The three girls easily located an empty compartment. There was enough room for three more student, and Dora didn't doubt that there would be more soon, as they had already left the station. Becky managed to place her trunk in the overhead bin with ease, but Polly groaned with the effort to lift it. Her parents must have forgotten to charm it to feel lighter. Dora helped as soon as she had secured her own, but her friend was panting as though she'd been running a race after a few minutes.
Nor did her breathing slow after they had sat down. Polly tried to look unconcerned, even as her face grew red with the effort to breathe.
Dora wasn't sure what to do. She didn't want to demand her friend remove her robes so she could unlace her, but if Polly passed out...
"Polly, are you sure you're all right?" Becky asked.
The other girl nodded, then shook her head. "No. I can't...breathe very well." Turning red, likely from embarrassment, she looked from Dora to Becky. "Could one of you...help me?"
"I will," Dora assured her, standing up and pulling Polly to her feet. "Becky, you keep the door closed."
Becky nodded, rose, and took hold of the door. Polly was still struggling to get her breath, so Dora lifted up her dark blue robes, and she could see that her white satin corset was laced even smaller than her own. There was still at least an inch of gap between the eyelets. Instead of just a bow, someone had knotted it. Dora, sighing a bit at the added difficulty, began to work at untying the knot, and after a few minutes, it came undone. The corset automatically slackened a bit, and Polly groaned with (Dora hoped) relief.
"How loose do you want it?" she asked.
"One inch...to start...please hurry!"
"I will," Dora promised, already beginning to work. Rather than letting the ribbon laces fall at their sides, Dora carefully loosened a small section above and below the waistline. Then, a bit more, and finally, a little more.
Polly groaned again.
"Am I hurting you?" Dora nearly squeaked.
But the other girl just laughed. "No. That's the first proper breath I've had since this morning." She sighed, then took another deep breath. "Oh, that's so much better. You can tie them off now."
Dora obliged, and Polly continued to speak. "I reached nineteen and a week ago. Mum and I thought I could handle nineteen. Well, evidently, it's beyond me if I need to use any exertion," Polly explained, with a sigh. "Thank you. I don't think I was going to faint, but..."
Dora wasn't so sure about that, but said nothing as Polly stretched thoroughly before placing her robes back on.
She slumped into her seat, then abruptly changed to a sitting position. "Oops. Keep forgetting I can't slouch anymore."
Becky moved her hands off the door and took a seat next to Polly. Dora followed suite, taking the space closest to the window.
"Anyway, what are you two laced to?" Polly asked, peering at them.
"Twenty. I can many nineteen, but Mum wanted me to be able to enjoy the food." She gave Dora a smile, and Dora imagined Mrs. Roberts had taken her mum's advice to heart.
"Nineteen and a half. Got a bit below eighteen, but as you said, there's a feast today."
Polly looked impressed. "How small are you aiming for?"
"Fifteen, same as my mum when she married my dad. But I reckon I will be at least twenty years old by then," Dora added, quickly.
Becky laughed. "Maybe not quite as long as that, if you're already below eighteen."
Dora shrugged, and they changed the topic to their summer assignments, and how much more work they could expect this year.
About ten minutes later, two girls knocked on the door, then asked, rather sheepishly, if they could share their compartment.
"Everywhere else is full, or taken up by Prefects and the Head students," a red-haired girl explained.
Dora glanced at her friends who nodded. "Sure, you can sit with us."
"Thank you." After placing her trunk and her black haired friend's in the overhead bin, she introduced herself. "I'm Molly Cartwright, and this is Eloise Baker. And yes, we're both muggle born. Ravenclaw, too."
"Well, one of my grandmothers is a Squib, but that doesn't count for bloodlines, so I'm told," Eloise explained, sitting on the free row.
Dora could have guessed as much--not the Squib bit, but that they were muggle born--from their clothes. Both girls wore short trousers made of denim, and their shirts covered their shoulders, but not their arms.
She'd seen her cousins wearing those sorts of clothes, but it felt awkward so near the wizarding world.
Almost indecent, even.
Polly didn't seem to mind (she was a fellow half blood), but Becky spread out her robes as though wanting to cover herself even more.
"Did you grow up knowing about magic?" Polly asked.
Eloise shook her head. "Not until the Professor McGonagall came to my house."
"What about when you had accidental magic when you were growing up?" Dora wondered. "Were you or your parents scared?"
"I was, a bit. Once, I went to the dentist and he told me I needed to get two fillings, because I had very large cavities. When I returned, he couldn't find anything wrong. Said they must have switched my x-rays with another patient's," she said, with a laugh. "Another time, I fell off the swing and twisted my ankle, but it didn't hurt after a minute. Things like that. But my parents just laughed it off. I expect that they were concerned, because it was all so weird, and perhaps finding out I was a witch made it all make sense."
