Welcome, heir.

We understand that this might be a bit confusing for you, but it will all be explained. The only person/people who can open and read this book is/are the heir/s of Merlin, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. If you are the heir to one of the above you will only be able to read the part of this book that applies to you. However, if you are the heir to more than one of the above then you will be able to read all that applies to you.

This book was written to inform the heirs of several powers and abilities that they may have inherited and how to test for these abilities and powers. Not all heirs will have special abilities and powers although a few have had several different abilities and powers. This book contains a list of all possible abilities and powers as well as a full description of each. This book also gives full geneologic records for all of the heirs and a brief history of the founders.

That's right, if you're reading this, then you're my heir. (Harry gasped here in disbelief before continuing.) Now, I married a witch, not a water nymph, an elf or any other creature. She and I had two beautiful children, Godric Gryffindor and Helga Hufflepuff. In our day, there was a dark (evil) wizard after me named Marvalo Slytherin. In order to keep Godric and Helga safe, we (my wife and I) gave them different last names and claimed them to be a nephew and niece instead. Only a few people knew this and probably even fewer know it now. I taught them magic. Not long after Godric's twelfth birthday, a boy by the name of Salazar Slytherin showed up at our mansion requesting that he be hidden from his father, Marvalo. I couldn't say no to the boy and took him in. He and Godric soon became close friends even with the year of age difference between the two. I trained Salazar along with Helga and Godric as if he were my own son. Later, Godric met a witch by the name of Rowena Ravenclaw and the two fell in love and got married. Salazar married a muggleborn witch by the name of Helena Heartworth while Helga married a muggleborn wizard by the name of Lucas Smith. Neither Salazar's nor Helga's spouse knew anything about magic, even though they possessed the ability, until they met their prospective spouse. Helga, Salazar, Rowena and Godric soon came up with a solution to this problem and founded Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Soon after it was founded, Marvalo Slytherin came back from where ever he had been hiding since I had last banished him and demanded that his son, Salazar, give up the madness of trying to run a school of magic for "mudbloods and other filth." Godric challenged Marvalo to a wizards duel and won. Marvalo then fled after causing half of the school to collapse on top of several muggleborn students. Salazar was unjustly blamed and hated for his father's actions and went into hiding with his wife leaving Godric, Rowena and Helga to run the school. For years after his disappearance, no one knew what had happened to Salazar. Eventually I found out that he had changed his last name to Smith, had a daughter, Marigold, and had been living in France all the years we had been looking for him in England and Scotland.

Marvalo Slytherin had had another son after Salazar, Cayuse Slytherin. Cayuse Slytherin blamed Godric for his father's banishment and later, went after Godric to avenge Marvalo's banishment, causing Rowena and Godric to change their name to Potter and leave the school with their newborn son, Frederick Potter. Helga then ran the school with help from her husband for a while time, hiring other witches and wizards as teachers and acting as headmistress of the school and had a son, Damien Hufflepuff. Damien became headmaster of the school after his mother passed away.