Thank you so much! That worked!
Few questions:
A) Can I leave the wire there, or do I HAVE to replace the fuse?

What most likely caused the blown fuse (I have an unmodded drive, but I have soldered to the eject button on the wii)?
You partially gave yourself some insight. The reason the fuse blew was because a load was being put into it that exceeded it's tolerance. You're better off putting a new fuse in because if there is another load that exceeds it's normal voltage the wire isn't going to break connectivity, and you could possibly have a burned up wii or a burned down house. The short could have been from a metal touching metal scenario that caused your wii to ground itself out. Double check your contacts, and make sure they're not grounding. Check your solder and make sure it doesn't flow to another component it shouldn't.