Written for Writer's Month 2022. Prompt #27: Car shop.
Happy reading!
"And then they just appeared next to my window, hovering above the ground, in a flying car! And they flew me to the Burrow in it! Of course, once she we got there, they got chewed out by Mrs. Weasley for sneaking out, taking the car and risking breaking the Statute of Secrecy, but it was awesome!"
Harry was retelling the adventures of his younger days to his godfather. They were both enjoying it – it was their chance at having a family of their own, even if they had to hide it from the public. After all, everything was better than their blood families.
"Really? They drove a flying car? Where on earth did they find one?"
Sirius's eyes were sparkling with interest. It was good seeing him like that, his face having some color, with life shining in his expression.
"Mr. Weasley made it. Well, he got a normal, Muggle car and tinkered with it, making it capable of flight... It had an Invisibility booster as well, so you could fly without being seen – although that one was a bit wonky, it broke down a little while later..."
Harry relished the feeling of sharing all that with someone who cared about him. Of course, there were others who cared about him as well – the Weasleys, for one, or Hermione – but there was something special about having an adult who cared about you more than he cared about anyone else. It felt like he belonged, and Harry enjoyed that feeling.
Sirius seemed to be taken with this story more than with the others, though. Harry was a bit surprised by that – after all, he considered the dragon smuggling way more interesting – but he was happy to tell him everything about it.
"Arthur made a flying car? Where is it now? Does it still work?"
Sirius resembled a little kid, excited about a new toy they heard about it. Smiling a little at his godfather, Harry resumed the story.
"It's not really... functional. It went a bit rogue, so to speak."
At Sirius's obvious curiosity Harry proceeded to tell him everything about the whole platform barrier situation, the flight to Hogwarts, and the subsequent loss of the car to the Forbidden Forest.
"We saw the car once again later on – it saved us from the Acromantulas – but it lives in the Forest now, and it's gotten absolutely wild."
This turned the conversation to the Acromantula episode ("Really, kiddo, and I thought we were trouble magnets"), and they didn't talk much about the flying car anymore. However, there was a special gleam in Sirius's eye.
A few days later Sirius saw Arthur come to the Headquarters. Seeing as there wasn't much Order business to be done, the two of them sat down to chat a little.
"So, Arthur, Harry told me you made a Muggle car fly once."
Arthur immediately became excited – it was so rare to find someone who appreciated his hobby of tinkering with Muggle things, so when it did happen he made sure to make the most out of it.
"Yeah, I did it. To be fair, there was still some work to be done – some of the enchantments were weaker than ideal, and the Invisibility booster was a little unpredictable – but it could fly. My boys even flew all the way to Surrey and back in one night without any problems."
Sirius nodded at that, his eyes shining.
"Yeah, Harry told me about that. I had a flying motorcycle before... well, before I went to Azkaban. I left it with Hagrid – it might even still be functional, I don't know."
Arthur's eyes widened in recognition.
"That was yours? It's still alive – Hagrid uses it every now and then."
Sirius seemed to be pleased to hear that.
"That's great! I put quite a bit of work into that one, you know – I was determined to make it really good."
Arthur nodded at that.
"Yeah, I tried to do the same with the car – however, Molly was against it, and then the kids lost it, so..."
He shook his head at that. A few seconds passed, and Sirius's face lit up with excitement once more.
"Why wouldn't we try it once again? I'm sure we could make a great flying vehicle – especially if we worked together."
Arthur seemed to be interested in the idea.
"You're right – the two of us together, given our previous experience, would surely be able to make it. Although, we don't have a vehicle to work on – my car is lost, and your motorcycle is with Hagrid, so..."
Sirius waved his hand at that.
"My vaults are filled with more than enough money to make it easy for me to invest in this – at the very least, I'll relish the idea of my family's gold being used for buying a Muggle vehicle."
He smiled wickedly at that. Arthur seemed to struggle with the idea of Sirius paying for everything for a moment, but he relented.
"Very well. Now, which vehicle should we get – a car or a motorcycle?"
The two of them thought about it for a moment. Sirius spoke up first.
"You know, I chose the motorcycle first time round because I thought it looked a lot cooler, but now... I think it's pretty awesome that you can take more people with you in a car, so I'd go with that."
Arthur nodded at that.
"Yeah, I think that's better as well. Although, it would be interesting if we could make it even bigger – you know, so it can carry even more people."
Sirius thought about it for a minute.
"It could be like the Knight Bus, only flying, right?"
Arthur nodded vigorously.
"Exactly! That way, we could drive so many people around."
Sirius thought about it a little more.
"You know, it might be a bit trickier, but I don't see why we couldn't try making a flying bus. I can buy one, and we can start working on it – if it works, great; if not, at least we'll learn something new."
Arthur seemed to agree with that. They were both excited to begin working on their new project.
In the following week the two of them cleared out one of the bigger rooms in the house, turning it into a car shop. The walls were lined with tools – Muggle and magical alike. The center of the room was absolutely cleared out, waiting for the vehicle to be brought in. There was a hole in the floor as well, created with magic, so they could get under the vehicle and work on it as well. All in all, the magnified version of Arthur's shed was prepared for their project.
A few days later Arthur brought the bus. Apparently, he had managed to buy it from a Muggle dealer, despite having difficulty with their currency. He asked the dealer to drive the bus to a remote location, and then he brought it to the Headquarters using magic. After much work, the two enthusiasts were looking at their soon-to-be flying bus.
"It is a nice one, really – you have a good eye, Arthur."
Arthur smiled at that.
"Yeah, I really tried to find one that looked worthy of being the first flying bus ever. I liked this one – it's classy, but it has a soul as well."
The two of them walked around the bus, looking at it from all sides.
