Disclaimer: I own nothing, not even really the plot, as my sis has put in a lot of her own ideas. It was her challenge to do this crossover that made me write it, so blame her not me.
Category: Harry Potter/West Wing crossover. Sounds difficult to pull off. It is. I probably haven't managed to do it.
Rating: There shouldn't be anything explicit in here, but possibly mild swear words may slip in every now and then. Sorry to everyone who hates them, but it's just how I think the characters would behave and my credibility would go out of the window if Draco started saying "crumbs". So for now its "T". Tell me if you think its inappropriate.
Spoilers: Throughout the first four seasons of The West Wing just to be on the safe side and for Harry Potter I don't think I'll be revealing anything past the third or fourth books, if that. This is all slightly AU, obviously.
Note: This starts off weirdly, but it gets better, I promise. Also I'm posting this only on West Wing fanfic sites because it's more likely for you guys to know Harry Potter than the other way around. Sorry if some things that happen wouldn't ever take place in the White House. Give me some slack, I'm English, but please tell me so I can try and change it. Oh, and this is my first fanfic so be nice, but constructive criticism is appreciated. Not only that, but I crave it, it is my lifeline, so feel free to review and I will reply. Oh, and I'm babbling so…
Prologue
Hermione stood on tiptoe but still failed to reach her aunt, who bent down in order for them to hug. The noise of aeroplanes circling overhead, normally a sound she loved, reminded her of the sadness of a farewell. She ran back to her parents, took a package from her mother, and presented it with outstretched arms.
"C.J, I bought this for you from one of the wizarding shops."
C.J. opened the small box and found a bracelet, curiously wrought with gold and silver threads. It seemed to emit light from its delicate clasp and a feeble word such as "beautiful" would not come close to describing it.
"I tried one of the spells in by book so that it can't break and it seems to work," Hermione continued as C.J. smiled at her precocious niece. "Oh, and it'll tell me if you're in trouble."
C.J. laughed outright at this, saying "What do you think could possibly happen to me in Washington?"
Hermione merely looked around suspiciously and said mysteriously, "You never know."
Chapter 1It was the first day of term and Ginny was sitting with her sixth-year friends. Colin Creevey sat next to her as Matthias Greenwood and Leanne Trawler bickered opposite. The Trio, as Ginny had come to call Harry, Ron and Hermione, were to her left. As the final remnants of the feast were being eaten up by bursting students, Dumbledore stood for silence.
" Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts," the illustrious voice began. "I shall now take this opportunity before our delicious puddings arrive to announce the Head boy and girl."
Ginny smiled and nudged a blushing Hermione with Head girl shining on her robes; it had been a shoe-in for her. She felt slightly curious, however, as to who the Head boy was, and slightly bitter that it hadn't been Ron or Harry.
"Head girl for this year will be Gryffindor's Hermione Granger."
The Gryffindor table erupted with cheers. Dumbledore carried on regardless.
"And Head boy will be Slytherin's Draco Malfoy."
Ginny dropped the goblet of pumpkin juice she had been holding, spilling the sticky mixture all over the table. As the juice flowed towards her, threatening her robes and her dignity, she stumbled backwards. Unfortunately, true to character, she managed to catch her foot on the bench as she scrambled backwards and fell towards the floor. Colin grasped at her robes to no avail, and she was just praying she wouldn't look too much like a moron, when she was suddenly caught inches from the ground by a pair of hands.
As the hands lifted her up with apparent ease, she heard the owner's voice inches from her ear.
"You need to watch where you walk, Weasley. And that is best done if you try to walk in the direction that your face is pointing. Though I can understand how hard a concept that could be for a simple weasel like you to grasp."
Malfoy. He had been doing this for the last year. He was always popping up, making more snide remarks to her than he had used to. She had hoped that he would have tired of it by the start of the new year. But if this incident was anything to go by, it didn't seem very likely. She sighed and turned to face him. For a moment they stood looking at each other, neither making a move. It was only when she felt his hands slip down to her waist that she was snapped back to reality.
"And you need to watch where you put your hands, Malfoy," she said with a sigh.
And immediately she realised that this might be taken as an act of regret. She cursed silently as she saw from his face that he had taken it that way. He made no attempt at removing or even moving his hands. And so she kicked out with all her might at him.
He doubled up in pain for an instant, but immediately recovered and grabbed her swiftly retreating figure, twisting her around and pulling her back, wand held tightly in his hand.
"Why you filthy little…" he screamed into the surrounding silence. What he was about to say, Ginny would never know, as both teenagers realised that they were being watched by around six hundred students and a whole table of teachers. Ginny flushed and marched back to her seat, Draco's surprise having caused him to let go of her. As she did so, she looked up at Dumbledore, whose eyebrows were raised ever so slightly.
