Disclaimer: As always I'm not JK. Different from usual is that surprisingly I don't own A Streetcar Named Desire. That would be Tennessee Williams.

A/N: Chapter first. Apologies after.

Chapter 30

A Night like This

The evening before school ended Lily, Carly and the Marauders were sitting in the Gryffindor common room. Exams were over and results given out. Each of the six had managed reasonable to excellent marks. But the group of friends weren't discussing marks or summer. They were busy talking about the production of A Streetcar Named Desire that the sixth year Muggle Studies class would be performing two hours later.

James and Remus were both feeling nervous at this point. Neither had any real confidence in their acting abilities. But Lily was really beginning to freak out. She had no faith in herself at all when it came to acting and the stage fright plus the fact she had a major role certainly weren't helping. Lily was fidgeting endlessly and Carly was getting annoyed with her friend. "Bloody hell Lily! Could you stop fidgeting?"

"Sorry," Lily said. She planted her feet flat on the floor and sat on her hands. But three minutes later Lily was back to biting her nails, playing with her hair and bouncing her feet.

"Oh for Christ's sake Li!" Carly exclaimed. "Calm down already would you? I'm sure you'll be fine."

"Fine? Fine! You get up in front of all of Hogwarts and then see if you'll be calm and fine and dandy."

The boys decided it was time to intervene before this conversation escalated into a full blown row between Carly and Lily. "We should probably head down, Red," said Remus.

"I agree," added James. "Let's go Lily."

Carly, Sirius and Peter watched as James and Remus pulled Lily to her feet. They continued to look on as the redhead was dragged through the portrait hole. "Well," Sirius commented, "what are we going to do now?"

"Anyone up for Exploding Snap?" suggested Peter.

An hour later Peter, Sirius and Carly arrived in the Entrance Hall. Sirius had never figured out how nearly a thousand students and teachers managed to fit in the Entrance Hall. He shrugged and followed Carly and Peter into the crowd outside the doors to the Great Hall. After waiting around for ten minutes the doors opened and everyone began moving into the Great Hall.

Carly, Sirius and Peter stared around them in awe as they stepped through the doors. The Great Hall had been completely transformed. Where there had once been a large well lit room with five long tables, there was now a large room filled with seats and a downward slope leading to a stage. It had become a true theatre.

"Wow," breathed Peter.

"You can say that again," Carly commented.

"Wow."

"I didn't mean that literally."

"Oh."

"I'm never going to get used to the Hall looking like this. Even after seeing it so after five years it still seems strange," said Sirius. "Come on, let's find some seats."

Carly, Sirius and Peter had been sitting and talking for ten minutes when the lights started to fade. The whole hall went silent as Professor Litana stepped out of the curtains on stage. "Good evening everyone and thank you for coming," said Litana. "This year's class has put in a great deal of work so we hope that you will enjoy our production of A Streetcar Named Desire." She bowed and walked backstage.

Peter, Sirius and Carly smiled at each other as the curtains opened, revealing a house on a street. Carly vaguely remembered something about New Orleans but immediately dismissed it as Michelle Wilkins began the first line of the play.

"…she says St Barnabas would send out his dog to lick her and when he did she'd feel an icy cold wave all up and down her. Well, that night when-"

Two boys Carly didn't recognise, one dressed as a sailor, were walking across the stage. The one on the left said, "You keep right on going and you'll find it. You'll hear them tapping on the shutters."

The sailor turned to Belle Parle and Wilkins. "Where's the Four Deuces?"

A vendor called out, "Red hot! Red hots!"

Wilkins replied to the sailor, "Don't waste your money in that clip joint!"

"I've got a date in there," said the sailor.

"Re-e-ed h-o-o-t!"

Carly decided she'd have to ask who all these people were. The sailor looked kind of cute. But she loved James of course she quickly reminded herself.

"Don't let them sell you a Blue Moon cocktail or you won't go out on your own feet!"

It was at this point that James himself walked on stage with Remus. Carly grabbed Sirius's arm and grinned like a maniac.

"Well, what did he say?" asked James.

"He said he'd give us even money," replied Remus.

"Naw! We gotta have odds!" They stopped at the bottom of the stairs to the house. James bellowed, "Hey, there! Stella, Baby!"

When nothing happened James and Remus glanced at each other. Peter leaned across Sirius to whisper, "Isn't Stella meant to be the name of Lily's character?"

"Hey Stella!" James yelled again.

"Yeah it is," Carly whispered back.

"Oh no," muttered Sirius. "Lily's stage fright. You guys saw how she was before Remus and James took her away."

Just as James was about to call out again, Lily appeared on the balcony. "Don't holler at me like that," she said in a believable New Orleans accent. "Hi, Mitch."

