With the dance scheduled for the Friday evening upon the conclusion of lessons before the Christmas holidays, everyone spent the last week of the term far more excited, even giddy, than usual. A week before the dance, Morwenna suggested they have a meeting to make preparing as easy as possible.
"We all want to get as small as reasonably possible," she began, "and the house elves will adjust our robes to fit. Now, I'm not telling anyone what to do, but my mother had numerous stories to tell about her roommates and their sisters trying to get as small as possible. There were terrible fights, some hexes, fainting, and a bad mood all around. I would hate for that to happen here."
"I agree," Becky put in. "There are also a lot of us, and getting ready for our first dance can be rather..."
"Chaotic?" Dora offered.
There were a few laughs, but nearly everyone nodded.
"Here's what I think, not that I'm telling anyone else to do," Demelza added. "Whatever measurement I reach by Wednesday morning with comfort, that's what I'm going to the dance at. Sure, maybe I could get down another half or quarter inch, but..." She shrugged. "Besides, I reckon that as powerful as the house elves are, there will be other girls expecting them at their side at the last minute to alter their robes. I know they enjoy their work, but let's not work them to exhaustion."
"I like the idea of making Wednesday the final day of trying to get as small as I can," Polly agreed. "Especially since some of us will be wearing ball corsets, if we can manage them, and they're rather demanding by themselves."
"Be careful with those," Dora cautioned. "My mum let me wear one of hers once. She had to lace me at least an inch looser than my regular ones."
"Oh, I've been slowly getting used to mine," Polly said, but gave a nod. "You're right, though, they certainly take more getting used to."
So, in the end, everyone agreed, and even seemed relieved, to have Wednesday as their deadline. Morwenna sent word to the house elves, and while they responded with their usual cheer, she reported that they seemed relieved at their decision.
To prepare, Dora had been sleeping only an inch looser at night than during the day for the past two weeks. She was still sleeping well. In fact, the extra hug of the corset, combined with the Warming charm she applied the night before, made it rather a struggle to leave the warmth of her bed when morning arrived. She'd ask her mum about continuing to sleep like this afterwards.
Whether directly related or not, she'd managed to comfortably reduce her waist to seventeen and a half inches.
In part thanks to their earlier conversation, the afternoon of the dance went fairly smoothly with regards to preparation. Eight teenage girls getting ready in one-although large-room could have been hectic at best. Fortunately, they had foreseen this, and had begun making plans for where everyone should put everything a full week beforehand. Everyone's dress robes, once altered to their likely measurements two days before, lay on their neatly made beds. The makeup, clearly marked with each girl's name, sat at various tables and mirrors the elves had also provided. Their corsets also lay on their beds, along with their chemises. By the time the girls were finished with their final lessons, had showered, and were ready to begin their preparations, they had plenty of space and time to do so.
In fact, there was an excited and relaxed air in the room as the eight girls began to prepare. For most of them, it was their firstborn occasion to dress up in more adult clothes, and the corset was certainly a sign that they were no longer children. Oh, they might have played dress up with their mothers' robes before (Dora remembered doing so on numerous occasions, with older robes that her mother had let out in the waist for her), but this was no longer playing.
They might not have boyfriends, but Dora wondered if this might change for some of them afterwards.
Pretty not her, though. Not yet.
After her shower, Dora performed a Warming charm on her hair, causing it to dry immediately and warm her shoulders. She changed into her chemise, and then walked back into the dormitory to lace up.
As she had expected, Dora managed to lace down to seventeen and a half inches without any problems, and took a moment to apply another Warming charm on it. Then, she breathed in deeply, taking a moment to enjoy the warmth on her frame and the lovely hug it enveloped her in, before turning her attention to her dress robes.
She could only feel the contact of the soft material against her sleeves, but the weight of them around her legs. And oh, how Dora loved how they swished at her every moment, the material of her skirts swirling beautifully. She caught her appearance in one of the mirrors, and grinned.
"Seventeen and a half!" Morwenna gushed, examining her and then her dress robes. "Oh, I am so jealous of you!"
Dora laughed as she lovingly ran a hand along the dress robes. "You're at seventeen inches yourself!"
Her roommate made a face. "And I've been training since I was twelve."
Dora just shrugged. "Everyone's body is different, I expect. My grandmother got down to thirteen for her wedding, but from what my mum's told me, her mother's training was downright barbaric."
