Right, so... I should be working on Unclaimed Darkness, for I am late, but I was stuck, so I thought, what if I try to release some pressure by writing about Sirius but in another story? I have this one planned for quite a few months after all...
I'll try to update about once a month, maybe more often.

Chapter one: The Trollshaws

Sirius, Remus and James were staring suspiciously at the very large black gem that the young Black had nicked away from Black Manor the last time he had visited his grandfather.

True, Arcturus had apparently known it all along, but he had not said anything to Sirius' parents. It wouldn't have been good, considering the young wizard had run away from home, and despite that, his grandfather hadn't changed his position towards Sirius. Not that he cared about still being the second heir to the House of Black. But it was better, for his safety, that Arcturus still backed him. It wouldn't do, to anger the Head of the family.

So, obviously, the teenager had taken that as an autorisation to do whatever he wanted with it. Well, as long as he brought it back next time he'd see his grandfather. Which meant that he couldn't do just anything he wanted with the stone. For example, he couldn't sell it. Or give it to somebody. Or destroy it in some way. Still, it let him with a lot of possibilities.

The three teenage wizards were for now in one of their secret hideouts in Hogwarts. It was a sunday with not much sun, which didn't meant that it had to be a sunday with not much fun. The Marauders, minus Peter who was still sleeping in the dorm, and that despite their best efforts, they hadn't been able to wake up, the Marauders were searching for an idea for a new prank.

Or, rather, James and Sirius were, while Remus reluctantly gave them his point of view as to why they really didn't want to turn McGonagall's desk into anything at all during class, even if the stern professor would certainly be impressed with their wandwork. Impressed or not, McGonagall wouldn't shy away from taking at least twenty points each. Fifty points, if, as James had suggested, they were to morph her desk into a cat tree.

So, as they were stuck, Sirius had busied himself with the precious gem he had taken from Black Manor. After a while, they stopped thinking about pranks altogether, watching the stone, that seemed to absorb any light around it.

Remus took a step back, eyeing the gem warily.

"You are sure that your grandfather won't try and turn you into a toad for having taken this?"

Sirius arched an eyebrow, smirking.

"I'd still be the most handsome of us all, even as a toad, don't worry."

The werewolf scowled, astonished by his friend's lack of common sense. James, that had meanwhile taken the precious stone in his hands, looking at it under every angle, whistled.

"That's one big stone. Where did you family get it?"

The gem was a marquise-shaped black diamond, long of two inches and large of almost one inch. It had the exact same shape as the little black diamond on the Black Lord's ring, Sirius mused.

"Not sure. We had it even before we became nobles. Actually, James, you've seen my grandfather's lordship ring, haven't you?"

The other wizard shrugged. Yes, he had seen Arcturus Black once or twice, being the heir to the House of Potter and all that, but he hadn't given it much thought at the time. He technically knew that every wizarding Lord in Great Britain had a ring of lordship with their family crest on it. His father had one. It didn't mean that he had actually seen the Blacks'. He supposed it was made of gold, with the crows and everything that identified the House of Black.

Sirius rolled his eyes, and advanced his hand for the two others to see.

As his grandfather had refused to follow his parents' choice, Sirius was still a member of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. In fact, he was the second heir to the House, after his father. So, he still had the family ring.

Unlike the other noble families', it was made of silver, thin, and with intricate celtic design on both side of the family crest.

"Imagine the same ring, but with a black diamond on it instead of the crest."

James frowned, wondering why the Blacks didn't have a normal ring. He silently pointed at the large gem that was still in his hand.

Sirius nodded.

"Yes, the same, but smaller, obviously. Now, there are two things that come from even before we can remember, in the House of Black. Our ring of lordship is not the same as the other Houses', because my ancestors refused to have it changed. That ring, and this stone, both come from an ancient time. The story says we had it two millenia and a half ago, when the ancestor to the House of Darke came to England. It symbolize our history and longevity, in a way, so figure, all the blood purists in the family simply adore it."

James cocked an eyebrow at his friend's sarcasm, but he was too puzzled and curious to make a comment.

Remus, who hadn't said a word since Sirius' joke, took the stone from James' hands carefully. There was something about it that made him ill-at-ease.

"Do you think it could be jinxed?"

