New York was the economic center of the Muggle United States and the home of the headquarters of the Magical Congress of the United States of America.
In 1892, the Bigfoot uprising broke out in the United States.
Afterward, the headquarters of the Magical Congress moved for the fifth time in its history.
It relocated from Washington to the Woolworth Building in New York.
American wizards claimed to be the most open-minded and egalitarian, yet their government was more hostile to Muggles than any Ministry of Magic.
Worse still, there was no cooperation whatsoever between the Magical Congress and the Muggle government.
Other Ministries of Magic at least maintained a direct line of communication between their minister and their country's Muggle head of state.
Which made it rather strange.
Why, then, was the headquarters of the United States Congress situated in the Muggles' economic center, right inside a bustling Muggle building?
Every day, Congress employees entered and left alongside Muggle office workers.
That alone seemed starkly at odds with their political goal of completely separating the wizarding world from the Muggle world.
December snow drifted over the streets of Manhattan.
The Woolworth Building, once a New York landmark, was a Gothic skyscraper standing eight hundred feet tall.
Abernathy, a senior figure with real authority in Grindelwald's Army, stood atop its pyramidal spire.
He wore a black trench coat, with thick snow gathering on his felt hat and shoulders. Who knew how long he had been staring at the busy traffic on nearby Wall Street?
Suddenly, a spell shot into the sky above Wall Street, dazzling as a firework.
As befitted the special treatment afforded a wealthy district, the Muggle police responded swiftly, their sirens wailing through the night.
Abernathy's fixed gaze flickered, and a long breath escaped his chest.
"We've