Dora held her breath, but was secretly relieved to be fully dressed. The same could not be said of two of her roommates. While Polly and Hannah had pulled on a pair of light yellow robes, Demelza and Morwenna stood with their night corsets covering their chemises.
Becky, also only partially dressed, nearly dove into her trunk to pull out a pair of robes, which she hastily threw over her frame, then winced.
Dora could imagine why. Corsets imposed an upright posture at all times, and bending at the waist was impossible. She'd learned how to bend at the hips over the summer, when necessary, but it could be uncomfortable-especially if you were trying to do so quickly.
Becky's sudden movements likely resulted in great protestations from her corset.
Dora gave Becky a sympathetic smile, but her friend simply gazed at the muggle born with an expression resembling fear and embarrassment. Dora took a few steps forward, planting herself besides Becky.
The look on Demelza and Morwenna's faces was difficult to decipher, but they certainly weren't smiling.
Elizabeth didn't look shocked or angry, as much as confused. She glanced from one girl to the other, eyes a bit wider than usual, but she seemed more confused (and surprised, certainly) than angry.
"We were just, er, getting dressed," Polly answered, rather lamely.
Elizabeth fixed her gaze at Polly, then looked down in the direction of her waist. Not that anymore without experience surpassing Dora's would have been able to see a difference, there. Polly stood bolt upright, of course, but her loose robes hid her figure.
"Are you-are you all wearing one of those?" Elizabeth asked, pointed in the direction of Dora, Demelza, and Morwenna.
Polly nodded, as did Hannah. Dora also nodded.
"Nearly everyone who's pure blood does, and a good deal of those who are half blood," Hannah explained, and Dora was pleased by the amount of tact in her voice.
Elizabeth stared at them. "It's not, er, expected? I mean, it's not part of the school uniform, once you reach a certain age? Annie didn't tell me anything about this, and I don't think she had to purchase any..."
She trailed off as Demelza, who of the girls was closest in physical proximity as well as friendliness to Elizabeth, reached out and touched her arm.
"No, it's not required. You needn't worry about that," Demelza answered, gently. "We just..."
She trailed off as Elizabeth's stance relaxed, and Dora thought back to when her own mother had told her that she needed to wear something, but she could choose a bra if she liked. She felt a pang of sympathy for her muggle born roommate. They might not have been particularly close friends up to this point, but they were hardly enemies.
"Yeah, it's not like Professor Sprout or anyone is going to go around measuring your waist and expel you if it's too large," Hannah added, which resulted in a giggle from everyone.
They all liked their head of house, but if anyone was someone who hadn't trained their waist, she was one. Not that any of the others had particularly small ones.
"How...is it, wearing one?" Elizabeth asked, now glancing around openly. "I have heard that they prevent you from breathing, and you can barely eat or even move comfortably. And didn't some women get their ribs removed to become smaller?"
Dora rather doubted that even her grandmother's mother would have issued the removal of her daughters' ribs.
Hopefully.
Morwenna snorted. "Lies, all started by muggle men," she began, almost growling.
Dora decided to intervene.
"They're generally very comfortable," Dora reassured her. "As long as you don't get laced up too tightly, or wear one that doesn't fit right. Mine feels rather like a nice hug, in fact."
Morwenna nodded, her words a bit softer this time around. "Dora's right. You have to begin slowly, so it doesn't hurt or make it hard to breathe. If you do that, it's quite pleasant to wear a corset."
The other girls nodded.
"Yes, you don't go down to nineteen or eighteen on the first day!" Demelza put in, with a grin. "That wouldn't just be uncomfortable, you would likely faint dead away. Of course, after a few months or so, it would be far easier."
Elizabeth glanced at the girls with exposed corsets. "I expect that you don't have to wear a bra, with those on?"
"You needn't wear a bra if you have on the overbust model, like mine," Morwenna explain. "The underbust goes rather lower, so you'd still need one."
"Why wear the underbust?" Elizabeth asked, puzzled.
"I wear one to sleep in," Dora explained. "I find it rather easier to turn over in. Doesn't hold me quite as rigid, you see."
"And if you don't hate bras and you want to give yourself a chance at both, that's another reason," Polly added. "That's what my sister did, when she started."
Before anyone could say anything else, another girl emerged from bed, yawning widely.
Dora recognized her fellow mousy haired roommate to be Sarah Evansville, best friend to Elizabeth and fellow muggle born. Wearing a long yellow nightgown and with her long (though, not quite as long as Dora's) hair disheveled from sleep, she rubbed her eyes as she moved to sit on the side of her bed.
Elizabeth immediately took a seat next to her.
"Good morning, sleepyhead," she greeted, smiling.
Sarah rolled her eyes a bit before smiling back. "Morning. Why are you all up so early? Lessons don't start 'til the day after tomorrow."
Dora consulted her watch. It was nine, which meant she'd likely risen around eight. It wasn't exactly late in the morning, but it was hardly early.
"I expect our minds woke us up," Demelza answered, cheerfully enough. "It's not as though we're still on holiday, is it?"
Sarah shrugged, then glanced a bit more closely at the two partially dressed girls. "Good Lord, what are you wearing?" She turned to Elizabeth, who was still in her nightgown. "Did you see what they're wearing?"
Elizabeth put an arm around her friend's shoulders. "Don't worry. They promptly that what we've heard about them isn't true. Besides, they haven't fainted, have they?"