The question took Sirius back to the stone from his easy bantering with James.

"Why do you ask?"

The look in his eyes was sharp, and Remus certainly didn't miss it. Both were painfully aware of the Blacks' fondness with jinxing, or sometimes worse, cursing their possessions. Just in case someone would want to steal their belongings, you know. After all, it wasn't as if they were awfully rich. One stolen silver spoon would surely be their undoing.

"I don't know, Sirius... It's just, when I look at it, it's as if there was some magic in it, and I can feel it, somehow."

The young werewolf bit his lip, looking away.

"Then again, it could also be that I'm still feeling unwell. The full moon ended only two days ago..."

Both James and Sirius tried hard not to look too pitifully at their friend. Remus didn't really care for pity. Though, as he had told them many times already, they just couldn't help feeling pity for him, and he understood that. Just this full moon, he had clawed at his own throat, and he had broken his left ankle in the agony of turning back to human form. No one in Hogwarts knew better than he did the taste of Skelegro, and it certainly wasn't a taste anyone would want to remember.

Coughing awkwardly, Sirius reached to take back the black diamond, watching it doubtfully.

So far, he hadn't been turned into a toad, he hadn't bleed to death, and he hadn't been swept away to another time or another world. It seemed that the black stone was nothing more than that, a black stone. Alright, a very expensive black stone with shiny facets, but a black stone nonetheless. The most suspicious thing about the gem was that the shiny facets seemed to be shining darkly, somehow, as if the diamond attracted darkness instead of reflecting light.

Maybe that was it, the magic Remus could feel on the stone. Just some kind of spell to make the diamond feel ominously dark. The teenager wouldn't put it past the Blacks, to make something like that, only to creep the hell out of anyone who would take something that was theirs.

Sirius brought his hand in the light, to see better.

"You must be imagining things, Moony. I have yet to be eaten alive by that black diamond, so... Ouch!"

A clear sound startled both Remus and James.

Two sets of alarmed eyes followed Sirius' gaze to the diamond, that had fallen to the floor. There was something that looked suspiciously like drops of blood on it. They looked back at their friend, only to discover that he had somehow managed to cut his forefinger on a edge of the stone. James rolled his eyes, wondering how the oh-so-perfect Sirius Black had achieved that feat.

Remus, on the other end, stared intently at the gem, as did Sirius. When James noticed that, he looked at the diamond again, and found it glimmering a dark mist.

"So much for it not being jinxed... Wait a minute, I think I have a book on curses in my bag."

The two other teenagers waited for James to find what he was looking for in his bag, unwilling to get too close to the black gem.

Or rather, Remus did his best to keep Sirius from picking the thing back, as he had doubts about the nature of the gem, and his friend was simply unconcerned with everything that concerned blood. Hell, if it hadn't needed to kill a few people to do that, Sirius would walk into an actual blood bath without hesitation. A blood bath, in a Élisabeth Báthory fashion.

Two drops of his own blood on a diamond? Nothing at all!

James was tangled into his invisibility cloak, and how he ended up like that while searching for a book will remain a mystery, when Sirius finally managed to get the black stone back, to Remus' utter dismay.

When Sirius held the diamond once again, he felt something quite marveling happen.

He looked at the stone, wide-eyed, as he felt it connect with his magic.

Remus, eyes fixed on his friend and his black diamond, nudged at a half-invisible James, who made a dumbfounded "Uh?"-sound when he looked up from the knot that had, inexplicably, he swore, appeared between his cloak and his shirt.

A consciousness awoke in the stone, or so it seemed to be to Sirius, as he heard, or, truly, felt a voice, that he was the only one to perceive.

"Sirius Black, of the children of Halóno, and a twin-born, at that! Long has it been, that your kind has called for our help. But what do you wish for, winyamo? Do you perhaps, unlike your ancestor who had once fled home, do you perhaps wish to go back home?"

Sirius stared at the stone, and for one moment, one single second, he felt that yes, he wanted to go home, he wanted it so badly, that he wouldn't even question this urge to go home.

This single second of certainty, however, was enough of an answer for whatever it was that the stone had served as a connection to.

The black diamond glowed more strongly than ever, Remus and James reached for their friend, all lights in the room disappeared for an instant, and the next, the teenagers weren't there anymore.

