Making potions and reading tea leaves were just a couple of our activities.
Setting up the Mystery
Just before the feast, McGonagall (me) asked all the new "students" to leave their pets and supplies in the Gryffindor Common Room (our living room) during the meal, explaining that it's not sanitary to have dragons, owls, and cats on the table while you are eating. I told the kids that The Fat Lady (The painting which is the door to the Gryffindor Common Room) retired and that we now had The Thief and a new password, which I whispered to the first girl, then she whispered it to the next, and down the line. Every time they passed the painting, the girls said "Lucky Charms". They kept it up even once the organized part of the party was finished - so cute!
After the feast, the girls found their pets locked in an enchanted cage (not even McGonagall could open it!), so we looked around for clues. They found a letter from Hagrid hidden in the room which explained that there was an imposter (which apparently is more commonly spelled impostor, although both are correct... who knew?) at Hogwarts and that he had left to meet with the giants. They were instructed to find the four founders items: Helga Hufflepuff's cup, Godric Gryffindor's sword, Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem, and Salazar Slytherin's ring (Oops! My bad! This was supposed to be a locket as Peanut pointed out to me after the party.) to get clues on who the imposter is and how to defeat them. He also said not to trust any of the Hogwarts staff, to go about their normal business.
Once the girls read not to trust the staff, they immediately ran to the bathroom (now the "Girl's Bathroom", home of Moaning Myrtle), and we could hear them plotting and giggling. They ended up spending quite a bit of time in there throughout the evening - that was their go to place whenever they needed to talk to each other about the mystery. Seriously, I think they spent half their time in the bathroom!
After they emerged from the bathroom, we started the wizarding classes. Here is a brief (hopefully!) summary of each class and what the girls found:
Professor Bins (Middle Child) - History of Magic
Bins droned on for a few minutes giving a very boring history, then gave the girls a quiz. The answers gave the clue "Find Myrtle". Guess what - the bathroom again! I put a picture of Myrtle on the inside of the toilet lid while they were with Bins with voice bubble that read "Really! Of course it's not hidden in the toilet, but the item you seek is in this room. Close the lid now - I WANT PRIVACY!". I just didn't want anyone searching the toilet! Gross!
They searched the room and found the ring (or locket, if I didn't goof up), which said
Clue: You have seen them today
Spell Part 1: Expelliarmus
At this point, the imposter could be McGonagall, Binns, Trelawney, Snape, or Dumbledore.
Professor McGonagall (filling in for Hagrid) - Care of Magical Creatures
McGonagall told the students Hagrid's Doxys (squishy light up aliens from Dollar General) were loose in the Gryffindor Common Room. So that each girl would get only one, they were told that Doxys are gentle unless you pick up more than one, then they bite! Each Doxy had a tag with a number and letter on it, which the girls arranged in order to spell "D office". In Dumbledore's office (the study was changed over from Gringotts), they found the cup, which said
Clue: Not a woman
Spell Part 2: Stupefy
Now the imposter could only be Binns, Snape or Dumbledore.
Professor Trelawney (The Oldest) - Divination
The Oldest was great as Trelawney! She talked to the girls about calming down, getting centered, and finding their inner eye. She also played a wooden flute while they sat with their eyes closed. Once they were "centered", it was time to read tea leaves.
We chopped herbs from the garden and glued them onto paper plates in various shapes. More "tea leaves" were then piled on top of the glued leaves and an overturned cup covered all the leaves. The girls were instructed to gently shake off the excess leaves and "read" the design. Our Trelawney was very disorganized, so she had her drawings and meanings written on napkins and various scraps of paper. The girls had to look through them to find their picture. Some examples were heart = love, moon = imposter, cup = drink, teardrop = candle, fish = food... you get the idea and can see examples in the photos above. The girls pictures meant imposter, together, food, candle, steal, four, star - all of which led them back to the great hall where they found the sword taped under the table which said
Clue: Not a ghost
Spell Part 3: Petrificus Totalus
We're down to Snape and Dumbledore as the imposter.
Professor Snape (Dear Husband) - Potions
The last class was potions, where the girls measured out and made the following potion:
1 ~ Clear Cauldron
1 ~ Measuring Spoon
1 ~ Medium Measuring cup
1 ~ Small Measuring cup
½ oz. ~ Lobalug Venom
1 spoonful ~ Wartcap
Powder
1 oz. ~ Horclump Juice
Pour Lobalug Venom into
clear cauldron
Add spoon of Wartcap
powder
Stir 34
times
Add Horclump Juice
Horclump Juice was vinegar with yellow food coloring. Lobalug venom was water with blue food coloring. Wartcap Powder was baking soda. You guessed it - when mixed together they got a green fizzy mess! The girls all added the Horclump Juice at the same time, so all the bubbling happened at the same time.
Snape then showed them a solution to make messages appear (Dear Husband used Middle Child's chemistry set to achieve this). I believe the message was something like "Snape is great!" or "Slytherin is the best!". He let them try it on another paper, which revealed the message "Ravenclaw hang out". The girls ran to the Ravenclaw Common Room (basement family room) and found the Diadem which said
Clue: Not a teacher
Spell Part 4: Accio key
The imposter is Dumbledore!
After practicing the spell a few times, the girls confronted Dumbledore who was disarmed, froze, fell over as if petrified (he was near a couch), and the key was flipped to the girls. They saved Hogwarts and freed their pets. Hooray!
We ended the party with cake and ice cream, presents, and a showing of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Everyone had a great time and Peanut said she felt like she was actually at Hogwarts. That's just what we wanted and we put it all together in 5 days - Success!
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