Beside the Rhine River, the water flowed long and slow, its bluish surface rippling with fine silver-white waves.
Germany's Aurors and Hit Wizards had gathered there. Standing at the very front was Heinrich Thalmann, director of Germany's Auror Headquarters, and they waited in full battle array for the Floating City to arrive.
But the dense crowd was made up even more of ordinary wizards who had rushed over after hearing the news—not only German wizards, but French wizards and Belgian wizards, mocked by the French as "idiots who eat mashed potatoes with fries," had all come to watch the excitement and get a close look at Hogwarts Floating City.
The young wizards among Germany's Aurors and Hit Wizards knew that the one they were about to face was Allen Harris, the man who had defeated You-Know-Who, but not a single one backed down. The colleagues around them were the source of their confidence—after all, almost every renowned Auror expert in the entire German Ministry of Magic had gathered here, and Hogwarts did not have those United Kingdom Aurors armed to the teeth stationed on it. Because of the sheer numbers beside them, these young Germans ignored their earlier fear of the Floating City. Some even began talking about how perhaps they should strike first and stop Harris from seizing that piece of their Black Forest.
However, once a shadow from the direction of Paris appeared in people's sight, that illusion that they might be able to turn the tables vanished from their lives.
The shadow spread over the rippling blue banks of the Rhine River, growing larger and larger, as if even the sunlight had been blocked by the Floating City that appeared before their eyes, gradually breaking through the clouds and revealing its full form.
Unlike watching it on