"Well, that was a productive day!" Andromeda announced, smiling. "Did you get to spend as much time with Polly as you wanted, Dora? I know it was a bit of a disappointment that she couldn't spend the night."

"Yeah, I expect it's for the best. I want to get started with reading these books, and I'll only have a few days before Becky comes, and then a week between when she leaves and I have to leave for school," Dora answered, taking the first stack of books from her bag.

"Holidays seem so long at the beginning, but they do go by quickly," Ted noted. "I understand that in other parts of the world, the summer ones last longer."

"Where's that?"

"American muggles get three months off. June, as well as July and August," her dad explained. "Dunno about the witches and wizards, but I know that they have a whole different system of exams."

"So do the French," Andromeda put in. "I had a second cousin with a pen pal who went to Beaubatons. They took their wizarding exams at the end of their sixth year."

"Are the exams different? Do they include an extra year of material?" Dora wondered.

Her parents just shrugged.

"Shall we have tea, or skip it for today?" Ted asked, changing the subject.

"Let's skip it. I'm rather full from lunch," Andromeda said. "That all right with you, honey?"

Dora nodded, feeling similarly. "I'd like to start reading."

Andromeda laughed. "You certainly have a lot of books! And for Muggle Studies, of all lessons."

"Well," Dora said, "I reckon they're written for people who barely know anything about them."

"I'm always here if you need help," Ted offered.

Dora thanked them, and headed upstairs to begin.

If there was one thing to be said about her wizarding books, they were interesting. She'd seen her cousins' textbooks, and they were flat-out dull. Not to mention that most of their lessons were entirely impractical. The maths they used, for instance, were entirely irrelevant for anyone except those in the highest level of their fields. And, of course, British history was nearly as dull as Professor Binns taught magical history. Except their teachers were alive, and varied in terms of how dull they could be.

She passed the hours before dinnertime as though they were mere minutes, and would have continued to read for longer had her mother not called her into their kitchen for dinner.

"Have you been studying all this time?" she asked, hugging her and setting a plate of food before her.

"Reading, rather than studying," Dora answered, truthfully.

Studying was reading but with intention. It was making use of the parchment to take notes, and then memorize those notes. It was learning dates and events and wand movements and practicing spells.

Dora had been reading her textbooks for information, in part, but mostly to begin to absorb the material that was there. It was, she supposed, a form of "pre-study."

"For Muggle Studies?" Ted asked.

"Yes, I'm about halfway done our first required book. But I'd like to start Divination tonight or tomorrow," she admitted. "Do you think fortune-telling is real?"

Her dad shrugged, and her mum shook her head, then nodded.

"I believe that true seers are very, very rare, and that they often don't understand the meaning of what they see at the time," her mum answered. "I'm skeptical of any lesson that claims to teach you how to become one."

"You didn't have Divination as a lesson when you were at school, did you?" she pressed.

"No, it wasn't offered until a few years ago." Andromeda pursed her lips. "I understand that Madam Trelawney makes a habit of predicting the death of a student at the beginning of the first lesson."

Dora had heard this as well. "You took Arithmancy, didn't you?"

"We both did. I'm still convinced my Exceeds Expectations belonged to another student," her dad answered.

"Oh, you understood it better than you give yourself credit for," her mum lightly scolded. "I was disappointed that you gave it up after our OWL year."

"Care of Magical Creatures was a better use of my time," Ted laughed. "And snogging you, of course!"

"Dad!" Dora protested, as her mum laughed.

"'Snogging' was a bit of an exaggeration," her mum explained. "We kissed on occasion, and yes, I let your father encircle my waist in his hands. But I would have fainted had we carried out a proper snagging session while I was training, especially after I'd reached sixteen and was going to fifteen."

"When did you reach sixteen inches?"

"A week before my first dance, in my fifth year. A few weeks before the Christmas holidays. Headmaster Dumbledore thought it would be a nice treat for the older students. Anyone who was in their fourth year and up was allowed to go, as well as younger students with older dates," Andromeda recalled.

"You don't...still have your dress robes? From school?" Dora asked, suddenly.

"I do. I brought all of my clothes with me, in addition to my undergarments and nightgowns," Andromeda explained. "Even the robes that I outgrew when I was younger than you. I couldn't bear to see them destroyed. But, I don't think you'd fit into my dress robes for at least another year."

Dora hadn't been thinking that way. "No, I know, but you would, right? You're sixteen inches right now, same as you were at school?"

Andromeda considered. "I...suppose," she answered, slowly. "The robes were fitted in the waist, but rather roomy everywhere else. That was the style back then, although my mother detested it. She said it was almost as bad as not training your waist. Of course, with everyone else dressing that way, even the ancient pure-blood families, she could hardly force us to set ourselves apart."

"What did she wear, then?"

"Robes with bodices that were practically a corset by themselves!" Andromeda made a face. "As though wearing one wasn't difficult enough, laced that small."

"You should show her, Dromeda," Ted encouraged. "I'd love to see you in them again."

Dora's mum's face turned a bit pink. "Well, all right. After dinner, then, unless you'd rather wait until tomorrow."

"No, I'd love to see you in them. Please!" Dora begged.

"Very well."

It was, technically, after dessert, and (then after a shower, because she wouldn't wear the robes unless she was perfectly clean) that Andromeda Tonks, clad in her chemise, corset, and dressing down, had brought into her bedroom her three sets of dress robes, although she warned Dora that she could only fit into the first two.

"We had dances during our fifth, sixth, and seventh year," she explained, waving her wand to remove the Unbreakable charm that shielded them from all age and any insects, but also made them impossible to wear. She delicately placed them on the freshly made bed.

Dora sat up extra straight on the couch next to her father, lest she accidentally do something to offend these works of art.

