them. "You are dismissed."

As soon as these words were out of his mouth, the students got up and began to leave.

"I'm telling you, I wasn't staring at Carter!" Sirius insisted to James.

"What were you doing then? Trying to make sure she was female?" James retorted back.

Remus shook his head. These two had been at it since the middle of the class, when James brought up catching his best friend watching the blonde, and it was getting on his nerves. Sirius was only incriminating himself by arguing, and James was only making himself look stupid by arguing back. It was pointless banter, and at any time the girls would walk by and hear them. Then, whether Sirius liked Alli or not, he would end up in pain. Alli was famous for having as much of a temper as her red-headed best friend. Hearing anyone mention Sirius "trying to make sure she was female" would surely set off the anger.

"I don't like her," Sirius was saying when Remus came back to the real world. "And to prove it, I'll go ask Lacey to Hogsmeade, like I originally planned on doing until someone started to argue with me."

James decided not to point out that Sirius had been the one who started it, so he settled with watching his friend turn on the charm as he walked over to Lacey and her friends.

"Hey Lacey," said Sirius smoothly. "Would you mind accompanying me to Hogsmeade this weekend?"

Lacey fluttered her eyelashes. "Of course I will Sirius." She said giggly, while her friends looked on with a mixture of happiness and jealousy. Alli stared at Sirius with wide eyes, looking almost hurt, then said "Go on ahead. I'll meet you in Charms," and hurried from the room.

"You reckon we might want to follow her?" Julie asked Lily, who shook her head.

"No." Lily told her. "We should leave her be for now. We can talk to her in class, or later on tonight."

"I wonder why she's so upset with Sirius for asking someone else to Hogsmeade." Julie said. "I mean, she never said anything to us about wanting him to ask her. Hell, she hasn't even admitted that she likes him yet!"

"Maybe she isn't sure," Lily said. "But at any rate, it is very strange."

XXXXXX

What is wrong with me? Alli asked herself a she walked down a hallway on the way to Charms. Why do I care if he asks some chick to go with him to Hogsmeade? That's his problem, not mine! I don't care about him! She stopped walking as she remembered the times she'd been with him, hanging out at James' place, or running into each other at Diagon Ally. Then she remembered that day by the lake, when he'd chased her because he wanted her to help him with his essay. His hair was out of the norm and messy, and his eyes sparkled with happiness. When he'd smiled at her, when they lay on the grass, she could feel her heart melt.

I'm in love with Sirius! Alli realized. Oh great, what do I do? She thought as she began to walk again out of frustration. I can't like him! This is Sirius Black we're talking about, the player who's never spent more than a week with one girl! If I were to go out with him, he would dump me before I could say I loved him! And it's not like he likes me anyway. He just asked out some blonde bimbo! What am I gonna do now? I know, Alli smiled at her idea. Two can play at this game.

Before going into the Classroom, she called a tall, brown-haired 7th year over to her.

"Hi Raoul," she said. "Would you go with me to Hogsmeade this weekend?"

Raoul looked pleased at his good luck. "Yeah, sure thing Alli."

"Good. Meet me at the Three Broomsticks?"

"Ok, see you then." He agreed.

"Bye," waved Alli, entering the classroom with a huge smile on her face.

"Over here Al!" Julie called, signaling her. She and Lily were sitting at a table in the middle of the room, and the Marauders had sat behind them. Perfect, Alli though happily as she sat next to them.

"What took so long?" Lily asked.

"Sorry guys, I was busy." Alli told them. They gave her looks of curiosity, which she decided to answer. "I just asked Raoul Marquay to come to Hogsmeade with me." She said loudly, making sure Sirius would hear her.

"That good-looking Ravenclaw prefect?" Lily asked.

"Yep," said Alli, sounding delighted. "We're meeting at the Three Broomsticks."

"Now Becca can stop harassing me about being the only one with a date!" Julie said excitedly. "She can bug you too! Have I ever mentioned how much I appreciate you?"

"Many times," Alli said, noting the horrified look on Sirius' face. Her plan seemed to be working.

XXXXXX

"Hi Rick," Julie said as she walked up to her date, who was standing Honeydukes waiting for her.

"Hey Julie," he said. "Want to go in?"

"Yes please," Julie exclaimed. "Me and the girls are nearly out of chocolate." He laughed and led her in.

XXXXXX

James, Remus and Peter were sitting at a table in the Three Broomsticks with Sirius and Lacey, as well as a couple of her friends, and they were irritated. Lacey's friends were all very ditzy and had taken to flirting with them. Sirius was sweet-talking Lacey, while every once and a while looking up to the door, as though watching for someone. James and Remus, out of boredom, had taken to watching the door as well, naming people as they walked in, and ignoring the girls trying to flirt with them.

"There's Gilderoy Lockhart, a fourth year Hufflepuff, I think." Remus said.

"And with him is Alli's younger brother Ryan, also a fourth year." James pointed out.

