Prologue
The world is full of houses, all varying in many ways. Some houses are small, and some are quite large. Houses have differently colored exteriors, different roof types, different ornaments, and very different people within. Some houses may appear similar, but no two houses are the same.
In particular there are four houses that are not the same. These four vary so much that they do not even rest in the same countries. While two of them rest on British soil, they are separated by hundreds of leagues, and even Hadrian’s Wall. The other two rest on far different soil. One sits in a suburb just outside of New York City in America. The other is isolated and really more like a small Taiwanese village.
No matter their geography or appearance, two things made these four houses similar. First of all, each of these four houses hosted an unusual visitor. In Scotland the owl sitting on the post-box was a cause for confusion to the inhabitants of that house. Owls were rarely seen so far north, and never in the light of day. A similar reaction came from the people within the Taiwanese house. Who would be receiving a message brought by a species of owl that was most definitely not endemic to the area? For the family living in London the feathered creature was met with sighs of relief. There had been doubt that the owl would come this year, for several reasons. And as for the house in New York, the moment the owl had alighted on a street lamp, the houses young tenant ran outside to greet it. This was the moment she had been waiting for since last summer, when her English father had told her of her heritage.
Four houses in four countries, and each one was being visited by an owl. The only other thing these four vastly different houses had in common: each house would be sending their young daughters to Hogwarts for the first time come September.
