As she might have expected after her first three days of holidays, Dora late the following day. When her eyes opened, pressed by the need to go to the loo, it took all of her mental strength to leave. She managed long enough to perform this task, followed by brushing her teeth and running a comb through her hair, but once back in her room, exhaustion overtook her. So, she gave in.
Just for a bit, she decided, pulling the covers over her. I'll wake up in a little, and go downstairs for breakfast.
Sleep returned almost immediately, and even after she woke again, Dora still felt too tired and comfortable to make herself get up. The knowledge that her holiday homework was finished did little to spur her from the warmth of her bed. She still felt rather lazy, and a bit ashamed of herself for sleeping so late, but not enough to pull on her dressing gown and go downstairs for breakfast.
She dozed, and it was not until well past ten that her mum appeared, a tray of food in her hands.
Dora looked rather chagrined. "Er, morning, Mum."
"Good morning, sweetheart," her mum answered, with a smile. "You're usually up by now, but I know how hard you've been working." She paused to give Dora a once over. "You're feeling all right? Not ill?"
Dora forced herself in an upright position. "No, I feel fine. Just being lazy, I expect."
Her mother chuckled. "You've been spending hours working and studying since your holidays began, honey. I'm just relieved you finished your work and can truly relax. They say that your fifth year is the most difficult, and they aren't entirely wrong, but third year is no picnic. You deserve a day of relaxing, as well as breakfast in bed. If," she added, eyebrows raised a bit, "I may join you."
"Of course!" Dora moved over to give her mum plenty of room.
Andromeda floated the tray of food above them as she made her way under the covers, then set it down on top of them
"Ah, now this is lovely!" Andromeda laughed. "I might just have a rest with you."
"I'd like that." Dora began to eat, leaning against her mum, who wrapped an arm around her. "Mmm, this is lovely. Thank you for letting me have breakfast in bed."
"You're most welcome." After a few minutes of silent chewing, Andromeda spoke up. "I expect lessons have been more difficult this year."
"There's a bit more work in each lesson," Dora agreed, "but it's more that I have to fit the space for my two extra lessons, and all the homework and studying they give us, into the same day where I only had seven lessons to complete."
"Yes, it's certainly a challenge," Andromeda agreed, sympathetically. "How are your new lessons? Are you enjoying them, at least?"
Dora shrugged. "They're all right. I prefer Muggle Studies to Divination, even though I have enough work in Muggle Studies to fill two lessons. Divination isn't so much extra work, really, but Muggle Studies has loads of reading and essays. Although," she added, "I seem to be concentrating more easily this year."
"Likely another benefit of training your waist," Andromeda explained. "The pressure has a calming element, but there's also speculation that it keeps you alert."
Dora ate a bit of eggs as she thought this over. "I do notice that Potions and Charms are rather easier."
Potions wasn't terribly difficult on its own, but brewing with Snape hovering over you made it far more difficult. It was like a far more malevolent version of the "Count Dracula" character from her old muggle cartoons. However, she'd been noticing his presence less, and come to think of it, he hadn't made any biting comments at her. No praise, either, but that was to be expected.
"And those are your most difficult ones," Andromeda pointed out.
Dora nodded. "And that's because Professor Snape is so awful to us. Professor Flitwick is really nice...I just don't have a knack for Charms. Isn't it odd, since I'm good at Transfiguration? That's the harder lesson."
Andromeda held her a bit closer. "We can't be talented at everything, love, and some lessons elude us without any real reason."
She knew this. It didn't help that both of her parents had a knack for Charms.
And her mum had a knack for everything.
Well, at least those lessons were becoming easier, now.
She finished her breakfast, and her mum floated the mostly empty tray over to one of the empty tables. Then, she stretched out.
"Are you going to fall asleep?" Dora asked, hopefully.
"I just might, especially if my little kitten will join me," Andromeda answered.
Dora smiled and blushed at the childhood nickname. She wasn't quite as tired, now, but the offer was very tempting.
"And I'll stroke your hair," Andromeda promised. "Later on, a nice back rub. Of course, we'll need to unlace you to do it properly..."
Dora happily complied, and was rewarded with her mother half carding her hair, half outright massaging it.
Yes, it was going to be a very relaxing day.
They rose a few hours later for a late lunch, joined by Ted, who had brought up the food and relaxed against a high backed chair to eat his portion with tem. After he left, Dora's mother coaxed her out of bed long enough to exchange her night corset for her day one (which were identical in size, since Dora had been sleeping in her overbusts since early October). Then, she gently laced her to seventeen and a half, first, then even more slowly to then seventeen and a quarter.
