Perhaps it was the excitement from the day before, or having spent the last week hard at work on her homework assignments. In any event, when Dora rose the next day, she did a double take when she saw it was nearly eleven in the morning. Her eyes widened, and she nearly jumped out of bed.
"Mum!" she called, donning her dressing gown. "It's nearly the afternoon!"
Her mum appeared outside her door, a bemused look on her face. "With how hard you've been working, love, I'm not surprised you had a lie in."
Dora heaved a sigh. "I still have loads of studying to do."
Andromeda pulled her into a hug. "Plenty of time for that. Your assignments are complete, aren't they?" At Dora's nod, she went on. "Take an hour or two each day to begin to study, but you are on holiday. I want to see that pretty face of yours not hovering over a book all day long."
The image of Dora's disembodied head covered by a book made her giggle. "Yes, Mum."
"Now," Andromeda said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, "let's have breakfast, and then I'll help you into your day corset."
"You must have already eaten, though," Dora protested, lightly.
"I'll have some tea. And you know your father. He can always manage some more of my cooking," Andromeda laughed.
This was true enough. A few minutes later, Dora sat in front of a plate of eggs, a few strips of bacon, and toast. It was the same portion size as she would have eaten a year ago, but while Dora knew she'd be able to clear her plate, it would take twice as long.
Not that this was necessarily a bad thing. Eating slowly meant being able to better enjoy her mother's cooking--which rivaled the house elves' at school.
As her mum had said, both of Dora's parents kept her company--her mother with a mug of tea, and her father with a plate of food at least twice the size as hers. They chattered about topics that didn't involve school, and Dora wondered if this was what they talked about when she was at school.
She never doubted that her parents loved each other, and often seemed in love. They kissed in front of Dora, after all, and the look on their faces when they referred to their hidden courtship almost made Dora blush. Of course, she assumed that her friends' parents had similarly strong marriages. Divorce occurred, on occasion, but it was rare.
Once upstairs, Andromeda carefully brushed out Dora's hair before removing her night corset. Dora savored the experience. When she'd been much younger, she'd looked forward to mastering the skill on her own. Thankfully, her straight hair had always been easy enough to care for. It wasn't as silky as her mother's, but it wasn't coarse, either.
"Shall I braid it back?" Andromeda asked, as she ran the brush along the ends.
"Yes, please," Dora replied. "Just one braid, down the back. Not too tight, though."
"No, as that won't do your hair or your neck any favors," Andromeda agreed.
Dora felt her mum divide her hair into three segments, then her fingers begin to work. It wasn't as relaxing as having her hair brushed, but it wasn't unpleasant. Andromeda's fingers worked quickly, deftly, and despite the length of Dora's hair, it was over quickly.
She glanced at the braid in the mirror, marveling at how each piece was uniform. Even the ends, fastened by a small ribbon, were even.
"Thanks, Mum," she said, grinning and giving her mum a hug.
"You're most welcome. Now, onto your corset..." As she spoke, she loosened the laces of her eighteen inch one (closed, of course) until the sides separated completely.
Dora had an idea, then. "Mum, can you measure my waist before you put on my day one?"
"Of course. Pull your nightgown tight around you...good." She moved the wand around Dora's waist, then again to be certain. "Just under twenty inches."
Which meant that the night corset only took her in by two inches, and her day one three and a half. But, Dora supposed, there was less flesh around her waist, now. It was pushed up towards her breasts, or down towards her hips.
After exchanging her nightgown for her day chemise, which was really not very different, Dora's mother placed her sixteen inch corset around her waist, checking to make sure there was no chafing, nor pulling up or down of her protective chemise.
"I know you were at seventeen inches yesterday," Andromeda began, as she pulled the laces until the corset was snug around Dora's waist, without pulling it in. "Do you wish to stay there, or start and see how comfortably small you can go?"
"The second," Dora said, at once.
Her mum gave her braid a playful tug, then squeezed her shoulders. "I should have guessed."
"Well, I'm glad you asked," Dora answered, softly.
"Of course. I always will," Andromeda assured her.
Then, she began to pull. Dora felt herself relax as the warmth and security filled her. Her already straight posture increased, the fabric pressed into her all over, and she could see the her chest heighten. Best of all was the hug feeling. The pressure from the corset increased, increasing this sensation, and Dora's overall mood.
"Seventeen inches," her mum said, halting the lacing. "Shall I continue?"
"Yes, please."
