[Marley Dalton]

Dobby has come to protect Harry Potter, to warn him... This thread contains posts or themes involving Sobriety that may be uncomfortable for some players or that may not be appropriate for all ages. If you would like to know more before reading, please PM the player who started the thread. If you feel that this thread's content exceeds what is appropriate or is otherwise offensive, please report it.

Location: Magical London, Community Center • Date: September 2002
Time of Day: Evening • Weather: Thunderstorm Warning

Despite years of sobriety, Marley still had to work actively to keep herself from giving in to temptation. At times when her urges couldn’t be subdued by meditation, yoga, and art she tried to attend meetings.

Tonight's meeting was rather calm, only a few attendees, most of them had shared and soon the meeting had been over. As per usual Marley had not intended to linger, but as per usual she had gotten distracted. Close to the table on which a few biscuits, tea, and coffee were being offered, Marley was using her finger to try to resolve the labyrinth behind a box of Ginger Newts.

A few biscuits and distractions later Marley had moved on and was walking through the community center, looking at the various activities taking place. The Owl Training Class was particularly interesting, but perhaps not as much as the group of young children taking part in their first Quidditch training. Their little brooms barely leaving the ground, the crowd of parents encouraging them. All of it was incredibly adorable.

[Raegan Sadler]

Finding a magical NA meeting that worked around her busy schedule had been something Raegan had struggled with since she had moved to London two months ago. She had been attending a ordinary non-magical one once every two weeks but found herself pitying every single person in the room. Unable to connect with the group because she felt like an outcast, Raegan had flooed an acquaintance back in the states who had grown up in London but also shared a similar troubled past to her own. He had informed her about the community center that held regular AA and NA meetings. After thanking him, Raegan had done a little bit of her own research and then the next week she attended her first meeting in London, England.

That had been two weeks ago, with tonights meeting being her third. So far Raegan didn't particularly care for the ten or so people that shared their deepest and darkest woes, but at least she was among her people. People who understood what it was like to be addicted to magical concoctions.

After an hour where the blonde healer just sat and listened, a cup of cold coffee forgotten in her hand, Raegan left the small meeting hall that housed her weekly meetings and started to make her way through the community center. She was rummaging around in her purse, wanting to make sure the gentleman next to her hadn't 'accidentally' snuck his hand in it again and pulled something from it which he had no right to, Raegan didn't notice when the woman she had been walking behind slowed so she could watch the on-goings of the center and collided right into her back.

"Jesus," She swore, clutching her nose after it slammed right into the back of the woman's head. Fluid began to seep out from between her fingers.

[Marley Dalton]

It was the worrying cracking noise that made Marley wince rather than the impact. The blonde turned towards the source of the noise and felt bad to notice that she had been right, a nose seemed to have been the most damaged victims of their little accident.

She took an unused flower covered tissue she kept inside her robe's pocket. "Here." She offered it to the bleeding blonde as she directed her away from the doorway so the children wouldn't see the blood.

[Raegan Sadler]

With her left eye squeezed shut, Raegan blinked tearfully as a pain ricocheted up from her nose, across her forehead and straight into her brain. Clenching her jaw, she reached for the handkerchief that woman was offering her and immediately pressed it to her bleeding nose. Raegan pinched the bridge of it, just below the small bump that she hated so much and leaned forward just slightly to prevent the blood from draining into her throat.

Not sure where the bathrooms were located in the Center, she looked around the large area and tried to find a sign that would point her in the right direction.

“Wheres the bathroom in this God forsaken place,” she snapped to none and everyone at the same time.

[Marley Dalton]

Marley bit her lips to prevent herself from smiling. While she felt bad for the woman there was something humorous about how impatient the woman seemed to be getting.

"This way," she brought a gentle hand to the woman's forearm and started leading her towards the loo. "I know a spell..." Marley started wondering if the woman would accept her help beyond her handkerchief and her guidance towards the loo.

[Raegan Sadler]

Too caught up in the pain radiating from her obviously broken nose, Raegan barely registered that she was being led to the bathroom until she was standing in front of a brightly lit mirror. The bloody reflection she found staring back at her almost had her gasping in shock.