There was no doubt about it. Dora had been rushing before, and the difference between that small amount was significant. She hadn't noticed however it has taken more effort to breathe deeply, how it almost dug into her back, especially her lower back. This felt so much better, and the hug she'd come to expect-secure without feeling restrictive-was back.
"Oh, that's so much better," she said, with a laugh. "I reckon I could get dressed, now."
"If you like." Andromeda watched as Dora picked out, then put on, a pair of robes. "If your corset feels too tight over the day, we can loosen it, but I do think seventeen and a quarter is the best size for you right now. During daytime hours, of course."
"You're right."
Yes, she'd been hurrying, even if she hadn't realized it. Dora needed to slow down, to stop pushing herself, and trust that she would reach her target waist size sooner or later.
She'd just been hoping to get to the seventeen mark.
Besides, she didn't have a series of pure blood social events to prepare for, thank Merlin. Her mum had recounted going to those since she turned fourteen, and not only were she and her sisters laced just short of fainting in their long, restrictive ball corsets, the events themselves sounded painfully dull. Lots of small talk and attempts of "securing a good pure blood husband," according to her mum.
Obviously, such plans hadn't worked. Well, perhaps they had worked for Bellatrix and Narcissa, but not for her mother.
They went downstairs and Andromeda tucked Dora in under a small mountain of blankets on the couch, where she spent a few hours immersed in Aldershot's book. Andromeda, meanwhile, read the current day's edition of "The Daily Prophet" before turning to a novel. Dora was eager to finish her book, having needed to renew it twice, but she was only fifty pages away from the final page. It continued to be rather more verbose than her textbooks, but fascinating enough to push through the unfamiliar tone of writing.
Aldershot's research carried Dora up to the late 1880's, where muggles had resumed tight-lacing and began wearing a form of hoop skirts that contained bustles. Witches had, of course, rejected this line of fashion, for it remained a constant in the wizarding world for female robes to contain wide skirts, and male robes only a bit less so. On one element, witches and muggles were united: a good corset, and waist training/tight lacing by the fashionable, was a practice held by all females with any magical blood-and even some wizards, although that particular trend was very short-lived.
Aldershot spent a good deal of time observing that witches managed smaller waist sizes than muggles, regardless of starting age or hours of a day spent wearing a corset. While the starting age was typically the same-around twelve or thirteen, depending on when their body began "to change"-witches recalled having waists before their marriage of as small as twelve inches, but thirteen still considered to very good, and "even" fourteen being acceptable.
Muggles, on the other hand, held eighteen inches as a goal. Certainly, some became as small as fourteen, but this was very rare. Was it because a witch's body was more inclined towards feats as a twelve inch waist? Were they more disciplined? Or, were the standards so very high that a female would be motivated towards a level of discomfort that a muggle would refuse to endure?
Standards were certainly higher for witches. The goal, Aldershot explained, was not simply for a wizard to be able to encircle a witch's waist-"For, my dear Althea, a witch but the age of twelve or thirteen could manage such a task within a matter of months. The harsher sex have hands far larger than ours, and a man who can not encircle his sweetheart's eighteen inch waist, were she to be so utterly stout and slothful, would be thought a mere boy. No, the true mark of distinction is for a witch to place her hands around her own waist without the least bit of effort. It is then that you shall know you have done well," the witch quoted an advice columnist who was addressing a mother asking if seventeen inches would be suitable for being shown in society. The answer, evidently, was a resounding, "No."-but the witch herself ought to be able to encircle her own waist.
Near the time of publication, Aldershot quoted from similar letters of older witches providing similar advice, many of which stated that anything above an sixteen inch waist on an unmarried female was to be considered very stout, and those whose waists exceeded eighteen inches ought "to be laced down in an Optimus Correction corset" for a week at a minimum, and then there would be sizable improvements in both attitude towards waist training and the size a female could achieve on their own waist, likely as pulled in by a mother or older sibling.
Several photographs of this corset were posted below, and it made Dora's stomach hurt even to look at it. Advertised to "calm even the most wild of young witches," it extended up to four inches below the knees, made of a combination of kid and leather, and boasted of being able to generate nearly as much pain as the Cruciatus curse (then, apparently, not an Unforgivable curse). The model of the female wearing it bore on her face a look of complete resignation.