Andromeda pulled a bit more, and if Dora was a cat, she thought she'd be purring.
"All right, that's sixteen and three quarters. Do you want to try for sixteen and a half, or stop there?" she asked, gently.
Dora took a deep breath. "Let's try for sixteen and a half."
"Very well."
But this was a mistake. Dora felt, if not dizzy, certainly uncomfortable. She did not gasp for air, but she certainly felt uncomfortable.
"Too...tight..." she managed.
Immediately, her mother loosened her laces. Dora let out a breath, then took another one.
"Oh, that's better," she murmured.
"I thought sixteen and a half would be too tight after being at seventeen yesterday," Andromeda noted, tying off the laces, "but don't worry, you'll be back there before long. There, you're done. Comfortable?"
Dora took another deep breath. "Yes. Thank you, Mum."
Andromeda hugged her tightly. "You're welcome, love." She ran a hand over Dora's hair, but when Dora hugged her more tightly, she returned the hug, not letting go until Dora did. "Once you get dressed, we can spend some time together."
Dora nodded. With her assignments completed, the initial stress of finishing her homework was over. Yes, she still had a great deal of studying to do to be ready for the end of term exams, but two hours a day would be plenty. That would leave Dora ample time for her parents, and the three enjoyed all of it.
It helped that the weather was nice enough for them to spend afternoons out of doors. While not as warm as the summer months, they only needed cloaks during the evening hours. She'd left her broomstick at Hogwarts, of course, but there was plenty to do without flying. Helping het mum in the garden, go on the swing, take walks, and both read and (yes) study. Grace had mentioned that she liked to listen to music on something called a "walkman" when she studied, but Dora couldn't get used to listening to music while she tried to work. Or, perhaps, it was the music her cousin liked. At any rate, such things wouldn't work at Hogwarts. Too much magic in the air. Even something as simple as a lamp had to be lit by magic--electricity would be as useful as though there had been a muggle blackout.
But as nice as the days were for early April, Dora was happy to end the evenings with a hot bath. She lay in the water for at least half an hour, and thought wistfully of her mum's experience with house elves tending to her in the tub. Not that Dora would have fancied an elf washing her body--rather, she would have specified the elf to only handle her hair. Andromeda had told her the elves' small fingers gave excellent scalp massages, and under her own mother's orders, would bestow such treatment for at least a half an hour.
"I'd be more than half asleep before the elf helped me out of the tub," Andromeda would laugh, "and even if my night corset was tighter than my peers, it was always an inch looser than my day one, and I would always sleep soundly."
But the Tonks family had no house elves, and Dora had been about seven when she no longer needed help in the bath. Her hair hadn't been as long or thick then, either, only to the middle of her back.
That wasn't to say she didn't enjoy it when her mother combed, brushed, or braided her mane. Andromeda's was even longer than Dora's, almost to her knees. Black women never cut their hair past a simple charm to remove split ends, and this had been one of the traditions Andromeda kept.
"In another twenty or thirty years, I will be grey and silver, unless I dye it," she'd said, more than once.
For now, it was nearly the same shade of brown as Dora's.
Aunt Bellatrix's had been a bit darker, and Aunt Narcissa's was blonde. She'd been the rare one in the family, though not in a shameful way.
"Mother would love to comb out her hair, style it in various ways, even when Cissy was a child," Andromeda told Dora, as they cuddled together on the soft couch. "This was a task generally relegated to house-elves, but Mother--and even Father--could hardly keep their hands off it when she was a child. Cissy loved it too, unlike Bella and I, who needed the threat of Sticking Charms to stay still." She laughed, then smoothed out Dora's hair.
"Did I?" Dora asked, sleepily.
"No, but I chose my battles." She gave Dora's braid a playful tug. "I was always very gentle, and the moment you became antsy, I let you go. Besides, magical shampoo for children does wonders for tangles. Even if your mane looked more like a pony's for a day or two, I knew it would be sorted out in the end."
"I'm glad you didn't cut my hair short," Dora yawned.
"Never," Andromeda reassured her. "Shall I stay with you until you fall asleep."
"Yes, please." Dora rolled over a bit, giving her mum plenty of room to lay beside her.
Author's note:
Bit of a transitional chapter. I expect to post the next one from another character's POV. As always, if you're enjoying this, please take a moment to leave a comment.
Also, I have begun a story set in the Animorphs universe with very few "canon" characters. It's about a Yeerk who receives a young adult actress as a host who waist trains for her job. If you're familiar with that series, please check it out!