My 11 year old daughter's birthday was in April and she is a huge Harry Potter fan.  She wanted her party this year to be centered on the fourth book, which she had just finished reading. We sent out invititions on parchment paper written in green ink and signed by Minerva McGonagall (we used different fonts on the computer). It had the Crest of Hogwarts on the top and looked like the official letters that are sent out. Here is the wording on the invite. Welcome back for another year at Hogwarts, albeit earlier in the season than usual. We do hope you will be able to join us at this earlier time for the Tournament, since we expect great fun will be had by all in attendance. Since the surrounding area is well-protected by Memory Charms, it will be safe to wear normal wizard attire, but if you miss the Hogwarts Express or are unable to Apparate and must come incognito by way of Muggle transportation, feel free to arrive dressed in the Muggle manner.  If you are unable to reply in the normal manner by owl, please reply to (name) via the Muggle telephony system at XXX-XXXX. We are looking forward to your arrival at Hogwarts. Sincerely, Minerva McGonagall Deputy Headmistress Hogwarts Academy The guests arrived dressed ready for the fun and we had the Hogwarts opening feast and sorting. We had stuffed owls hanging from the ceiling.  Candelabras with floating" candles (the candles were hung from hooks in the candelabra). A large wood table was set with gold paper settings. The food we served was roast beef glazed carrots and butter beer (cream soda with butter flavoring added). We stacked everything up on big platters like they do in the movies. We had placed each guests name in a hat and pulled their names out to determine which school they would be representing. There were nine guest total so three were from Beaubuxton's three were from Durstrang's and three were from Hogwart's.  We gave each participant a glow stick wand of matching colors to represent their school.  Blue for Beaubuxton orange for Durstrang and yellow for Hogwarts. At this point we pulled out the Goblet of Fire.  This was a crystal pedastal punch bowl filled with dry ice and a blue glow ring necklace.  The dry ice was in the middle in a metal bowl and the glowing ring went around it giving it the misty glow of the cup. The guests put their names into the cup and were officially entered into the contest. Each team had to decide which event each person would do with everyone doing only one. The FIRST TASK was getting the egg (a gold plastic easter egg) from the dragon. My husband dressed like a dragon and was blindfolded. He had a pool noodle that he used to whack the participant if he could tell where they were.  They had to go around him grab the egg and get back to the starting point.  We timed each event to determine the winner. The SECOND TASK was the under water one. We used my daughter's room to create an underwater scene. We used a green light focused on a mirrored ball to give the underwater look.  We played water sounds in the background.  Next we covered everything with green material.  The task was to find a small picture of the actor from their school.  Beaubuxton had to find Fleu Durstrang was Krum and Hogwarts was Cedric.  Before they could enter the room they had to swallow a wad of gillyweed (defrosted frozen spinach molded into a ball).  This part proved to be the worst part of the challenge and not all could swallow it. We let them go anyway but added time to their score. The THIRD TASK was the maze.  We built a maze in our basement.  We had the lights out and let them use their glow stick wands to see.  They had to go through the maze that was equipt with glowing rats and bugs as well as a giant spider.  They were to get the Tri Wizard cup and bring it back.  Again they were timed. The team with the best over all time won the tournament. The winning team recieved an official Tri Wizard Certificte declaring them a winner. For favors we used the large gold easter eggs (dragon task) filled with gummy fish (underwater task) glow in the dark spiders (maze task) Bertie Botts Every Flavor Jelly Beans and chocolate frogs I made using a frog candy mold.   To finish the party we opened presents and had each guest pose with our daughter in a Harry Potter photo op complete with Hedwig in her cage Hogwarts books and Harry's Trunk. We used these pictures later as thank you's for the presents. It made it easy to remember who gave her each present plus the guests got a photo of themselves with my daughter to remember the special event.   It was a huge success!  My daughter said that it was her best party EVER!"