Yay, yay! I never thought I would get this far on any fan fiction! Well, I won't keep you waiting. All people who read this get a candy bar of their choice! Here's the 5th chapter~! :WHOOT: Fresh pie for: Fireblade K'Chona, L-sama, Purplefluffychainsaw, Liver Beazard, Davey-boy, silver-sunn101, Wonkywerewolf, Fade to Black, and last but not least, Rena Lupin. THANKIES! BTW, I'm co-writing a Fan-Fic with Fireblade K'Chona. The plot is really funky and we're really going against the grain in it, look for the title, it's The Phantom and the Werewolf. YAY!

Chapter 5: Calling all Angels

The three Marauders continued to snigger though the sound clearly endangered their mission. Padfoot, Moony, and Wormtail had placed a Swelling Singing Sneak pill in the very groggy James Potter's omelet and were waiting for him to start eating it. Moony, though thinking it cruel, found some weird twist of joy in playing pranks on people with his friends. And on this day in late October, who could resist giving ol' Jimmy-James a little pill that would make him sing every word he uttered for 2 hours? No one with half a brain. It would be extremely entertaining to see how he would manage ordering a drink at the Three Broomsticks, or any other shop in Hogsmede for that matter.

With a very sleepy yawn from Peter, James gobbled up his omelet without a second thought. First he gagged, next he sputtered, and then he sang out the words, "What the Hell?"

That was enough for the three culprits as they hysterically burst out laughing, instantly incriminating themselves as James' eyes narrowed viciously.

"You complete bastards!" He sang out, ready to go for an E-flat.

"Settle down James, you'll go into Staccatos." Peter warned him, wiping tears from his eyes. Sirius snorted into his pumpkin juice as Moony stared at James' serious face and tried his best to keep from laughing again.

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Hogsmede was the greatest treat the four Marauders could've hoped for; that and having their "map" of the school and Hogsmede to aid them, which they conveniently made the year before. Despite it bring only October, the rain came down as cold as ice and soon everyone was soaked. After lastly visiting the Shrieking Shack to take inventory. The four boys ran through the sheets of thick rain to the Three Broomsticks. James' voice was back to normal but he made Peter order the four butter beers.

They sat down close to the fire and tried to stop shivering as they talked about what had happened that day. Once again, Moony was silent and just curled up on his chair holding his mug of steaming warm butter beer. All summer, Remus had dreamed about this moment. Just his friends and him, sitting around a warm fire with a hot drinks and being like everyone else, being normal for once. He couldn't help but smile back at Sirius, whose eyes were looking at his, though he was taking to the other two, both pretending that the color on their cheeks was from the heat of the fire.

"Moony, I think that's the first time you've really smiled this year." James said, eating a cauldron cake. Peter nodded in agreement, wiping frosting off his lips.

"Seriously?" the werewolf asked. Surely he had smiled at least everyday, but his three friends knew otherwise. "Oh… well, I'll try to smile more often then."

Wormtail and Prongs exchanged looks. Obviously, Remus wasn't getting off that easy this time. "You don't have to," Peter said, looking a bit suspicious at how flexible Remus was being. "It was just an observation."

"Yes, but I want to be-…" Remus stopped himself. He didn't want to get into a conversation and he had just lost his train of thought.

"Be…?" Sirius asked as he looked as Remus' embarrassed face.

"A-anyone for Bertie Boot's Every Flavored Beans Poker?" he stuttered out, fishing in his bag for his deck of playing cards.

"Moony stop avoiding attention. You're just as important as the next guy. We'd like to listen to you for once and-" James began, setting his butter beer down.

Remus cut him off. "James, all I want to be to other people is invisible, and if I'm not I'm a freak. Give me a break. I'm not as important as the next guy because I'm not like the next guy! I'm a werewolf and no one will think more of me than that! You can't deny that you don't see how people jeer at me, how they stare at me, how they whisper when I walk by! I hate drawing attention to myself because if they ignore me I won't get hurt! So LET IT GO!" the brown haired pale boy wound up yelling. The people in the pub were all silenced as they turned to see the wizard that had made all the commotion. Remus realized only a few breaths later what he had done. His hand flew up over his mouth as his cheeks burned red. In his eyes was a look of shock and grave embarrassment. The other three Marauders sat in awe and disbelief at how their usually quiet friend had burst out.

"Remus… I didn't… we didn't know that-" Padfoot began, leaning forward as tears formed in Moony's eyes. Nobody else had time to say anything as their pale friend grabbed his bag and coat, dashing out the door and leaving his butter beer half-empty.

