Near the border of the Forbidden Forest

Indiana came by to where Lauren was before inspecting the areas that she was scrubbing. It looked like a significant amount of rust residue had been removed, leaving only the surface stains left to deal with.

"Looks okay." the youth spoke before reaching and emptying the bucket of the items. He then poured a good amount of vinegar into the bucket before emptying a whole box of borax into it, creating a paste.

"The borax should allow the vinegar to remain in contact with the stain." Indiana spoke as he gathered a good amount with his sponge. "Go ahead and dip the sponge in. Just be sure that the rusted area is completely covered in the paste and leave it on for thirty minutes."

Lauren looked at the concoction the boy was making. It looked and smelt gross but she did what he said, and covered the rusted area in the paste, being careful not to get any on her clothes as she worked. "What are we going to do for the half an hour wait?" Lauren asked to the two of them, as they worked on Elise.

"While the paste reverses the rusting, there are some dried blood and foliage stains on Elise that need a regular washing. They should come off easy if soaked in the vinegar." Indiana replied as he scrubbed the hub caps with vinegar before applying the paste onto them.

The youth then turned his attention to some of non-rust stains. After cleaning the sponge and soaking it in vinegar, Indiana pressed it down on one of the dried bloodstains. After about two minutes in letting the vinegar break down the dried stain, Indiana wiped it clean before pouring some water onto the sponge and then returning to wash it off entirely.

Lauren watched as Indiana removed the bloodstains off of Elise, and shuddered, thinking about what kind of horrible creatures has been in Elise' way. Lauren had never been this close to the Forbidden Forest before, and her proximity to it, scared her. She was glad that she was there with Shelby and Indiana, in case something scary came out and attacked her.

Lauren picked up her sponge and did the same as what Indiana did, and was amazed at how good Elise was looking.

"Elise, you get prettier and prettier every day," Shelby said. The engine revved softly in appreciation.

She continued to work on getting off the grime and rust. "Lauren, is there any time in particular that you think we should actually start The Plan?" Shelby figured that since Resa wasn't around that it would be safe to talk about it.

Lauren laughed as Shelby brought up the plan. "I don't mind when we put the plan in action." Lauren said to her friend. "It's going to be funny though. We just have to make sure that certain people are around so that certain aspects can go to plan... Does that make any sense at all?" Lauren asked.

Shelby remembered that Indiana was around and considered dropping the conversation before deciding that he was trustworthy. "Yeah, I suppose it wouldn't work if certain people weren't around. Either way, I have a feeling that once the Plan is set in motion, it's going to go something like this," Shelby stood up and faced an invisible person.

"Hi," she took a step to the right and faced the spot where she had previously been standing.

"Hi," she responded to herself and moved back to the first spot.

"How are your classes?" she returned to the second spot.

"Good. How are yours?" she went back to the first again.

"Good. Okay, bye," she moved to the second spot again.

"Bye."

Shelby looked back at Lauren. "She's too stubborn and shy to do anything else. Anyway, I think we should do it soon. She's starting to get paranoid."

Indiana was rather amused by the exchange of dialogue between Lauren and Shelby. It sounded like they were going to pull something on someone. Was it some sort of prank? Well, it didn't seem like it was his business to pry into what they were planning. That was just bad taste.

"You both should think of contingency plans just in case." Indiana remarked. "I'm not going to bother asking and I'm certainly keeping my mouth closed. Just remember this piece: The key to strategy...is not to choose a path to victory, but to choose so that all paths lead to a victory."

"A contingency plan?" Shelby giggled. "While that's a good idea, I don't think it's really necessary. We're not planning on setting off a crate of fireworks in the Great Hall or anything, we're just trying to get our friend to talk to someone, but she's too stubborn to do it without a little... encouragement."

"I suppose that's true. Of course, there sure is a lot of time and opportunity to carry out your collective plan. Have fun and best of luck to you both on that endeavor." Indiana replied with amusement, deciding that such an issue wasn't the type for him to ponder on. With that, he went back to working on cleaning the stains off Elise, leaving Shelby and Lauren to their conversation.

After half an hour of waiting, Indiana took the water bucket and proceeded to wipe off the borax-vinegar paste, seeing that the rust stains have vanished amid being wiped off.

"Damn it, you named the car."
Cass yanked Bradley down to the deep inside of her cloak pocket, and patted him for being a good boy and staying there.

"She looks a sarcastic one, just so you know. She's a toughie. Here, you hungry?" she asked, more or less to Indiana, chucking him a barrel of petrol.
"Don't ask me why I have a barrel of petrol, ok?"

"Well, it's sure nice to see you up and about, Cass." Indiana remarked, stopping and placing the soaked down to catch the bottle of petrol. Even though Elise didn't really need anymore gas in her tank due to some charm that made it self-replenishing, he decided to place it somewhere in the car.

"Elise is just happy to see students after some forty years of living alone in the Forbidden Forest." Indiana replied. "Of course, I think Lauren and Shelby are quite an influence on her."

