Amelia Potter in the White House – Part 1
Any and All Recognisable Characters, Locations or other devices are the property of their respective owner. No money is being made from this being published. All thanks to J.K Rowling for creating Harry Potter and Aaron Sorkin for creating The West Wing.
Chapter 1: Abandonment
New Hampshire, United States of America, 26th June 1996
Amelia Potter was rather bored. She still couldn't make sense of the situation as she walked through the forest that the Dursleys had decided to visit today. She still didn't understand why the Dursleys had brought her on their holiday to the USA. Mrs Figg was available when they left, and per her own calculations that was where she should have been left. Unless she had been unavailable when they had asked her to look after what she had been described as by them as "that useless freak", it didn't add up to them deciding to take her on holiday with them. Perhaps they were thinking that it was better to have her with them than to be forced to cancel their holiday. She personally found it disappointing that they wouldn't go to the interesting places. She hadn't even been allowed to have a single book, and then they had the gall to tell her to stay quiet, and be grateful for what they had done. They hadn't ever done anything for her. They kept her in a cupboard, all the housework was done by her, so she was hardly being ungrateful for anything. There just hadn't been anything to be grateful about. As she continued to mull over what her aunt and uncle had done for her over the years, continually concluding that they really had just taken her in because they were forced to and nothing more, she heard faint shouting coming from somewhere nearby. Looking around her, she could see no-one immediately around her. Thinking that it may be time to head back, she turned around before realising the shouting had gotten louder. Her curiosity got ahead of her. She turned back around and walked in the direction she believed the shouting was coming from. Except she had not looked down at the ground. Suddenly, instead of walking, she felt like she was flying. She looked down, and immediately grew concerned at the lack of ground before she made contact with something, and everything went black.
Josiah Bartlet was an angry and startled man at the moment, as if he needed to be more than one. Firstly, he was angry about a piece of legislation currently passing through the state legislature, which he had already said he would veto, and yet the Republicans were managing to push it through. Naturally he was against the cuts to budget that they were proposing, but he was not willing to give into them and give an increase in subsidies, because that would mean cutting the budget anyway. He had just been outplayed by the Republicans. But whilst he was letting out his frustrations on the issue to the wildlife around him, a second startling issue had revealed itself. A young girl, probably about six years old with ginger hair, had just fallen on top of him. He wasn't even sure how it had happened, it was in the blink of a second. He was alright, and she didn't sound hurt. At least, that was what he thought until he lifted her up and saw the blood coming from her head. "Someone call an ambulance now!" Seeing the damage for himself, a nearby bodyguard didn't hesitate to take out an emergency phone and call an ambulance as soon as possible. Although they were in a national forest, they should still be able to get through, even if they had to walk a bit of the way. Hopefully it wouldn't be too long though. Josiah didn't know how long he could stem the blood for. He just hoped that the kid's parents had noticed.
A twenty-minute walk away from where all this was happening, sat three people who almost looked like a complete mismatch in terms of being together. The Dursleys, as this was their name, had brought along a problem child. Their niece, Amelia Potter. They had come here for a reason, and that reason was to conveniently lose her and make it home without being contacted by American authorities before making it back, where they would then move to a new house and prepare for a better life away from those freaks. Of course, there was always the chance that Petunia's sister and her freak husband came to try and visit them at their old house, but the chances were that they wouldn't. They hadn't been seen or heard from for six years, ever since Halloween of ninety-one. Having not seen the freakish girl for a while, they decided that it was ample opportunity to leave whilst they still had luck on their side. And as they got up to leave they heard an ambulance arriving, before seeing the medics rush past them deeper into the forest. "I do wonder what that was about?" Petunia asked herself, tempted to go and look at what was causing the commotion, as she often did back home. Vernon harrumphed and grabbed her arm. "Unimportant dear. If we were lucky, the freak climbed a tree and dropped from a large height. Let's go quickly, maybe we can buy Dudley a few more presents before we go back." Petunia nodded quickly, remembering how much they both wanted to get away from any mention and reminders of the m word. They moved back into their hired car, moving as quickly as their legs could carry them without looking as if they were running away from something. As Petunia got into the passenger seat, she looked ack at the forest, and an unkind smirk made its way onto her face. It was good that she was gone now. The last reminder of her oh-so perfect freak sister and her even more freakish husband had now been removed from them forever, providing of course that they to the airport, but she doubted the authorities would be able to follow them. They had the girl's passport, her visa, anything that said who she was and where she lived. So even if the freakish child was alive, it was unlikely that it would be able to be traced back. And if they were, well that's why they were moving out of Surrey for good.
