because of the colossal vitality of his illusion

[likepalegold]

There's a strange sort of energy behind him, at Gatsby's back as if heralding his exit from one world into the next. It's as if he stepped over the threshold and found himself in a new world, only he doesn't quite recall how he got here, only that he's clasping a wand in his hand, wearing a fine suit (the finest that money can buy, old sport, the very finest of them all) and his tie bears the distinguished hint of his alma mater.

Supposing he can call it that. It's hardly as if he can call Hogwarts his alma mater when, really, after the war, he'd been invited to study there, being so far from home and possessing the right blood for it, but not the right age. Still, war had displaced them and made immigrants of them all and so Gatsby feels safe calling himself a man of Hogwarts.

And what better place than Hogwarts in the 1920's, resplendent with its fineries, looking every bit the dazzling wonder that he remembers.

(Does he? Does he remember this? Surely this can't be, surely there is another world and another war and another life, but Gatsby has told himself a grand story since his earliest childhood days and despite twists and turns, they have a tendency to stick)

He shakes the self-doubt as he strides forward, towards that gleaming past. "Alohomora," he speaks the incantation, striding through the open door and into the grand hall, decorated with the finest ornamentation of the times. Perhaps Gatsby will stay a while, this time, and turn this visit into something else.

Yes, perhaps he'll start again. Perhaps this is the next chapter in his story.

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[followsthewisps]

In the few weeks that Merida had been at the hotel, she was hesitant to go to the doors that weren't her own suite, or Hiccup's, keeping mainly to the hotel's grounds. If the door didn't lead her to DunBroch or Berk, she wouldn't bother, and she wouldn't go through without finding her boyfriend to travel together.

But something about this one beckoned to her. Like she could sense her homeland through that door, though it was not her clan's keep or even the right time. The wool blazer and skirt and robes were certainly not her own clothes (though she found the red and gold badge to quite her quite well), the wand in her hand wasn't truly familiar, and the spells that filled her head were not something she knew before. But the highland princess was, in a way, more home than she had been in over a year.

Merida stepped into the grand hall and was reminded briefly of her own father's throne room when set for feasting, until she looked up. Candles and crystal baubles floated above and the stars decorated the ceiling with was was clearly an enchantment that took her breath away. This had her in awe more than her first sighting of a wisp, even.

It seemed as if it was either too late or too early for any students to be around for supper, or that there was some event that would have them out of this room. But a single man in a fine suit stood ahead of her.

"Hullo?" she called out curiously.