Bartlet for America

July 14th 1997, New Hampshire

Jed could not believe it. He had found the people who had left Amelia behind a month ago, but they refused to even acknowledge her existence. He could not believe that they had denied her existing. He then made a small search of English records for her parents, but he only had her last name to go on. He had found three Potters, Lily and James, along when their son, Harry. However, they had not been seen since 1991, so he had no idea where they could be. He decided he would go and attempt to claim guardianship of Amelia. He knew she would be a good addition to the family, and Abbey had agreed with him. They getting their daughters together that night and they were going to tell Amelia the news.

Amelia sighed. She did not see why the Governor even bothered to try and help her. Her relatives would probably deny she existed, and she did not want to go back anyway. If they did find her parents, which she thought was slightly more likely, they would probably give her straight back to the Dursleys, seeing as they clearly did not want her. She was sitting in the library of the governor's house, reading books on American politics, and was amazed by the complexity of it all. Even though she was still only seven, she still wanted to understand everything she read about, and she was determined to understand it before dinner, or the by the end of the day at the latest.

Jed was having an awful day. He was stuck in a meeting with marketing advisors, who had revealed that most of his state's revenue came from tourism and snowmobiles. He had hardly been listening the entire presentation, and was truly quite relieved when they left. He was about to get ready, and decided to tell his staff. "Mrs Landingham." he shouted, and she came strolling in as usual.

"Yes sir?"

"I'm going home."

"Oh, Leo wanted to see you."

"Leo's here?"

"Yes sir."

"Leo!" he shouted

"I can go and get Leo like we do in a civilised world."

"Yeah yeah." He said in response, and Leo walked in. "Hey Leo."

"Hello governor." Leo said, though his mind was elsewhere. "How is the search going?"

"Not good Leo. Her uncle denies her existence and her parents have been missing since 91."

"Well, I'm sure you will come up with something."

"I have Leo."

"What?"

"I'm going to adopt her." Leo stared at his friend, astounded by the revelation.

"Your joking, right?"

"I don't joke Leo."

"Well, I suppose it is best for her."

"Yes it is." There was silence for a while, neither knowing what to talk about.

"I've been thinking of getting back into politics.

"Good for you Leo, you were never really out of it. Your probably thinking of the house, but I think you should go for the senate seat in Illinois. I could raise money for you in the three years."

"No, I wasn't thinking about the Senate. I was thinking about the White House."

"Leo, there's no one I would rather see in the Oval Office, but if you run there's going to be discussion about Valium and Alcohol, I mean this is the world, it's gonna come out."

"Yeah, I wasn't thinking about me."

"Who?"

"I have been walking in a kind of daze for two weeks, and everywhere I go I find myself scribbling something down." Leo said, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a napkin, and on it was written 'Bartlet for America'

Amelia was bored. She was waiting for dinner, where the Governor had said he had a couple of announcements. She was worried, especially about what the announcement might be. Maybe her parents had been found, or worse, her uncle wanted her back. She did not think that she would be able to stand it. She would rather run away than go back to them, still worried about what they would do to her. She looked finally looked at the clock, and decided to go and get ready. She made sure her clothes were neat, and grabbed her report off the table. She was happy at her school as well, and had quite a few friends.

Down at dinner, there were more people than usual, the reason being the presence of one Leo McGarry. The entire family and Amelia were sitting at the table, and Jed was reading over her report, not making any emotions known, and Amelia was nervous, but she did not know why. Her report was perfect, literally. She had the highest grades in the year. Finally, Jed handed them back over to her. "Well done Amelia, you've done well in the few weeks you've been going."

"Thank you sir." She said, still feeling butterflies in her stomach.

"Right, I do have announcements to make. Announcement one is more for Amelia." He said, looking at her as the desserts were cleared away.

"We should probably move this to the living room Jed." Leo said, wondering how Amelia would react to it. Jed nodded, and they all got up, and left for the sitting room. Once they were in, Jed motioned for Amelia to sit next to him, and nervousness grew.

"Now that we are seated. Amelia, bad news first I think." Jed said, and Amelia's eyes widened, fearing what the bad news was. "Your uncle has denied your existence I'm afraid. We also couldn't find your parents, and nobody has seen them since 1991." Amelia eyes started to water at that, though she had no idea why.

"What's the good news?" She asked, still on the verge of tears.

"The good news is that, I am going to adopt you." Jed announced, and Amelia jumped into the air, and hugged him. "Welcome to the family Amelia Lily Bartlet."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you." She said, her mind struggling to comprehend what it meant.

"Okay, settle down now, we still have to go through the official process."

"Sorry, it's just I've never had anyone really care for me before."

"It's alright." Jed said, Amelia still sitting on his lap. "Leo, would you like to make the second announcement for me."

"Of course I will." Leo said, standing up. "Now, I'm not going to say much, all I'm going to do is show you something, and that should satisfy your need to know what is going on." he said, and with that he pulled out a foldable whiteboard, and stood it up in the middle of the floor, and wrote three words on it. 'Bartlet for America'.