Harry Potter III Party - 7 year old boy  Yes, another Harry Potter party!  But how can someone read the ideas for this theme and NOT want to do it?  The theme is just rich in material, from the invitations right on down through activities.  We started with the ever popular Hogarts letter, inviting children to a special term being held in honor of my son's birthday.  Green ink and the Hogwarts crest made the invitations special.  As the children arrived, they were greeted by a parchment Hogwarts school sign on our front door, and a Dementor (made from burlap and hung by wire from the overhang) guarding the school.  Each child then went to "Diagon Alley" to acquire school supplies, which consisted of a Hogwarts student hat (sewn from a basic trianglular shape cut from black felt) and a wand.  The wood length of the wands was prepared beforehand, using wood dools with sanded tips and finished with wood stain markers (older children could do this part themselves; the stain markers dry almost instantly, but are difficult to manipulate). The children then added handle decorations to the end of the wand, selecting from a variety of electrical and utility tapes, and hiding tissue pieces under the tape to add "bumps" and shape the handles. The end result looked incredibly authentic. Once all the children were present, we did the sorting ceremony, using a walkie talkie hidden in the homemade felt hat (this was a BLAST to sew, and very simple).  The children loved hearing the voice coming from the hat. For us, the main complication was how to sort the children, because at this age feelings are easily hurt, and they all wanted to be Gryffindors.  We settled on asking the children to specify which friends they most wanted to be sorted with, and asking which group would consider being Slytherins (actually a popular second choice from Gryffindor).  The "banquet hall" was our dining nook, with seating for 12 surrounding our table, and a painted paper banner representing each house hung along against our large dining window (a really neat effect, with the light coming through the yellow, red, blue and green banners w/ animal drawings) I was dressed as Professor McGonnogal, including a great felt witches hat I made myself (all the hats turned out to be easy and fun).  My husband was dressed as Dumbledore, again in a hat I sewed for him, and using his long wool coat to aid the look. He repeated Dumbledore's line about saying a few words (with nonesense words ), and then we brought out the lunch food (popcorn chicken, mini muffins, and fruit ... plus very popular "butterbeer" made by mixing rootbear and vanilla ice cream, and some water dyed orange for pumpkin juice).  After the welcoming feast we started classes, and divided the children by houses to keep class sizes more manageable.  The first set was Transfiguration (basically a chance to act out whatever the partner tries to transform them into), and flying lessons (on a broom suspended from a trellis on our deck - the kids LOVED this; one of my sisters was dressed as Madam Hooch and guided the kids while I was inside), both of which went really quick. The second set of classes was Potions and Divination.  For Potions we did the vinegar and baking soda (aka powdered mugwort) fiz thing (our "mistake," since McGonogal is a sub for potions), and made gak (we called the glue unicorn milk, the Borax ground dragon fang, and had the water dyed green for swamp water). All of which the kids really enjoyed - very messy, but fun. In a bedroom we had cushions and quilts spread out for Divination, which my other sister led in a perfect Trelwany outfit.  She's a terrific actress and the kids LOVED their time hiding out in this class sharing their imaginary fortunes and watching Trelwany go into her "trances." After that we gathered all the kids back in the main room for the final banquet, and cake! To finish off the fun we served some Bertie Botts beans and asked trivia questions in exchange for additional house cup points.        Other decorations we used were an owl balloon, and Hogwarts painted paper banners decorating our french glider doors. On one of these we had a section to track house points, and on the other we had the schedule for the school term. For favors each child was allowed to take home their wand, hat, and gak, and was given a golden bag containing stickers, HP glasses, and a homemade chocolate frog with a homemade wizard card featuring a picture of the party guest (most of the guests were in my son's class, so I just used the faces from the group picture taken in the fall).  12 boys in one house ... it was difficult controlling the chaos, but it was still a blast for everyone!