The first year girls did not take long to settle into their dormitory. There were six of them: Bonnie, Patricia, Margaret (who preferred Maggie), and the twins, Thalia and Tess.
Beyond the usual shyness and social fumbling of meeting for the first time, the six girls seemed to get along well. Thalia and Tess played off of each other fabulously - Thalia was confident, bubbly, and tended to be loud. Tess was poised and just as confident, with witty responses to all of Thalia's outbursts. Both had the graceful strength of a dancer, smooth dark hair, and blue eyes. Patricia was short and chubby, the kind of excess that would stretch out as she grew and would change her shape. But poor Patricia didn't know that yet, and her lack of self confidence made her shy and retiring. She stumbled over words and seemed happy enough just to listen. Maggie was beautiful, even strikingly so, with thick curls of dark red-brown hair and warm brown eyes.
They seemed to fit in the dorm room, like pieces of a puzzle clicking happily into place. From the patchwork quilts that covered the beds to the warm glow of the copper lamps, the place felt like home. The girls soon warmed to each other, sharing stories and secrets by the light of the lamps reflecting off of the copper bedwarmers. Bonnie could only imagine that she would bless their existence, come winter - she had heard that the castle could get quite cold.
The girls finally fell asleep, after hours of laughter and talk and shared leftover treats from the Hogwarts Express. Bonnie curled up with Milton, who purred beneath her chin. His tiny head butted up against her neck and vibrated with the force of his purrs. Girl and cat slept soundly through until morning, when breakfast called her and the promise of adventure, and maybe mice, called the cat.
Her first week of classes went by so quickly that Bonnie barely had time to write home. She did send a letter, shorter than she had intended, with the promise to write more, later. She only had one or two classes, most days. Defence Against the Dark Arts and Potions on Mondays, Charms on Tuesdays, History of Magic and Transfiguration on Thursdays and Potions on Fridays. Wednesdays were the busiest, beginning with Herbology and ending with Astronomy, with Flying and Potions somewhere in the middle.
She quickly learned just what she was good at, and what would take work. Potions and Herbology came naturally to her. Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, and History of Magic didn't give her much trouble at all, but Transfiguration and Astronomy...she foresaw many hours of studying in her future, as far as those subjects were concerned.
Bonnie quickly became friends with her Housemates, especially with those in her year. Cedric and his friends soon became attached to their little group of girls until the boundaries between friend groups disappeared entirely. The time until Christmas passed in just the blink of an eye, Christmas break went even faster, and then there was just the one stretch of time left until summer.
Much to her dismay, Bonnie didn't see much of Ian Rosier. He disappeared into his House and she into hers. Slytherins and Hufflepuffs, like Slytherin and Gryffindor, rarely mixed. To see a Ravenclaw and a Slytherin together was far more common, with the note of ambition in both Houses, a kind of overlapping of some values.
Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, however, seemed to get along quite well. She was soon friends with several Gryffindor first years, as well as with some of Alan's third-year friends. The time spent with her brother and his friends was happy, and Bonnie grew to not mind their rowdiness quite so much.
The time she did manage to spend with Ian was quiet - hours spent studying in the library, or walking the grounds every once in awhile. But by the end of the year, their communication had tapered off almost entirely, relegated only to glances from Ian and quick smiles from Bonnie.
He was the first person in her year that she'd met, and she was sorry to see him go. But her new friends from Hufflepuff and Gryffindor more than made up for the one Slytherin boy who fell through the cracks.
First, second, and third years passed with very little fanfare. Bonnie grew, of course, and learned more than she ever could have imagined. As she'd expected, Transfiguration and Astronomy proved difficult, but she could manage them if she worked hard enough. It was Herbology and Potions that she lived for. Professor Sprout took an instant liking to her - as a Hufflepuff and as a talented Herbology student. And while Professor Snape didn't seem to like her more than he liked any other Hufflepuff (which was very little), he grudgingly gave her the top marks she worked for and didn't, at least, single her out in class.
She didn't take to flying, hated being suspended so high above the ground. When the first-year lessons were over, she was relieved, and filled in the gap with Care of Magical Creatures when electives came around.
Ian Rosier fell off of her radar entirely. He didn't reappear until their fifth year, when students were turned to stone and Hogwarts was in an uproar.