Elizabeth May could have had a career as a Harry Potter party planner

"Harry Potter was huge for us," recalled Elizabeth May's daughter, Cate May Burton. "It also gripped my mom's attention… so much so that when we got to the final chapters, she wasn't able to put it down."

So, when Burton fell asleep after their bedtime reading session, May carried on.

"She was able to warn me," she explained. "That there was something so scary that she herself had had trouble sleeping after she read it."

Inspired by the characters in the series, Burton decided she wanted to have a Harry Potter inspired Hallowe'en party. 

Together they went all out on the party, transforming the house into Hogwarts. The first thing on the menu was Butterbeer.

"There's no recipe in the books," Burton said. "And I had no real idea of what it would take to make Butterbeer."

After numerous failed concoctions, the mother-daughter team admitted defeat. Still, once her friends arrived, the party was a success.

May dressed up as Professor McGonagall wearing her law robe as a wizard robe as well as a wizard hat.

"I think that I was a necessary part of my mom's life in a way because she was a single mom and I was an only child that she relied on me for a lot of the fun in her life," Burton explained.

"She really loved when she and I could do something together."

DNTO's special episode about the personal stories behind our party leaders airs Saturday, September 26th at 3 p.m. on CBC Radio One.