Simply Irresistible
By Kukaburry
Harry Potter Disclaimer
Chapter 1
(This begins in Year 5. Much of the plot is altered. I am writing my own version of events. Every person's dream is to be part of the Harry Potter adventure, and this is it)
"Why dad? Why can't I stay here? I'm happy here!" Piper roared theatrically, attempting to rouse tears unsuccessfully.
"Piper love, I told you, my advisors believe Hogwarts is a much safer school than yours. Besides, it's supposed to be one of the top wizarding schools in all of Europe. You'll have fun there!" He stopped when Piper snorted. "Do you remember how much you cried about living with muggles for a year? You ended up having the time of your life with them. This will be another adventure like that!"
Piper bit her lip and nodded dully, playing up her part of 'daughter who will miss her father'. "That wasn't the same! I didn't have to leave the country and I knew the muggles too; Jordan's aunt and uncle. They don't mind wizards like other muggles do." Piper recalled her last moments of happiness before she returned to the world of wizards, when her world came crashing down.
Henry stared her down forcefully, temple throbbing. "Enough is enough Piper! I signed you up to transfer to Hogwarts and that's final." He took a steadying breath, "You'll get to meet Harry Potter you know." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
A shiver ran up Piper's spine. "So? What's so special about him? The Dark Lord never bothered America," she retorted snotily.
Her father narrowed his gaze suspiciously. "Who taught you to say 'Dark Lord'? That is what his Death-Eaters called him. I want you refer to him as 'He-who-must-not-be-named Piper," he stated firmly.
Piper's eyes widened and she frantically thought of what to say. "Oh daddy, I know! I know! I'm sorry, I've been reading too many books about him," Piper said innocently, but a dark look crossed her face nonetheless.
Henry looked satisfied, "You'll only be in England for two years to finish out your education. You can handle that can't you? Please? For your dad?"
Piper's mouth lifted slightly and she shrugged. "Sure dad."
"That's my girl." He patted her fondly on the head.
Piper trudged up to her room, trying to shake off her performance. Piper had shoulder-length chestnut brown hair, and almond-shaped green eyes. Her skin glowed a golden brown from constant sun. She practiced quidditch daily, hoping to some day play for one of the world teams and nothing gave her more joy than a new book.
Piper's plane takes off the next day at 6:00. At 16, she is still much too young to apparate and even though her father is the American Minister of Magic, she's being forced to travel to Europe in a completely magic-free fashion. She didn't mind of course. After living with muggles for a year and attending their schools, she became very angry at muggles for their narrow-mindedness about magic.
Her father's main plan in forcing her to live with muggles was to give her a greater appreciation for them. She had always made snide comments about their stupidity, but after living with them without use of her wand for a year, she had grudgingly decided that they were very advanced for such a stupid people. Upon her return home she destroyed every connection she had to the muggle world, but pretended that she had learned something. Her father never found out she had lied to him.
Piper reached her room and sat down on her bed, staring around at it for the last time. Tomorrow night, she would be sitting in her great aunt Martha's kitchen, eating strange foreign foods and feeling extremely trapped. She knew her father didn't care about her displeasure. He followed everything his advisors spewed at him, but only Piper knew their real intentions.
'Respecting' her father's position, Piper always went along with his foolproof plans: Eating dinner with the African Minister of Magic and his son, giving gushing reports to the newspapers about her father's intelligence, and pretending to be interested about who got what position in the ministry. Henry was very proud of his daughter for all her hard work. Piper knew she had to keep her image up as 'Pristine student and quidditch player' to keep her father and his advisors happy.
Nothing but pure exhaustion could have lulled Piper to sleep that night. Her dreams were filled with haughty English faces, laughing at her. She awoke with a start at 4:00 am after a dream of being caught stealing from the Minister of Magic and thrown into Azkaban.
Henry came to Piper's door, knocked on it softly and stuck his head inside. "Piper, you need to… oh, you're already up… good. We're leaving in twenty minutes. I'll put your trunk in the car. Wingardium Leviosa!" The trunk lifted into the air and it followed Henry out the door.
Piper groaned and threw a t-shirt and jeans on. If she knew one thing, it was that England was one of the bloodiest cold countries in the world. She slung a jacket over her arm just in case, and tucked her Ipod into her back pocket. She looked at her wand that now lay dejectedly on her night stand and wondered where she should put it. Piper took up her hand bag, threw a few shirts into it and stuffed her wand inside the mess. 'England, here I come.'
Twelve hours and four screaming children later, Piper stood inside Heathrow's continental terminal, scanning the hectic crowd for her overweight and cheerful aunt Martha. "Piper! Sweetheart, come give a kissy to your auntie," a voice bellowed above the din. A portly woman with golden blonde hair and a double chin, draped in a scarlet kimono waded through the crowd towards Piper.
"Hi Aunt Martha," Piper grinned dully, allowing herself to be swallowed in a bone-crushing hug. "Look how big you've gotten Piper. I can't believe my eyes," Aunt Martha's gaze faltered, "You look so brown dear, are you sure so much sun is healthy for you?"
Piper barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes. "I like being tan auntie." She explained, eyeing the bustling muggles enviously. "Don't I have to check in somewhere?" She lowered her voice, "Since I'll be… you know living here?"
Martha chuckled merrily, "Of course dear, that's where we're going right after we pick up your trunk. I do wish I could use some magic here, it'd be so much simpler." She waddled towards the bag check, clucking about 'rowdy muggles'. "'Course they've got no consideration for anyone but themselves." She complained.