"Cavities?" Becky asked, clearly puzzled.
"Holes in your teeth. They form in muggles when they don't brush well enough," Molly explained. "Well, we can get them, too, but we don't need drills to fix them!"
Becky immediately clamped her hands over her mouth. "Oh, those poor muggles!"
"Doesn't hurt too much. They load you up with painkillers before they do any drilling. I had a few fillings." Molly shrugged. "Will probably get them fixed by magic when I am of age. My mum and dad don't want me to do anything about them before then."
"All this talk about teeth is making me hungry!" Eloise laughed. "I hope the cart comes around soon. Been craving pumpkin pastries all summer."
"Is that your favorite treat?" Polly asked. "Mine's cauldron cakes."
She glanced down, as though wondering if her compressed stomach would be able to hold them.
Dora was suddenly very relieved that she'd allowed her mum to only lace her to nineteen and a half.
"Oh, I love all of the cart sweets. Except Bertie Bott's every flavored beans. Don't fancy the risk of biting into earwax or spinach or toe jam," she explained, making a face.
"They ought to make a bag with only the good flavors," Dora suggested, and the other girls murmured in agreement.
They spent the next several moments going over what additional lessons they were going to take (Molly and Eloise hadn't signed up for Muggle Studies, but Eloise was going to take Divination), and then they heard the cart outside the compartment.
The girls gazed at the treats with delightful anticipation before making their selections. Dora had plenty of pocket money to spend, plus more allocated for Hogsmeade. Her parents expected that two trips would be scheduled during the fall term, but if there was a third, she was to write home and they would send her more.
There were certainly benefits of being an only child to well to do parents.
Knowing that chocolate would take up more room in her stomach than licorice wands, Dora purchased more of those. She also selected a couple of cauldron cakes and pumpkin pastries, but firmly resolved to save most of them for another time. Gum also was a safe option, even if it wouldn't normally be her first choice, so she added a few pieces to her selection. There were other choices, not including the Bertie Botts beans, but Dora easily passed them over.
Eloise and Molly, not wearing corsets, chose ample amounts of sweets, easily twice as much as Dora and her friends. Not that they noticed until after they paid.
"Saving your pocket money for Hogsmeade?" Eloise asked.
"I'm saving room for the feast," Polly answered. "And I had a rather large breakfast."
This might have been the end of the discussion entirely, but about a half an hour later, Becky was looking rather pale.
"I--er--need to use the loo. Dora, could you...?"
Dora rose, rather more quickly than she should, as her corset protested a bit at this sudden movement. She ignored the slight pain easily enough.
"Of course!"
She heard one of the girls ask if Becky would be all right, and Polly reassuring her that she'd be fine.
"Shouldn't have eaten so quickly," she murmured, once they were in a stall and Dora had loosened her an inch. She leaned towards the toilet, as though speculating whether she needed to throw up, but straightened. "Could you loosen me another half an inch?"
"Of course," Dora reassured her.
"If I'm feeling better when we change, I might ask you to take me down a bit. Twenty-one and a half is downright loose," she added, with a sigh.
"I ate too much dessert about a week or so in," Dora confided. "Mum took off my corset entirely for the night. Also gave me a Soothing potion for my stomach."
Becky laughed. "One of the few that doesn't taste foul!"
The rest of the trip passed without any problems. Eloise and Molly had shown a bit of concern over Becky, but whatever Polly had said must have been sufficient. A few hours later, when they went to change into their school robes, Becky had Dora take her down a half an inch. Polly was more than content to remain at her current size.
They didn't speak much, though, and kept their voices down, because the bathroom was filled with other girls changing. All three of them were, Dora could tell, rather uneasy about simply blurting out they were training their waists, and wanted their roommates to find out later that night, rather than overhear them in public.
Then, the train stopped in Hogsmeade, and they departed the train in exchange for the carriages driven by thestrals.
Author's note:
We only know about incidents of accidental magic in canon when it comes to Harry, Neville, and Lily. (Can you call what she did with the swings accidental? Seems like she had some level of control over it...) Fans have speculated that Hermione might have caused a book to float to her.
I rather think it would be neat for accidental magic to repair injuries, including cavities. There has to be some element of desire as well as fear, too.
The last chapter was from Andromeda's point of view and featured flashbacks heavily. I am inclined to add more of these in future chapters.
Next up: the Sorting, which reveals a smaller class than usual, and the start of term feast. And perhaps the great reveal? We will see.
As always, reviews are greatly appreciated!