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Harry Potter was happily living his married life when suddenly, he is told by Hagrid about people dying in sleep. So, he decides to set out on a quest to save everyone. He sets out on a journey to the dream world of Narinda, along with Hermione and Ron , where they come face to face with nightmares, goblins and other unearthly creatures. They are forced to pass through the dark jungles of Tortin.

As they pass through the jungle, they meet a white witch. Who mumbles the below words:

You know what to do,

The keeper will help you through,

So that you find the clues,

Let not be the prophecy true.

Along with that, she dissappeared. Leaving behind a piece of paper. On it was written:-

To find the correct information using the below. You'll need Rats, Oil, Trumpet, Thumb, Hair, Ice, Rhyme, Teeth, Elves, Elbow and Nails.

ZGZpb3JsZ2xhb2h3c3R1aGVlYnJ1aXJ2ZXI=

Dear Harry,

serrgrkgubfgpbzv5xdr2cfsb

Who was this women, what was her message?

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  • $\begingroup$ Nice puzzle, I like the layout! I'm only 1 step far from the solution (I guess), looking for a password... $\endgroup$
    – leoll2
    Commented Jun 13, 2015 at 18:09
  • $\begingroup$ @leoll2 You're damn good at what you do :) $\endgroup$
    – Sharad Gautam
    Commented Jun 13, 2015 at 18:11
  • $\begingroup$ @SharadGautam I think there may be a bit too many extraneous hints for this. Is "The keeper" Hagrid? Or is the story not related? $\endgroup$
    – Quark
    Commented Jun 13, 2015 at 23:18
  • $\begingroup$ @Quark You are right and it has to do with the story. $\endgroup$
    – Sharad Gautam
    Commented Jun 14, 2015 at 11:30
  • $\begingroup$ I feel like your Base64 plain text had a typo in it as well. @SharadGautam $\endgroup$
    – LeppyR64
    Commented Jun 15, 2015 at 1:35

4 Answers 4

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EDIT: Final Answer

The message is: "I am your mother. I love you and miss you. The whole magic world needs your help. Good Bye and Good Luck - Your Mom", so the white witch is Harry's mom.

Solution:

Taking LeppyR64's find that the base64 encoded string had "follow the river" by taking every two letters, I looked at the other letters and they were "dirgahsuebure" which backwards is "erubeushagrid". I tried this as a password at the texthost site but it didn't work. Then I realized hagrid's first name is rubeus so I removed the extra e and it worked!

Here's another partial answer with slightly more information:

The first step is obviously to do ROT13 to the message in the letter (most would try that without the hint). Going to http://freetexthost.com/i5kqe2psfo, a password is needed. The string above, "ZGZpb3JsZ2xhb2h3c3R1aGVlYnJ1aXJ2ZXI=", decodes in base 64 to dfiorlglaohwstuheebruirver, all lower case letters which can't be a coincidence. Finally, the author confirmed that the story is necessary and that Hagrid is "The Keeper" who will "help you through". The base64 string somehow needs to be decoded to get the password to the texthost site.

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    $\begingroup$ And now I find out that I was spelling Reubus wrong :) $\endgroup$
    – LeppyR64
    Commented Jun 14, 2015 at 20:19
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Since another user posted his progress, I'll do the same.

The initials of Rats, Oil, Trumpet, Thumb, Hair, Ice, Rhyme, Teeth, Elves, Elbow and Nails make the words "ROT THIRTEEN" which is ROT13, the most famous encryption algorithm.
If you apply it to "serrgrkgubfgpbzv5xdr2cfsb" you obtain "freetexthostcomi5kqe2psfo", which is a link to http://freetexthost.com/i5kqe2psfo.
There you need a password, and I'm stuck at that stage.

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Here's another bone for you all...

The Prophecy in Harry Potter is:

Neither can live while the other survives.

I believe that the first code listed is actually short a character in the plain text.

ZGZpb3JsZ2xhb2h3c3R1aGVlYnJ1aXJ2ZXI=

Is base64 and decodes to:

dfiorlglaohwstuheebruirver

Keeping every second letter yields:

follow the river

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    $\begingroup$ I feel like it is a recurring theme, where I can only solve puzzles with your "bones". $\endgroup$
    – Quark
    Commented Jun 14, 2015 at 18:38
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Note: This is just a partial answer.

The initials of "Rats, Oil, Trumpet, Thumb, Hair, Ice, Rhyme, Teeth, Elves, Elbow and Nails" spell out ROTTHIRTEEN, or ROT THIRTEEN. The number thirteen(13) might refer to Harry being 13 years old, in other words, in Year 3: The Prisoner of Azkaban.

Edit 1: I have followed the progress of another user and have acquired this text from the website

http://freetexthost.com/i5kqe2psfo It tells us to donate bitcoins at 1BSyxQbLhq5vMijFZ3hrZQmNMrxC5dVEcM. Yet I do not know if this is essential to decoding the cryptogram. But this code is maybe related with the code: ZGZpb3JsZ2xhb2h3c3R1aGVlYnJ1aXJ2ZXI.

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    $\begingroup$ I suspect the part of the page mentioning bitcoins is a message from the hosting website (i.e. not part of the puzzle) $\endgroup$
    – Dennis Meng
    Commented Jun 14, 2015 at 16:20
  • $\begingroup$ @DennisMeng Me too, nevertheless, I have still included it. $\endgroup$
    – user41805
    Commented Jun 14, 2015 at 16:34

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