Near the border of the Forbidden Forest

Indiana stood outside on the lawn not far from the Forbidden Forest. While he certainly was not going to step foot there, the youth couldn't help but think about what he had just heard coming out of the Forbidden Forest just seconds ago. It sounded like a car revving up its engine along with the screeching of tires. If the sounds spoke the truth, he could only wonder who would be driving a car through the Forbidden Forest.

Shelby spotted Indiana standing by the edge of the Forbidden Forest and walked over to him without another thought. "You're not going in there, right? Because if you do, you'll almost certainly get caught and lose house points and if you do that then the other Hufflepuffs just might kill you," she said, ignoring the absurdity of murderous Hufflepuffs. "I mean, I don't think anyone has lost any points since the Purge and I'm sure the rest of your house would prefer to stay in the lead."

She wasn't entirely sure why she was warning him against the forest. After all, he probably knew about all the dangerous things in there and the consequences he could face for going in.

Indiana heard Shelby speak before turning to her. "No, I'm not going. It's just that I thought I heard a car engine revving up in the Forbidden Forest. I'm not sure if what I heard is what I thought I heard. Isn't it a little odd for a car to be on the grounds of Hogwarts?"

The youth inwardly laughed at the idea of all the Hufflepuffs killing him, mostly because he certainly had no doubts about that becoming a reality.

"Oh, good. You had me worried there for a minute," Shelby said. "And you might have heard a car in there. My parents told me that when Harry Potter was in his second year, he and his best friend flew a car to get to school because they couldn't get on the train and now the car lives in the forest," Shelby shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not sure if it's true or not. My parents might have made that up to try to scare me and my brother," she remembered them telling her the story, "They looked pretty serious, though, so maybe it's true."

Shelby looked intently at the Forbidden Forest, straining her ears to try to hear whatever Indiana might have heard.

Indiana's eyes widened as Shelby concluded her explanation. The youth was now pondering to himself. A car living in the forest? He knew that Harry Potter's years at Hogwarts was about forty years ago and cars don't tend to last even half that long, no matter how well maintained they are. Surely the engine sounds he heard couldn't belong to the same one that Shelby mentioned now. Or could it?

As though his mental question was being answered, Indiana's ears picked up the sound of the engine, which was somehow a bit louder and more pronounced now.

Shelby jumped a little, startled by the sound of a car engine. She hadn't actually expected to hear anything at all. "So it is true," she whispered breathlessly, more to herself than to Indiana.

"That definitely sounded like a car," Shelby said a little more loudly, "I suppose this means I have to apologize to my dad. When he told me and my brother about a car in the forest, I told him he was the most daft, gullible person I'd ever met for believing it," she laughed.

Cass laughed softly at Shelby's story. It sounded true, in an odd way. "That was something like 30 years ago though, wasn't it? You think it's bewitched to stay alive or something?"
Cass shuddered, thinking of the book by someone King- a muggle. About a car, that was alive. Eugh.

A car engine revved behind her, "Shelby, run!"
With a sprite jog and an irreplacable smile on her face, Cass sprinted to the top of the hill.
"I'm not going back in there," she said determinedly, before the hysterical laughter got its penn'worth in.

Indiana was slightly startled before noticing that it was just Cass.

"Hi Cass." the youth greeted. "Hmm... well... I'd be a bit surprised to find a car that can still run well without the need for gasoline or maintenance. But then again, a car like that could end the dependence on oil and such."

Slowly, the sound of the car engine was becoming louder and louder. Now Indiana was feeling a bit uneasy.

"Um, is the supposed car getting closer now?"

"I don't know if it would need gas and stuff. It could have a spell on it that keeps the car in good enough condition to run without them."

Shelby's eyes widened as the engine sound got louder. It sounded like the car was getting closer.

"Right, well," she cleared her throat. "I'm going to go over there," she gestured to a large tree that was further away from the castle, "Just to be safe. I would prefer not to be killed by Harry Potter's enchanted Forest-car," she said, making a note to tell her friends this story later. She might have to send them to Indiana to have him tell them too, since they probably wouldn't believe her. It was quite a strange story after all.

She turned on her heel and strode briskly to safety.

"Alright then." Indiana replied before looking back into the forest while hearing the car engine. There was no doubt that the supposed car was approaching and he could now hear branches crunching underneath running tires.

A few long minutes later, a battered blue car ambled its way out of the Forbidden Forest and onto the lawn. Indiana noticed that there wasn't a driver at the wheel. The car itself had no windows whatsoever and the body had more dents than Swiss cheese having holes.

To say that the youth's expression was of surprise would be the biggest understatement of all.

"Oh Merlin! Indiana, your face!" Cass chortled, holding onto her stomach. Reproachfully, she crept in front of Shelby, closer to the humming car. Each step closer gave the car a new movement and made an erratic jump a few inches in the air.
"Shh," she said, calming herself more than anything. "It's alright. You look a bit lost. Let us help." she opened her arms proudly to show Shelby and Indiana.
They were going to be brilliant friends.

Shelby turned around when she head Cass talking again. "Cass, what are you-?" she broke off when she saw the car. She stared at it in shock, almost not believing it was really there. She took careful steps toward where it now sat outside of the forest. "Now I really do have to owl dad to apologize," she said.

"It's not going to kill us, is it?" she asked cautiously, her eyes darting from Indiana to Cass to the car and back again.

"Probably not," said Cass absently, her hands ushering Indi and Shelby to come over.
"It's okay," she cooed to the car. "They're friends. We all friends."
The engine revved, sounding like a skittish laugh.