Sirius, Carly and Peter looked at each other in relief and relaxed back into their seats to continue watching the play.

James walked on stage into the "kitchen". "What's all this monkey doings?" he asked.

"Monkey doings?" Sirius murmured to Carly.

Carly shrugged and whispered, "Just watch and shut up."

Lily turned in surprise. "Oh, Stan!" She grinned as she jumped up and kissed him.

Carly gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. She had begun chanting a silent mantra: It's only a play. It's not real. But there was a tiny traitorous voice at the back of Carly's mind that was asking, Then why did James seem to enjoy it so much?

"Stan, we've – lost Belle Reve!" Lily exclaimed.

"The place in the country?" replied James.

"Yes."

"How?"

"Oh, it had to be – sacrificed or something."

Suddenly Sirius' and Peter's eyes bulged and they sat forward. "Oh my God," breathed Peter.

"Is Lily stripping?" Sirius asked incredulously.

Carly was barely paying any attention to the two boys as she watched the scene before her. She felt tears begin to rise when she saw the expression on James' face as he passed Lily a dress. The want and desire was there for all of Hogwarts and Carly to see. Most would assume that James was merely acting his part of devoted husband but somewhere deep inside her Carly knew what she was seeing was real. She knew he wasn't faking that expression no matter how much she tried to convince herself otherwise.

"How is your mother now, Mitch?" Lily asked Remus.

"About the same, thanks," he answered. "She appreciated your sending over that custard. – Excuse me please." Remus walked slowly back into the kitchen.

Alisa Redcliff watched him go with interest. "That one seems – superior to the others," she said.

"Yes, he is," replied Lily.

"I thought he had a sort of sensitive look."

"His mother is sick."

"Is he married?"

"No."

"Is he a wolf?"

Sirius snickered at the line. How bloody fitting, he thought. Yes he is quite literally a wolf.

Sirius was enthralled in the play. He never thought he'd be so interested in theatre and the like. Whenever his parents had forced him and his brother Regulus to the opera, so that they could maintain the image of the perfect pureblood family, Sirius had kicked and screamed his heart out before spending the night sitting in a sulky silence. Even the previous plays put on by Muggle Studies classes in years gone by had failed to hold his attention. But this performance, this A Streetcar Named Desire had captured him. It had little to do with the acting. While Sirius enjoyed watching his friends up there on stage, even he knew that though it was great by Hogwarts standards, the cast weren't in the same league as true actors. Although part of his interest came from watching half-dressed women walking around (What teenage male wouldn't be interested, Sirius thought), Sirius knew that the story itself was what interested him most.

Sirius leaned forward as he watched James stumble to the front of the building, soaking wet. "Stell-lahhhhh!" he screamed.

Eunice appeared at her door upstairs. "Quit that howling out there an' go back to bed!" she called back.

"I want my baby down here. Stella, Stella!"

"She ain't comin' down so you quit! Or you'll git th' law on you!"

"Stella!"

"You can't beat a woman an' then call 'er back! She won't come! And her goin' t' have a baby! ... You stinker! You whelp of a Polack, you! I hope they do haul you in and turn the fire house on you, same as the last time!"

"Eunice, I want my girl to come down with me!"

"Hah!" Eunice slammed her door.

"STELLL-AHHHHH!"

Sirius wanted to yell at the characters when he saw Lily walk halfway down the stairs. James and Lily stared at each other then came together near the bottom of the stairs, James on his knees with his face against her stomach. He picked Lily up and carried her into the dark flat.

No! Sirius' brain screamed. Stella you stupid girl, how could you go back after he hit you? Sirius then realized what he was thinking. Before it wouldn't have mattered to him. He remembered seeing one of his uncles beating his aunt when he was younger and he had accepted it. But now after being best friends with James and Remus and especially after becoming friends and spending time with Lily and her feminist attitude, Sirius couldn't even watch a fictional character go back and stay with a man who had hit her without becoming angry and indignant. Too much time with Lily, Sirius thought.

Peter wasn't paying much attention to the play. In fact at times he was having trouble simply staying awake. Sure there were the occasional times when he couldn't take his eyes off the stage, namely when Lily had stripped onstage, but otherwise Peter would merely look at the stage at random intervals before drifting off again. Peter doubted he'd forget that stripping incident any time soon. Somehow he knew Lily was self-conscious when she was standing up there in front of the whole school practically naked. It made him remember the day, over a year earlier, when Lily and Sirius had had to wear only their underwear after a game of truth or dare. But that dare she hadn't been the least bit inhibited, nor when she was wearing a bikini during summer. It didn't make much sense to Peter. But then again, he thought, Lily doesn't make much sense sometimes.

