Harry Potter Murder Mystery Dinner Party

The Harry Potter Murder Mystery Dinner Party was the most fun I've had in a long time, misadventures in dating included. My character was truly fun to play. She was an evil-leaning Slytherin fourth-year named Erzsebet Bowne, Draco Malfoy's third cousin twice removed. I had actually been joking about how "Draco is hott" before I read the clue announcing our family ties so the entire party people made jokes that we were having a semi-incestuous affair. Draco's clues were all about secret romantic rendezvous, but you won't guess whom they were really with at the end . . . Hermione! Erzsebet was so pissed at the end that Draco was cheating on her. Anyway, Erzsebet had a nasty ickle sekrit too-- her family wasn't 100% pure blood because of a foolish adulteress and an all-too-kindhearted uncle who wouldn't forsake his wife and her bastard mudblood child. Scandalous!

I can't believe I've forgotten to mention who was murdered! It was the unfortunate Rita Skeeter, recently re-hired by the Daily Prophet and working on several breakout stories that would put many people to shame. Here's a list of the characters . . .

Audrey Doyle is the Ministry of Magic's detective into the death of Rita Skeeter. She's running this investigation and has given out the following clues:

* Rita Skeeter was missing some personal items when she was found dead in a broom closet at 4:00 p.m.
* There was a strange scent on her body, and she was covered in boils-- an affect of the Functulus curse.
* Although she was killed with the Avada Kedavra from her own wand, she has a mysterious bruise on her forehead.

Eleanor is a fifth-year Hufflepuff with Herbology on the brain. What we find out later is that she doesn't have as much integrity as she claims. Stealing Neville's Hellebore for the Young Wizard's Herbology Challenge wasn't very nice, and Rita Skeeter planned to expose the cheating "hard-worker" for what she really is.

Draco Malfoy is known to us all as a sixth-year Slytherin, but how much do we really know about him? Rumors have it that he's been paying Rita Skeeter off for months-- but why? Some say it's an affair with distant cousin Erzsebet, but in truth it's the filthy mudblood Hermione Granger! That is sooo much worse than cousin incest.

Famous Harry Potter has no love for the murdered reporter. She spread viscous lies about Harry and his friends, and Harry even admits he's not too sorry she's dead. But could the Honorable Harry be capable of the killing curse?

Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger were not present at the party. It is suspected they were carrying out their own secret "party" together . . . were Rita's rumours about Granger true?

Zandra a seventh-year Gryffindor with strong ties to Slytherin-- half her family AND her long-time romantic interest, Cal Igula. She wants to prove herself not only to Cal but also to his secret society, but would she commit murder to shut up the one reporter with the gall to blow the lid off their Dark Arts organization?

Imogen is a fifth-year Ravenclaw who believes every word of the tabloid The Quibbler. Why shouldn't she, after being taken in by the editor, Mr. Lovegood? She's furious that Rita's lying articles in the Daily Prophet receive more renown and success than Lovegood's obviously superior publication. She owes her foster-family a favor, and with Rita out of the way Daily Prophet's popularity would plummet.

Fiametta is the Italian governess of visiting child prodigy, Alcina Testrega. She used to work at the Italian Ministry of Magic, but after her co-workers banded together to get her fired, she took up a job cultivating the mind of one exceptionally bright young girl. But all is not as it seems. She's having an affair with one of the professors in the dungeon (guess who, *wink wink*) and her ward Alcina may not be who she says. Rita was going to do an article about Alcina's visit to Hogwarts, but who knows what could have transpired if Rita decided to break her agreement to keep Alcina in the press?

Alcina Testrega, a 10-year old Italian prodigy is visiting all the major magic schools in Europe. She's not too fond of Hogwarts, finding it "drafty and creepy" with bad food, boring classes, and not enough star treatment she deserves. She's a little diva and will do anything to get what she wants. The catch here-- is she really 10? Or could she be 35, under the guise of an age-changing spell? If Rita found out the truth, someone so deceitful might take matters into her own hands . . .

Erzsebet Bowne, a distant cousin of the Malfoy family, is a fourth-year pureblooded Slytherin, just as all her family for generations have been. She's in love with Draco, which makes since because there's really not too much pureblood to go around, but is that secret enough to inspire murder? It could be the "lies" Rita's been printing about the Bowne family not being as pure as they would like to pretend; an adulterous Aunt once bore half-blood child and who would want that in the papers? Erzsebet certainly has the motive and the means-- she's always practicing her curses, hexes, and jinxes on people (especially Neville), and it's not too far a jump from her past behavior to assume she could perform the Avada Kedavra.

Scarlett the second-year Slytherin would do anything for her pureblood family. Her parents have served the Dark Lord and make no qualms about flaunting their affiliation with You-Know-Who. She does say, "All shall love me and despair . . . " (mixing of the canons!) but is this really proof of guilt? Could she have been implanted at Hogwarts to spy on Dumbledore as a service to her Master? She has frequent black-outs where she may be controlled by Voldemort, and eventually does jump up on the table in the last Act yelling, "Harry Potter must die!" trying to strangle him . . . hmm . . .

Camille is a fifth-year Gryffindor who "omg loves Harry soooo much." She's obsessed with his "beautiful green eyes" and can' believe the audacity of Rita's lies about him. She watches him at Quidditch practice, and doesn't see why he hangs out with Hermione, saying "She's not even pretty. I'm pretty, right?" Camille confesses to Rita's murder, but could this prefect actually do anything other than swoon over Harry?

Quinn the valedictorian seventh-year Gryffindor was Rita Skeeter's up-and-coming adversary in the literary world. Supposedly possessing much more skill and integrity, she has an internship with the Daily Prophet and has got the inside scoop on Eleanor's cheating, places suspicion over Harry's "tempestuous attitude" and has thoughts about Alcina the child diva's finding out Rita was snooping on her. She's done her research on Slytherin, and claims Malfoy's capable of anything. Nevertheless she's not too sorry Rita died either, since the reporter had absolutely no talent but still got all the recognition. The main question here is: does the young reporter's vocabulary contain the Killing Curse?

So who was the murderer? Who do you think it was? I'm interested in seeing if people get it. Most people thought it was Erzsebet-- me, haha!