There, in Hogwarts, that is.

They were "there", obviously. They couldn't have simply been wiped out of existence. The only thing was that, now, they weren't in the same "there" as they had been only moments before.

In fact, they weren't on Earth anymore.

Not that Earth, at least.

Another Earth, maybe, one with another set of rules, both natural and societal.

One Earth that wasn't yet to be called Earth, but that existed nonetheless, in another reality, perhaps, in another song of the One who had created all worlds and all dreams.

Arda.

Somewhere not so far away from where Sirius, James and Remus landed, a mighty wizard clad in grey but with a blue pointed hat arched an eyebrow, surprised at the strange warmth he had just felt in his chest. Had he not known any better, he'd have thought that the Valar had just interfered directly with Middle Earth's fate.

A hobbit, who was mounted on a pony and who traveled next to the mighty wizard and his mighty horse, saw the eyebrow move, and wondered what could have possibly resulted into this peculiar motion of one eyebrow. Poor hobbit, who had yet to meet so many people with intriguing eyebrows, and would forever remember how those had influenced his life! The people, of course, not the eyebrows.

But for now, let's be concerned over the fate of one Sirius Black, one James Potter and one Remus Lupin.

Each of them were at this very instant unconscious on the ground of a forest. If they had been awake, they would surely have seen trees to the west, to the north, to the east, and, obviously, to the south. In other words, they wouldn't have known in the least where they had landed.

Since they were unconscious, it in fact didn't matter much.

As it was, the three teenagers were somewhere in what would later be called the Trollshaws. Fortunately for them, no troll was close enough to just stumble upon them, and, even more fortunately, it was daytime. Of course, such a thing wouldn't last, as time passed, and so night would take over, and then, the trolls would be able to come out of their cave, and maybe they would find three very appetizing youngsters.

James was the first one to wake up.

The young wizard blinked, once, twice, thrice, before deciding that even if he blinked a fourth time, it wouldn't change the fact that all he could see now were trees.

James scratched behind his ear, wondering...

These weren't the trees of the Forbidden Forest, that, although its name mirrored its status to students like himself, he knew pretty well. The Forbidden Forest was darker than this.

And, he realized, even if he had been in the Forbidden Forest, it didn't change the fact that he had actually changed location without even being aware of it.

James quickly checked that he hadn't lost a limb or anything during the time he hadn't been conscious, just to be sure. Then he stood up, and wavered to the unconscious form of Remus. Maybe he should have looked for Sirius first, since he had been the one to hold the diamond when it had all happened, whatever "it" was. But the werewolf was nearer, and Sirius hadn't turned into a cursed wolf two nights before, so he had to be in better shape. Or at least, James hoped so.

The teenager almost tripped on Remus, when he tried to sit back down. His head was spinning.

James shook gently his friend's shoulder.

"Remus."

The werewolf didn't move an inch.

"Moony."

Still nothing.

"Remus!"

"Let him sleep, for Merlin's sake!"

James turned around to see a disgruntled Sirius, whose ink black hair was falling, orderly so of course, over his face. His comment suggested that the long haired youth had yet to register that they weren't in their dorm, and James wasn't trying to get Remus to wake up at an ungodly hour.

Sirius moved a strand of hair behind his ear, and as he did so, his sense of touch registered that something was amiss. His brain, however, failed to do so.

The long haired teenager looked up, over the trees, and squinted.

"What time is it?"

It was definitely not dawn, as James had threatened to wake them up the night before, for there was way too much light.

Wait a minute...

He had already woken up once this morning!

James obligingly took out his iron pocket watch. He had yet to come of age, so for now, he had only this rusty one. It was already a wonder that his father had decided to buy him a new one considering what had happened to the thirteen watches that had preceded this one.

"Six p.m. And thirty-two minutes, if you must know."

Sirius cursed aloud, as he slowly remembered what had happened.

"Where are we?"

James opened his mouth to answer, but strangely enough, Sirius glared at him right away, as if expecting some smartass answer. Which was, of course, what the other teenager had been readying himself to give him.

"Yes, I know we are in a forest, and yes, I know it's not the Forbidden Forest. What I am asking is whether or not you know anything else that I don't, and that might be useful."