Shrugging off the hand that gripped her elbow, she removed the handkerchief and peered at her rapidly swelling nose. Purple rings were already beginning to form beneath her eyes. Raegan prodded at it with her finger. She hissed.

"I'm a Healer, I know many spells, but I need to staunch the bleeding first otherwise it will heal croaked."

[Marley Dalton]

"Oh, that is good," Marley gave the woman a small reassuring smile that she knew would go unnoticed. "When I am in pain I like to think about waves crashing onto a beach, it helps me domesticate the pain."She closed her eyes as if ready to lead Raegen into meditation.

[Raegan Sadler]

Taking one look at the overalls the woman wore over a floral under shirt, Raegan had no doubt that she did indeed think about such things when in pain.

"Of course you do," She mumbled under her breath, as she reached for some paper towel to staunch her bleeding nose with. Leaning forward, she gripped the counter and closed her eyes. Breathing slowly, she pursed her lips and waited. It was ten awkward minutes later when she opened them again and pulled the paper away. Her nose was was crusted with dried blood and she nearly gagged at the sight. Disgusting.

The woman hadn't moved from her spot beside her.

Throwing the wad of bloody paper into the sink, she pulled her wand from the sleeve of her forest green dress and pointed it at her nose. She paused as she meet the strange woman's gaze in the mirror.

"Is there something I can help you with?" She asked testily.

[Marley Dalton]

It may have seemed like she had been waiting for the woman, but really she had simply gotten distracted by the patterns on the tiles. She had found a few constellations, a woman running in a field of sunflowers, a nargle...

"Oh..." Marley tilted her head, it was the first time that she could see the woman's face without it being obstructed. "You helped me already." Marley fiddled with the strap of her overalls. "At the meeting." She added as if that would explain everything.

[Raegan Sadler]

"What?" She replied, frowning and then realizing that she had indeed met this blonde before, or rather she had sat across from her as she talked the ears off her Raegan and everyone else who had intended today's meeting.

Closing her eyes, she taped her nose with her wand and then let out a whimper as her nose cracked painfully, the sound seemingly louder in the small space. Lowering her wand, she opened her eyes and cupped her nose, gently prodding at it. "You attend the AA meeting."It wasn't a question. "You're the woman who talks a lot."

[Marley Dalton]

"I do." Marley chuckled. "I talk as much as I have to say." Which today had perhaps been more than others.

She approached the woman and started looking at her nose with interest. he tilted her head from side to side and was getting close to the other blonde. "It's a very symmetrical nose. It reminds me of a nose model I met once." In the one art class, she had taken Marley had been told to draw a nose. More precisely the nose of a model who had been standing in front of the class. Marley had spent the class drawing the woman without her nose as she had been unable to focus on the one thing she had been told to focus on.

[Raegan Sadler]

Was this woman for real? She was unlike anyone Raegan had ever met before. Did she not have a filter? Was this how she spoke to every stranger she came across? It made her a little uncomfortable to think that this woman was privy to every private thing she had talked about during the AA meetings she attended. Thank Heavens she hadn’t revealed too much.

Like the fact that there was a human growing inside of her and Raegan was too traditional to do anything about it even if she despised it with every fiber of her body.

She turned away from the mirror had began to clean up the mess she had made, “Well, thank you for your help, but your presence is no longer required.” Though, what help the woman had provided could be easily disputed.

[Marley Dalton]

Marley smiled and bowed slightly. "I think you are new here. It's hard to be new and to make friends. Friends are important especially when starting a family." Marley's eyes went to the woman's stomach, one look at her dimly glowing aura and she had understood that the woman had been pregnant. "I will come to this meeting for the next few weeks," Marley added as a clear indication that she was willing to become Raegan's friend.

[Raegan Sadler]

Unable to prevent her mouth from drooping open, Raegan froze, staring at the blonde dumbfounded.

"How--how do you..." Shaking her head, she clutched at the bathroom counter just as her hand flew to her stomach. "Is it that obvious?"

[Marley Dalton]

Marley looked at the woman's stomach. "Oh no, that's not why I knew. " The blonde blew her fringe away from her eyes. Noticing a bit of blue paint on her fringe the blonde looked at her reflection in the mirror as she tried to clean up the blonde strand.