"Oh, I've heard all the stories from my own mother." She shuddered. "Grandmother's mother made her train down to thirteen inches, and so severely that she could barely stand without a corset by the end! She was determined that wouldn't happen to my mother. Can you just imagine that horror?"
Dora shook her head. As much as she loved her corsets, she refused to become physically dependent on them.
"I'm glad my mum let me make the choice. You know how I was set on bras, at first, until I spent an entire afternoon being poked and prodded by them," Dora admitted. "Never imagined that a corset could feel so comfortable, so lovely, until I let my mum put me in one."
"Helped that you fit into her old ones," Demelza pointed out, sagely, as she placed her feet into purple dance slippers. "New ones are still fairly comfortable, but stiff in the beginning. Takes about three days of regular wear to get them to adapt fully to your frame."
"I had to break in my sleeping ones," Dora reminded her, "but I'd been wearing my mum's for a bit before then."
The girls looked around the room, checking to see if anyone else needed help getting laced up. All could self lace their usual corsets, but Becky, Morwenna, and Polly all had ball corsets they had been slowly breaking in. Even after a week, lacing up newer corsets was trickier. The laces didn't cinch as easily during the seasoning stage, for one thing, and it always helped to have an extra pair of hands if you were in a hurry.
Personally, Dora didn't see the point in a ball corset, especially since her roommates' were a bit longer and more restrictive, even if they did look stunning.
"Could you help me with this last inch?" Becky called from the side of her bed. "I think the laces are stuck!"
"I need help, too!" Polly added.
"I'll help Becky if you fancy working with Polly's laces," Dora offered.
Hannah nodded, and Dora immediately went over to help her friend.
Immediately, she saw the problem. "The knot got stuck in the eyelet. We'll have to take it off and relace it."
Becky sighed. "How long do you think it will take?"
"It's near the bottom, so not long," she assured her.
Dora loosened the laces and undid the knot that had come up to the third eyelet from the bottom. After a quick Unknotting charm, she removed the ribbons and promptly relaced them. Then, she knotted the bottoms together twice, making sure it was extra thick.
"You're set," she said, smiling as she held out the corset. "Fasten the clasps, and I will pull."
"You're the best," Becky answered, with a laugh. "Eighteen and a quarter to start with, please."
"Of course," Dora promised. The corset closed at eighteen inches, so even without needing to use her wand to measure, she was getting quite good at determining when to stop pulling. "Take a deep breath..."
Becky obliged, and Dora set to work. It took some dexterity, to be sure, but no one was lacing to the extent that you risked pulling a muscle. Dora, taking a cue from her own mother, slowed down at the final inch, and even slower when it was only a half inch.
"You all right? Want me to keep going?" she asked. "You're at eighteen and a quarter."
"Go ahead for a quarter inch," Becky replied, and her voice sounded normal.
A minute later, Dora tied off the laces. Her friend looked a bit pink, but she was also grinning once she looked at herself in the mirror.
"Comfortable?" Dora asked.
"Yes," Becky reassured her. Then, with a grin, she added, "I can't believe I reached eighteen!"
Dora grinned back, then turned to Sarah and Elizabeth, who had been aiming for eighteen and a quarter and nineteen and a half inches, respectively.
"How are you managing?" she asked, watching as Elizabeth pulled on her friend's laces.
Sarah's face wasn't red, and she showed no signs of discomfort. The two hadn't been sleeping in their borrowed corsets so, like Hannah, their progress had been far slower than it might have been.
Aldershot had stated that, upon the invention of metal eyelets and the possibility of very small waists, the somewhat false belief arose that any minute spent not corseted was one the body was reverting back to her former form. This wasn't true, but the more hours a day you spent laced up meant the sooner you could reduce your waist size. Dora reckoned that when all was said and done, Sarah, Elizabeth, and Hannah were laced fourteen to fifteen hours a day. Everyone else was laced at least twenty-three hours.
The three were simply not progressing nearly at the same rate as the other five, and it was hard not to feel sorry for them.
Then again, as Dora's mother had written when Dora expressed this sentiment, a delay of a year or so was hardly a sentence to a large waist, especially if they were diligent with wearing them during the day.
Sarah soon held up her hand, and Elizabeth tied off the laces.
