Clear moonlight poured over the Seine River, adding rippling glimmers to the waters that reflected the bustling neon lights of this international city of romance.
A Muggle couple emerging from the cross-shaped building of Ancient Greece walked arm in arm, bathing in the early night breeze that had yet to be touched by chill as they strolled along the riverbank.
They headed toward the Eiffel Tower standing beneath the night sky, passing riverside parks and a row of local-style cafés.
As they passed a building utterly out of place amid this pearl-like, dazzling city, the young man stopped first and cast it a startled look.
From the outside, it was an abandoned hotel.
The hotel's exterior walls had peeled away under the ravages of time, leaving them mottled and decrepit.
All the windowpanes had been removed. The window holes embedded in the crumbling walls resembled pitch-black eye sockets, and just two looks at them were enough to make one shudder.
The young man awkwardly looked away and glanced at a row of wooden fences planted in the grass a few steps away, where conspicuous lettering warned people:
Dangerous building. Entry forbidden. Enter at your own risk!
The young man unconsciously tightened his grip on the girl's hand and took several steps away in the opposite direction.
"Oh, don't worry, Char. That building was already here when I was born. Nothing has ever happened all these years!"
The girl seemed to be a local, and she explained with a cheerful smile.
"It was already here when you were born?"
The young man smacked his lips and looked at his girlfriend in surprise.
"Maybe it's even older than that—"
The girl shrugged.
"I remember my father saying something similar too—"
The boy glanced at the iron tower close at hand and swept