"Now, all we have to do is make it fly."
In the following weeks the two men spent hours upon hours working on the bus. Others noticed their strange behavior, but didn't mind – after all, it helped make Sirius less antsy about needing to stay in the house all the time, and that was enough for everyone.
The children were at Hogwarts, so there was no need for either of them to be with the others too much – Remus wasn't around a lot, having been sent on a mission by Dumbledore, and Molly was keeping busy with various things, so she didn't even have that much time to spend with Arthur during the day. Under such circumstances, the two of them were able to really apply themselves to their work.
They spent the first week or two repairing all the little things which weren't in perfect shape on the bus as it was – they removed all the rust and repaired all the little tears and breaks. Once they were finished, the bus looked like it had never been driven before – it resembled a new, just-out-of-the-factory model. Sirius and Arthur were very proud of their work.
Once the bus was restored to perfect condition they began working on the enchantments. As it turned out, the ones Sirius had used on his motorcycle weren't the same ones that Arthur had used on his car; however, this only made it easier for them. Combining the enchantments turned out to give the best results, making it easy for them to make the bus fly.
Making it invisible was another story, though. Sirius never did try to make his bike invisible – being seen riding it was a great part of the fun. Arthur did try to make the car impossible to see, but he'd never succeeded in getting the mechanism to be reliable. Faced with the challenge of making the bus, which was many times larger than either of their previous vehicles, invisible, the two of them turned to the huge Black library and began researching.
The Black family library was a treasure trove of knowledge. In fact, one would be hard pressed to find a subject which the books in it did not cover – barring, of course, Muggle studies. However, the wealth of information came at a price – going through the books was a long, tedious job.
They read through hundreds and hundreds of books, poring over various texts late into the night. They tried out many spells, but all of them had their downsides – they were either too weak to cover the whole bus, too slow to follow it while it flew, or too unstable not to be applied every time one flew the bus. It was very frustrating.
They were almost ready to give up, planning on flying the bus during the night only, when a solution presented itself. An old text mentioned the possibility of applying Arithmancy to the problem, which would help them figure out the exact sequence and intensity of a number of spells which would work together and get them the results they wanted. They went at it with renewed vigor.
The Arithmancy calculations were difficult to do; neither of them were experts in the field, and the problem was quite unique, making it impossible to consult other works instead of doing it all by themselves. They made many mistakes, missing a step here or there in the long process of determining the correct pattern they would need to use. Whenever that happened, they had to remove all the spells from the bus and start anew.
Finally, after many failed attempts, they managed to make it work. It was an incredible feeling – all the months of hard work had paid off, and they were able to say they had made a flying bus. They were overjoyed.
As it happened, they only had a few more days until the children came back from Hogwarts as well. Thinking about that, they decided to share their invention with the others once the vacation began. Excited about it, the two men counted down the days.
Finally, Harry and the Weasley bunch came home from school. After the usual first couple of days, when the children relaxed and regaled them all with stories from their time at school, everyone settled down into the calm summer routine. Figuring there was no more reason for them to wait, Arthur and Sirius decided to share their news. As everyone finished their lunch, Sirius began to speak.
"Alright, everyone, Arthur and I have some news."
This gathered the attention of everyone at the table. Sirius could particularly feel Harry's gaze on him. He continued speaking.
"As some of you may know, I used to have a flying motorcycle once upon a time."
Before he could say anything else he was interrupted by Harry.
"A flying motorcycle? When?"
Sirius turned to look at his godson.
"It was a long time ago – before I went to Azkaban. I left it to Hagrid so he could take you... that night."
Harry's face lit up in recognition.
"I dreamed about that when I was little! Uncle Vernon always told me it wasn't real, but I should've known it had to be – after all, how would I think of something that magical while being raised by the Dursleys?"
Sirius was a little surprised. It was strange for Harry to remember things which happened when he was that young.
"I never imagined you would remember that. Anyway, I don't have the bike anymore, but that's not the news we wanted to share. In fact, we were working on a project for the past few weeks – well, months, if we're being honest."
He stopped for a second, taking in the curiosity of everyone present. He let Arthur break the news.
"We made a flying bus."
The children all appeared to be very excited about the prospect of a flying bus. Molly was torn between amusement and annoyance – she had been trying to make Arthur give up the dangerous business of tinkering with Muggle stuff for years, to no avail; however, she had to admit she found it a little endearing as well. Once everyone quieted down a bit, the two men resumed speaking.
"We made a bus that can fly, and be invisible at the same time – reliably invisible, Molly, not the way our car behaved. So, if you're interested, we can go on a ride."
Everyone was interested, so they went to the bus and got inside. Sirius let Arthur drive, preferring to sit next to Harry for the ride. The bus took off, nice and easy, and soon they were soaring over London, with Muggles none the wiser.
"Isn't this wonderful, Harry?"
Harry nodded at him in agreement.
"It's great, Sirius – and it's way better than that flying car."
Sirius smiled at that.
"Yeah, well, we did put a lot of work into it – we even did research in the Black family library!"
For some reason, Harry found his comment about having to do research funny.
"And now, we can say we did it – we made the first flying bus ever!"
He turned to look at Harry, expecting to see him smiling as well. However, his godson was looking to the side.
"Um, Sirius? Did you have Muggle Studies at Hogwarts?"
Confused by the sudden change of subject, Sirius frowned a little.
"I did – why?"
Harry looked at him.
"Did you cover Muggle means of transportation?"
Sirius had no idea where Harry was going with that.
"Yes, we did – the horses, and the carriages, and the boats, and the cars, and the buses, and all that – do you mind telling me why the sudden interest in my Muggle Studies curriculum?"
Harry looked to the side once again.
"Um, Sirius, have you ever heard of an airplane?"
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