Of Owls, Wands, and Final Exams: A Harry Potter Party for Adults (and Children)
Autumn is one of my favorite times of year. For one thing, I can start making pumpkin bread and cookies out in the open, without shame. I like pumpkin cookies and bread any time of year, but when I make a springtime loaf of pumpkin chocolate chip bread, the neighbors look at me funny. Personally, I don’t understand the point of canning pumpkin puree if not to make pumpkin products year-round, but the court of public opinion is against me in this case. Wait, what was I saying? Right. Autumn. I absolutely love autumn.
I love the air cooling to a chill and finally being able to pull out my jackets and long-sleeved shirts again. I love watching the leaves of different species of trees begin turning one by one, starting with the glorious bigtooth maples. I love watching the acorns on the scrub oaks mature into various shapes and sizes unique to their individual tree. I love watching the scrub jays and magpies squawk and fight each other over said acorns. I love the feel of the wind, as if the breeze itself is full of magic.
On the subject of magic, I know one thing many people associate with the autumn season is Harry Potter. Personally, I don’t have any considerations towards Harry Potter and a specific time of year, but the association makes sense. After all, autumn is also when school starts, and when Harry goes off to Hogwarts for another year full of magic and adventure. Don’t we all secretly wish we were off to Hogwarts with him? Dream of which house we would be sorted into? Imagine how we wouldn’t complain about writing an essay on real-life werewolves because that sounds super neat, actually?
Is that last one just me? In any case, my brother loves Harry Potter, so last autumn, when we learned he and his family were coming for Thanksgiving, we decided to throw him a late birthday party—a Harry Potter party!
Here’s my breakdown of what we did and how we did it. Whether you’re looking to create your own Harry Potter party and want some inspiration, or simply like reading about this sort of thing, I hope you enjoy.
We split the party into activities based on various Hogwarts classes. We had Potions, Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Final Exams. We also had a sorting hat quiz before dinner and picked our wands.
A Hedwig decoration courtesy of yours truly, plus the cloaks we bought the guests. Once everyone had their wands, they took a cloak to wear for the remainder of the party.
September and October are a good time to plan for a Harry Potter party, as plenty of easily adaptable Halloween decorations and items are available for a good price, or, depending on what you’re able to find, actual Harry Potter decorations. We got everyone a cheap black cloak, for example. However, I already have a collection of owl figurines, and I put owls everywhere.
More owl decorations. Fairy lights and fake candles everywhere added to the mystical atmosphere.
Our Olivander’s Wand shop setup. Cloaks on the left, wand boxes in the middle, and magic wand-selecting potions on the right, with the small cups of white vinegar on the far right. The backdrop is a plain black sheet. Also, I put out my owl diffuser for funzies. It made everything smell like lavender.
First things first, everyone selected their wands at Olivander’s. We found actual Harry Potter wands at the store for a great price. We wrapped the wand boxes in black paper so they were indistinguishable from one another aside from the special colored band we taped around the middles. Then, one by one, everyone poured the “magical liquid” into one of the cups of “magical powder.” The substance in the cup then burst into color and foamed over the top of the cup, and the color dictated which wand they got.
Closeup of the baking soda and vinegar cups. The clear plastic cups made the explosions of color even more fun, since it was easy to see the whole process.
The baking soda cups once all but two of the vinegar cups were used. I didn’t get any photos of the cups with the foam, as it dies down quickly, but you can see the fun, vibrant colors.
The “magical liquid” is white vinegar, and the “magical powder” is baking soda. If you put a few drops of liquid food coloring on the bottom of a cup, let it dry, then cover it with a tablespoon of baking soda so the color is hidden, the addition of the vinegar will not only make the baking soda foam, but also revive and reveal the color, as shown in the photos. We also counted this as our potions class. Everyone thought it was super fun to watch the foam bubble over and mysteriously change color.
A few notes—first, I discovered the food coloring couldn’t be too dry. If it was left out for a full 24 hours, the color wouldn’t show up when the vinegar was added. I would recommend experimenting with this one yourself to see what timeframe works best for you. I believe humidity, cup material, and brand of food coloring probably all play a role. Second, you must use liquid food coloring. I tried with gel, but it didn’t work at all. It might work if you dilute the gel colors in a bit of water, then drop them in the cup and allow it to dry, but I did not experiment with that.
Our Great Hall. Yes, I did make Orion, Canis Major, Canis Minor, and the Pleiades on the star backdrop. No, you don’t get to judge me. Yes, those are my owl mugs. No, you don’t get to judge me.
Next, we had dinner and the House sorting in our “great hall.” We made a backdrop of stars to represent Hogwarts’ night sky in the great hall, using a black sheet and glow in the dark stars, and hung floating candles above the table. The floating candles are so fun, we still have them up.
The House buttons we gave everyone sitting atop the Sorting Hat Quiz sheets.
I wrote my own sorting hat quiz from scratch because I couldn’t find any I liked online. The quizzes all seemed pretty kid-ish. I’ve linked my sorting hat quiz down below. We provided house buttons for everyone to pin on their cloaks after the sorting.
I “graded” the quizzes myself, so I could make sure everyone got sorted into the house they liked. My brother, his wife, and his friend sorted themselves into Gryffindor, and I knew that’s what they would want, so I gave them Gryffindor buttons. My grandpa (who knows nothing about Harry Potter and was a last-minute stand-in for my dad, who was sick) sorted himself into Hufflepuff, but I knew he’d want to be a Ravenclaw after hearing the descriptions, so I gave him a Ravenclaw button. My mom sorted herself into Ravenclaw but agreed to be a Hufflepuff so we’d have a Hufflepuff, and I decided to be in Slytherin for the same reason.
