Disclaimer: the characters and settings do not belong to me.

Love is not pretty. Really, it's not. It's vengeful and vindictive and spiteful and malicious. But for all of this, it does have its merits. Not the material or physical kind of benefits, though. Nor the kind that leaves you satisfied. I suppose there aren't really any benefits then. But before I let you get depressed about a concept you've been naively fantasizing about since puberty, let me say that love is good for your soul. It destroys it completely, and then it leaves room for it to be built back up again.

From the beginning, James harbored no illusions about his love for Lily Evans. He knew it was going to be painful and that it would likely never get better. Because for all the love of one person for another person that existed in the universe, the odds were that most of it fell under the category of 'unrequited.' He welcomed love, welcomed the pain, and although it may seem a little bit sadistic, he knew it was better than not feeling anything at all, and that's all that self-preservation would result it. No, James was a liver of life. He refused to shut out anything.

Lily Evans, quite the optimist, grew up relying on the fairy tale kind of love. There would one day be a prince (metaphorically speaking, of course) that would love her s much as she loved him and in the exact same way, and they would live happily and harmoniously. This is why she rarely gave a second thought to the rascal with the messy hair who knew exactly which buttons of hers to push and how hard to push them. Not even her own sister was as good as James Potter at getting her impossibly riled up.

Now Sirius Black, disillusioned youth and resident rebel, refused to acknowledge the existence of love altogether. But nobody who knew him could blame him. His past was not pretty and present was a bit less bearable than he would have wished. In fact, the only kind of human connection Sirius relied on was his relationship with his friends, the self-proclaimed Marauders. One would call this close bond brotherly love, but since Sirius didn't believe in love, he called it loyalty. Nobody minded, though, because, really, what was the difference?

Lily's dear friend and dorm-mate, Madison Helms, was a bit like Lily and James when it came to love, only more realistic. Like James, she knew it hurt. She knew this the moment she met Sirius Black, who shut off anything and everything that threatened his loveless existence. However, like Lily, she would never give up on it and would perpetually be in search of someone to love her, if that's what it took. Madison prided herself on her theories about love, one of them being the thought that true love is not about give and take. Rather, true love is about giving, and then feeling undeserving and humbled if the occasional called for taking.

A/N: Am having doubts about whether or not to continue this story. Will continue if generates enough readership and support. Will not continue if nobody cares either way. Review and leave your thoughts, please.