For my husband’s 30th birthday I wanted to do something special. But I was also very mindful that we would have a 2 month old and likely would not be up for leaving the house or hosting a big party. That’s where I came up with the idea to prepare an elaborate Harry Potter game for him to complete. This ended up being something in between a scavenger hunt and an escape room. It started with him finding a briefcase and a letter addressed to him waiting on the island when he came downstairs.
FYI – this post contains affiliate links. All that means is that if you buy something through one of these links, you won’t pay a cent more but I might get a small commission.
The letter states that the Ministry of Magic needs him for an important mission.
**Please use only for your own personal use**
I printed it double sided and in color so that the aged parchment color was on both sides, adding to the authenticity. I then trimmed the edges just slightly so that there was no white paper showing.
These are the items needed to complete all tasks successfully. I had all of them ready to go in his briefcase on the counter alongside the Ministry note.
- Briefcase
- The Unofficial Ultimate Harry Potter Spellbook
- Advanced Potion Making
- Hogwarts Library book set including The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Quidditch Through the Ages, Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them
- Earmuffs
- Rope
Yes it seems like an odd assortment of things… but you’ll see- they all have a purpose
The basic premise of the adventure was that the Statute of Secrecy Task Force within the Ministry of Magic needed help with a number of objectives related to magical beasts. I chose this theme because my husband has a particular love for all of the magical creatures shown in the originals Harry Potter Movies and the Fatastic Beasts franchise.
I included the bit about him needing a new wand because I thought it would be fun for him to visit Ollivander’s and get the opportunity to pick out a wand.
I set up the Ollivander’s shop in the basement and had 4 different wands for him to choose from. (Check back later because I’ll share a blog post in a week or so about how I made the wands). I labeled each wand with their attributes- length, core, and wand wood, and had print outs with information from the Wizarding World website that described what each wood and core was good for and the type of wizard that it would work well for.
The wands I used were 11 inch beech with a phoenix feather, 12 inch applewood with a dragon heartstring, 9 inch larch with a dragon heartstring, and a 10 inch walnut with a unicorn hair.
This was honestly such a fun part of the game and he had a blast reading through the options and deciding which wand he most identified with.
After this- the Ministry tasks began. I will write up a full post for each task going into more detail about what the puzzle or problem was, the solution, and any supplies I used. For now I’m just going to give an overview of the whole experience because if I included it all in just 1 blog post it would be WAY too long.
The whole house was used in this scavenger hunt / escape room and he knew where to go because I placed little street signs and locations all over. On the main floor I had three different street signs that signaled which was a different country was. The one in the middle of the main floor indicated that both Switzerland and France were on the main floor, the one by the stairs going to the upper floor showed Scotland and the United States were upstairs, and the one on the basement door showed that Romania and Britain were downstairs.
The locations used for all of the tasks were:
Task One: Romania, Dragon Sanctuary
Task Two: United States, Detroit Zoo
Task Three: Scotland, Parker’s Pig Farm
Task Four: Scotland, Loch Ness
Task Five: Switzerland, Beatus Cave
Task Six: France, Beauxbatons Academy
**Surprise Mandrake task to appear at anytime
All of these tasks will eventually be linked to separate blog posts with all of the details for each activity
The whole thing took around 2 hours for him to complete. It could have gone quicker but he took his time looking through all the books and savored every aspect of the experience.
Once he successfully completed all tasks, he was to go to the Leaky Cauldron (our kitchen) and there he found his goodie basket that the Ministry left as a thank you payment.
This was an assortment of Harry Potter goodies that I though he would enjoy and was his birthday present along with the game.
I included:
- Illustrated version of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
- Niffler Plush
- Harry Potter insulated travel mug
- Niffler pen
- S.P.E.W. magnet
- Harry Potter tamagotchi
- Ravenclaw socks
- Niffler bookmark
- Hogwarts Battle Cooperative Deck Building Card Game
- Dobby baby socks
I plan to do a new version of this activity every few years so follow along to see more Harry Potter crafts and games!
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