When she had sat down and tempting chocolate sponges and trifles had magically appeared, a mutinous-looking Ron turned to her.
"What the HELL was that all about?" he snarled, glaring at Malfoy. If looks could kill, Malfoy would have been lying on the floor with a dagger through his heart, arsenic in his stomach, a rope around his neck and an arrow through his eye. And he'd probably be castrated as well, Ginny thought gleefully.
"I don't know," she replied truthfully.
"Well, don't worry Gin. If he pulls anything else I'll make sure he gets what's coming to him."
"And I'll help," Harry added solemnly, leaning around Ron so that he could be seen.
Ginny laughed, "Thanks, Harry. If my brother challenges Malfoy to a duel then you're going to need to be there to sweep up his ashes for me".
She heard Ron grumble as she turned back to her right.
"Are you alright?" asked Colin.
"Yeah," Ginny muttered darkly, "no thanks to Draco effing Malfoy over there."
"What's Malfoy got to do with it? He only gave you a hand up," Colin asked, confused.
"What?"
"You fell down, he helped you up, people laughed and you walked back here. What is there to not understand?" Colin asked, now a trifle testily.
Ginny now felt that her brain was going into meltdown.
"But I didn't fall down, he caught me!" she said, slightly shrilly.
Matthias and Leanne had stopped quarrelling to stare at her. Colin looked concerned. "You really must've hit your head badly. Are you sure you don't want to go to Madam Pomfrey?"
Ginny sighed with exasperation. She turned to the Trio.
"You guys, isn't it true that I fell but Malfoy caught me?"
"Yeah," they answered, confused as to where she was going as Colin, Matthias and Leanne gaped.
"And then Malfoy was…" she fumbled, "inappropriate. And I kicked him and he shouted".
The Trio nodded again. Meanwhile, the other trio still looked comically as if their jaws were about to touch the floor.
"Well," Leanne finally said, carefully, "I don't know what's wrong with you guys but that's definitely not what happened."
Ginny, Harry, Hermione and Ron exchanged worried glances. Were Ginny's friends lying, or had they genuinely seen something that the rest of the school hadn't? Hermione, always quickest to recover, took hold of the situation. She grabbed Ron and Harry and sent them round the other tables to find out what everyone else had seen.
When the three reclaimed their seats minutes later, their faces were uniformly grim.
Ginny looked at them, as if to say "well?" but their expressions said it all. Before any one of them could speak, they heard noise all around them and realised that the feast was over.
"Right," Harry said firmly, "we're going to have to talk to Malfoy." He ignored the others' signs of protest and carried on. "We need to find out what he remembers. If it's the same as us then we're less likely to have been seeing things. Ginny, try and get him into the second room on the left as everyone moves out of the hall. Then we can grab him on his own."
Ginny, annoyed that she was again going to have to go near that perverted piece of filth, was about to protest but the Trio were already off into the crowd. She sighed and scanned her surroundings for Malfoy. She saw him just going through the main door and she rushed through the mass of bodies to reach him. She wondered how she would get him to go without the usual bodyguards. In the end she opted for the tried and tested grab from the side.
As she pulled Malfoy through the crowd she was surprised at how light he was, but figured his haughty mother was the type to starve her son in the name of fashion. Ginny only hoped that the crowd meant that Malfoy's cronies would take a while to realise his disappearance. She knew that neither Crabbe nor Goyle could tell arse from elbow half the time, but she was worried about the Zabini boy who looked quite sharp half the time.
Suddenly Ginny was brought back to reality as she and Malfoy thumped against the door of the room to their left and she deftly opened it, let them tumble through and closed the door behind them. Malfoy had already managed to compose his initial surprise and immediately went on the offence. He put his arms up on either sides of the door, level with her face, effectively blocking any movement.
"Well, well Weasley…Eager to carry on where we left off? I…"
But Malfoy was cut off by what looked like a red ball of fury crashing into Malfoy and bringing them both to the ground. There was a short scuffle at the end of which Ron came out on top, straddling Malfoy with his wand pointed straight at the squirming boys heart. Malfoy's wand, however, lay useless at Ginny's feet.
It was then that the rest of the room's occupants came to life. Harry and Hermione rushed at Ron, grabbing him on either side and attempting to pull him off. Ginny watched in horror as Malfoy desperately held onto Ron's wrist and tried to point it away from his chest. She remembered Malfoy's wand. Malfoy may be the world's greatest jerk, she thought, but nobody deserves to be attacked by my brother, they might catch something. She was also quite annoyed that Ron obviously didn't think she could handle toads like Malfoy by herself. She made her decision.
She took a step towards the wand. Ron, realising what she was doing, grabbed her ankle and she sailed to the floor. And suddenly she felt a familiar jerk behind her navel and she was whisked off, Malfoy's wand still grasped in her hand.