Prologue:

The soothing sprinkling of rain against the window seems a mockery to the turmoil in his mind. It was a battle between the mind and the soul, as all true inner battles are. His heart tells him to just forget logic and tell her. It wouldn't be hard, all she had to do was look at him with that melting expression that she had no matter what form she had taken. Whenever she looked at him like that he had the almost overwhelming urge to take her into his arms and tell her how he feels about her. However, his whole life had been dedicated to logic. He was a nerd, always had been. He believed that the rational way to life was the best. He got so much abuse for that when he was a kid, his closest friends had always been very different from him. She was very different then that.

She had grabbed his hand before a meeting of the Order and dragged him giggling into a freshly cleaned room before he could say anything. As always he was drawn to this pink haired girl with the ability to change her shape at will.

"Remus," She had looked up at him with no shame in her face. "We never get to have time to ourselves and I thought that we could have a moment."

"Remus," she said his name again with a purr in her voice, "We've been flirting for ages now and I've been waiting for you to say something but you are too slow. Therefore, I have taken it upon myself to tell you that I think you're cute and I want to go to dinner with you sometime." The look on her face was full of mischief and fun. She had been standing so close and twined her hand in his while waiting for his answer.

Remus felt like he had been clubbed. Brutally. He couldn't help but be drawn to this vivacious girl but there was so much that stood in their way. "Tonks," He sighed and leaned against the door away from her, "It's not that easy."

"Why not?" She put a hand on her hip and looked honestly surprised.

"Tonks, I am too old for you, I am too poor; Both those things are never going to get better, they probably will get worse. Not to mention that I am a danger to you once a month, and I care too much about you to let you put yourself in danger."

"Oh come on, I'm a danger to you once a month and you don't see me all worried." She laughed and took a step closer to him. He had no where to go and she was getting so close. Too close. "And all that other nonsense I don't care about. So why should you?"

He got a whiff of that elusive scent of hers, it wasn't strong or overwhelming, it just wafted sweetly into his nose and drove him crazy. "If you don't, you should. They are valid reasons that this can't happen." He quickly turned his back to her and ran out the door. Well, he didn't run but it was damn near quick.

Now he was here listening to the sprinkle of rain but in his hand was a picture of another girl. A dark haired girl with deep sapphire eyes smiling up at him and blowing kisses while laughing. The background is blurry but he knew that it was that little cave in the Forbidden Forest that was their place. Can he deny that one of the reasons that he was drawn to Tonks was the amazing resemblance to Casey. Every time that she did one of those quirky little things that mimicked Casey perfectly was like a stab to the heart for Remus. After all these years, he thought memories of her were laid to rest. Why does it hurt like she had left only hours ago? But there was other things that drew him to Tonks, things that were very different from anything Casey would do. So why, when his mind should be trying to figure out what he should do with Tonks, was his mind preoccupied by that wild laughter of Casey and how her eyes would sparkle when she looked at him.

When the door creaked open, Remus didn't even look up. He knew that Sirius would come. Sirius, joker and flake that he was, loved his friends above all else. In his own way, all he wanted to do was take care of them. Too bad Remus was all he had left. The others were gone. Cold and buried in the ground.

"Hey, buddy," Sirius's voice was slightly mocking as he came into the room, "You've made my little niece cry. I should be here to give you a stern lecture."

Remus sighed and looked up at his friend. The desperation must have been apparent in his golden eyes because Sirius gave a quiet laugh and came over to sit beside his friend, "Ah, Mooney. It's not that bad. All you got to do is give her a smooch and she'll be right as rain." The dark, gaunt man ruffled his friends graying hair.

"Whatchya got there?" He asked seeing the picture in Remus's hand. When Remus gave it to him, the breath in his chest disappeared as if he'd been hit solidly in the solar plex. His normally jocular inflection was gone when he sighed, "Oh, Mooney."

"I miss her, Sirius." Remus sighed. "But she's not the one I should be thinking about tonight. I've got to figure out what to do with Tonks."

Sirius was silent as he contemplated the dark laughing eyes of the girl in the picture. "Do you love her?"

"How can you ask me that!" Remus leaned back into the wall behind me and shut his eyes, "I haven't felt like this since the day Casey left. I never thought I'd love another person again. Now I've fallen for a girl who could just as well be my daughter."

"What would Casey tell you?" Sirius tried to smile at his friend but it was a little shaky. Sirius had been taken off guard.

"She'd laugh at me. Shake her head and tell me to take her for dinner in Paris, just for the hell of it." Remus answered. "I've never been able to be like her, though. I tried so hard but I wasn't good enough in the end."

"Mooney," Sirius voice was cold now. "I know you tend to look on the darker side of things; But don't you ever say that again. She loved you more then any other. It's a disrespect to her memory for you to even second guess that."

Remus wouldn't agree or disagree. Instead he looked at his friend and asked, "Do you know that Harry doesn't know anything about her, really. She was so excited when he was born. And all Harry has ever heard about her is That's Dorcas Meadowes, Voldemort killed her personally. "

"It's weird who history remembers." Sirius sighed. "I never thought I'd be remembered for anything after my name was blasted from that tree."

"I always thought for sure she'd be remembered. She knew just about everyone."

" I remember her." Sirius voice was achingly soft.

"Oh Padfoot, I'm sorry." Remus softly put a hand on his friends back, "I know it hurts you just as much as it does me."

The two men, one gaunt and ragged and the other worn and prematurely grey looked down at a girl forever young and remembered when they were youths standing beside her, handsome and full of life.