"During my fifth year, I'd managed a sixteen inch waist, but barely," Andromeda explained. "During my sixth year, I was still at sixteen inches. It was not until just before my seventh year began that my mother managed to get my waist down to fifteen. I had a lot breathless days, I can recall. So these," she pointed to a set of sky blue and green robes, "will never fit me, but perhaps they might fit you. The other two I can manage-with some luck."

"Do you need any help?" Dora's dad asked, staring at the two pairs of dress robes and then at his wife with an adoring look on his face.

"We'll see," she answered. "Now, this is the set of robes I wore to my fifth year dance."

She held up a lovely, very un-Slytherin, pair of royal purple dress robes. "These, along with the other sets, are made of silk. I've taken great care to preserve them over the years, just in case you would ever want to wear them, Dora."

"That's if I'm ever that small," Dora reminded her. "I know Madam Bernatte said I will reach sixteen, but she's not exactly a fortune teller..."

"No, but she has been working with young girls for quite some time, and your body is very, very similar to mine," Andromeda answered, with a smile.

Dora nodded her understanding, and then her mother held up the robes against her own body. Dora could rather see how they would appear to be loose-fitting, except in the waist. The sleeves were long and wide, not puffed out, but rather like muggles depicted the witches and wizards wearing in King Arthur movies. The purple bodice had a large amount of material, and it was only the sash cinched around the waist that emphasized how tiny someone had to be to wear it. The skirts had several layers, all very full, and Dora imagined her mother swished around as she walked.

They were stunning by themselves. Of course, her mum made a habit of dressing well all the time, keeping herself "nicely put together," as she called it. Her mum never wore makeup, but Dora thought it would look unnecessary on her. Maybe every girl thought that their mother was the prettiest in the world when they were kids, but Dora had never seen anyone her mum's age who came close.

Sometimes, it annoyed her, because Dora knew she'd be lucky to become even half as pretty. Other times, she told herself that it didn't matter, anyway.

Now, she thought that the gowns would bring her mum to another level of grace and beauty, and she wanted to see it, even if she'd never end up there.

Well, maybe she'd have the tiny waist someday.

Andromeda now turned the gown around to show at least fifty tiny pearl (at least, Dora thought they were pearl) buttons down the back.

"Oh!" she gasped. "I expect you use a charm to do them up?"

Not that this would require much work from a witch. Buttoning charms were second year spells.

"Yes," her mum answered, with a light laugh. "Can you imagine having to do them all up by hand? We might have dreadful self-lacing charms, but I have no complaints about the buttoning ones."

"They work well on dress boots for men," Ted put in. "Ladies wore special dancing slippers, but boots were all the rage for us until about ten years ago."

"Another reason we feared for our gowns," Andromeda laughed. "If you weren't light on your feet, your female partner might tear her dress! Not that I ever worried when I danced with you, dear."

"My roommates trained me well," he admitted. "Most of them received private lessons. I might not have remembered all the steps, but I knew not to damage your feet or robes."

Andromeda laughed as she removed her dressing gown, and Dora once again saw how small her mother's waist was. She unbuttoned the buttons with a wave of her wand, and then stepped into the dress. Another wave, and the buttons all lined up against each other, and there was her mother in all of her beauty.

Dora gasped as she saw her mum. With her hair piled on the top of her head in a neat bun and the beautiful-stunning-dress robes on her, she looked positively amazing. Regal, really. Of course, witches and wizards of the United Kingdom had the Ministry, not princes or princess or kings and queens. But her mum could have passed for one just then. As she moved, the robes glided with her, and even though the bodice might not be boned, it was certainly tight enough to show off her "assets" as well as her tiny waist.

Ted stood up, carefully wrapped his hands around her waist, and kissed her.

"You look amazing," he told her.

"You do," Dora echoed. "You look like...well, I know we don't have royalty in the muggle sense, but you look like it."

Andromeda's face reddened. "Thank you." She took a deep breath. "Goodness! I could never do that before! I felt as though my lungs were being crushed together when I wore this." She smiled. "It's rather nice to be able to enjoy it, now."

"Didn't you wear a special corset with your ball gowns?" Ted asked.

She made a bit of a face. "Yes, but I would never fit into those now." She glanced in the mirror. "Considering how much my body has changed, I am rather surprised this fits. I don't suppose one of my mother's ball gowns would, with the boning."

Dora could see what her mum meant. The robes did emphasize her waist, and certainly anyone could see her mother was...well endowed...but the robes were loose enough elsewhere that you didn't need to have tiny hips or legs to wear it. Anyone with a sixteen inch waist--a feat on its on!--would be rather at home in the robes.

And oh, how Dora hoped she might be small enough to be able to wear them before she finished school!

"It did fit rather better with my ball corset," Andromeda admitted, now studying herself.

"You look incredible," Dora insisted. Then, she added, "Do you still have those?"

Andromeda laughed. "Yes, and you may try them on if you like. I ought to warn you that you will have to lace at least an inch looser, at first, or you might faint outright. They're hardly punishment corsets, but they have more boning and they're several inches longer."

"Why go to all that trouble?" she wondered.

Andromeda began to remove her robes as she spoke. "It went back to looking your best, to this idea that on special occasions, in particular, you had to make more of an effort not simply to lace down, but to lace hard. Also, when my mother was young, dress robes were tighter all around except below the waist. Something that restricted your movements made it more difficult to damage your clothes."

Dora was glad that her own dress robes wouldn't be like that. All the same, she wanted to try on her mother's ball corset, just to see what it was like.

Author's note:

Up next: Dora experiences wearing a fancy ball corset, and they prepare to have Becky spend two weeks with them.

Thanks for the kind reviews!