January 7th, 1894 - Alexandria Rowle Household

Sadie was currently holed up in her bed in her room at her grandmother's house in Wellingtonshire after falling down the last couple of stairs thanks to tripping on her tea gown. Fortunately she hadn't hit her head, otherwise she might get locked away like Rapunzel and never see the light of day again. It was so odd though, her tea gown had never dragged on the floor quite so badly before; it had been tailored perfectly to her height, had she shrunk? Sadie couldn't spare too much thought to it, maybe she hadn't pulled it up as far as she thought she had and that was it.

She had however, really twisted her ankle, or at least that's what she hoped was all that happened. There was a little scrape on her forearm where she'd caught the banister, but that was nothing compared to the pain in her leg. It was being elevated, sitting atop some pillows and iced, but it was swollen quite a bit, painful to the touch and turning purple. A mediwitch had been called to check up on her and she had a book open in her lap. Mostly Sadie was just embarrassed.

A knock sounded at the door and she sat up a little straighter, instantly regretting it. Her short hair hung loose around her ears and she was still oddly brown at the roots. "Hello," she greeted the pretty redhead that entered with a warm smile. "I'm afraid I've had a bit of a fall." Sadie sighed, blushing slightly.

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Alice Dawson

  

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House calls for distressed debutantes were perhaps Alice's least favorite part of her job. They were always needlessly dramatic, their injury or illness cured with just a bit of rest or a simple potion. And, if the debutante herself wasn't dramatic, then her parent or chaperone most certainly was. Alice would never begrudge them care, of course, but Merlin knew it was difficult not to roll her eyes all throughout the visit.

She was fully expecting one such visit today as she was led into the house and up to one of the outrageously large bedrooms. There'd been a fall of sorts and a hurt ankle (likely some sort of a ploy to capture a suitor's attention) which should be healed easily enough. Perhaps she'd even have enough time to stop in on Wallace and check if he needed anything -

All thoughts of how her day would proceed came to an abrupt stop when she caught sight of the girl on the bed. Alice knew that voice, however odd it sounded in this context. Just as she knew the familiar features of the girl staring at her. Except, Sloane had brown hair, and she most certainly wouldn't have been laid up over a measly twisted ankle. More importantly, Sloane was dead. Her body pulled from the lake months ago and buried besides her twin.

Alice stared at the girl for a moment before giving a quick shake of her head as if that might make the ghost Alice was sure she saw vanish. (It didn't.) "Hello, I'm Miss Dawson, a mediwitch with St. Mungo's - I'm helping with Hogsmeade Hospital today, they were short staffed-" she rambled, stopping only once she realized she'd been talking too long. An embarrassed flush soon covered her cheeks as she put her bag down besides the bed. "I - I apologize. You said you fell?"

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Amazing set by Bee!

"Thank you for coming. I'm clumsy, but I'm afraid I've really done it this time." Sadie passed Miss Dawson a wry smile. "I'm Sadie by the way, Sadie Sinclair." She tucked her hair behind her ears, reaching forward with both hands to pull the blankets back from her elevated ankle.

Carefully she uncovered the purple joint, grimacing at the view. "I got caught up in my skirts, I swear they got longer overnight, coming down for breakfast this morning." Obviously that wasn't the case, people didn't just shrink, right? "I'm sure it was a spectacle to watch, but it's quite painful." Both touching and moving it hurt, so she hadn't done much of either since the footman had carried her back to her bed. "And I got this, too." Sadie said as she pulled her charm bracelet out of the way. The deep scratch on her forearm wasn't as bad as it could be, but catching it on the banister corner as she'd tried to catch herself had been an awkward situation.

"Not how I wanted to start my day!" She chuckled in self-depreciation, wondering what this made her look like to the mediwitch.

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That smile - Alice knew that smile. The girl's mannerisms were all wrong, but there was no mistaking that expression on that face. Sloane's bed was next to hers for years, Alice had fallen asleep after late night whispers with that smile lingering behind her eyelids. No. There had to be something off here. Was this a nightmare? Did she have a fever or something? Sloane was dead. Sloane's body was pulled from the lake days after the incident.

Sloane was dead.

This was Sadie Sinclair - a woman with a remarkably similar smile.

"It won't hurt for much longer, Miss Sinclair." Alice promised, her gaze drawing from the girl's face towards the injured ankle for the first time since entering. It was sprained at the minimum, broken more likely. "Have you had any new dresses made recently? Perhaps the measurements were off - you'd be surprised how often I encounter- "

Alice froze in place, her attention now on the bracelet as opposed to the gash on her arm. The sunflower was unmistakable, the S overwhelmingly familiar, and, although she couldn't see it entirely, Alice was certain there was at least half a golden snitch on the bracelet. That couldn't be. Abandoning Miss Sinclair's ankle entirely, Alice reached for the girl's wrist to examine the bracelet. "Where - where did you get this?" The snitch was there, as was a charm Alice had gifted her herself last Christmas. "You - where did you get this?!"

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   Sloane Bixby

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Amazing set by Bee!

Having thought about marking her place in the book in her lap, feeling around the sheets for her bookmark, Sadie wasn't strictly paying attention to whatever Miss Dawson was preparing to do with her ankle. Truthfully, looking at it made her a little queasy and she would rather not add nauseous to her list of symptoms. She got that enough with her headaches.

Finally, she located the bookmark, listening to the mediwitch question her dress, "No, it's my oldest tea gown," she shrugged. It had never been a problem before, even in her house slippers. It really wasn't something in unexpected for Sadie, just another fall with another injury.

