Dora and the others craned their heads to see the new first year students. Some of her peers smiled and waved at them, trying to seem welcoming. Others ogled them as though they had never seen a pre-Sorted student before. And a few, mostly older Slytherins, gave them cold looks, as though to say they weren't welcome at Hogwarts--or not yet, anyway.
Dora was in the group who smiled encouragingly, although she expected that she might have fit into the staring group. It was difficult not to stare at them. It wasn't so much because of their small size or their anxious appearance, but how few students there seemed to be. At least, compared to her year. She knew that the birth rates had declined during You-Know-Who's time in power, according to official records. Some people were marrying and having kids immediately, of course, but others had been too afraid of the future. Then, there were all the young people he had murdered, eliminating future generations of witches and wizards from that family line. How much smaller the world would have been, had Harry Potter not defeated him.
It could be a coincidence, but Dora expected that she was only beginning to see the effects of this. Her own year contained sixty students, meaning that each lesson contained about thirty. If Dora had to make a guess, she would say that this year consisted of forty, maybe forty-five. Would the next year contain even fewer students?
But surely, it would be temporary. Her father had told her that after the second muggle "world war," there had been a large growth in population. The young who survived were eager to have kids. Perhaps, something similar had happened in their world (they were, after all, both humans), and in another ten or so years, the class size of Hogwarts would be double that of hers.
"Smaller group this year, isn't it?" she murmured to her friends, just before Professor McGonagall rose to speak.
"I expect we were just as small," Polly answered, smiling slightly.
"Not that kind," Dora said, with a laugh. "I mean there are fewer of them."
Becky frowned, just a bit. "Maybe..."
The deputy headmistress rose, then, and everyone went completely silent.
The speech was the same as usual, but the song was always new. Dora sometimes wondered if there was an official list of the ones sung by the Hat over the years. Probably not, as it was only sung once, and it wasn't as though muggle tape recorders worked...
"Hope we get some nice ones," Elizabeth Tunridge murmured.
"Don't we always?" Dora whispered back.
She laughed. "Annie would say otherwise."
Annie was a sixth year Prefect, so Dora reckoned that she would know. Prefects might be honored positions, but they dolled out punishments as frequently as the teachers, and settled disputes among students. It required a great deal of tact, self-control, and overall understanding of discipline.
None of these traits were ones Dora possessed in large quantities, but it didn't matter. She had no desire to enforce the rules, only to avoid getting caught when it was necessary to break them.
Professor McGonagall began to call out the first name, and even the whispers disappeared. Dora and her fellow Hufflepuffs applauded loudly whenever a student was Sorted there, just as the students from the other houses did the same. The process didn't take too long, really, as there was less than a minute between students, but Dora felt herself growing more and more hungry as the minutes passed. Her last real meal had been breakfast, and that had been smaller than usual. As the line of students shortened, she could feel her hunger grow. Before long, her stomach would start to growl.
In the end, Hufflepuff ended up with five girls and four boys. Which rather proved Dora's point, as there were nearly as many girls in Hufflepuff in her year. She imagined that the furniture for the first year Hufflepuff dormitory was rearranging itself at the moment. There were always exactly as many beds as needed to fit the students present.
After a couple of announcements, mostly about not provoking the Whomping Willow and Hogsmeades forms due before the first trip ("Although you may certainly turn them in to your head of house earlier, if you are inclined towards forgetfulness," Dumbledore put in, rather mildly) and finally, the ever-present reminder against banned magical objects as determined by Filch. This rule, Dora was sure, would only be enforced by Filch, and perhaps, some very determined Prefects. Then, the food appeared, and it took every ounce of control for Dora not to take several large bites before coming up for air.
It wasn't quite as good as her mum's cooking, of course, but it was richer than what they usually ate, and not having eaten for hours certainly enhanced its appeal. Dora made her selections carefully, knowing that she wanted to save room for dessert, and determined to pay careful attention to the room inside her stomach.
Her fellow Hufflepuffs dug in without speaking very much, or not at first. To one side of Dora was Becky, and to the other was Hannah Rowle, a pure blood whose family (aside from being one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight) was known for Damocles having served as Minister of Magic in the early 18th century. Dora and Hannah weren't exactly close friends, but they got along well enough.