"And, wait. That's Lily!" Remus and James watched as Lily stormed into the pub, looking very peeved. Alli and Raoul followed her in, causing Sirius to look up, but they went to the opposite side of the room. Raoul looked concernedly at Lily, but Alli wasn't even looking at her. Lily went to an empty table a few away from the boys, folded her arms across her chest, and looked pointedly away from Alli.

"We should go see what's up with Lily," said Remus, getting up. James nodded and got up as well.

"I'm coming too," said Peter, and, leaving Sirius with his date and her companions, they walked over to Lily's table.

"Hey, mind if we sit here?" James asked, pointing at the seats across from her. Lily looked up, shocked.

"Sure," she said simply, and they sat. She looked down again, avoiding their eyes.

"What's up with Alli?" Remus asked carefully.

"Nothing," Lily snapped, head still down. They were silent for a minute, before she shook her head. "Julie's with this Lesher guy, and Alli's with Marquay, and neither of them had any though for me. And then Ali had the nerve to…" But the she shut up. Alli had told her when they arrived in Hogsmeade that she was only going with Raoul to make Sirius jealous. She was merely paying him back for asking some other airhead out. The whole thing just pissed her off! Lily didn't think that Alli should be using some random guy, just because she wanted to get back at someone. It wasn't right! And then she left Lily alone, without anything. She just said "Lily, please understand! I need Sirius to think I really like Raoul, for this to work, so we need to be alone." It was wrong! Lily wasn't about to tell two of Sirius' friend about Alli's real intentions though.

James and Remus looked at her strangely. "What did Alli do?" James asked. He thought he might have an idea, but he wanted to be sure.

"We won't tell Sirius anything." Remus told her, seeing the look in her eyes. "Right you guys?"

James nodded. "Right. Sirius told me earlier that he'd never need my help to get a girl, so he's not getting any help from me."

"And its entertaining watching these fights unfold." Peter told her. "Anyway, he needs the challenge."

"Or his ego's going to get too big for any of us to handle." Remus added.

Lily could tell that they were telling the truth. Maybe it was in their eyes, or the way they talked, but it made sense. So, she began to explain.

XXXXXX

"Is there anything you want to get?" Julie asked Rick, inside the candy shop.

"You go ahead and look," he told her, making her smile.

"Ok, well, I need chocolate," she said, walking over to a counter with all different kinds.

"How about this one?" her date asked, picking up a chocolate bar with almonds in it.

"That sounds good," Julie said. "Oh, and we need this one for Lily." She picked up a bar of white chocolate.

"Hey, Rick!" Julie turned and saw someone she recognized as one of Rick's friends from the library, the one Alli had said she knew.

"Whatcha up to, Ian?" Rick asked.

"Just here with Nora," the blonde boy told them, smiling charmingly at the girl with him. She was a tall, pretty, raven-haired girl, who was also in Julie and Rick's Divination class. "Who's this?" Ian asked, looking at Julie.

Rick grinned. "This gorgeous lady is Miss Julie Marshall, from Gryffindor." He told them smoothly. Julie noticed that his nice guy persona was gone, now that he was around his friends. He was acting like Sirius would sometimes, being flirty and charismatic. It was strange.

"You're in divination with us, aren't you?" Nora asked.

"Yeah," Julie told her. Then Ian leaned over and whispered something in Rick's ear. Rick whispered something back, causing Ian to laugh.

"They do this a lot," Nora explained quietly to Julie. "Unless it's just me with them. Then they say whatever the hell they want. They're probably talking about something they don't want to say in front of you."

"Oh," Julie said, feeling uncomfortable with the whole thing. Nora seemed to understand how Julie was feeling, because she said "Come on Ian. I want to go find that bubblegum we came in here for."

"Alright babe," Ian said. "Nice to meet you, Marshall. See you Rick." He winked at Rick as Nora took his hand and led him to the back of the store. Rick just laughed and rolled his eyes.

"Hey Rick?"

"Yeah Julie?"

There he was, acting sweet again. "Um, can we go out somewhere?"

"We have to pay for your chocolate first." He told her.

"I know, after that."

"Where do you want to go?"

"Um, just outside."
"Alright," he said as they walked up to the register. As soon as they were all paid for, he took her hand and led her out the door. "I know just the place." He told her. "Follow me."

"Right," she said. Rick led her down a path and when they came out of the trees, Julie gasped. They were up on a cliff looking down on a gorgeous valley, complete with a winding river and everything. It was a perfect view.

"Rick, this is wonderful!" She breathed, looking around.

He grinned almost smugly. "I knew you'd think so. Come sit here." He pointed to a spot, almost at the cliff's edge. He sat, and she sat next to him. "From this spot, you can see the whole valley."

"It's beautiful," Julie sighed, letting herself relax for the first time all day.

"You're beautiful," Rick told her softly, smoothly. Julie shivered slightly at the tone in his voice. He leaned forward, and their lips met. Any doubts she had about dating him were forgotten as she wrapped her arms around his neck, lost in the moment. Back at the Three Broomsticks, however, things weren't going so well.