You all know the line- the one that set Marauders fans on fire for a week after the release of The Cursed Child. Well, here's my interpretation of what happened those times with the trolley lady- please enjoy and review. Props to my dear friend Annika for helping me brainstorm this idea and giving me the kick I needed to start writing again. I'll post this in seven segments, one a day. Don't worry, I haven't abandoned Change of Heart, I'm just trying to get this out of my head while I figure out what's going on in COH next. Cheers, enjoy!

Year 1

"Come on, Sev, let's go."

As the door slid shut behind the fuming redheaded girl, James looked to the boy draped across the seat next to them. "Jeez, what's her problem?"

Sirius shrugged. "Who knows, James. There's always someone with their wand in a knot."

Remus tilted his ear up. "What's that noise?"

The other three boys fell silent. Slowly and steadily, a continuous squeak-squeak-squeak flooded the hall outside the compartment. Out of nowhere, an old, crackling voice came from a sweet looking woman. "Anything from the trolley, dears?"

Peter looked up at her in surprise. "I thought there were only students on this train," he mumbled, studying the cart full of treats from the corner of his eye."

"No, no, dear," the lady said, handing Remus a stack of chocolate frogs from in exchange for a stack of Sickles. "There's the engineer, and the conductor, and me."

Remus smirked. "I would have thought that there were more, Petey," he said ,tossing Sirius one of his newly acquired chocolates. James chuckled as well, taking a stack of Pumpkin Pasties from the cart. "It takes more than just one adult to keep me in line, lads."

The trolley lady smiled amiably. "I wouldn't think so. I've been doing this for nearly a hundred years, and not one student has left the train. Will that be all, dears?"

Taking their shocked silence as affirmation, she left, the high treble of her calls for sweets matching the squeaky wheels of the cart. The four boys looked at each other, each one beginning to grin.

"I don't know about you, gentlemen, but a hundred years is a long time for no one to break a record," Sirius said, a smirk twisting his already handsome face.

"This would be a remarkably good time to make our mark on the school," Remus said, standing up from his seat.

"Imagine, being the first students to ever escape the Hogwarts Express- as first years!" Peter said, his eyes alight with excitement.

"Well, there's no time like the present, eh, lads?" James said, sliding the compartment door open.

The four boys crept down the hall, passing compartments full of students. With the trolley lady nowhere in sight, James pushed the door between the cars open.

The wind whipped around them, cutting through thin jumpers and pants. James stuck his head out and peered around, rumpling up his already too-messy hair. Clambering over to the ladder leading to the top of the train, the four began the climb to the top of the car.

The three boys hoisted the last, Peter, to the top, and began to make the long trek to the back of the train.

"You know, maybe we should have gotten to the back of the train before we climbed on top of it!" Remus shouted above the wind, clutching his shabby sweater around him.

"Don't be ridiculous! She would have caught us before we made it past the third car!" Sirius screamed over the roar of the wind.

"I think she already has!" Peter yelled, pointing ahead of them.

The three other boys whipped around to see the sweet old lady, complete with sweet trolley, standing a car away from them. Too shocked to move, they stood as she moved closer to them with a flash of light.

"No one has escaped this train in a hundred years, and I don't intend that to start now!"

Moving faster than any of them imagined, Remus darted out and took a Chocoball from the bottom of the cart. "RUN!" he screamed over the wind, turning on the heel of his worn leather shoes and grabbing Sirius by the wrist.

"HOW DARE YOU, THIEVING, MARAUDERING DELINQUENTS! TAKE YOUR SEATS INSIDE THE TRAIN!"

James seemed to find his legs. Running at full force, he quickly overtook the panting Remus and wildly laughing Sirius.

Wait- Peter.

James looked back in horror just as he saw Peter trip and fall over a vent on the roof of the train. He lunged to go scoop him off the ground, but the trolley lady got there first. She threw a Pumpkin Pasty at him, and he disappeared in the same flash of light she had appeared in.

The three other boys roared in outrage. "What did you do with Peter?!" Sirius screamed, stumbling back up the roof of the train towards the witch.

"Oh, he's quite safe, I assure you," she said, smiling kindly again as though she hadn't just vanished a human into thin air. Expertly lobbing another pasty, James disappeared at once, then Remus.

Sirius found himself alone on the roof of the train with a sweet, possibly murderous old lady. She prepared to throw another pasty as Sirius pointed his finger at her.

"This isn't over, you know," he said, scowling as she swung her arm back.

"Oh, I think it is," she said, smiling, as Sirius was engulfed in a bright orange flash. He closed his eyes and prepared for death.

However, when he opened his eyes, he was surrounded by his three friends. He stood up and blinked his eyes to get the bright flash out of his eyes.

"I didn't think heaven would look like this, but hey. I'm not God, that's not up to me. Yet," Sirius said, throwing himself down on the seat next to James. He picked up a Pumpkin Pasty and wrinkled his nose. "You know, I don't think I even feel safe eating this anymore."

Remus laughed, one leg of a chocolate frog sticking out of his mouth. "We're not dead, idiot," he said, pointing to the glass. Outside, a number of students were roaming the corridor, all changed into their Hogwarts uniform. "She must have transported us back using the pasty, somehow."

"What was it she called us? Thieving, maraudering delinquents? You know, that would make a pretty sweet group name," James said contemplatively, pouring a packet of Pepper Imps into his mouth.

"What about just the Marauders?" Remus said cheerily. "That's snappier."

A slow grin spread across James' face. "The Marauders. Yeah, I like it. Pete?"

Peter shook his gaze away from the window. "What?"

"The Marauders. Cool group name, right?"

"Yeah," Peter said, smile fading. "You guys have fun."

"Wait, don't you want to be in?"

Peter frowned. "Wait, you guys want me to be part of your group?"

"Well, yeah!"

Peter's grin unfurled over his face. "The Marauders. I like it."

Remus grinned. "Magical Mischief Makers."

"Pranksters extraordinaire," Sirius added.

"Well, would the school's soon-to-be-infamous troublemakers sit around on the train?" James said, standing up. "NO! You can't wait for trouble to find you, you have to go find the trouble."

He touched the door and immediately yanked it back, yelping as a flash of orange light engulfed his hand. It steamed as he shook it, and James sat back down without further ado.

"It appears-" James said cautiously as the other three exploded into laughter- "that the trolley lady is not in favor of the newly titled troublemakers making their mark on Hogwarts history just yet."

"Ah, well," Remus said, pulling a deck of cards from his trunk, "I suppose trouble will have to find us after all."

"We'll have plenty of time to wreak havoc once we get to school, anyways," Sirius said, accepting the hand Remus had dealt him.

"And we'll make all the trouble we can!" Peter added, smiling.

And let the record show that they certainly made good on that promise.