A closer view of the table settings.
One of the chocolate mint frogs.
We had meatballs for dinner, since in Harry Potter, they tend to eat pretty normal food, aside from the candy. We also used an internet recipe for butterbeer, and I made everyone a chocolate-mint frog. Our cake was a chocolate bundt cake, baked in a forest pan. I dusted the “trees” with powdered sugar and topped it with a few small dragons to make The Forbidden Forest.
The Forbidden Forest birthday cake. Obviously not my best food photography job.
A closeup of the Forbidden Forest cake and the dragons. Again, not my best food photography, but I had honest-to-goodness seconds to take photographs of the cake. Why? Long story. It involves mashed potatoes.
Dinner was also when we opened our wands. My grandpa got Cho Chang’s wand and asked if she was a favorite character. We all told him she was. (Shh. Don’t tell!) My brother and sister-in-law got Ron and Hermione’s wands, respectively, which we all thought was great. I got Luna Lovegood’s wand, which everyone likewise thought was great, because everyone thinks I’m weird, I guess. I don’t know why; I was the only one at this Harry Potter party who actually owns an owl! You’ll all be coming to me someday when you want your letters delivered! We’ll see who’s weird then!
The plaster dragon eggs prior to soaking in hot water.
Everyone hatching their baby dragons!
After dinner, we did Care of Magical Creatures. We each had a plaster dragon egg, and after soaking them in water for about ten minutes, we dug out our baby dragons! It was simple, but fun, and everyone got to take home a baby dragon.
We bought the swirly balloons for Charms class because they’re *magical*.
Next, Charms class. This was also simple, but fun. Everyone used their wands to bounce one of the magical balloons while saying, “Wingardium Leviosa!” If the balloon bounced off your wand and to the floor, you lost. The last one still bouncing their balloon won a prize. My sister-in-law won. She sabotaged my brother and his friend with poking and shoving, and it was hilarious.
The entrance to the library (Dementor Dungeon). Don’t ask why I have caution tape. It’s a long story, but it does not involve mashed potatoes.
Now, Defense Against the Dark Arts was the undisputed highlight of the party. Final Exams was fun, but Defense Against the Dark Arts had pure atmosphere. If you couldn’t tell, I’m quite pleased with my hard work.
Spooooky. Don’t look at these photos alone in a dark room.
Using my house’s library, or what would be a home office space in homes with fewer books, we created a dungeon of sorts. We hung plastic “stone wall” tablecloths from the shelves to hide the books. Blue and purple Christmas lights on the floor provided an eerie glow. I covered the doors in caution tape so no one could see much inside before the proper time.
The Dementors themselves were created with black balloons, black netting (a Halloween decoration), and black and silver ribbons. I draped the netting and ribbons around the balloon to make it look like a cloak, taped everything in place, and then we hung the Dementors from the ceiling with black yarn.
The Patronus bowl, the wand with a needle attached, and the Dementors.
A guest preparing to poke the Dementor with the special, needle-enhanced wand! (Warning: Wand not super visible in this photograph because the wand is black and everything else is black, too.)
The party guests entered the library one at a time. First, they turned to the silver bowl on a stand in the corner. The bowl held organza bags with a pewter animal wrapped in tissue, so the animal was hidden. These were our Patronuses. When it was their turn, they selected a bag with a Patronus, then I handed them the special “Patronus wand” (a wand with a pin electrician taped to the end). They took the wand, said “Expecto Patronum!” and popped a Dementor. They gave the wand with the pin back to me, exited the dungeon, and opened their organza bag to discover their Patronus.
The Patronus bowl in the daytime to better see the decorations and bags.
Some of our pewter Patronuses. Aren’t they fun?
While we used small pewter animals for the Patronuses, I’ve also seen the idea of using plastic animals spray painted silver. That’s probably a more economical choice, but November in Utah is too cold for spray paint. We had snow over Thanksgiving. Plus, again, this party was for a small number of adults, so we didn’t need many, and pewter was more fun for adults than plastic.
The decorations for the Final Exam. I put the game board up on the television screen from my laptop. I didn’t take any photos while we actually doing the final exam because I was busy running the whole shebang.
Lastly, we had the final exam. I made a list of questions, then created a PowerPoint Jeopardy-type gameboard where everyone took turns answering questions. We also had a small prize for whoever earned the most points by the end. The competition got fairly heated, as my brother, my sister-in-law, and my brother’s friend were all pretty close in points, and they’d selected the more difficult questions early on. They also said some of my questions were too difficult for the points they were worth, or too easy. They liked all the questions, just wanted them reordered. I’ve linked my questions and answers down below, and you can reorder them to your liking, if you want to use them.
Also, keep in mind the 5-point questions were written in consideration of my dad or grandpa, who know next to nothing about Harry Potter.
All in all, everyone had a great time. Even my grandpa, who doesn’t like fantasy, kept his baby dragon, lion Patronus, and Cho Chang’s wand on display for a long time.
While this party was undoubtedly a ton of work, the end result was an amazing memory. The activities kept things moving, while the decoration details, big and small, added atmosphere and magic. That’s what this evening was—pure magic.