Disclaimer: Obviously, most of these characters are JK Rowling's, not mine. Also, thank you to MinervaEvenstar, for letting me use her title.

I'm Not a Dessert!

Chapter Four: A Familiar Cast

I wouldn't say girl… Cornelius stuttered. "More like… a best friend that happens to be a girl." He glanced nervously over at Myrtle, who pretended to be absorbed in tying her own message to her owl so she wouldn't further embarrass him. He was so awkward she would never have guessed he spent any time at all around girls. She found his discomfort extremely cute though his attraction came as somewhat of a surprise. She was all too aware that she was not a pretty girl. Olive Hornby made that clear every chance she got.

"Uh huh. Right," chuckled the lighter-haired boy.

Myrtle smiled enviously at them as she sent her owl off to "Mum and Dad's". These boys had it so easy. They could tease each other, and everything was fine. They were young and innocent and didn't yet care about how they looked to others.

"Sending letters home already?" came a high, disdainful voice. "What's the matter? Are we homesick?" Myrtle whirled around and came face to face with the very girl she'd just been thinking about. Olive Hornby.

Fudge, thinking the comment had been addressed to him, lowered his head and ran from the room. Martin quickly followed, but not before hearing more. "Oh, so now we're coddling the ickle firsties, are we? Starting fresh, with…" Her voice faded as Martin hurried to catch up with Cornelius.

Meanwhile, Cornelius was tearing recklessly through the halls. He heard footsteps pounding in the hallway behind him and turned down this corridor and that, trying to throw the girl off his trail. He was so concerned with the noises behind him that he didn't notice those in front, and he ran straight into the girl from the train who'd told them to change.

She stumbled backward and grunted in surprise as the First Year Torpedo appeared out of nowhere and smashed into her.

"'scuse me," Cornelius muttered, pulling himself off the floor and beginning to run again. Before he could escape, the girl grabbed his arm and held him still. He struggled against her grip, but she was stronger than he was.

"What's up?" she asked soothingly, sensing his distrust and anxiety.

Cornelius tried to break free of her grasp once again and stuttered "S-she's coming. She's g-going to make f-fun of me." The tears he'd been holding back began to flood his eyes, and he buried his face into the girl's robes.

She let him cry for a moment before lifting his chin so she could see his face. "Who's going to make fun of you?" Her voice was kind and understanding and he felt like he could have been talking to his mother. He looked at her, taking in her cat-like appearance and long black hair. It was braided, as it had been on the train the day before, and it fell past her waist.

"I don't know," he sniffled, wiping tears from his eyes.

Just then, Martin ran around the corner, finally catching up. He took in Cornelius's tearstained face and smiled sympathetically. "She wasn't talking to you, mate," he said. "She was talking to Myrtle."

"Really?" He grinned sheepishly. "Oh." He felt a wave of embarrassment wash over him as he realized he had been crying over nothing to someone he realized was a total stranger.

"My name's Minerva McGonagall," the girl spoke up, as if reading his thoughts. "Head Girl. It was wonderful chatting with you, and if you ever need help with anything, I'll be glad to assist." She smiled and patted him on the head before continuing to wherever she had been headed before Cornelius had clobbered her.

It was only after she'd gone that he realized he hadn't told her his own name. But it didn't really matter; she was only doing her duty as Head Girl and probably wouldn't care.

Martin was looking at Cornelius funny.

"What?" Cornelius asked, uncomfortable and still embarrassed.

"Corny. Do you realize that you were just crying your eyes out in the arms of the Head Girl of Hogwarts?" he asked.

"You make it sound like an accomplishment. She was really nice to me." Cornelius frowned. Martin shrugged.

"Well, we'd better get down for breakfast. What time is it?" Martin expertly changed the subject.

In answer to his question, a loud bell rang through the school, alerting them that they had twenty minutes before their first class.

"Skip breakfast," suggested Cornelius as they looked at each other in alarm. "What class have you got first?"

"I don't know!" wailed Martin. "We get our schedules at Breakfast!"

"Then we'd better get down there!" cried Cornelius, breaking into a run.

When they reached the Great Hall, they found it nearly empty. The Headmaster approached them with a few pieces of parchment. "What are your names, please?" he asked in a pleasant tone.

"Fudge."
"Cox."

He handed them their schedules and hurried to the next couple of people who had just arrived as they thanked him.

"What do you have?" Cornelius asked again.

"Transfiguration. You?"

"Same. We'd better run." Cornelius acted on his words and began to run back the way they'd come.

Martin hurried to keep up. "But we don't know where we are, nor do you know where we're going!" he cried. Cornelius slowed to a quick walk.

"Good point." He pulled out his map and studied it. "Look, it's the floor we just came from," he said, pointing. "Now I remember seeing that statue somewhere. Oh, and that one. I ran past it earlier," he deduced, and they began to hurry down the corridors, tracing the path they'd taken earlier that morning.

"I didn't realize we'd taken so long at the owlery," panted Martin as they arrived at the door to the classroom.

Cornelius shrugged. "Or maybe it was me running around like an idiot that took so long," he suggested wryly.

They pulled open the classroom door and entered, taking seats near the middle of the class. No sooner had they sat down then the door opened again, admitting a familiar dark-haired boy.

"Fudge," he sneered he walked past, sitting at a desk on the opposite side of the room.

"Black," Cornelius replied, trying to sound as cold and arrogant as Alphard did. He thought he'd pulled it off rather well, but the boy just smirked. Martin raised his eyebrows, but before Cornelius could explain, another bell rang and the professor walked into the room.

He was an older man, with a long white beard and half-moon spectacles perched on his nose in a way that made him look important. His stance commanded respect and attention, and the class quieted immediately upon his arrival.

"Welcome to your first class of at Hogwarts," he greeted them. "My name is Professor Dumbledore, and I will be teaching your Transfiguration class this year."

As he began to summarize what they would be learning, Fudge listened with excitement and took notes on nearly every word. Or until he heard snickering from the other side of the room, that is. When he glanced over, he saw Alphard Black and his Slytherin friends sneaking glances at him and whispering. He heard Black whisper "yeah, Fudge. As in the dessert," to his friends' delight and amusement.

It had begun. Cornelius Fudge was now connected to food in the minds of all the Slytherins. And it wasn't a friendly connection either. From that moment on, innocent little Corny Fudge was known to Black and all his friends as 'Fudge' or 'Dessert'.

A/N: Thank you to all my reviewers! Your opinions mean a lot to me.

To Moongazer and anyone else thinking the same thing: In all honesty, I had very little idea of how old Fudge is in the books. I pegged him as being in his fifties or sixties, which would put him right in the middle of a very exciting time at Hogwarts. If he's actually much younger than this, I apologize, but please bear with me, as it would rewrite the entire storyline and all the characters if I were to change it.