Horcrux Hunt Escape Room Part 6: Hogsmeade, Nagini

As noted in the overview post, our horcrux hunt party had (3) locations with (2) horcruxes per location. This allowed for the large number of guests to be broken down into smaller groups and rotate between locations.

Each group was given a clipboard with blank paper to take notes, and a blacklight flashlight.

For the party overview, see THIS post.

The Hogshead portion of the party was in our basement. It consisted of Honeydukes, the Owl Post, the Forbidden Forest, and our bar was the Three Broomsticks. The basement contained the Peverell Ring & Nagini horcruxes.

... and it, arguably, held the two most difficult challenges.

Nagini: Dates Matter Challenge

Nagini was Lord Voldemort's pet snake. Though we weren't given the backstory of how or when he became a horcrux, the books did include several cameos of Nagini throughout the storyline.

Our hunt for Nagini started with a Little Hangelton newsletter which announced the death of Frank Bryce, the groundskeeper of the Riddle house. Voldemort commanded Nagini attack Frank Bryce in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The newsletter was dated, and under the blacklight, a number of the date was highlighted and had the letter "T" above it.

Within the story, it reads:

However, in the case of Frank Bryce, there were postmortem bites on his body that match the bite of a significantly large species of snake. The community of Little Hangelton has been put on alert to keep an eye out for any snakes and to call animal control if found."

 The words 'keep an eye out for any snakes' was underlined in invisible ink. So the groups began looking for snakes within the room.

In a bottle with a snake label, they found a grille cipher page. 

When laid on top of the Little Hangleton Newsletter, the grille cipher revealed a few key words:

Rotten Egg

Grass

Blueberry

Dirt

Soap

Tutti Fruitti

These are all flavors of Bertie Botts Beans. This led to the Honeydukes area of the room. The list of flavors could be removed from the display...

There was also a little arrow hinting to look on the back in invisible ink.

On the backside of the list was a letter from Albus Dumbledore to Molly Weasley alerting her that Arthur Weasley was attacked by Nagini, and that the children were en route to 12 Grimmauld Place.

This letter also has a date, which also has a number highlighted in invisible ink with a letter above the number, this time it was the letter "D."

The groups continued to look for snakes in the basement. They found the next snake in the Three Broomsticks, in the form of a snake candlestick.

When the candle was removed from the holder, a key was hidden inside of the candle. This was all Husband's idea, he is diabolical like that. 😜

This key opened a bag that was in the Owl Post area...

Inside of this bag was another piece of parchment. This one was a Potterwatch transcript about the death of Bathilda Bagshot in Godric's Hallow. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Bathilda Bagshot was murdered and animated by Nagini... yet another Nagini article. This one's address had the number and letter "E" above it in invisible ink.

The next clue was also in the Owl Post. Inside the "Pure-Bloods & Muggle-Borns" issue of the Quibbler was a page with a snake. This issue highlights the disappearance of Charity Burbage.

The page insert with the snake image is a special report detailing Charity Burbage's death at the hands of You-Know-Who and his snake, Nagini.

This article also has a date number highlighted with a letter ("A") above it.

The 'Forbidden Forest' section of the room held a few Christmas trees we rounded up, the backdrop that I made for Little Tomato's birthday several years ago, and the Harry Potter signpost.

The Ministry of Magic sign on the signpost had a snake in invisible ink, and the sign points to the backdrop. The lake of the backdrop has a pocket sewn into the waves.

Inside the pocket was a puzzle that needed to be assembled. The puzzle, once assembled, shows the Sword of Gryffindor (geeky bonus - the Sword of Gryffindor was pulled out of a lake).

It reads, "I used this goblin-made item to defeat the horcrux you seek. Find me." This hints that the group needs to look for Neville Longbottom.

It also reads, "Dates Matter." - This is a hint to understand how it all pulls together in the end... we'll come back to this.

To find Neville Longbottom, the groups looked at the Owl Post.

There were several packages and letters, all addressed to Hogwarts and Hogsmeade residents. They found a letter written out to Neville Longbottom. This letter is written from Harry to Neville and tells Neville to kill the snake.

This also had a date highlighted with a letter:

So the groups had accumulated 5 documents that referenced Nagini:

Little Hangleton Newsletter: 9-16-94 = T
Albus letter to Molly: 12-9-95 = D
Potterwatch Transcript: 3-29-98 = E
Quibbler Charity Burbage Report: 7-14-97 = A
Neville Letter: 4-27-98 = S

There was a locked box in the Owl Post with a 5 digit lock...

Now... since each of the numbers was in a different position, you may think that the key to the lock is based on position: 41698

However, there is an associated letter with each number.

The key to the order is on the Sword of Gryffindor puzzle: Dates Matter.

If you arrange the order to spell out 'dates,' the order is 91684, which opens the lock.

One more horcrux down!