Dora sincerely hoped that no one in her family had been forced to wear anything like that!
Still, the book remained fascinating, and she could spend several minutes studying the illusion.
"Now, that looks painful!" Andromeda commented, glancing down at the page. "I hope it was an exaggeration."
Dora looked down once more. "Looks like an advertisement."
Her mother shook her head. "And Bella and I thought our mother's punishment corsets were barbaric!" She sighed. "It's enough to make you...well, we were all related to an extent, and sometimes it shows."
"You're normal. Relatively," Dora added, with a bit of a grin.
Andromeda burst out into laughter. "Narcissa didn't think so when I ran off with your father. Oh, the things she said!" She shook her head. "But thank you for the compliment, all the same. Say, how are you feeling?"
"Very comfortable," Dora assured her. "Thanks, Mum."
Her mum wrapped another arm around her. "Well, you're at rather a difficult point. A quarter of an inch at the beginning of your training is almost unnoticeable for some, but once you get below eighteen, even an eighth can make an enormous difference. And you might not realize until after you've been wearing them for an hour or so, when it starts to ache or feel numb. Then, you ought to make your excuses and loosen your corset as soon as you can," Andromeda instructed.
Dora nodded, glancing at the book, and then up at her mother. "Mum? How often were you tightened?"
"Once a week in the beginning. To twenty on my first day, of course, in increments, and then Mother allowed me a week to adjust. I had become relatively common at that point, and was looking forward to further reduction. She tried to take me to nineteen, but I could hardly breathe. Mother allowed her to loosen me to nineteen and a half, and I had a week to adjust." Her eyes narrowed, just a bit. "Once we reached eighteen inches, it was every two weeks. Upon reaching sixteen, once a month," Andromeda recalled, without having to take time to think about the answer. "The first day was awful, the second day a bit better, and it grew easier until it was comfortable. After a day of relative ease, my mother repeated the process. In school, too, except during our exams, where the tightening occurred a week before in more earnest, and then we had at least two weeks to adjust and study."
"Don't forget the balls," Ted reminded them, handing over mugs of hot chocolate.
Dora closed her book and placed it on the floor before accepting hers.
"Oh yes. You remember trying out my ball corset. Well, it was stunning and made all the difference with my dress robes, but they were extremely demanding when you were already trying to lace below eighteen inches. Even if I was completely at ease at my current measurement, that reset the entire process if I was between two sizes." Andromeda shook her head in wonder.
"If I had known, I would have torn the library apart looking for a way to remove that sodding locking curse," Ted told her, taking one of her hands in his.
Dora's eyebrows shot up. Her father almost never swore.
Andromeda squeezed his hand. "I know, love."
They savored their hot chocolate, and then Ted rubbed his wife's shoulders while Dora returned to her books.
"Shall I do yours next, Dora?" he asked, over Andromeda's sighs.
"I'll be doing that later. You can massage her feet, if Dora wants," Andromeda murmured, eyes closed as her body slumped forward as much as she could.
"What do you say, Dora? Fancy a foot rub in a bit?"
"Yes, thank you," Dora answered, with a grin, and returning to her book.
A half hour later, her mum was fast asleep on the couch. Her dad had tucked a few blankets around her, and placed an extra pillow under her head. Dora had watched this over the pages, shifting enough on her place on the couch to give her mum plenty of room to stretch out.
"What about her laces?" Dora asked, chewing her lip. "She normally sleeps a bit looser."
"I loosened them before," her dad explained, with a smile. "Dromeda nearly always falls asleep afterward a back or foot massage. And she sleeps more soundly when they're a bit looser."
Relieved, Dora nodded. Helping her up, her father guided her to the second couch, then removed her slippers.
Later that evening, after they had finished dinner and were relaxing in front of the fire, Ted suggested they make popcorn.
"Oh, that sounds like fun! May we, Mum?" Dora pleaded.
"If you can find any," Andromeda replied, glancing from her smiling husband to her excited daughter.
"I'll check the cabinets," Ted offered. "I could have sworn I saw some over the summer."
He rose from his spot on the couch, and returned a few moments later holding a large container, and a pan.
"Lovely!" her mum smiled, rising from the couch. "We won't use most of it this time, as I suspect that's enough for a year! But we can certainly make plenty for tonight."