"Calm down, mate... I have absolutely no idea where we are, as you so elegantly hinted at. But I'm pretty sure that if there is someone to be angry at, it would be you, for I feel you simply shouldn't have touched that black diamond again. Where it is, by the way?"

Sirius frowned, streched both his forefingers, and stood up.

The precious gem fell off the folds of his pullover. It wasn't gleaming anymore.

Next to them, Remus stirred. Soon enough, he opened his eyes.

Sirius and James were about to ask him if he was alright, but his first words were directed at Sirius, making him scowl, while the third wizard in the group had to stiffle a laugh.

"You shouldn't touch that again, Padfoot."

Remus' voice as well as his gaze were stern, and Sirius refrained from just picking up the stone and throwing it at the werewolf's face, just to spite him.

After all, his friend wasn't totally wrong.

Remus looked around for half a minute, sat up, and looked back at his friend.

"Alright. If I get this right, we landed in an unknown forest, with absolutely nothing else than our clothes, our wands, and James' cloak. Maybe we should try to make a fire, for when it will get dark, before anything else."

Always the pragmatic, Sirius mused, as James looked around frowning at the mention of his invisibility cloak. He couldn't see it anywhere... He had apparently failed to notice the shimmering toga that was cloaked around him.

Remus rolled his eyes, and tried to stand up.

A groan of pain startled the two others.

"What is it, Remus?"

The werewolf winced, and looked down at his ankle.

"I think I sprained my ankle. The one that was broken the other night."

James and Sirius winced in sympathy.

Remus moved into a better position, so that he wouldn't press on the sprain, with Sirius' help.

But as the long haired teenager helped his friend, James' mouth gaped wide open.

"What is it, Prongs? The cat got your tongue?"

Seeing as James wasn't answering, Sirius turned to his second friend and squeaked in false alarm.

"Remus, I think Prongs has been infected with the rumor about us two being together! We have to clean his brain right away, or he'll be lost to us forever and ever!"

Remus cocked an eyebrow at that, though a smirk was discreetly tugging at the right corner of his mouth.

"And how do you believe we are to do that?"

"Why, by extracting the brain first, of course. Then, we'll go to a stream, to rinse the brain in it."

Both Marauders looked at each other for a time before bursting out laughing.

James, on the other hand, was not amused. His jaw had gone back into place, and he squinted at Sirius. Or rather, at Sirius' head. Or even more accurately, at Sirius' visible ear.

The messy haired wizard crossed his arms, waiting for his two idiot friends to shut the hell up and look at him again so that he could tell them why he had lost his power of speech just before.

After a time, Remus wiped a tear of laughter from his left eye, and turned back to a sulking James.

"What is it, James?"

The teenager harrumphed.

"Oh, nothing. I just thought I'd tell you that all of a sudden, Sirius got pointy ears."

Said pointy-eared stopped laughing immediately, his hands going to his ears, and finding that indeed, they were now pointed. Remus watched, bemused, as his friend became paler than ever, which wasn't easy to achieve, considering his already very light skin. Sirius was the only one who thought to check that the two others hadn't got pointed ears either. Not that they had.

A bit shocked, the long haired youngster let his hair free from behind his ears, so that they'd fall over the pointy mystery of what had happened to him.

"Great, I've become a freak."

James, who had gotten over his sulkiness pretty quickly and was now trying to find some dry wood to make a fire, quipped from behind a bush.

"You've always been a freak, Sirius!"

Said freak glared at the bush, drew out his wand, that he kept in his right boot at all time, and tried to jinx his friend, to teach him some manners. Unfortunately, things didn't exactly happen as they should have.

The whole bush caught fire.

James screamed out of the bush that he had wanted to use as cover, while Remus drew out his own wand, and somehow managed to put out the fire with a stream of water. Somehow, because it took him at least six seconds to get the stream out of his wand, and because once it did go out, it was barely enough.

Once the putting-the-whole-forest-and-us-with-it-on-fire crisis had been avoided, James carefully took out his wand, and tried a harmless lumos. The light was barely enough to be seen in the darkening hours of the coming evening.

Just then, an old man on a mighty horse rode from between the trees and into the three youngsters.