Hannah, Dora detected from the corners of her eyes, was also taking small bites. Perhaps she, too, was wearing a corset...
Chatter soon filled the room, a mix of discussion about what the new lessons would be like, in combination with hopeful speculation about the first Hogsmeade visit.
"Has anyone visited before?" Polly asked, from her place across the table from Dora.
A few had older siblings who spoke highly of the village, but no one had actually visited firsthand.
Dora remained quiet, happy to listen to the conversation as she ate her share of the feast. She wasn't shy, and certainly not around her fellow third years, but it could be a bit overwhelming when she was among the youngest of all of the Hufflepuffs.
Also, she'd begun to feel rather full before having finished everything on her plate. Knowing that it wouldn't be worth the stomach pains to plunge on ahead, she put her utensils down and hoped she'd have more room by the time the desserts appeared.
Other girls were doing the same thing, and a couple were rubbing their stomachs. No one looked ill, though, nor were they darting their gaze to the set of toilets nearest the Great Hall.
The conversations seemed to wane a bit at this point.
When the ample amounts of desserts replaced the dinner, Dora looked longingly at the rich chocolate cake before taking a small serving of ice cream instead. She reasoned that there would likely be leftovers in the kitchens, and the house elves were always willing to hand it out to student visitors. Besides, it really wasn't worth the stomachache...
Then, the headmaster rose once more to wish them a good night's sleep, and a good term. With that, they rose from their house tables and headed to the house towers. Prefects, of course, led the way for the first year students by tradition, but it wasn't strictly necessary--all you had to do was follow the rest of your house.
Dora stole a glance at the small group of eleven year olds, who looked rather in awe as they hurried after Henrietta Petfrick and Donald Scurback (both, Dora knew, half-bloods).
"How are you feeling?" Dora whispered to Becky and Polly.
Polly smiled. "Aside from ready for bed, I'm fine."
Becky, hiding a yawn with her hand, nodded. "I'm so glad lessons don't start immediately. I reckon I could sleep in until at least ten tomorrow."
"Oh, I agree! Mum woke me up at six to get ready, even though we had packed everything last night." She rolled her eyes.
"Not to..." Dora trailed off, but made a gesture towards her waist.
Polly shook her head. "No, she simply needed to check we hadn't forgotten anything. Dressing only took about five minutes."
Henrietta began knocking on the door the in the pattern of the founder's name, and they were permitted entrance. She pointed the girls in the direction of their dormitory, and Donald did the same with the boys. Of course, the other students needed no such instruction, but it was rather enjoyable to watch.
Dora felt her own feet grow heavy as she and the other girls climbed the stairs to their room. There were only a few floors to the highest level, and third years were still on the second, but the journey still felt longer than usual. Or, perhaps it was simply the lack of practice from the holidays.
Polly was panting a bit by the end, but tried her best to hide it. Once they had all reached their dormitory, there was a rush to take off their shoes and get changed out of their school uniforms.
The trunks were, of course, by their beds, and Dora's nightgown, eighteen inch night corset, and dressing gown conveniently on top. She selected these items, as well as her toothbrush and toothpaste from a spare compartment, and headed straight into the bathroom, then into one of the stalls.
Dora worked carefully, placing her spare attire neatly over the side. One certain that they were in no danger of falling, she removed her school robe and carefully placed it over the other side of the stall. Dora went to work undoing her day corset. She loosened and then removed it without any trouble, and then placed that on top of her school robe. Dora took a moment to relax (and relieve herself) without any compression on her waist. She rubbed her sides for a bit, as though easing the food within to hurry up and digest. After exchanging her chemise for her nightgown, Dora carefully laced her night corset to a very comfortable twenty inches. She checked to make sure everything looked all right, tucked her laces into the bottom sides, and donned her dressing gown, pulling it secure around her frame.
Leaving her clothes in the stall, she went to the sink to brush her teeth.
About midway through brushing, she saw Morwenna depart from her stall, and nearly swallowed some toothpaste in surprise. Of course, Dora's dressing gown tied closed revealed her much smaller than average waist, and perhaps the outline of her corset could be viewed through the dressing gown, especially to someone with a keen eye?
Except Morwenna was laced down as well, although in a lovely overbust that she could have worn with dress robes, and she outright grinned when she saw Dora.
