When my oldest son turned 9 in January 2004, he wanted to have a party to rival all parties and he wanted to invite his entire class. He and his friends were (and still are) huge Harry Potter fans, it seemed a natural fit to do a Potter party.  The invitation: These were printed on a parchment-like card stock from my home computer, making sure to use a similar font shown in the movie and emerald green ink of course!The wording within was an invitation to Hogwarts to the birthday celebration and to watch the season opener Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Included in the invitation was a ticket to board the Hogwart's Express from our hometown. The Hogwart's seal was stamped on the back of the hand-made parchment-like envelope(using a Potter stamp kit purchased on e-bay) and sealed using a red crayon melted in an old glue gun, the embossing design was simply the metal top of a glass tree ornament. The invitations were delivered by owl post to the classroom before winter break. Decorations:  The children were greeted by a platforms 9 & 10 signs on our front porch. They had to pass through the platform barrier (a sheet of dark fabric) before presenting their ticket for the train on platform 9 3/4. My 2 sons and a few of their friends wore the 4 Quidditch costumes and school uniform that I had made for them for Halloween. My eldest son also carried a broomstick we made for him that looked like the Nimbus 2000 in the movie. The inside of the house was decorated with nylon banners (also purchased on e-bay) for each of the Hogwart's houses and co-ordinating napkins purchased at the local party store. Although these were about $8 each, they were a great purchase as they are still used as the decorations for his bedroom! Favors & activities: After all the guests arrived, we called them into the Great Hall (living room) for the sorting ceremony. After the sorting hat was placed on their head, the hat would call out their new house. Each child was presented with a badge for their house which I had made on my computer. Each child was also given a wand by Mr. Ollivander (Dad). The wands were made from large chop sticks, each painted differently and with a name tag to prevent any questions of ownership. The kids played out back while waiting to be called for "classes". To keep the groups small, we called them in by house (Gryffindors, Slytherins, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws) for the activities...Potions and Divination class. The potion they were to make was a secret harboring draft. You mix trolls blood (red cabbage puried with vinegar) and ground unicorn horn (2 different mixtures), if when you mix your ingredients and it begins to foam...you are guilty of harboring a secret! One mixture for the ground unicorn horn was baking soda mixed with very fine glitter, while the other was corn starch mixed with the same fine glitter. Since I had the different mixtures in smaller jars, it was easy to limit the number of students who were shown to be "harboring a secret". Amazingly everyone in Slytherin foamed up a storm! Divination took much more pre-planning. I wrote messages on regular weight tan paper with a toothpick and lemon juice the night before the party and wadded them up into small balls. During the class, the student was to take one of the paper balls and ask it a question while rolling it in their hands, they then gave the paper to their professor to get their answer. The paper was un-balled and gently passed over the flame of a candle, magically their answer appeared. Unfortunately, only a few children got to this class as the potions class took a long time because the kids kept wanting to do it again! At the end of the party, or as their parents came to pick them up, the students were permitted to go through the shops at Diagon Alley to get their party bags. On the table were an assortment of gifts for them to take at their choosing. The party bag was a brown paper bag with a large Hogwart's emblem printed on it (Harry Potter Printshop), they could choose Potter coloring pages, bookmarks, stickers (large Potter sticker book), golden snitches (bouncy balls spray painted gold), and writing quills (feathers with pencil tips on them).  Food & Drinks: There were many trays of snacks set out for all to enjoy... Niffler droppings (pretzel nuggets), Basilisk scales (pringles), Lemon drops, (lemon heads), fizzing whizbies (razzles), Bertie Bott's every flavor Beans, and to drink there was Butter Beer for the students (cream soda)& Fire Whisky for adults (coke). Each tray was labeled with place cards and the drink bottles had labels printed from the computer. As always, a sharpie marker was used to mark names on everyone's cups! The cake was a sheet cake decorated with Harry and Malfoy dueling club figures...Malfoy was on his back from being blasted by Harry! We also used the long sparkler candles. Many of the gifts that we gave our son were also Potter themed. A set of the first 4 books along with Magical Beasts & Quidditch through the ages (all in paper back), Potter movie making book for Quantum pad, and a couple of different Potter themed frames to hold pics from the party. We even wrapped the book set as a howler and gave it to him as the very last gift. The kids that came (28 at one point) were really in the spirit of the theme. The majority of them came dressed in Hogwarts gear! They were very excited to be leaving with a bag full of unique and fun party favors. Many of them still talk about the Potter party and still have their wands, quills and house badges! I think this is really neat seeing as it has been a year and a half.