"Wait!" she said suddenly, "I've forgotten Bradley- one mo, I'll be back!"
She darted further into the forest, hoping that the car and Indiana and Shelby would be there when or if she'd come back
and if Bradley's really fancying a game of Hide-And-Seek, it's going to be IF i come back...

Shelby got a little closer to the car and stood between Cass and Indiana. She figured it was probably safe if Cass was able to get so close to the car. "If I have to, I'm using you as a human shield, Cass," she said before looking at the vehicle, "Um, nice car? Good car," she realized that she was talking to the car as she would a puppy or a baby and clamped her jaw shut, not wanting to make it angry.

Angry? What was she thinking? Cars don't have emotions, do they?

By the time Indiana regained his senses, the youth found himself staring at a battered car that looked like a Ford Anglia model. He could hear Cass and Shelby talking to the car as though it was a living being. The youth thought it was absurd until he saw the car make some small reactions in response to their words. Now things were getting stranger by the moment.

Slowly, he approached the car before rubbing a feeble hand over the hood, causing to car to slowly rev its engine. Although it didn't move, both of the car doors opened in response.

Shelby jumped again as the car's doors opened on their own in response to Indiana's touch. This whole situation kept getting more and more odd, terrifying, and a little exciting. "I think it wants us to get in," she said softly, placing a hand gently on the hood of the car, no longer finding her words quite so stange. Perhaps it was possible for a car to have feelings.

By that point, Indiana didn't know what to think in regards to the car. How did it become sentient? That was certainly the question to flood his mind. He had heard about robots and artificial intelligence constructs developed by computer engineers and scientists that write the algorithms. Perhaps a magical equivalent had been made by accident?

"Maybe the car felt so lonely in the forest and hasn't had human contact for so long?" Indiana asked as he hesitantly moved towards one of the open doors. "That is if this is the same car that Harry Potter and his friend had flown to Hogwarts so long ago."

"I think it might be the same car," Shelby said,looking over at Indiana. "Mum and Dad said that the one that Harry Potter flew was a Ford Anglia, and this is definitely a Ford Anglia."

She continued to gently stroke the hood, feeling a little bad for the car. If it had been in the forest for forty years without human contact, it was no wonder it was lonely. "It looks like it's had a rough time in there," she said as she felt the multitude of divots and dents under her fingers.

"Yeah." Indiana remarked as he peered into the car's interior, finding ruined seats and tarnished controls. He wasn't sure on whether or not it was safe to drive this car and it was taking a lot for him to avoid getting into the driver's seat.

Moving to the rear of the car but remaining on the side, Indiana wondered if the previous owner had left anything in the trunk.

"Shelby, would you happen to know on who the last owner of the car happened to be?"

Shelby watched curiously as Indiana inspected the car, moving from place to place. "I'm pretty sure it was Harry's best friend Ron's dad's car," she said, silently wishing that her parents had given her more information. "I don't know the dad's first name, but my dad said that it belonged to the Weasley family," she said even though she wasn't entirely sure that Indiana knew who the Weasleys were.

Feeling a little more brave, she stepped around the car's open passenger door and ran her fingers over the seat. The engine revved again, softly. "Poor thing," she said, sitting carefully on the edge of the seat so that her legs were still outside, feet planted safely on the grass of the Hogwarts lawn.

The trunk was locked and Indiana thought about using the Unlocking Charm but decided against it. Perhaps if he could convince the car to open the trunk, it would be much easier on them both. The youth slowly and softly tapped the top of the trunk lid with his fingers before speaking softly. "Could you open your trunk please? I just want to take a look inside."

The car seemed to sputtered a bit but a few seconds later, the trunk lid detached the lock mechanisms before raising up. Indiana looked inside to find the interior of the trunk to be empty, save for the toolkit used for emergency repairs that was hidden underneath the mat.

"So, um, who wants to name the car?" Indiana asked, looking at Cass and Shelby.

Much of the fabric on the seats was fraught with holes, possibly acquired during the vehicle's many years in the forest, Shelby noted as she inspected the interior of the car. She wondered if the car would allow her to fix them. She wouldn't be able to use magic to repair it, but she was a decent seamstress, a trait she had picked up from her grandmother.

"I think you should name it," Shelby said, turning to look at Indiana through the no long existant back window, "You heard it first, so it's only fair."

Indiana raised an eyebrow. While he certainly heard the car first, the youth didn't feel entitled to the privilege alone. If he did, Indiana had a list on potential names: Albion, Tristan, Enigma, Grigori, Gareth, Sutherland, etc. Of course, such names seem a bit off in his opinion.

"Well, we could just bring forth certain names and see what the car wants to be called." Indiana suggested as he inspected the tires and the workings behind it. He wouldn't think of himself as a mechanic but the youth didn't think it would be difficult to fix some parts of the car. "Is there a tire air pump under the seats by any chance?"

"Good idea. We'll let the car decide," Shelby bit her lip as she tried to think of possible names. She'd never named a car before. All of the names that popped into her head were either too cute sounding or would better fit a dog than a car.

She rummaged around under the seat. There was a ton of stuff down there. She removed several slightly soggy, ancient looking Chocolate Frog boxes to get a better look under the seat. "That depends on what a tire air pump looks like," she said.

It sounded like Indiana was going to try to fix the car, and Shelby wanted to help, but she had no idea what she was looking for. The tires on her family's car and the tires on her old bicycle were maintained by magic, so she had never encountered a pump before.

"Look for a long cylindrical device that has a T-shaped rod with handles and a long tube connected to the base. It's an old mechanical pump operated by hand." Indiana replied. The tires certainly needed some new air and it didn't look like the car's magic had replenished them.

"I don't even know how to fix the damages done to the external body." Indiana remarked. "Considering that this car is over four decades old, I have no idea if there are any replacement windows or windshields in the market for this model."