"How small am I?" Sarah asked, not sounding out of breath. She looked at her reflection in the mirror, and smiled.
"Let me see..." Elizabeth moved her wand around Sarah's waist, and then grinned. "You're at your goal! How do you feel?"
Sarah chewed on her lip, then took a few deep breaths. "Good, but I wish I could have made eighteen."
"You'll be even smaller than that for the dance next year," Demelza said, with a laugh.
"If I can persuade my parents by then," Sarah sighed.
"You will. My mum said yes, and they talk regularly," Elizabeth enthused.
"Unless she persuades your mum to say no!" Sarah murmured, a bit sourly.
No doubt recalling that dreadful letter. It was a good thing Dora didn't know how to make a Howler, or she would have been sorely tempted.
"Let's not think about that possibility," Elizabeth murmured, giving Sarah a hug.
Once they separated, Morwenna put an arm around Sarah's shoulder.
"Now, please let me fix your hair!" Morwenna offered, clearly knowing when to change the subject. "I have a few ideas that include curls..."
With a nod and a not so small smile, Sarah allowed herself to be led to one of the table setups. She sat with grace, and Morwenna began to comb out her long tresses.
Everyone was comfortably laced up within the next quarter hour. However, for most, this was just the beginning. Most of the girls (although not Dora) wore at least some makeup, and spent over an hour perfecting their faces from the slightest blemish. Then, there were hairstyles to perform. Almost everyone used Sleakeazy's hair potion before styling their hair, and that alone took nearly an hour to set correctly.
As soon as Dora had finished combing her own hair out, Polly and Hannah were at her side, nearly begging Dora to let them style it.
"Oh, all right," she agreed, but let out an exaggerated sigh.
Polly looked envious. "I can't believe you have the breath for that, laced so tightly!"
"It doesn't feel all that tight," Dora laughed.
It wasn't. Warm, snug, and as comfortable as it always was, but hardly "tight" in the restrictive, hard to breathe sense of the word. Perhaps she could have managed another quarter inch if she forced it, but then she wouldn't be able to dance or enjoy any of the refreshments.
"Are you sure you're not using your metamorphosis ability?" Becky teased, walking over, her blond hair now a mix of elaborate braids around the sides of her face. It looked rather like a crown. The rest was sleek and shiny behind her shoulders, reaching just below her waistline.
Between that and her amethyst colored robes, she looked like everything a pure blood witch could hope for.
And her eighteen inch waist was perfectly displayed and emphasized through the lines of her robes.
Dora wondered if her Aunt Narcissa had been this pretty at Becky's age.
Dora stuck out her tongue, and intentionally turned her hair purple. "I'm not that good, yet!"
Polly, who had been combing out Dora's tresses, groaned. "Dora! Don't change your hair color while I'm working on it!"
"Sorry," Dora replied, intentionally turning her head and giving her friend a teasing grin.
Polly groaned again, and gave Dora's hair an extra hard tug with the comb.
"Settle down, you two," Hannah teased, from her hair where Elizabeth was now braiding her hair. "Dora might have the smallest waist of all of us, but that's no reason to make her go bald."
"I'm not the smallest," Dora corrected. "Morwenna is half an inch smaller than me."
"For now!" Morwenna laughed. "I've been training for a year longer. How you managed to get below eighteen in less than six months is beyond me. I just know you'll beat me before the term is up." Then, teasingly, she added, "Perhaps you ought to make her go bald, Polly. Even things out a bit."
Dora promptly put her hands on her waist, and stuck out her tongue at her roommate. "That's not funny. Polly, you ignore her, you hear!"
Morwenna gave her a gentle pat on the head. "Only teasing, Dora. It's hardly your fault your waist is essentially a pillow."
Dora laughed at the mental image.
"If my waist was half as pliable as hers..." Polly continued to comb out Dora's hair, but with considerably more ease. "When my mum finds out I only lost half an inch over the term...well, I know she won't lock my laces or anything, but I just know she'll be disappointed."
"Eighteen and a half is hardly large, and it's harder when you get smaller," Hannah reassured her, and Dora saw her hand on Polly's shoulders. "I'm sure you'll be under eighteen by the end of term."
"Maybe. Well, there's not much she can do to me, or my waist, in two weeks," Polly remarked, and Dora heard her sigh.