Josiah Bartlet was very rather worried about the young girl who was now lying on a hospital bed. He technically had to go to a meeting around about now, but he was more concerned about the girl than about his weekly meeting, for two reasons. Firstly, there had not been any relatives of any sort that had been either contacted nor found. She had no identification on her, so they couldn't ask her until she woke up, and it had been several hours since they had gotten her to the hospital anyway. And secondly, who cared about a small number of ant colonies in farmland anyway. It was easily sorted out and someone else would know what to do with it. He was just concerned about the girl, what sort of person didn't care about their daughter needing to go to hospital, or even being near her at the time of the fall. However, he was brought out of his thinking when finally, she began to stir. He stood up quickly, moving over to the door and calling a nurse in, who in quick order not only brought some water and a clipboard, but also removed him from the room altogether. But he was alright with that. After all, the professionals here knew what they were doing. He hoped.
It wasn't for another three hours that anyone talked to Amelia at any great length. She was eating the food that had been put in front of her, and she only now realised that the Dursley's were nowhere within the vicinity. Which was good seeing as she probably wouldn't be getting the food that they were putting in front of her now if her poor excuse for guardians were here, as they probably have given the food to Dudley the moment the doctors left the room. She was stopped from her continuing eating when a new doctor entered the room. Short brown hair, and with a pair of square glasses, he pulled up a chair before sitting down. "Hello there. My name is Dr Richard Cranston. I'm here to help the hospital decide how to treat you." Amelia look at him, somewhat bewildered. "I thought they had treated me, and that's why I'm ok."
"Well technically we have, but we are just double-checking. Don't want to get things wrong." He said, and he gave the girl a reassuring smile. On the plus side, he had already worked out that she was British, that was easily worked out by her accent. "Let's start with the basics shall we. What's your name?" She looked at him as if he was an idiot.
"How do you not know my name?"
"You didn't have anything on you that told us who you were. So, until now you have been Jane Doe. I have had an instance where that has been someone's name, but that was an odd day." The girl suddenly looked thoughtful.
"Okay then, I'm Amelia Potter."
It was approaching half an hour since Dr Cranston had started engaging the girl when he finally exited the room, looking a lot more worried than when he went in. Jed stood up and quickly moved to the doctor, focused completely upon Cranston. "So, what do we know?" He asked. Dr Cranston looked around, looking at the people currently in the room. "It would be better if we took this to the office." A concerned look went through Jed's eyes, and stiffly nodded. He followed the doctor to his office, and swiftly shut the door. They both sat down in the chairs, and Dr Cranston began his report. After going over her basic details, Cranston shifted uncomfortably. "I'm not very happy about the situation that this young girl has found herself in. From a lot of her answers, I'm afraid I won't be expecting her guardians to come back to see her. From what I can gather they were emotionally abusive, but I do not believe that there was any physical abuse and neither could my colleagues."
"And why am I the one being told all this?" Jed asked, inquisitively.
"Until we can either send her back to her guardians, or possibly involve the state adoption services in this case, you are the responsible adult. You found her, admittedly in an unconventional way, but you also had her brought in and have been here ever since. We therefore decided to treat you as the guardian."
A few hours later saw Bartlet finally arrive back at his home. He had wanted to speak to the girl himself, but she had fallen asleep during the time that he had been discussing the case with the doctor, and he decided that it would be best to let her sleep, after all she had just been through a rather intense day after that fall. But he was worried for her. His biggest concern was that her actual guardians had never turned up. It was likely that they never would either. With it being a good few hours since she had been missing, he would have though the frantic guardians would have been in the hospital at the first opportunity. Instead they never showed, and it was quite likely that if they were not found, that she could find herself in either the state system or the system back in England and she could be lost in it for years. He found himself sitting up the rest of the night, looking out of the sitting room window. He finally resolved to check in again tomorrow. It couldn't hurt after all to pop into the hospital for a few minutes.