Piper trudged wearily after her aunt, a stolen Ipod blaring loudly in her ears and successfully drowning out her aunt's whining. It took them ten minutes to claim her trunk and nervous owl, and ten more minutes to hail a cab. "I don't know why your father is so keen on not using magic. Probably doesn't want you to show off your intelligence right from the get-go," Aunt Martha mused.
Piper turned to her aunt, attempting to phrase her comment so that it sounded natural, and not planned. "Aunt Martha. While we are at the ministry, we should stop by and greet Mr. Fudge, your Minister of Magic. I'm sure he'd be very interested to hear news from my father."
"Oh my, you're right. I would very much like to meet the minister in person myself, oh this is exciting. We'll make sure to let everyone in England know that America's ambassador is here to stay and to make contacts." Aunt Martha declared, red in the face from such exertion.
They stopped outside a very run-down and dingy building. It looked like a shack compared to the impressive buildings surrounding it. Piper had a strange feeling that the muggles couldn't see it. The inside of the building was the antithesis of the exterior. Marble floors, high, domed ceilings and gold-papered walls made it clear that the English Ministry of Magic was nothing to fool about with.
"This way pumpkin. They need to check your wand at the front desk, and then to meet with the Minister," Aunt Martha beamed with pride as she said this. Nothing in the world was more impressive than her little niece in her eyes.
The wearied wizard behind the desk took her wand and placed it on silver scales. "Ten and a half inches… Birchwood… dragon scale and unicorn hair… Very flexible. Alright, your wand is perfectly adequate. I just need you to fill out a form and have a guardian sign it."
Piper picked up a quill, scribbled down useless information and handed the quill to Martha who signed it exuberantly. "Alright Piper, off to the minister's office my dear." Piper smiled politely, but her mind raced with apprehension. She knew this was a chance to obtain the object her father's advisors had sent her to find.
The guard wizard wheezed slightly, but attempted to be hospitable and asked dubiously, "Do you have an appointment with Mr. Fudge?"
Martha looked scandalized, "Do you, sir, have any idea who this child is?" The guard looked at the paper quickly, but Aunt Martha beat him to the punch, "She is Piper Cornwauld, daughter of Henry Cornwauld, American Minister of Magic."
The wizard grumbled an apology, nodding furiously at Piper, "Terribly sorry miss. Of course Mr. Fudge will be glad to see you. I'll let him know you're here. Go one ahead." Martha stalked off and dragged Piper along with her as if she were the queen of Sheba herself.
Piper knocked on Mr. Fudge's door while Martha threw herself heavily into a chair opposite the door and closed her eyes immediately. "Ah, come in child," Fudge's feathery voice flowed out into the hall, "I've been expecting you. Is your father in good health? Excellent, alright then, we'll get down to business."
Piper instantly spotted what she needed to obtain sitting out in the open on Fudge's desk. Like every other owner -including her own father- he did not understand the incredible power held within it. She needed to figure out how to talk Fudge into handing it over. "Yes, first thing's first. What news is there from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?" Piper already knew that Fudge absolutely refused to believe in the return of the Dark Lord, which gave her a huge advantage. "We have heard reports that the Potter boy witnessed his supposed return?"
Fudge turned a puce color and shook a bit. "Ms. Cornwauld, I can assure you that it has been proven false. Mr. Potter was upset about the death of his friend, Mr. Diggory and for some reason made the erroneous conclusion that it was related to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. We are trying our best to keep Mr. Potter from causing pandemonium." Fudge's face was now dotted with sweat.
"Excellent, this is wonderful news. I knew it couldn't really be true. Just a child seeking attention, I know how that goes." She laughed and beamed at Fudge who smiled in return and began to relax. She turned her attention to the crystal on the desk. "Oh that is a lovely crystal Minister. What a gorgeous blue color. My father gave me something that resembled it, but it had a light green tinge." She went to pick it up, but Fudge grabbed it first, much to her annoyance.
"Ah yes, this was a gift given to me by the famous Auror Briktenstein, from Germany. He was a fine fellow. He obtained it from a mission to South Africa about ten years ago, and thought of me immediately," Fudge pompously proclaimed. "It really serves no purpose really, but to look pretty. I've heard that it's worth quite a bit, but I keep it around to look at from time to time. If you look at it just right in the, it seems to glow." He smiled at the crystal fondly. "I'm waiting for the right person to pass it along to, as a token of good will. You seem to be a worthy recipient, from what I can tell."
Piper tried to look happily surprised. "Really? Oh my, I'm not sure I'm worthy of such a beautiful memento. You must be joking with me Minister." She smiled brightly and humbly at him, knowing that her charm was working quite well.
Fudge chuckled and looked at the crystal again. "Saying that at your age only proves that you do deserve it. A lovely trinket for a lovely girl," he winked at her fondly. "Yes this would do well for your crystal collection. Blue and green are very complimentary colors. This is England's sign of affection for America. May we be allied for many years to come!" He passed the precious jewel into Piper's palm. She felt the hidden power warm her hand instantly.
"Thank you Minister. I will treasure it forever. Now please, tell me more about your current work." Piper was forced to bear the droning of Fudge's voice for a whole hour. He asked her about living with muggles and about her mother's health (who had been dead for a year: How inconsiderate of him not to remember) and about every useless topic anyone could ever think of. After his long-winded speech about how glad he was to have Piper in the country, he provided her and Aunt Martha with Floo Powder to return home. Piper placed a protective hand over the pocket containing the crystal before stepping into the fire. "One more to go."
Woo mystery and intrigue. I'm glad I went through and edited a few lines! I wrote this chapter so long ago, it's incredible I still remember it! As always reviews are very much appreciated! ~Kukaburry