Visually, this is a bit of a call back to the Art at Hogarts Hunt where I send the poor hunter from pillar to post with only a scrap of paper to mark the difference. The most interesting bit perhaps is the letter from Professor McGonagall that you get to start off with. In it, there is a reference to “your early completion of your O.W..L.’s” — this was a reference to our daughter’s early completion from college a term early. And yes, we were quite proud of her!

The letter in the box…

Text from the letter…

To  Ms. Morgan Heithcock,

Dear Ms. Heithcock

    Congratulations on your early completion of your O.W.L.’s –
as well as the superior marks you received for them. I am sure your parents and family
are all quite proud of your accomplishments, as are all of the staff here at Hogwarts.

    Due to this achievement, as well as this being your eleventh scavenger hunt,
it has been decided that “the training wheels can come off” as Professor Hagrid has put it.
In fact, Professor Flitwick has suggested that this scavenger hunt be called
“The Chambers of Secret” as your clues will all be hidden, very well hidden we hope.
The usual rules of location has also been rescinded and thus your clues may be hidden
anywhere upon the grounds proper.

Best of luck, in this and in all future endeavors.

Minerva McGonagall

Also in the box was the first clue…

1: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

 

1: Philosopher’s Stone: “That’s — —!”

As per usual¹, I thought this was a gimmee. I think of it as such an iconic line from the movie. The answer is “That’s Wizard Chess! ” and so the next clue is in the drawer of a chess set in my office…

2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

 

2: Chamber of Secrets: “Ron’s wand needs a new core.”

I thought this one would be tough and it was! The answer depends on you knowing…

a.) The core of Ron’s wand was unicorn hair

and…

b.) Sharlee (our daughter’s grandmother who lives with us) has a brick with a Unicorn needlework pattern as her door stop.

And so, eventually, she found…

3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

 

3: Prisoner of Azkaban: “You may need Crookshanks.”

This required you to recall that Harry & co. needed Crookshanks to get past the flailing Womping Willow. And so, in a popcorn tin in the Shrieking Shack (the girl’s tree house), you find…

4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

 

4: Goblet of Fire: “Why prefects never listen.”

Admittedly a bit of a stretch. When someone doesn’t listen to what you say, the frequent comment is “You need to clean out your ears!”. The prefect’s bathroom is the guest bath, and so, inside a secret compartment ² in the Q-tip box in the guest bath was…

5: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

 

5: Half-Blood Prince: “Some secrets are not in boxes.”

Looking back on this one, … yeah, it wasn’t a great clue. This was sort of a double-reversion-clue, where the clue was in a box in her secret closet. I’m frankly amazed she found this one…

6: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

 

6: Order of the Phoenix: “Where tossed cauldrons go.”

And this one I thought was, well, maybe not a gimmee but I thought it was “pretty obvious.”³

“Apparently not.”⁴ Didn’t everyone realize I had moved the rusting cast iron pots from the front of the house to the garage? Well, if they had, they would have found…

7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

 

7: Deathly Hallows: “A safe break-in.”

This one was straight forward at least, in her book safe, she found a final clue…

The final clue

 

7: Your gift has been delivered via Floo network.

And so it was…

Merry Christmas

Footnotes

1. Amos Diggory - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire ↩

2. Prof. Hagrid did say the training wheels were coming off… ↩

3. “He’s not relaxing, is he?” “Apparently not.” — Hermione and Harry — Harry Potter and the Sorcerers’s Stone ↩

4. “…it was pretty obvious, uh, what you were about to do.” — Prof. Lockhart — Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ↩