New Hampshire, United States of America, 27th June 1996
Amelia Potter woke up, thinking than when she finally opened her eyes that she would be shouted at for wasting the time of the doctors. But when she did, she found her hospital room devoid of life except for herself. She groaned slightly as she felt her head. It had been hurting a lot yesterday, but now she would almost swear that she could feel it throbbing. The door to the room opened, and Amelia turned her head to the doctor from yesterday entering the room. "Hello Ms Potter. How are you this morning?" The doctor asked as he moved over and opened the curtains, causing Amelia to close her eyes at the sudden influx of light from the outside. "My head hurts a lot, but other than that it seems to be ok." The doctor nodded at her.
"Well it still better than yesterday isn't it." He pulled up a chair and sat down. "You told us the hotel in which you were staying with your aunt and uncle. But when we phoned the hotel late yesterday, they told us that they had checked out earlier in the day." As he spoke, he saw a small frown appear on her face. "This means that we will be unable to track them down for a while if at all. With that in mind we have decided to contact child services here, who will decide the next course of action. I'm truly sorry." It was at this point that he looked at her, expecting to see the girl cry as he had seen so many children do when receiving worse or similar news. Instead of this however, all he saw was a thoughtful look on her face. "Truthfully, I really don't mind."
Bartlet finally found time to be at the hospital around one o'clock in the afternoon. His schedule was remarkable and thankfully empty after a particularly aggravating meeting with some reporter who he had a feeling was not of the same political leaning as him. Usually he was not particularly bothered by the other side being against or even argumentative about his policies, but this particular reporter had no intention of asking any questions on policy, but instead seemed to focus solely on how he didn't apparently act correctly in public. He had calmed down when he entered the hospital, but as he entered he saw a woman in a suit walk out of her room. He made to catch her up as the woman began to walk away from the room and down the corridor. She turned a corner and he sped up slightly to make sure he could see where she went. But when he turned the corner, she was gone. He looked bemusedly at the nearly empty corridor, no sign of the woman. Though he was confused, his quickly moving thoughts reminded him of the reason he was here. To make sure that the girl was alright. He made his way over to the door, knocking on it. A young, melodious voice sounded out from the other side of the door. "Come in." It said, and he opened to see the girl, sitting up in the bed with a bandage around her head. She was a holding a book, the title of which he didn't catch before she put it on the bedside table. "Hi, who are you?" The girl asked as she turned her attention to him. He pulled up the chair that the doctor had left in the room form his talk with her, and sat next to her. "I'm Josiah Bartlet, I'm the one who found you in the woods." Her face turned to embarrassment.
"I'm so sorry for falling on you. I haven't fallen off for a while."
"I'm quite alright. But what were you doing climbing the tree?"
"What else does one do when they climb a tree? I was enjoying the view." She said, a small smile on her face. He walked over to the bedside table, and picked up the book.
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." He said, reading out the title. "Good book?"
"Absolutely, Ford's my favourite character." Amelia replied, almost bouncing on her bed as she did so.
"How did you get the book?" Bartlet said, but before Amelia could reply, there was another knock on the door, and a nurse entered. "Excuse me, but there is a call for you, from your office."
After apologising to Amelia for cutting their conversation short, and after being asked by Amelia, promising to return another time, Bartlet left the hospital. Being driven towards his office, his mind was still trying to work out how the woman had disappeared in that corridor. After all, there was no way that she had walked quickly enough to disappear down another corridor, and he knew she couldn't possibly have left the building as he had come onto that floor from where the elevators are. Unless there were other elevators that worked quickly enough that she disappeared. The car finally stopped, and he headed into the building. Approaching his office, Mrs Landingham came up to him. "Considering the nature of the appointment, I thought it better that she waited in your office." Jed turned to her.
"What nature?"
"Well she told me that it was about the child that landed on you yesterday." Jed frowned, before entering his office. "No calls Mrs Landingham." She nodded, and he closed the door to his office. He turned around and saw the same woman that had disappeared from the hospital not an hour before. She stood and came over to him. "Governor Bartlet, I am Olivia Stalmore. I need to ask you a few questions about a Ms Amelia Potter."
"You were in the hospital this morning."
