By Martha Brockenbrough, MSN's Cinemama 
Special to MSN Movies

There's a lot to love about Harry Potter.

He's an underdog, and we love underdogs. What's more, he gets kids reading. Some people even credit him with revitalizing the entire kids' book market.

Mostly, though, we love Harry Potter because he's locked in a to-the-death battle against an evil villain -- really, one of the most despicable ever. How many can you name who'd try to murder a baby, after all?

A lot of tension has been built so far in the seven-book series, which hits a fever pitch this summer with the release of the fifth movie and seventh book. And it's not a trivial sort of tension, either. Certain death is on the line. J.K. Rowling has killed off several characters already in the books -- and not just minor ones, at that.

With all that excitement, it's no wonder people want to have parties to celebrate the guy, featuring DVD showings of the movies leading up to this summer's blockbuster. But, as with all things, it's not that simple. It's one thing to love Harry Potter if you're a 9-year-old boy. It's another thing entirely if you're 16, or even 36. This is why, in the United Kingdom, Harry Potter comes with two different covers -- one for kids, and one for grown-ups.

And this is why our Harry Potter party offerings come in three flavors: for elementary school kids, for junior high schoolers, and for high schoolers and above.

The Harry Potter party for elementary schoolers
Did you ever notice that the only printed invitations you get for parties are either for little kids or adults in the wedding phase? Everyone else is way too cool for paper invites, which is why they're an absolute must for the first- and second-year Harry Potter.

Naturally, the invitations ought to look and read just like Harry's invitation to Hogwarts, with text like this:

We are pleased to inform you that you've been accepted to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please report to station 9¾ on (the date of your party) to catch the Hogwarts Express, which will deliver you to your lessons in the history of magic, fortune-telling and potions, among other scary and wonderful things.

Sincerely,
Professor Minerva McGonagall

While we're not going to suggest tricking out your house so that it looks like a giant stone castle, it'd be pretty easy to put a sign on the front door that says Platform 9¾ -- the one all the Hogwarts students use to catch the Hogwarts Express.

Once the guests have made it through the platform, they'll love a variety of age-appropriate Harry Potter activities.

Here are some of our favorites:

- Face-painting (so that Harry fans can have matching lightning-bolt scars); 

- Fortune-telling (using tea leaves, just like Professor Trelawney); 

- Pin-the-pigtail on Dudley Dursley; 

- A jelly-bean flavor identification contest (feel free to embellish actual jelly-bean names  with Bertie Bott-like alternatives); and 

- A potions session with Severus Snape. There are a number of ways to make potions. Vinegar and baking soda, when mixed, will fizz like crazy. A bowl of dry ice and water makes a pleasing haze (but requires close adult supervision). Or, you can give the kids bowls of ice cream and let them add candy, chopped fruit or even oddball ingredients like onions and frozen peas. Have them name their potion for what it does—for example, The Sudden Hair-Loss Salve—then eat it (assuming you went with ice cream or some other edible version, of course; for the love of spiders, do not eat the vinegar and baking soda).

After all that, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" or "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" make good movie choices. Both are rated PG and reasonably light on scary moments. Also, both are faithful to the book. Little kids don't like it when people mess too much with their idols.

The Harry Potter party for junior high schoolers
The movies kids this age are most likely to want to watch are "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," which is a bit scary, and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," which has a touch of romance. Middle schoolers aren't likely to admit it, but they all have kissing on their hormone-addled minds. They're just like Harry Potter, spitting up pumpkin juice when he sees Cho Chang across a crowded banquet hall.

This pubescent preoccupation is a really good reason to have some party activities, so that your Harry Potter event doesn't turn into Seven Minutes in Slytherin, Spin the Wand or anything else that could end in a tangled-braces incident.

Here are a few activities to enjoy before watching DVDs:

- Sort them. Prepare multiple-choice questions in advance that will help you divide kids into the four houses. Nice kids go into Hufflepuff. Smart kids go into Ravenclaw. Brave kids go into Gryffindor, and sneaky kids into Slytherin. Be careful here, obviously. No one should have to go to Slytherin who doesn't want to. And don't forget to make them wear a ridiculous hat for the sorting.

- Play a round of Harry Potter trivia. Break everyone into small teams (if you sorted them into houses, those can be your teams). Let each team come up with five trivia questions. Each team gets to pose one question to the other three houses. Whichever team answers the most questions correctly wins. (Those remaining two questions can be tie-breakers, if you need them.)

- Mediate a debate. If Harry Potter had to fight Spider-Man, who would win? Discuss.

- Initiate a death pool. Have them guess who dies in the final Harry Potter book, and how. If the kids still have the Seven-Minutes-in-Slytherin look, remind them that nobody dies in the series until the kids start going out on dates. Maybe if there hadn't been a Yule Ball, Cedric Diggory would be alive today. Deliver this information with your best Severus Snape expression.

The Harry Potter party for high schoolers
You're not going to find a lot of high schoolers who'll define watching old Harry Potter DVDs as a party.

This is why you have to call this a pre-party leading up to a late-night viewing of the new movie, or an all-night wait outside the bookstore for the last book in the series. (And yes, we know J.K. Rowling has just said she'll write an eighth book, but even she admitted it was for charity, and made from scraps that didn't fit into the main series.)

But back to the high school Harry Potter pre-party.

Backyard Quidditch: If there's enough space in your backyard, set up a sort of Muggle Quidditch match using a Ping-Pong ball, tennis balls and basketballs as your Golden Snitch, Bludgers and Quaffles. Hide the Ping-Pong ball somewhere really difficult to stump the Seeker, while the Chasers try to toss the Quaffles into the goals, and the Beaters try to smack everyone else (gently, now) with the Bludgers.

Discuss Harry Potter subtext: If there's one thing high schoolers have practice doing, it's ripping books apart in critical discussions. Why not encourage a version of this with Harry Potter? Who are the secret lovers? Our high school spies said they'd put money on Draco Malfoy's harboring hidden yearnings for Harry Potter, for example.

While waiting in line: No doubt there will be long lines for both the "Order of the Phoenix" movie and the "Deathly Hallows" book. High schoolers can pass the time in a number of ways:

- Harry Potter character anagrams: If it was good enough for Thomas Marvolo Riddle in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," it's good enough for non-villainous teenagers. Harry Potter is "Throat Pryer," Ron Weasley is "Soy Renewal," and Albus Dumbledore is "A Dumbbell Roused."

- Harry Potter pickup lines: Accio hottie -- it could work.

- Make lists: How many Death Eaters can you name? How many people has Voldemort killed? What are the seven horcruxes?

- Stare at others: Which people in line look most like Harry Potter characters?

These things should be enough to make even the longest line move quickly, getting those high schoolers to the main events of the summer: the new book and the new movie.

Have fun!

The Cinemama thanks Stacey Chinn, Becky Davis, Maya Inamura, Vidya Rajan and Mae Rice for their party ideas.

In addition to her regular contributions to MSN Movies, Martha Brockenbrough is author of "It Could Happen to You: Diary of a Pregnancy and Beyond." She's also founder of SPOGG, the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar. She writes a fun-with-kids column for Cranium.com, as well as an educational humor column for Encarta. Check out her Web site.

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