"Yet." Sarah looked dubious. "This isn't a new rule, is it? I know we needed to get dress robes, but Madam Malkins didn't say anything about-about-"
"Corsets. It's okay, they won't lace you to fainting point just for saying the word," Polly joked. "Now, if you hold one up and say it three times, it might..."
"Polly!" Dora and Hannah tried to protest, but the mental image was too much to keep any sternness in her voice, and Hannah was already laughing. "And no, they're not required."
Sarah's face relaxed. "Then, you're all wearing them? All five of you?"
"Six," Dora put in. "Becky as well."
Becky had just gone to the loo a few minutes before Elizabeth had woken up.
Sarah and Elizabeth exchanged looks. No doubt, they were realizing that this was yet another mark of distinction between those who had witches and wizards in their family, and those who did not.
"I rather thought that everyone stopped wearing them...what, maybe seventy years ago? Our lessons in primary school said they grew into disuse around the 1910's, but stopped completely after the first muggle world war," Sarah mused.
"Because of the need for steel," Elizabeth recalled.
Demelza rolled her eyes. "Of course, women would be the ones expected to change their dress, instead of men finding another way of finding this steel."
"Well, if they were already becoming less popular..." Polly shrugged. "We witches clearly never got the note."
Sarah grinned. "Does everyone wear them?"
The girls glanced around at each other and shrugged. Dora imagined that her roommates hadn't exactly been forced into wearing corsets, but given rather less choice than she had been. Maybe Hannah, as her dad was a muggle doctor, although even she seemed eager to jump into sleeping in her corsets and develop a smaller waist.
"I don't know if everyone with magical relatives wears them," Dora spoke up, "but I rather expect it's the standard if you're pure blood."
"I rather think it's universally accepted as a sign of beauty," Demelza said, slowly. "The hourglass form, I mean. My aunt, who's a muggle scientist, says that a small waist and broad hips are dominant physical traits. They attract males, make them think of...fertility." She blushed a bit at the last part.
Sarah glanced at Elizabeth, then at her roommates.
"What does it feel like?"
"Depends how tight you're laced," Polly answered, honestly. "When my mum was pushing me to get under twenty inches before I got to school, it was rather uncomfortable. I never fainted, but I never felt like I could get quite enough air in my lungs. Except when I was sleeping at two inches looser, and it was quite bearable then." She sighed. "But once I reached twenty, or perhaps because I complained so much, she agreed I could slow down a bit. Now, it rather feels like a nice hug. It's far more comfortable than before. And I rather like wearing it."
"A hug's a good way to describe it," Hannah agreed. "Mum and Dad says if it feels tighter than a good hug, it's too tight."
The others agreed that this was a fair assessment.
Becky joined in on the conversation.
"It has to be the right fit, too," she added, in her usual quiet manner. "If it's not made according to your measurements, I hear, it's far from comfortable."
"That's what my mum always says," Morwenna agreed, nodding emphatically. "She and her mother were the same size when they were younger, so she wore her mum's early corsets. But she says I am more developed than she was at her age. Bigger hips, too." She frowned a bit at the last part.
"One of my aunts had larger hips," Dora spoke up. "She still got her waist down to fourteen inches."
"Well, my mum got hers down to fifteen before she married. She's seventeen, now, but there are four of us," Morwenna added. "And Dad really wants a second son."
"Heir and a spare?" Polly guessed, raising her eyebrows.
"That, and he wants Albert to have a friend aside from all of us girls. He's only two, so if Mum has another soon..." Morwenna shrugged.
Large families were rather unusual in pure blood families, but not entirely unheard of. Andromeda had been certain that her own mum would have stopped after one if Bellatrix had been a boy, only she just ended up with girls. By the time Narcissa had been born, she had been almost forty.
Charlie Weasley, Dora knew, was one of seven kids. Seven! Even her mum thought that was a bit much.
Elizabeth moved the conversation back to corsets. "So, you're all trying to get your waists super tiny?"
Dora glanced at her roommates before response for herself. "I'd like to become as small as my mum was. She has some lovely dress robes she'll let me wear, if I get down that small."
"I also want to lose a few more inches," Becky added. "I think most of us do?"
The other four nodded.
"It's nice to have a goal, something to work towards," Demelza explained, brightly, "and I find that the hug feeling rather wears off after awhile, so I need to tighten the laces a bit more."
"We're also thirteen and fourteen, and that's when it's the easiest to train," Polly added. "Honestly, I would hate to be the same size when I finish school as I am now."
Elizabeth and Sarah listened as they discussed goals, both for the dance, the year, and by the time they finished Hogwarts. They didn't speak very much, but they didn't excuse themselves from the conversation, or call their roommates backwards or brainwashed, either.
Dora thought it ought to count as a win.
Before long, they finished dressing and walked to the Great Hall for breakfast.
Author's note:
Next up: Dora finds her inner Hermione. At least as far as research outside of lessons.
Find it odd, or too convenient, that all of Dora's roommates are wearing corsets to one extent or another? Perhaps. I hadn't originally intended it to be the case. However, it felt right, and I tried to include enough variation (like Hannah's muggle father not wanting her to sleep laced-at least, not immediately) to make it all the same story.
The way I see it, at least in my universe, is that the wizarding world is ultimately very traditional. Even the Weasleys limit their wearing of muggle clothes to the kids and during summer holidays. So, even a "mixed" or "half blood" family would veer towards tradition. That's my take, anyway, and you're welcome to disagree!
Enjoying? Have ideas? Feel free to leave feedback!