Shorted Blower Motor Wiring Harness Connector: damaged Blower Motor Controller or A/C Controller

This is my first time on any forum of any kind. I have spent the entire day trying to fix this problem unsuccessfully and I need your help. Let me give you a brief history: I bought this 2003 Prius three months ago and the previous owner told me that it had an intermittent problem with the a/c. The fan ran only on high, and sometimes it would stop. I figured out that if I reached down and pushed on the wires connected to the blower, most of the time it would start up again. The other day, I did the same thing again and the fan stopped working for good, while I smelled burned rubber/plastic. Today, I looked into it and found a short at the blower wiring harness connector. The two wires had lost their insulation and were partially corroded and touching each other, while the connector itself was blackened at the joint (had I looked into this immediately after I purchased the car, instead of feeling around Stevie Wonder style, I wouldn't be here right now, but that's another story). Anyway, here is what I have done so far: I connected the blower motor directly to a battery and it ran; I checked all the fuses and interchanged relays; then, with the fan on high, I used a check light and found that when not plugged in, the blower connector has power on one of the wires, and on both after it's plugged in. I know from reading on this site that many resolved a dead blower by replacing the blower motor resistor when the motor was not faulty itself. From other threads, I saw that the A/C amplifier could also be a cause. I went through the sequence suggested by the service manual to detect DTS codes (IG on, Fan off, AC button pressed 3 times, Fan Auto: after the first four blinks, I got a pause and then two blinks, then again a pause and two blinks etc, but I do not have a reading tool to read any codes...). So, here is my question: what would a short in the connector be most likely to damage? When I first saw it, I almost breathed with relief thinking it surely was a fuse, and consequently, it was going to be a very easy fix. All the relief is gone! Please, help me out!

 

Thank you for input, Chap. I haven't done anything about the wires yet except for making sure they don't touch each other anymore. I found the part no. 90980-10214 for the shell of that connector and ordered it. I also bought a used blower motor controller on ebay. I'll fix everything when the parts come in.