Cass shuffled forward to Indiana so their feet were almost touching, "They weren't being... girly were they?" an incredulous look crept up on Cass' face, as she saw Lauren and Shelby giggling
Gag gag puke.
"You better not learn Elise how to giggle, you two," she said sternly to Lauren and Shelby, "she's a hard nut. A tough cookie, a hardened apple pie from being left out in a cold area for far too long."
Oops, came across a bit harsh. RECOVER!
"Yo, Lauren," she said as her face softened into a smile, "I'm Cassopeia. Awesome shoes," she added, grinning widely and gesturing pointedly at Indiana at Lauren's shoes.

Shelby looked up when she heard Cass' voice. "She doesn't want us to giggle?" Shelby thought, "What kind of insane, psychopath, crazy-person is against laughter?"

"No worries Cass, I think all Elise can do is chuckle. Right Elise?" The headlights flicked on. "See, nothing to worry about," she went back to chatting with Lauren and scrubbing grime off of Elise.

"I'm just saying, Shelby if she starts giggling in the forest, she's going to get a lot of enemies. They don't like gigglers, them spiders. I'm just worried for her," she admitted. "It just came out weird. Your laugh makes me smile actually, its real cute. WOW, look, a bowtruckle!"

Indiana looked puzzled on what he had just heard from Cassopeia. Since when did giggling in the forest would attract enemies, particularly spiders or acromantulas, to Elise?

Whatever else Cassopeia was saying was slightly drowned out by Elise revving her engine and Indiana continued to wipe the stains off with precision and care.

'Let Lauren and Shelby handle Cass.' Indiana thought to himself as he continued to work.

Lauren looked at the girl she had met very early on at Hogwarts. "Hey, Cass. I haven't seen you for a while. How you been?" Lauren and then looked down at her feet after the comment about her shoes. "What's wrong with my shoes?" Lauren asked, looking perplexed. Her shoes were no more different than any of the other girls at Hogwarts, expect for their size... She had very small hands and feet for her age.

"I'm good, Lauren. You look well!" Cass blushed as she felt all eyes on her. Maybe they were laughing at her saying that Acromantulas were appealed to the sound of laughter. It was from the Quibbler, after all. "Nothing's wrong with your shoes- I just think they're better than what Indiana's got on- he trips over anything with those on... You and I have the adventuring shoes... I'll just shut up now."
Why do I always end up being the idiot?

Indiana raised an eyebrow at Cassopeia's remark on his shoes. Okay, so he was wearing shoes that lack significant traction. That could be corrected but what was she expecting him to wear on his feet?

"Adventuring shoes, eh?" Indiana inquired before he finished cleaning off the rust stains from Elise. Reversing the corrosion had been done so all that was left was to let to settle and reintegrate with its surroundings.

"Do you think I should wear cleats next time I venture into the Forbidden Forest?"

"I wasn't teasing you," Cass said quickly. "But, anything other than clogs are fine with me, unless you want to fall over everything."
She pulled a coy smile, trailing her finger around the side of Elise.
"Guess I'll start washing her windows," she said softly, dipping a flannel into one of the buckets.
"You'll be able to see the wonder of Hogwarts when I'm done this time Elise!" she yelled.

"Um, Cass? Elise doesn't have windows. They're all broken and I had to remove all the glass shards." Indiana spoke sheepishly. "Of course, if you know where to get new windows and a windshield for a car that isn't in production anymore, then that could help. Of course, the seats need some major knitting."

Elise revved her slowly and Indiana patted the car. "Yes, I know it sounds depressing that the Ford Anglia isn't in production anymore but I doubt any of the cars today could do what a magic car like you can do."

Indiana finished speaking. It took a few seconds for it to go in, but by then Cass had already got elbow grease ready to rub off the windows.
"Woah!" she stuttered as she met not resistance from the front window- or hole.
This damsel-in-distress thing is going a little too far.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," she said as she got herself off the front of the car. There was definately going to be a few bruises ther in the morning.
"Thanks for not telling me sooner," she said wryly.

'Windows aren't exactly invisible... unless someone sprayed Windex on them.' Indiana thought to himself while thinking back on an old commercial involving that brand of window cleaner he saw on the internet once that involved a pair of crows or magpies pulling a prank on the owner of a house as part of the advertisement.

"Well, you went on ahead before I could warn you." Indiana replied sheepishly. "Perhaps you could scrub and clean some of the hub caps on the tires if you want."

"Hah, I must have thought the dust inside was the murky windows," Cass reasoned.
"Yeah, I'll do that. Next year, hopefully we can learn to clean with our wands. Not that I mind doing it for real. It's soothing, really."
Cass stole a look of Indiana. He looked shattered, but with a defiant, contented look on his face.
"Can you feel rain, or is it just me?" asked Cass

Shelby looked up at the sky at the mention of rain. She held out her hand but felt nothing. "I think you might be going crazy, Cass," Shelby grinned. "I don't feel a thing. Plus, there are almost no clouds. See that thing there," she pointed up at the sky cheekily, "That's the sun," she laughed.