"We don't know how he feels, do we?" Sirius asked, staring at the door. The seeker ran a hand through his constantly messy black hair. Peter gazed at Remus' empty chair and softly said, "You guys don't because you're so popular, and I don't because I always blurt out despite consequences. None of us can really relate to him because he's always worried and he's…different. He feels left out around people so he alienates his friends because of some fear."

James sighed heavily. "I didn't mean anything, you guys know that right?" Peter nodded as Sirius stood up and walked to the door, looking out into the stormy street. The teenage werewolf was nowhere to be found, the rain was coming down harder, if it was possible. Nothing could stop a thought of concern creep into Padfoot's mind as he scanned the landscape again to no avail.

Remus sat on his bed, crying into a pillow and screaming for all that he was worth. Sure, no one could hear him scream, but the sobs were more obvious.

"I can't believe I did that! …I'm such a stupid, ignorant idiot. God, I can't face them again," he said, through his sobs. His grip tightened on the pillow ad he pulled, ripping the scarlet material in half. Feathers erupted out of it and covered Remus and his bed with a blanket of white fluff. He just sat there, gazing at the two strips of red in his pale hands.

"That's all I am… a rich werewolf… in love with an icon… I might as well be dead." Moony whispered to himself, falling backwards and staring at the scarlet canopy overhead. His wand was soon out and the 15-year-old made the feathers disappear, leaving the bed spotless except for the missing pillow.

"I shouldn't have said anything. I'll just apologize and not say anything else about it. It was irresponsible and rude to trouble them with my problems… they aren't even problems, they're just worried." He was psyching himself out and he didn't seem to mind the fact that he was talking to himself.

Reaching into his nightstand drawer, he seemed to remember a song he had once heard from a play called The Phantom of the Opera, and though his memory was at a loss for the plot, he hummed the song, remembering that it was called "Masquerade." Sifting away broken quills, papers, and his diary, he uncovered his most prized possession. It was just a simple Carnival mask, nothing but a white base, black lines, and silver trimming. Even though he had bought it over 5 years ago in Venice, it still fit because of the charm placed on it.

As he set it on his face, Remus sat up to look in the mirror hanging on the opposite wall.

"What are you hiding from, little brother?" A familiar voice wafted in from the doorway as Relius appeared there.

"Why do you think I'm hiding?"

"You only wear that mask when you want to be someone else."

"And what if I do?" Remus asked more forcefully than he meant to.

"Pray for a change of mind."

Footsteps echoed down the hall as Remus' brother walked away.

That night, as the students returned from Hogsmede and flowed into the Great Hall, Remus sat by his lonesome, looking at his beef stew and trying to smile, which he did not succeed at. Without the werewolf's knowledge, the three Marauders sat down around him, Peter next to him, Sirius and James across from him. The plan was simple in their minds: get more of his story so they can help.

"Er… Moony?" Wormtail said, prodding the zoned-out wizard in the side. Waking from his daze, the boy with amber eyes found himself suddenly surrounded as more food appeared on the tables.

"Oh! You're back. I'm sorry I was going insane… for a moment…" he said, staring at a plate absent mindedly. Then he smiled convincingly and asked, "How was the rest of the trip?"

The other 3 were dumbfounded. Wasn't this the same brown haired and pale-faced teenager that just exploded with emotions in the Three Broomsticks? Didn't that just happen a few hours ago? But how was he able to completely "forget" the entire thing?

"Great actually and- wait, Remus, about the Three Broomsticks-" James struggled to say, still astonished by his friend's lack of self-image.

"About that, James. I'm sorry I forced my problems, not even problems… ah, troubles on you. No one should have to worry about something not concerning them. So, where else did you guys go?" Moony asked, though his voice was somewhat false, though only to Sirius.

But no answer came. Black looked right into his roommate's amber eyes, searching for a hint of some other emotion or explanation. And then it hit him. It was only the full moon that night; Remus' eyes wouldn't be red and puffy on their own. He had been crying.

As Peter explained the rest of the trip to Moony, it became more and more clear to Padfoot that his friend was faking them all out. He was doing it solely to make them forget him again.

But Sirius refused to forget him. The thought of his best friend was on his mind all night and all day. Sure, the girls were cute and all, but no one was quite like Remus J. Lupin. The way he laughed, though however rare it was, at Sirius' stale jokes, the way he looked when he slept, all curled up in a bundle of the sheets, and how he could walk into a room in such an inconspicuous, refined, and graceful manner, stole the attention of the self-proclaimed rogue. Padfoot was captivated by the invisible werewolf.