Muggles, Dora knew, generally used a microwave or a popcorn maker for this treat-assuming they didn't purchase it already made. She'd eaten it both ways, during visits to her dad's muggle relatives, but making it over a fire always tasted better. The smell, too, would explode into the air as the kernels expanded.
"Do I need to be cautious about eating popcorn in a corset?" Dora asked her mum.
Andromeda shook her head. "Eat a bit slower than usual, perhaps, but it doesn't take up much room in your stomach. It was one of the few foods I could indulge in as a teenager."
"At home?" Dora asked, surprised.
Her mother laughed. "No, at school. Usually, as a snack while we worked on homework, or studied for exams. Mother didn't serve it to us, believing it to be too common."
Dora rolled her eyes at this, and her mum laughed again. "Uncle Alphard served it to me and Sirius regularly when we visited. He could eat it by the buckets."
"Mum," Dora began, eager to avoid the topic of her mother's favorite cousin who had turned the worst of the entire family, "how did you manage to marry Dad?"
She'd never heard the entire story, only small bits. That they had been friends since their third year, that he had asked her to go to Hogsmeade with him after their first dance in their fifth year, and how they had gradually spent more and more time together until it had become all but impossible to hide their relationship from Narcissa. Thankfully, Bellatrix had finished school by then, and even Dora's youngest aunt had begun to see Lucius Malfoy a few months earlier (as a third year, but Cissy's birthday was in November, and Lucius was a couple of years older). After their marriage, her mum's corset lock broke, although she hadn't known she'd been disowned for another week.
Ted handed them the large bowl, filled with warm popcorn, and sat down next to Dora.
"I'd like to hear the story again, too," he put in, taking a handful of popcorn.
"Let's see if I can remember," Andromeda answered, her tone playful. She reached over to take a few pieces of popcorn, and ate them slowly, savoring them. "You know, I assume, that we began our courtship after the fifth year dance?"
"Not quite that soon," Ted interjected.
Her eyes raised, just a bit. "You asked me to Hogsmeade before the trip was announced."
"Sure, but that was just a date," Ted explained.
"Oh? Were you seeing other girls as well?"
"No, of course not! I only meant that we had only danced a bit, and that was our first date," Ted nearly stammered.
"The first of many," Andromeda reminded him, with a light sigh. "But yes. I suppose that we hadn't begun in earnest until..."
"The second outing after OWLs," Ted answered, promptly. "We spent loads of time together in between."
"Studying?" Dora asked, innocently.
Her mum giggled, and her dad snickered.
"We did rather intersperse studying with learning about each other. My corset was not as tight as it could have been, with OWLs coming up, but I still hardly had the breath for snogging," Andromeda laughed.
"Then, it was still too tight," Ted put in, whispering loudly.
Andromeda's pale face reddened, but she didn't disagree.
"We continued to study together and spend some of our time at Hogsmeade together, but we had to be careful. To be truthful, I'm rather surprised that no one caught on and sent word to my mum," she mused.
"I rather think that your friends knew, but were loyal to you," Ted noted. "Slytherin is rather known for that."
"Perhaps," she allowed, pausing to eat more popcorn. "Well, by the time our seventh year came around, we had fallen in love. We had been seeing each other for a year and a half, and even though I hadn't met Ted's muggle relatives, I felt as though I knew them. And I couldn't imagine my life without him. We were both of age, but didn't want to marry before finishing school.
"I told my uncle, who knew about Ted, and wanted me to be happy. We had even arranged a meeting between the two, during one of our Hogsmeade outings, and he highly approved. He said that he would help us however he could, and I just needed to avoid having my parents marry me off as soon as I finished at school," she concluded.
"Could they have done that? Forced your hand?" Dora asked, looking from one parent to another.
"No, and I knew that I had time on my side. My waist was fifteen inches after finishing at school, and my mother had been determined for me to lose at least another inch before she began the formal process. All attempts of reducing my waist during the first two weeks after my time at school ended disastrously, with my fainting or the laces snapping, and I don't believe that I could have gotten below fourteen and a half even after another year of effort. Mother even had me sleep at fifteen inches for those two weeks, and limited my bathing to every other day, but to no avail. So, it was not on the immediate horizon to have me married off," Andromeda explained. "But the stress was taking a toll on my health, and I was already exhausted from my NEWTs. I asked Mother to let me visit a friend from school for a week, and she agreed."
"She did?" Dora echoed.