"How small do your parents expect you to get?" Elizabeth asked, as she applied some kind of eye makeup.
"Well, the recent standard for witches within magical families to be no more than eighteen inches by their seventeenth birthday," Demelza explained, "which is quite an improvement from our parent's generation of sixteen inches."
"Not that some of our parents don't hold that same ambition for us," Polly added.
"My mum managed fifteen, but her mother's was thirteen," Dora volunteered. "I dunno, I reckon that's almost too small."
"I wouldn't mind having a thirteen inch waist, as long as I could breathe," Morwenna laughed, and a few other girls joined her.
"Why eighteen?" Sarah asked, as Morwenna continued to curl her hair.
"Because that's about what an average wizard can span with his hands," Hannah put in. "And you have to admit, it's pretty romantic for your sweetheart to be able to span your waist with his hands!"
Several murmurs and sighs affirmed this.
"My mum says you shouldn't do that until you've been seeing each other for awhile," Dora added. "That it's pretty intimate."
"It is," Becky agreed. "One hand around the waist for dancing is all right, but encircling it is even more intimate than snogging."
"My mother said she wouldn't let her father do so until they were engaged," Morwenna offered.
"Mine too," Demelza and Becky added.
Dora made a mental note to do the same.
"What did you think of corsets when you were growing up?" Dora asked, aware of Polly now placing some of that Sleakeazy hair potion in her hair. "Did your mothers tell you much? I just knew that my mum wore hers all the time."
Hannah spoke first. "My mum's a pure blood, and she met my dad because his sister was a muggle born, and in her year. Mum loved learning about the muggle world, often visited her friend during the summer holidays. The way she tells it, Dad fell in love with her ages before she even half fancied him." She giggled. "I expect she was the last to know, really. Mum had been training her waist since she was eleven-Grandma believed that the younger you started, the better the results. Mum's waist was fifteen when they married. It wasn't any secret that she wore corsets. I've seen Dad lacing her on occasion, and he loves it too. But," Hannah added, "he's a doctor, and worries that wearing one too much when you're young will stop your body from growing properly. I know that they argued about when to let me start, and how far to let me go. Dad reckons I will reach my full height when I'm fourteen, and then it's safe to wear them always. I guess I always knew my mum and every female in her family wore one, and I would at some point. So will my younger sister, Emma, in the better part of a decade."
"Did your mum's muggle born friend wear one?" Becky asked.
"Not when the other girls started. Her parents wouldn't allow it, and she wasn't interested. But they didn't mind when Mum visited that she wore them, and I reckon that they changed their mind a bit when they saw Mum was healthy. Aunt Margaret-that's her name-began when she was fifteen," Hannah explained. "Aside from Mum, she's one of my biggest advocates. Says she would have gotten below eighteen had she started earlier."
"Fifteen is pretty late to start," Demelza agreed. "If you get married around eighteen, that's only two, maybe three years to train."
"Do most witches and wizards marry at eighteen?" Elizabeth asked, now donning her light blue robes, and looking rather alarmed. "That's only a few years away!"
"It's not unusual. Witches more than wizards, but even wizards usually marry by their early 20's. Unless you decide to wait even longer, until the next group of witches grow up." Morwenna made a slight face. "If you're past thirty-five and marrying a witch under twenty, you're likely very wealthy."
"Or a widower. There were a lot of those after the end of the war," Demelza remarked.
"Ah, but those usually marry widows. It's all in the census documents," Morwenna gently corrected. "No, most witches do marry soon out of school, if they marry at all."
Everyone went rather quiet. For most, this was only four years away.
"Getting back to Dora's question..." Demelza cleared her throat. "Well, I am half blood, and that's because there are muggles on my dad's side. Relatively far back. I don't have all four magical grandparents. All the same, my mum's family was magical through and through, and my dad's mum was a witch, so it wasn't anything new for him, and my mum wore them since she was about thirteen. I always knew I would begin training when I was thirteen, or started to look like I needed it. I wasn't worried, though," she added, smiling. "Mum reassured me that they wouldn't hurt, and that she wouldn't make me lace very tightly. My cousins wore them, before I did, and they loved them. And I am enjoying them more than I expected, although sleeping in them was certainly a trial in the beginning."
"I don't know if there's ever been anyone who hasn't struggled with that!" Polly commented, to murmurs of agreement, and a bit of laughter.