Peter snapped back to reality when he heard Sirius snickering beside him. "What's so funny?" he asked.

"They're discussing Divination," Sirius replied.

"Who are? The characters?" Peter was perplexed. "But I thought this was a Muggle play."

"It is."

"But then why-"

"Well they're not really talking about Divination; they're talking about astrological signs. It's all rather humorous."

"Oh." He was still a tad confused.

Sirius looked at him and shook his head. "Just go back to sleep Pete."

"Can I – uh – kiss you – good-night?" Remus asked.

"Why do you always ask me if you may?" replied Alisa.

"I don't know whether you want me to or not."

"Why should you be so doubtful?"

Sirius grinned as he wondered if Remus had acted this way the first few times he had kissed Julia the Ravenclaw. He remembered that Remus had told him, James and Peter about asking her out and how he thought he had made an idiot of himself when he did. Apparently Julia hadn't thought so though and the two of them had been going steady since about February. Sirius wondered how far Remus had gotten. He doubted Remus had made it past first base since Julia had always seemed like a bit of a prude to him.

"I like you to be exactly the way that you are, because in all my – experience – I have never known anyone like you," said Remus.

There had often been times when Sirius and James had tried to drag details about his relationship out of Remus. But he had never been the type to kiss and tell and always refused to tell them anything. Remus had been a bit quieter lately. He hadn't said anything but Sirius had a feeling Remus was worried about how him and Julia would last over the summer. This turned Sirius's mind to James and Carly.

Sirius had no doubt that those two would make it through summer and would still be going strong in September. He didn't think he'd ever seen James act this way about a girl before. Except maybe during fifth year when he had that crush on Lily, though then he was more jealous than lovey-dovey-sugar-sweet. He really didn't think Carly and James would be breaking up any time soon.

"Well, what do you think of it?" asked James.

"I don't believe all of those stories and I think your supply-man was mean and rotten to tell them," Lily shot back. "It's possible that some of the things he said are partly true. There are things about my sister I don't approve of – things that caused sorrow at home. She was always – flighty!"

"Flighty is some word for it!"

"But when she was young, very young, she had an experience that – killed her illusions!"

Lily had once told her that most people can see an aspect of themselves, even if it's only a very small part, in most fictional characters. Carly found that to be particularly apt now. She could easily see that one line describing the character of Blanche in her own best friend. Carly and Lily had shared their hopes and dreams, their fears and their feelings since they were eleven years old. Strange how one little letter could change everything. The first time was when she had been ten. Lily receives a letter and suddenly her older sister wishes she was dead. Another one when she was almost fifteen robbed her of so many of her dreams.

Carly remembered all the things Lily had ever wanted. Having her parents see her graduate, her father walking her down the aisle on her wedding day, introducing her mother to her baby girl who she had planned to name Carly Anne after her best friend and her mother. Lily would never have any of those things with her family. She didn't even have a family seeing as how Petunia had disowned her.

And all this because of one man. The dreams closest to Lily's heart had been ruined by one sick, twisted creature who decided to murder her parents for a bit of fun. Most of the time Lily was her normal, happy, bubbly, always eager, bookworm self. But there were times when Carly would glance at her and see the cold fire and determination in her green eyes and Carly would know Lily was trying to think of a way to bring about Voldemort's downfall.

"You didn't need to do that," said Lily.

"Don't forget all that I took off her," James replied.

"You needn't have been so cruel to someone alone as she is."

"Delicate piece she is." James sneered.

"She is. She was. You didn't know Blanche as a girl. Nobody, nobody, was tender and trusting as she was. But people like you forced her to change."

Sirius remembered first year. Back then many people had seen Remus as a "delicate piece". To begin with he had as well. A lot of the older students and the Slytherins had always picked on him because he had been very different from everyone else. Remus was the reason Sirius and James had become friends. Snape, Malfoy and the other first year Slytherins had encircled Remus and wouldn't let him past while yelling insults at him. Usually James would be the one to stop them but that day he hadn't been there. Instead Sirius had been there and all the "Lupin-bullying" had finally gotten to him so he stepped in and pulled Remus away from them. The Slytherins had sneered and smirked at him, calling him a disgrace to the Black name, not that Sirius had cared what they said.

Apparently James had been there though. He had arrived in time to see what Sirius did. James had told him later that it was that incident that had made him see that Sirius might be different from the rest of the Black family. The two had become friends not long after and from then had been inseparable. They tried to make friends with Remus and acted friendly to him and continued to stop the bullies picking on him. But after awhile of this not working Sirius and James had realised that they would have to do something different more to gain Remus's trust than simply stopping mean kids that Remus ignored anyway.

