It was more than a century ago, and witch Marta Lozano migrated from Spain to New Mexico, USA along with her younger brothers, her Muggle husband Luis Ballester, and their two-year-old daughter Caridad. In the new land, fellow wizards frowned upon Marta's marriage to a Muggle, but she turned a blind eye on their remarks because they were happy together. However, Luis fell in love with long distances and the following year, he decided to work for a telephone company in Massachusetts, thus leaving his family. Marta and Caridad only received letters from him for the first three months he was employed there, nothing more, and he also never came home. Marta was deeply hurt and changed her view on Muggles and their technologies, limiting her family members' contact with them to the bare minimum. She even forbid them to befriend Muggle-born wizards in fears that they would influence her family to be in touch with the Muggles and their lifestyle.

Marta was highly respected by her family and as a grandmother, idolised by her youngest granddaughter, Lina. Unfortunately for the adult Lina, her firstborn was almost nothing like the others in the family: Otto Albertson was a troublesome child. It was not unusual for his parents to catch him sneaking out of the house and making contact with No-Maj children despite his efforts to hide these from his parents - more because he despised seeing them worried and sad than because he disliked them reprimanding him - and no punishment seemed to be harsh enough to stop him. His parents' worries grew stronger when Otto turned eleven and was admitted to Ilvermony; there would be no one to watch over him since he was the first-born in their family and he had no cousins attending the school - what if he befriended Muggle-borns?

Otto was quite popular at school because of his cheeky, chatty personality. Even though the boy never had intended to befriend someone just because of their blood status or background, he happened to make lots of Muggle-born friends. While initially trying to hide this from his parents to not further upsetting them, his fascination toward the No-Maj world became too strong when he got interested in No-Maj culinary and the chance to build a career on it. Sure there were cooking spells, but the teenage boy saw them as different: No-Maj culinary was a form of art, wizard's was created by wand-waving - all too easy... Truth be told, Otto could not feel baking and cooking the wizard's way rewarding; there was no hard work and its sweet fruit.

After finishing his education in the North American magic school, with the help of some Muggle-born friends, eighteen-year-old Otto studied culinary at a No-Maj college. Whereas his family did not completely stop talking to him, each time he went home the stay ended up with an argument that was enough to make him leave again. His leaving, though, was not without regret and deep sadness: for he really, really longed for a harmonious and happy family.

André Read had never thought that his life would change forever just because of a letter. One moment, he was just a poor boy from a poor family living in the deep of Amazon jungle - a lonely child with no sibling to play his empty milk cans and plastic ball with - the next thing he knew, he was a student in Castelobruxo - declared a wizard and had plenty to schoolmates to interact with. Both his mother and his father were supportive; they were very glad that their only son could have a chance to lead a much better future. A school... a school only for wizards... and he was a wizard, without him or his parents knowing it...

As years went by, André got very close with a fellow Castelobruxo student, Antônia Pereira. The two married as they reached their late twenties, settled in Belém, and helped André's parents to move in with them so that they would not have to live in the dangerous depth of the Amazon in poverty. The couple had four children - all of whom were wizards, except for their second-born, Clara. She was a Squib. However, André and Antônia did not see this as a sign of weakness, disability, or unfortunate luck; they explained to her that there were plenty of career opportunities and excitement in both the wizarding world and the Muggle world. André's parents, of course, played such a big role in helping Clara since they were both Muggles.

Whatever Clara lacked in magic skill, she made up with her brain, hard work, and positive attitude. When her siblings went to Castelobruxo just like their parents, she studied at Muggle schools and won a scholarship to study from a private university in the USA. The girl packed her suitcase, earned an MBA, and started her career in the new land.

Clara Read and Otto Albertson met through their work at a No-Maj hotel in the state of New York, where she was an accountant and he a chef. It took them months to build trust and tell each other that they came from a magic lineage - much to each other's surprise. Otto was really impressed with Clara's intelligence and determination, and could not care less about her blood status. The two balanced each other out, with Otto being more creative and assertive whereas Clara was a patient realist.

After five years of dating, the pair married and then moved to Pennsylvania for a quieter lifestyle. Both of them now worked from home - Clara as a tax accountant and Otto started his catering business. Their wedding was attended by everyone in Clara's immediate family as well as some of her relatives, but only Otto's father and grandmother showed up - his mother was clearly furious that he chose to marry a Squib who was very much in touch with the No-Maj world. Otto took Clara's surname and the two raised a family. They had three children together - Hermione, Nigel, and Monna.

Ever since he was little, Nigel Read was full of energy and never stopped asking questions. The boy was not only exceptionally clever with his IQ of 130+ but also hard-working, enjoying using his brain to solve realistic and logical problems (such as mathematics) and to explore the endless possibility of imaginative settings.

All of the Read children were home-schooled as they reached the age of four. After Hermione, the eldest, went to Ilvermony, she sent a letter home every weekend; with each letter, Nigel's curiosity grew stronger: he had heard many stories from his sister, but what did Ilvermony actually look like?

Three years later, it was finally his turn to enroll in the North American magic school, and to no one's surprise, he was in the Horned Serpent. Nigel found that he liked the lessons all right, but he (and Hermione) also had a difficult time, particularly in his social life. A cousin from his father's side also came to Ilvermony the same year as Nigel, and he told their classmates about Nigel's Squib mother - an attempt to "get even with the traitor to the Albertsons". A number of kids joined in, some because they looked down on Squibs and some simply thought it would make them look cool, and plenty of other students refused to get associated with him as they did not want to be bullied themselves.

Nigel began to see how for many wizards, a strong line between them and No-Majs as well as Squibs had to be drawn. He questioned this view a lot, and there were even times when he got into trouble for speaking his mind regarding this. This was one reason why he started keeping a diary at the age of thirteen. Although he could be somewhat a chatterbox when talking about topics of his interest with people he felt comfortable with (and he did have friends at school albeit not many), the teenage boy soon found that he had plenty to write that he had never been able to say to anyone in real life; writing allowed Nigel to share strong thoughts and feelings that he did not dare say out loud. In his diary, Nigel wrote about everything, from day-to-day episodes, his hopes and dreams, to short stories and academic thoughts. From his days as a troubled schoolboy, he created dozens of new worlds in his mind.

Upon graduation, much like his parents, the young wizard was determined to expand his horizon. He set foot on Europe and immersed himself in new cultures, various art forms (and began developing interest in some of them), and explored both the continent's wizarding and Muggle worlds. He even pursued a teaching degree from a normal university, which he obtained when he was twenty-two.

Nigel spent about three years working full-time in a local library and part-time as a private tutor until he heard from a friend that Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was recruiting a professor for Astronomy class. As Nigel was hired, another chapter in his series of adventures began...