Andromeda nodded. "I selected Violet Melcor, a half blood. This was crucial, because she was respectable enough, but not so much that my mother would visit or contact her parents during that time. I packed my things, but instead of going to her family home, I went to Hogsmeade and sent a letter with one of their owls. I sent another to Ted, and then went to Uncle Alphard's. The following day, he took us to the Ministry, and we married in a private ceremony."
"She looked lovely, the loveliest I had ever seen her," Ted put in, glancing at Andromeda with a dazed look on his face. "Even if she was wearing dress robes and not wedding ones," he added, teasingly.
Andromeda chuckled. "The instant the Ministry official finished performing the ceremony, I felt the lock on my laces break. Not simply unlock, but break. Bellatrix had told me this had happened to her, because the marriage bond breaks any authority a mother or father holds over their offspring. So," she added, and Dora could see her mother's face was wet, "I knew I was free."
"I'm surprised you didn't stop wearing corsets then," Dora said, not without some bitterness.
Andromeda wrapped both arms around her. "I certainly experimented with lacing loosely and even not sleeping in one. But I did enjoy wearing them, and was quite at ease even at fifteen inches, except for certain activities," she added, with a knowing glance at her husband. "I did determine that sleeping two inches looser was lovely, and have continued this to this day."
Dora nodded, as this was hardly new information. "Did you and Dad stay with Uncle Alphard? Or with Dad's family?"
"With Uncle Alphard. Just for a week, while he set up our vaults and our houses. Including this one," she added. "Uncle Alphard was very protective of me, in part because I was a girl, but I was also the first to marry outside of a pure blood family. He didn't want to risk us being cheated. I might have been able to manage everything on my own. Still, I was very grateful for his help. It also allowed me to focus solely on your father. Our room was two floors below his, so we were able to begin a lovely honeymoon in his house, and then a longer one in our own. It shouldn't come as a surprise that we weren't married for a year before you were born, Dora."
Dora laughed, a bit self consciously. "Did your mum send a howler?"
"I'm sure she tried, but Uncle Alphard dealt with any howlers that arrived. I did contact my parents after your birth, because I hoped they would soften after learning of the birth of their first grandchild. But I never received a response, which rather stung more than a howler. Not that I spent much time feeling sorry for myself. I didn't have a house elf, and you certainly kept us on our toes, young lady!" Andromeda added, with a gentle poke.
"Who, me?" Dora asked, modifying her face so it looked like one of those muggle cherubs.
Andromeda tried to roll her eyes, but burst into laughter after a few seconds. Ted, of course, guffawed loudly.
"Aunt Cissy talks to you now," Dora noted, taking a handful of popcorn from the now half-empty bowl.
"She sends owls, and pictures. As do I," Andromeda gently corrected. "We've never been in the same room since I left home. We tread rather lightly. I'm certain that Lucius Malfoy was in You Know Who's inner circle, not simply a Death Eater, but I can't believe that Cissy would condone some of the things he did. With You Know Who gone, at least for the time being, they're likely trying to gain favor in the wizarding world. Pure bloods are not so very common, especially with the Black heirs dead or imprisoned."
"You Know Who killed anyone who fought against him, regardless of blood status," Ted put in.
"Yes. I tread lightly with Cissy. Certainly, we have not seen each other since my marriage," Andromeda agreed. "Now, is there anything else you'd like to know about my wedding?"
"Do you still have those dress robes?" Dora asked, almost shyly.
"Yes, but remember, that was when my waist was fifteen inches. And traditional wedding robes are far nicer than dress robes, even for the Black family," Andromeda reminded her.
"I'm a Tonks," Dora reminded her mum.
Her mother held her closer. "So you are, and robes can be altered. You may wear them, if you like."
"They're lovely," her dad put in. "You'd be as beautiful as your mum in them, honey."
"Oh, I doubt that," Dora answered, honestly. "But thanks."
She saw her parents exchange a look, and her mother held her more tightly.
"Let's make some more popcorn, as your dad has eaten most of this bowl," Andromeda offered.
Ted chuckled. "All right, I admit to taking more than my share. I'll make more to amend, and make a note to bring more when we visit over the summer."
"Agreed," Dora and her mum answered.
After they shared another bowl of popcorn between the three of them, they decided it was getting late, and Dora was happy to exchange her day corset for her night one before snuggling under the covers of her toasty bed.
Yes, it had been a lovely, relaxing day.
Author's note:
Next up: An Andromeda chapter, featuring another memory from her childhood.
As always, if you're enjoying this fic, I'd love to hear it in a review!