Peter tuned into the play again. "But I forgive," the girl playing Blanche was saying. "I forgive you because it's such a relief to see you. You've stopped that polka tune that I had caught in my head. Have you ever had anything caught in your head? Some words, a piece of music? That goes relentlessly on and on in your head?"

Peter thought about that sentence and decided he'd never had something stuck in his head. Suddenly he began singing a tune that came into his head. Sirius glanced at him and hissed, "What are you humming?"

"I don't know," replied Peter. "Just something that popped into my head. Why?"

"It sounds awful. Shut up so I can hear what's being said."

Peter rolled his eyes and huffed. "Fine."

"So I could twist the broken end in your face!" Alisa yelled at James.

"I bet you would do that!" James shouted back.

"I would: I will if you-"

"Oh! So you want some rough-house! All right, let's have some rough-house!"

I really hate Stanley, thought Sirius. Stanley reminded Sirius too much of his family. His pureblood-manic, Voldemort supporting, dark arts practising family. Stanley was a chauvinistic bastard who hit and raped women. Jeez, I don't think Black men have ever done that before. They're all too kind and noble, purging society of muggles to ever do anything like that. Sirius scowled slightly and tried to concentrate on the play again. He really didn't like thinking about the family he had been born into.

James stood at the foot of the steps looking at Lily sobbing and holding the "baby". "Stella?" he said uncertainly. He knelt beside her and tried to comfort her. "Now, honey. Now, love. Now, now love. Now, now, love. Now, love…"

"This game is seven-card stud," said Stewart.

The curtains closed on the final scene. The audience broke out into applause. The curtains opened again so that the Muggle Studies class could take their bows. Carly, Peter and Sirius saw Remus, Lily and James standing in the very centre of the line. They stood up, clapping even harder, whistling and yelling out. They continued clapping as the class took a final bow and trooped offstage. The students began leaving the Great Hall, either to return to their common rooms and dorms or to wait for their friends in the Entrance Hall.

A few minutes later the Entrance Hall was almost completely deserted. Only a few small groups of students were left lingering. Peter spotted James, Remus and Lily the minute they left the Great Hall and pointed them out to Carly and Sirius. Grinning, Sirius bounded over to them and swept Lily into a bear hug. "You were marvellous Lady Lily," he proclaimed. He glanced behind her at James and Remus and joked, "Oh you two were alright as well I suppose."

"Thanks so much for the praise Sirius," James replied sarcastically. Remus rolled his eyes in amusement and chuckled.

"In that first scene we didn't think you'd actually make it out onto the stage you were taking so long," Peter said to Lily.

She laughed. "Neither did I! Litana actually pushed me onto the balcony and then I had to say the line."

James smiled then noticed that Carly was hanging back rather than joining the conversation. He glanced back at his friends who had begun to move towards the stairs then turned and walked over to Carly.

"I can't believe you undressed on stage!" exclaimed Sirius. "Have you no shame woman?"

"Shut up! It was in the play so I had to do it. I felt bloody embarrassed up there in my underwear. And now we shall never speak of it again."

Remus looked back as Sirius, Peter and Lily walked up the stairs, their conversation now on the characters. "You two coming?" he asked.

"We'll be there in a little while," James answered. Remus nodded and turned to catch up with the others. "Carly we need to talk."

"You're breaking up with me aren't you?"

The lie slipped out before James could stop it. "What? Of course I'm not!"

Carly simply looked at him. "Don't lie to me James. You never have before so why bother starting now?"

"Okay! I want to break up! Are you happy now!" He stopped shouting and took a breath. There was no point getting angry. He didn't want to break up because he was angry at her or because either of them had done something wrong. James just couldn't keep the charade going any longer. Carly wasn't who he wanted. He looked up at her again. "Can we at least stay friends?"

Carly shook her head slightly. "If you want to be friends you'll have to give me time. Don't sit with me and Lily on the train tomorrow."

"But-"

"Just don't okay!" Carly could feel the tears beginning to well up but she forced them away. She refused to let James Potter see her cry. "Just don't," she continued in a whisper. "I'll see you next year James."

As Carly walked away she thought she heard a voice murmur, "From love comes hate." But she ignored it thinking it was just the wind in the drafty halls.

A/N: I am so, so, so, so, so, so, so SORRY! You have no idea how much. And I have no excuses for why I took so long to write this. So again huge apologies for the approximately eight months it took me to write this chapter. But on the Brightside it is the longest chapter I've ever written.

And in other news tomorrow the 23rd is the two year anniversary of Unknown. Hard to believe it's been two whole years since I started this. And yet I'm still no closer to finishing this fic as I was when I started. I just want to thank all you reviewers. You always make my day.

Samantha