"I was. And I spoke to Ms Potter." Bartlet moved over to his desk, and sat down, inviting Olivia to do the same. "May I just ask whom you represent?" She seemed to ponder the question, before answering.
"I represent MUSACARS."
"Never heard of it." She sighed.
"The Magical United States of America Child and Adolescent Relocation Service." Jed frowned at the second word.
"Magical?"
"Long story short governor, magic exists. I can prove to you if you like?" Jed nodded, and she pulled out a long stick from out of her sleeve. She waved it over the second chair next to her, and it set on fire, before she quickly put it out again. "Is that sufficient?" She asked.
"Quite so. Anyway, you said you had questions." She nodded, and put the stick away.
"Really just the one. The problem we have with Ms Potter is that it can cause a diplomatic incident, one reason being that this is a child of a different nationality. However, urgent messages to our counterpart department in the UK have been met with no response. But we all agree that she can't stay in the hospital." She paused for confirmation from him, to which he nodded. "So, until any alterative arrangements can be made, we've decided that as you have shown an interest in Ms Potter, that you will be given temporary guardianship of her for one month." Bartlet quickly jumped in.
"Woah. This seems a bit quick."
"It is, but we believe that the quicker we can get this sorted out the better. Of course, you're welcome to say no, we can figure something else out. But as you at least talked to her, and she seems open to being looked after in the US…" She trailed off, and Bartlet slowly nodded.
"Assuming I agreed to this, what would happen?"
"We would give you and Ms Potter a meeting tomorrow, where you will both get to know each other and be comfortable with one another. She will get the decision on whether she wants to give the trial period. Then after a month we will have a meeting at your home to see if we can make the arrangement permanent or if we should seek alternative arrangements."
"It would be odd if a young girl suddenly appeared at my house."
"We'll release a story through our regional non-magical counterpart that you are just giving her a place to stay whilst something is being worked out. That should nullify that. If she stays, then we will release the details of that when it comes to it. But you shouldn't worry, there will not be any trouble from this." He started to ponder this. After a few minutes of silence, he spoke to her once more.
"I will need to talk this over with my family." He stood up, and she followed suit.
"Of course. If you want to continue with it, meet me outside her room at one tomorrow." She made towards the door. "One more thing." Jed said, and she turned back to him. "You'll need to explain this whole magic thing." She smiled at him.
"Well of course. Want to know more, be there tomorrow." And she left the room.
New Hampshire, United States of America, 28th June 1996
As one o'clock approached, Jed was once more heading towards Amelia's room in the hospital. After a long and frank talk with his family, they had decided to at least give it a try. So here he was, making his way to the mandated meeting that he had to attend in order to try. As he walked around the now familiar corner, he saw that the door to Amelia's room was open. Inside, though he could not see the girl, he could very clearly see the government woman from yesterday's meeting already within the room. Upon finally reaching the room, he knocked on the door. When he did so, Stalmore waved him in, and he saw Amelia sitting upon the bed, seemingly all well. "Mr Bartlet, we were wondering when you would arrive." Stalmore said, before inviting him to sit down on a second chair that had not been in the room yesterday. As he sat in it, Stalmore went over to the door, pushing it shut. She then returned to her seat. "Now that the three of us are here, we can talk." Bartlet looked at Ameilia.
"How are you?" He asked. It was only a few days after she fell after all.
"I'm alright. Have been since yesterday really." Bartlet nodded, but Stalmore spoke before he could speak again.
"So, by your presence here I assume you are interested?" She asked, and he nodded again. "Well, it seems that Amelia is happy to give it a go. Naturally it will probably take some time for her to get used to the new situation, and of course vice versa." Amelia had a shy smile on her face.
"Well, everyone at home is looking forward to meeting you." Bartlet said. Stalmore took some papers from a bag that he just noticed by the side of the bed.
"I just need you to sign this." Taking the papers, Bartlet read through them and saw no tricks, finding that everything within the papers were basic terms he had to adhere to. After reading through it again, he saw at the bottom where he had to sign, and Amelia's signature already attached to the bottom of it. He looked to Amelia.
"Are you certain about this?" He asked, and Amelia nodded.
"At the worst, you can't be as bad as my previous guardians." He grimaced at the casual tone that she said it with. He turned back to the papers, and signed on the dotted line.
Next time: Being a Genius