"I've known about them for as long as I can remember," Morwenna began. "I never knew my great grandmother, but she sounded like a holy terror. One of the Blacks, and you know how dark they are. Well, not your mum, of course, Dora!" she quickly amended. "But most of them thought that any waist above 13 was stout, and over 14 outright dreadful. Grandmother had to wear the most dreadful punishment corsets for days on end for the slightest reason. Nearly died once, she did! Well, she ended all of that with Mum, who married at fourteen inches, and still able to stand without one." Morwenna shrugged. "Mum explained to me when I was about five that witches from magical families wear corsets and make their waists tiny over time, but it doesn't hurt, and feels very nice as long as it's done correctly. I reckoned that she was the most beautiful woman in the world, and wanted to be just like her, so I was eager to start."
"And was it what you thought it would be?" Elizabeth asked.
Morwenna smiled. "Stiff at first, and Mum had my sister only took me in about an inch for a few hours at a time. Took a couple of days to become really comfortable, but I very nearly melted when she laced me up on the third day and it was a perfect fit. And I do mean perfect. She let me go down to two inches, and I never wanted to take it off! Of course, it was too early to begin sleeping in one. All right. Polly? Becky?"
"I'll go," Becky volunteered, seeing Polly absorbed in making Dora's hair look perfect. "Well, like Morwenna, I had seen my mum wear them since I was a child, so I accepted that I would wear them when I became a teenager. Katie is two and a half years older than me, though, and she had a miserable experience in the beginning. Mum likes to tell stories of how she'd try to wriggle out of her robes as a toddler, and once even made her way outside with nothing on! Mum had to use a Sticking charm after that. Katie's always liked loose clothes and lots of space around her. She gets scared if someone stands too close.
"Well, I was just about to start school when Mum thought that Katie needed to begin wearing a corset and training down her waist. Mum took her with us when I got fitted for robes, and then took us both inside of Madam Barnatte's to be fitted. Katie was in tears...took her a good half an hour to get her calm enough just to be measured. Madam was so gentle with her, I recall! She had a Calming draught on hand, which was probably the only way Katie managed.
"It was even worse when they arrived. Mum took her in two inches, and she panicked. Her face grew so read, she kept gasping for air, and she was clutching at the busk as though it was a knife in her." Becky's face turned pale as she recounted this. "My mother is far from heartless, so she unlaced my sister, and after an hour, tried again with just an inch. That went just as poorly. She sent an owl to Madam, who said that some girls couldn't handle the compression, not at all, and we should work towards her being able to wear them at her natural waist size before trying anything else. Said that Katie likely wouldn't manage a tiny waist, maybe just an inch or two over a year. And we-well, mostly Mum and Dad-had to be patient and understanding and encouraging. Katie managed a half an inch by the time we went to Hogwarts, and even an inch and a half by Christmas. Mum wanted her to try out sleeping in a corset, but Katie flat out refused.
"She has continued to make progress, and had a twenty-three inch waist to start. She's managed to go down to nineteen, which is four inches below what she started as, and that's really pretty incredible, considering. I don't know if she'll get below that. I know eighteen is what's expected..." Becky trailed off. "We all just hope that she finds someone who doesn't mind.
"My experience was a lot more pleasant, except for the initial sleeping in them, but as I can now sleep two inches looser, it's quite pleasant." Becky shrugged. "Sometimes, I think Mum wants me to be extra small to make up for Katie."
"Does your sister enjoy them, now?" Dora asked, quietly.
Becky shook her head vehemently. "I rather expect that it's not as bad as in the beginning, but she changes out of them as soon as she can when we're home. Says if she gets married, she'll have a child each year if it means never having to wear a corset again. Mum says that she won't think that if she gives birth to twins."
Dora giggled. "You never know. You might just have ten or so nieces and nephews."
Becky smiled. "Just as long as I don't have to give birth to them!"
"What about you, Polly?" Demelza asked.
Polly finished the final details on Dora's hair. "Just as soon as Dora has a look at herself in the mirror."
Dora rose and walked over to the closest mirror.
And stared. She almost looked around her shoulder to see if some long lost, far older sister had snuck into the bathroom.