"You're finally wearing one, are you?" she asked, once Dora had finished rinsing.
"Finally?" Dora asked.
Morwenna shrugged. "Well, we're nearly fourteen, aren't we? My grandmother and my mother started at eleven. But Mother thought there wasn't much to work with on me, then, so we waited until I was twelve. I've been, er, trying to hide it until the rest of you began."
"You were sure we would begin?"
Her roommate laughed. "Well, I knew that Becky would, at the very least. It's part of pure blood training for girls. Figured with those who have some muggles and muggle borns in their families, it was a toss up. So, how are you managing?"
Dora smiled. "Very well. They're far more comfortable than I would have expected. My mum gave me the choice between bras or corsets. The bras were dreadful, so here I am." She gestured towards her waist.
"Hardly torture devices, are they?" asked Morwenna, grinning.
"Torture devices?"
"Some muggle feminists began spreading lies about how uncomfortable and unhealthy they were, around the end of the last century. Mostly men, if you can believe it." Morwenna shrugged. "I might be a pure blood, Dora, but I have done loads of research on muggles in Great Britain. I reckoned it would help for Muggle Studies."
"You're taking Muggle Studies?"
Morwenna looked just a bit cross. "I'm hardly from one of those families who uses slurs or believes you don't qualify as a real witch or wizard if you can't trace your bloodline back to Merlin."
Dora looked down at the floor. She hadn't thought that, not exactly, but perhaps not too far off.
She felt her roommate's hand on her shoulder.
"Sorry," she muttered, looking up. "I should have known better."
"It's all right." Morwenna's tone had turned brisk. "Anyway, most of the muggle world now thinks that corsets are dreadful, but as I am sure you know, they're only uncomfortable if they're ill-fitting or too tight. Yours are all right?"
"Yes, I have much the same body as my mum when she was my age, so I wear hers during the day. We had me fit for underbusts to wear when I sleep," she added.
"That's good if you're starting out, but you might reconsider when the weather gets cooler," she suggested. "And you might not want to return to the underbust style afterwards!"
Dora shrugged. The weather could certainly vary in temperatures, but as it was only the start of September, she expected at least another month of reasonably warm weather.
"I reckon I'll play it one day at a time." Then, without meaning to, she yawned. "Sorry. I reckon I'm rather tired."
"Me too. If you like, we can talk tomorrow. I expect we'll find out then who's wearing corsets and who's training their waists. Now, I know it's at least three," she added.
"Four. Polly's wearing one, too."
Morwenna didn't look surprised. "Have a good rest, Dora."
"You too, Morwenna."
Dora left the bathroom and crossed the room to her own bed. Grateful for the privacy of the curtains, she pulled them closed behind her. The first day away from home was over, and the excitement of the feast in the past. A strong wave of homesickness washed over her, and she felt her eyes burn. Taking a deep breath, she pulled back the covers and curled up underneath them.
It would be all right. The homesickness would go away soon enough.
She focused, instead, on the sensation of being hugged, even though it was looser than usual. Still, Dora didn't have the energy to tighten her laces.
Rolling on her side and pulling the covers around her more securely, Dora closed her eyes.
Before long, sleep followed.
Author's note:
I am an American, and while I did a bit of research on popular British names, I wanted to choose some that sounded more historical for some of the girls. I recently started watching Poldark, which contained a few names I particularly liked. That being said, the name similarity is no indication of a similarity in what happens to the character. So, Morwenna and Demelza (although Demelza was also used by JKR for a minor character in canon) will feature as two of Dora's roommates.
On another note, I have given thought to Dora's eventual decision to go by her surname. In my headcanon, family members will still call her by her first name, as well as Remus when they begin dating, and probably close friends. This is more of a "head's up" as to what will eventually come than a replacement for Dora's thought process and important conversations that will take place.
As canon itself has not stated what qualifies as pure blood, I am going with the generally accepted fan definition of four grandparents who were magical. This means that a man and woman who get married and have kids, each of whose parents were muggle born, gives birth to pure blood children (and the parents are half blood). However, any grandparent who is not magical "takes away" from their offspring's blood "purity." Therefore, Dora and Remus' kids will be half-blood, because Remus' mother was a muggle.
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