In a small town on the East Coast of the United States, was a quiet street where Izabella Snape lived with her grandmother, Rosalia. The house looked like most of the others on the street, it was painted a light shade of blue with white trim and shutters. There was nothing about the house itself that would suggest that the people living there were any different from anyone else living in the cul-de-sac.
Izabella was born in England but she had always lived here in this house with her grandmother. Her father, Severus still lived there; he was a schoolteacher. Her mother had left them right after giving birth. The first ten years of her life was as ordinary as any other ten years old she knew, doing things the way everyone else on the street did.
Everything changed on the day that she turned eleven. Several of Izabella's friends from school had been invited over for a small birthday party. Her father arrived right at noon, as he always did on her birthday. The backyard was decorated with balloons and streamers, but the circus theme from past years was gone. The guests began arriving at one. The last to arrive was Cassandra, Izabella's best friend.
Cassandra seemed more excited and than usual, trying to pull Izabella away from the party and her other guests. After several minuets of this Izabella finally let herself be pulled into the house.
"Did you see the birds outside?"
"Birds?"
"Owls, actually. They're all over. Must be closed to one hundred."
"Owls?"
Cassandra pulled her towards the window looking out onto the street. Izabella looked out. Looking up and down the street, there were owls everywhere, in the trees, on the front lawn, sitting on the telephone wires.
Izabella turned away from the window and headed back to her party. She would find her father at show him the owls. Cassandra followed behind an as they walked out the door onto the back porch everyone shouted "HAPPY BIRTHDAY".
The cake was sliced and handed out just as everyone started eating, the owls began circling the back yard. Some of the children dropped their plates of cake and hid under tables or chairs. Some stood there starring up at them until the owls started to swoop down. The children ran screaming through the back gate, all of them except Cassandra.
Izabella was disappointed that her party at ended so suddenly, but very excited about all the owls being in her backyard. "What's going on?" she said out loud, but to no one in particular. Rosalia walked over to her granddaughter, putting an arm around her.
Just then, a large barn owl landed on the railing of the back porch. Severus was the first to notice the owl. "It looks as though they know she is here," he said, pointing to the railing. As Izabella turned to see what her father was pointing at she saw the owl, "Daddy, it has an envelope in it's beak" she said.
Her father nodded, "Go see what it is," he said, with a small smile on his face. Turning to his mother, he added, "We will have some explaining to do tonight."
"Are you serious?"
He nodded again and as Izabella started walking slowly towards the owl Cassandra called out, "Wait." She reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulling something out. She handed Izabella something that looked like cat treats, "Give theses to him."
Severus and Rosalia looked at each other and Izabella continued walking, she reached the owl and stretched to take the envelope with one hand, the owl nuzzled her fingers, and she quickly held out her other hand so that the owl could takes the treats. The owl ate the few treats, blinked at her twice and flew off.
Izabella looked at the envelope, and saw that it was addressed to her. Holding up envelope she said, "My name is on it."
"Open it," her grandmother said.
Why would I get mail delivered by an owl? She thought as she turned the letter over to open it. Written on the back above the wax seal was Salem Institute.
The four of them sat down at the table and Izabella opened the letter. As they sat with her Cassandra pulled an identical envelope out of her pack pocket and laid it on the table in front of her. Izabella read the letter several times before looking at her father, she said, "I'm going away to school this year."
"At Salem Institute?" asked Cassandra.
Both Severus and Rosalia turned to look at Cassandra and saw the letter set on the table in front of her.
Izabella and Cassandra both jumped up and ran around the table to hug each other.
Izabella and Cassandra have been attending the Salem Institute for five years now, doing extremely well in all of their classes. Izabella was taking several advanced classes, including Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts.
The day before Izabella turned fifteen she had gone with her grandmother to Lily Dale early in the day; they spent the entire day shopping buying everything that she would need for her sixth year. She needed three new books for her advanced charms classes; Spells Used Around the World, by David McMinnion; Ancient Wizardry, by Mykelti Zallion; and Sorcery Throughout Time, by Morlissa Zemeckis.
While Izabella was at MacCaulkins Cauldron's looking for the number six copper cauldron that was required for her N.E.W.T. potions class, her grandmother was searching for the new crystals that Madame Callista de Hoyas was demanding that all students have. "All students must obtain new crystals this term..." the letter read, "...to minimize the possibility of mis-readings due to overuse." No one had ever heard of anything as foolish as "mis-reading" this didn't make any sense to any of Izabella's classmates either until Mia Baxtar, a seventh year student discovered that the Crystal Shoppe was owned by Callista's husband Xavier.
When they arrived back at the house there was a box wrapped in red satin paper set on the table right inside the door. Rosalia had put it there on their way out so that Izabella would find it as she walked into the house. Izabella looked at her grandmother and knew just what it was. Carefully removing the paper from the box, she folded it neatly and set it aside opening the box she saw her new cloak, dark green velvet and lined with a silvery silk. It was tradition for Rosalia to give Izabella a new cloak for her birthday since her first year at S.I.
Later that evening Izabella was in her room packing when there was a tap on the door. "Come in.," she said her back to the door. She stood about five foot-two inches; her raven black hair cascaded over her shoulders, falling below her waist in soft curls. When she heard the door open she said, "One minute, Gram," and added softly, "I only have a few more things to pack.""School does not begin for another month and you are already packed?" The voice that answered was not her grandmother's.
As she turned, her clear green eyes brightened as she saw her father standing in the doorway, she wasn't expecting him until late that evening. "You're early," she said as she ran to him, a wide smile covering her face.
When she reached him, he lifted her off the floor in a huge hug. "I have missed you," he said. As he set her back on the floor he added, "I have something for you." He reached into his robes and pulled out an envelope, "Open it!" he said as he handed it to her.
Izabella ripped open the envelope to find a plane ticket to London. "Does this mean that I am finally able to go?" she asked excitedly.
"Yes." he said.
She jumped up and down excitedly, hugging her father again.
"I could not miss your birthday, but I can only stay till midnight," he told her.
She sat down on the edge of her bed, "Why?"
"Something has happened and I must get back. Let's go downstairs, I will explain has much as I can over dinner, the rest will have to wait until I pick you up from the train."
"Train?" slightly confused she looked inside the envelope again and found another ticket, this one for the Hogwarts Express.
As they walked down the stairs, he explained, "You will leave in a month. You will arrive in London in time to get to King's Cross for the train to Hogsmeade. I will meet you there."
Izabella's grandmother was waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs, "Hello Mother," he said after kissing her on the cheek.
"Dinner is ready," she said as she led them into the kitchen.