Before she could explain further, just how clumsy she really was, Miss Dawson was grasping her wrist and questioning her bracelet. Something about the redhead's tone had her pausing. "I don't really remember, but I've always had it." Sadie couldn't remember a time without the little silver bracelet. "I think it was gifted to me. But I have significant memory loss from my childhood, so I don't really remember." Sadie didn't talk about it much, but she also didn't talk to many people outside her family, who all already knew. She blushed sheepishly ducking her head to look at the bracelet wistfully.

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It took every ounce of Alice's restraint not to yank the bracelet off the imposter's wrist. This couldn't possibly be Sloane, could it? They looked so incredibly similar and that smile... No. Alice had spent months in denial - even going as far as getting herself maimed in search of her friend. She couldn't go down this road again, but - how? How could this girl have the same bracelet? How could they be the same but not?

"Memory loss? When did that start?" She immediately latched on to the girl's explanation, trying to rationalize what her heart and brain were both convinced so thoroughly of. Alice continued holding onto her wrist, and eyed the charms skeptically. They were even in the same order as Sloane's, not a single piece out of place. Perhaps two women could have the same charms, but what was the likelihood of them being in the same order? It had to be an infinitely small chance of the bracelet simply being a duplicate. Charm bracelets were personalized - special.

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Miss Dawson seemed upset for some reason and Sadie couldn't quite wrap her head around the turn of events. Her ankle throbbed but the grip on her wrist also hurt and now she was unsure how best to handle the situation.

"When I was five," that had been the first accident. "I was in an accident with my parents, they passed unfortunately." Sadie didn't remember any of it, not even what her parents really looked like. "I've had a couple other head injuries throughout the years." Why she was currently explaining her embarrassing life story right now wasn't very clear, but it felt important for some reason.

Sadie winced as she awkwardly tried to pull her hand away. "Right now I don't remember much from before the middle of summer." The riding accident had practically put her on house arrest. It wasn't the best way to live, but it was all she knew, or so she assumed anyway.

"Why?" Sadie found herself asking before she thought better if it.

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Alice's heart was in her throat as she listened to Miss Sinclair speak. Since she was five, that couldn't be right. Sloane was obviously well until this summer-

Miss Sinclair was pulling away and Alice had to reluctantly release her hand on the girl's wrist, even if her every impulse screamed at her to maintain that connection. Almost as if any sort of distance might force these new possibilities back beneath the surface. Sloane - this had to be Sloane. Miss Sinclair spoke so differently, but even the pained grimace the girl made looked startlingly similar.

"Please," she pleaded, "I'll explain in a moment if you tell me what happened to you this summer." Mid summer, that had to be July. She and Wallace had found Sloane's broom on the shore, but never any other trace of her. Alice had scoured those woods for weeks, hunting like a wolf for any scent of its prey. "Please, it's important." She nearly begged again, her palms clammy and her heart racing.

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Though she was slightly unnerved, Sadie was also a little curious about whatever it was Miss Dawson was thinking. "I was in a riding accident, I hit my head." She didn't remember much from before that, just snippets here and there, but mostly it all felt like a dream.

"I get headaches and dizzy really easily. Knocks me out for days and sometimes I forget recent events." Honestly that might have been part of why she tripped; it made much more sense than her shrinking to get caught up in get hems.

"Clearly I'm very clumsy." She motioned to the purple ankle again, trying to both break the tension and gently remind the mediwitch about the injury.

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A head injury this summer, that could explain how Sloane became Sadie, but what family would take in a random woman and declare her part of their household? Sadie's hair wasn't quite the color of Sloane's, but that was the only feature of the girl that felt entirely wrong. Everything else - including the apparent clumsiness - fit.

The girls injuries were entirely forgotten as Alice struggled to reconcile how Sadie and Sloane could be one and the same.

"I - I gave one of my best friends this charm last Christmas." Alice revealed quietly, pointing towards the one resembling a small cat. "And she had the same charms as you, they were even in the same order. And I - she was killed in an accident this past summer. Early July." But what if she wasn't? "Her family and friends were - are devastated. I don't- I don't know your circumstances or anything about your family, and I pray you'll forgive my ramblings. It's just - you look so much like her."

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Amazing set by Bee!

The more Miss Dawson spoke, the more unsettled Sadie felt. She could feel it in the increase of her heartbeat, in the rush of adrenaline through her veins; if she wasn't careful, she would wind up with one of those headaches that put her out of commission for at least forty-eight hours. She took a deep breath, trying to wrap her head around just what it was Miss Dawson was going on about, but struggled to even really comprehend.

"I'm very sorry for your loss," she started with, feeling a little faint. "I'm not sure— I don't think I understand what it is you're trying to say." Sadie could feel the pressure starting in her temples and she rubbed them with the pads of her fingers in a circular motion. "But I think you should go." At this point they would have to have a healer come out at give her the remedies for her headaches, they could take care of her ankle then too.

Sadie reached over and pulled the cord for her lady's maid to come in. "I have a headache coming on," she announced; Nettie would know what to do. It was always the same procedure, except in this case they would need to start with having Miss Dawson leave. Nettie stood close by, ready to show the mediwitch out, while Sadie sort of curled into herself, as the migraine started to take hold.

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Alice froze.

Leave? How was she meant to leave when she'd become so convinced that this was Sloane sitting before her? Merlin, she hadn't even healed her wrist or ankle yet. She couldn't leave.

And yet, there were hands gently but firmly pulling Alice from the room before she could even formulate a goodbye. That was Sloane. It had to be.

It wasn't until Alice was on the street that she realized the tears streaming down her cheeks. Whether they were from relief or fear though, she didn't know. Merlin, how was she ever going to prove this? How was she ever going to convince the Bixby's that their daughter was alive?

She had to come up with a plan. But first, she had to reach out to her friends.

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   Sloane Bixby

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Amazing set by Bee!