She looked, not quite like her mum, but not as far off as she'd always thought. Dora knew her face was more heart-shaped than aristocratic, and she had more color in her cheeks than her mum did. Her pale skin was hardly translucent, but it didn't quite meet the old standards of beauty. Until now. Perhaps. Still, there were certain traces of her mum right now, perhaps how her mum had looked almost two decades ago.
Dora's hairstyle certainly matched her rather classic appearance. It had been worth sitting still for so long. Her head didn't hurt, either, which was an added benefit. Polly's hairstyle resembled a crown of braids around her head, a wide bun in the middle, and a small group of tiny braids emerging from the bun. The rest was loose, smooth and shiny. When she placed a hand to it, she realized that it was even softer than usual.
"Wow!" She beamed, then pulled Polly into a hug. "Thank you!"
Polly grinned. "Stand up and get a proper look at yourself."
Dora rose, walked to the full-length mirror, and stared at her appearance. And again, nearly doing a double take when she saw the full effect.
Her robes-she'd chosen the blue green ones-seemed to make her age three years, and made her five times as pretty. Staring at her was almost her mum, nearly as pretty (if an inch and a half larger-but her mum's first dance hadn't been until her fifth year...) than she had been at her dance. Her hairstyle certainly added to this, and Dora was grateful that she hadn't just gone with her hair loose or tied back.
And her waist! Dora hadn't realized just how tiny a seventeen and a half inch waist in dress robes could appear. The folds coming out from her skirt seemed to make it look even smaller.
She was lovely. She beamed, and became even lovelier.
"That settles it," Polly determined. "I'm doing your hair every day!"
"And we need to convince you to wear makeup! At least a little!" Hannah put in.
Dora giggled. "I'll lose at least two hours of sleep with all of that. All right. Once a week, tops, you can style my hair. On a Saturday or a Sunday."
Polly gave a good-natured, "Hmph." Then, glancing at Dora, she added, "Well, if that's your best offer."
She looked lovely, too. Her waist might be a shade larger than Dora's, but you wouldn't know by the style of the robes.
With some time to spare once everyone was laced up and dressed in their finest, had their makeup applied, and their hair styled, they did a final inspection in the mirrors before turning their attention to the others. Dora thought the room had never looked so colorful, or her roommates so lovely. Really, regardless of individual waist sizes, everyone was small to outright tiny. Hannah's twenty inch waist might be the largest, and Morwenna's seventeen the smallest, but you could only really see a difference if the two were standing directly next to each other. As far as everyone else...well, yes, if you looked closely, you could detect couple of inches between the largest and the smallest, but unless you lined them up and examined them closely, it would be rather difficult to place them in order.
Yes. Everyone looked lovely, and hardly the same. Their hairstyles and robes emphasizing their best features, from Becky and Morwenna's classic pale features to Hannah's lovely tan (even in the winter!) complexion, and matching dark hair.
Dora, of course, was somewhere in the middle, with dark hair and light skin.
"Do you think there will be anyone taking pictures?" Becky wondered.
"I hope so!" the others squealed.
"Professor Sprout will taking pictures in the common room, and there are likely other chances at the dance," Polly said, with a grin. "I asked earlier this week."
"That's very kind of her," Becky noted, smiling.
"Well, she's our head of house, and it's our first dance," Hannah observed, smiling.
Everyone agreed. They thought that, of all the heads of houses, theirs was the best. Professor Sprout went out of her way to get to know her students, and was especially kind to homesick first years. Even if you weren't in her house, she bore no ill will towards you.
Yes, no one else could compare.
Feeling very excited, they left their dormitory to experience their first Hogwarts 's note:
I figured it would be best to have a chapter featuring the dance preparations and lead up, as opposed to jumping into the dance.
It does make me wonder why Ron couldn't have enlisted the house elves to make his dress robes more normal looking. My guess is he didn't think of it. Perhaps Hermione had, but as they weren't talking, she wouldn't have said anything. Then again, given her stance on house elves, she likely wouldn't have said anything on principle!
For those who commented, thank you!
For those who are following on FFN-thank you! However, PLEASE be aware that unless you set up your profile settings to receive email notifications, you won't receive an email when I, or any other authors you follow, update. You also have to do this every 90 days. I sent private messages to those who are following this fic, but I wanted to add it here for any newbies.
Next up: the dance. And you may see a redhead from the Harry Potter books who was in Dora's year make an appearance!