Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two

by J. K. Rowling

  PROFESSOR McGONAGALL

  And if she succeeds?

  HARRY

  Then – just like that – most of the people in this room will be gone, we’ll no longer exist and Voldemort will rule again.

  ACT FOUR SCENE TWO

  SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS, AVIEMORE TRAIN STATION, 1981

  ALBUS and SCORPIUS are looking at a STATION MASTER, apprehensively.

  ALBUS

  One of us should talk to him, don’t you think?

  SCORPIUS

  Hello, Mr Station Master. Mr Muggle. Question: did you see a flying witch passing here? And by the way, what year is it? We just ran away from Hogwarts because we were frightened of upsetting things, but this is okay?

  ALBUS

  You know what annoys me most of all? Dad will think we did it deliberately.

  SCORPIUS

  Albus. Really? I mean, really really? We’re – trapped – lost – in time – probably permanently – and you’re worrying what your dad might think about it? I will never understand the two of you.

  ALBUS

  There’s a lot to understand. Dad’s pretty complicated.

  SCORPIUS

  And you’re not? Not to question your taste in women but you fancied . . . well . . .

  They both know who he’s talking about.

  ALBUS

  I did, didn’t I? I mean what she did to Craig . . .

  SCORPIUS

  Let’s not think about that. Let’s focus on the fact that we have no wands, no brooms, no means of returning to our time, all we have is our wits and – no, that’s all, our wits – and we have to stop her.

  STATION MASTER (in very strong Scots)

  Ye ken th’ Auld Reekie train is running late, boys?

  SCORPIUS

  Sorry?

  STATION MASTER

  If you’re waiting oan th’ Auld Reekie train, you’ll need tae ken it’s running late. Train wirks oan th’ line. It’s a’ oan th’ amended time buird.

  He looks at them, they look back bewildered. He frowns and hands them an amended timetable. He points to the right bit of it.

  Late.

  ALBUS takes it and examines it. His face changes as he takes in enormous information. SCORPIUS just stares at the Station Master.

  ALBUS

  I know where she is.

  SCORPIUS

  You understood that?

  ALBUS

  Look at the date. On the timetable.

  SCORPIUS leans in and reads.

  SCORPIUS

  The thirtieth of October 1981. Day before Hallows’ Eve, thirty-nine years ago. But – why is she? Oh.

  SCORPIUS’s face falls as he realises.

  ALBUS

  The death of my grandparents. The attack on my dad as a baby . . . the moment when Voldemort’s curse rebounded on himself. She’s not trying to bring about her prophecy – she’s trying to prevent the big one.

  SCORPIUS

  The big one?

  ALBUS

  ‘The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches . . .

  SCORPIUS joins in.

  SCORPIUS and ALBUS

  ‘. . . born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies . . .’

  SCORPIUS’s face falls with every word.

  SCORPIUS

  It’s my fault. I told her that prophecies can be broken – I told her the whole logic of prophecies is questionable—

  ALBUS

  In twenty-four hours’ time Voldemort curses himself trying to kill the baby Harry Potter. Delphi is trying to prevent that curse. She’s going to kill Harry herself. We need to get to Godric’s Hollow. Now.

  ACT FOUR SCENE THREE

  GODRIC’S HOLLOW, 1981

  ALBUS and SCORPIUS walk through the centre of Godric’s Hollow and it’s a bustling, beautiful little village.

  SCORPIUS

  Well, there’s no visible signs of attack that I can see . . .

  ALBUS

  This is Godric’s Hollow?

  SCORPIUS

  Your dad’s never taken you?

  ALBUS

  No, he tried to a few times but I refused.

  SCORPIUS

  Well there’s no time for a tour – we have a murderous witch to save the world from – but regard . . . the church, St Jerome’s . . .

  As he indicates a church becomes visible.

  ALBUS

  It’s magnificent.

  SCORPIUS

  And St Jerome’s graveyard is supposedly magnificently haunted (he points in another direction), and that’s where the statue of Harry and his parents will be—

  ALBUS

  My dad has a statue?

  SCORPIUS

  Oh. Not yet. But he will. Hopefully. And this – this house is where Bathilda Bagshot lived, lives . . .

  ALBUS

  The Bathilda Bagshot? A History of Magic Bathilda Bagshot?

  SCORPIUS

  The very same. Oh my, that’s her. Wow. Squeak. My geekness is a-quivering.

  ALBUS

  Scorpius!

  SCORPIUS

  And here it is—

  ALBUS

  The home of James, Lily and Harry Potter . . .

  A young, attractive couple leave a house with a baby in a pushchair. ALBUS moves towards them, SCORPIUS pulls him back.

  SCORPIUS

  They can’t see you, Albus, it might damage time, and we’re not doing that – not this time.

  ALBUS

  But this means, she hasn’t . . . we’ve made it . . . she hasn’t . . .

  SCORPIUS

  So what do we do now? Get ready to fight her? Because she’s pretty . . . fierce.

  ALBUS

  Yes. We haven’t really thought this one through have we? What do we do now? How do we protect my dad?

  ACT FOUR SCENE FOUR

  MINISTRY OF MAGIC, HARRY’S OFFICE

  HARRY is hurriedly going through paperwork.

  DUMBLEDORE

  Good evening, Harry.

  Beat. HARRY looks up at the portrait of DUMBLEDORE, his face passive.

  HARRY

  Professor Dumbledore. In my office, I’m honoured. I must be where the action is, tonight?

  DUMBLEDORE

  What are you doing?

  HARRY

  Going through papers, seeing if I’ve missed anything I shouldn’t have. Marshalling forces to fight in the limited way we can fight. Knowing that the battle is being raged far away from us. What else can I do?

  Pause. DUMBLEDORE says nothing.

  Where have you been, Dumbledore?

  DUMBLEDORE

  I’m here now.

  HARRY

  Here just as the battle is lost. Or are you denying that Voldemort is going to return?

  DUMBLEDORE

  It is – possible.

  HARRY

  Go. Leave. I don’t want you here, I don’t need you. You were absent every time it really counted. I fought him three times without you. I’ll face him again, if needs be – alone.

  DUMBLEDORE

  Harry, don’t you think I wanted to fight him on your behalf? I would have spared you if I could—

  HARRY

  Love blinds us? Do you even know what that means? Do you even know how bad that advice was? My son is – my son is fighting battles for us just as I had to for you. And I have proved as bad a father to him as you were to me. Leaving him in places he felt unloved – growing in him resentments he’ll take years to understand—

  DUMBLEDORE

  If you’re referring to Privet Drive then—

  HARRY

  Years – years I spent there alone, without knowing what I was, or why I was there, without knowing that anybody cared!

  DUMBLEDORE

  I – did not wish to become attached to you—

  HARRY

  Protecting yourself, even then!

  DUMBLEDORE

  No. I was protecting you. I did not want to hurt you . . .

&
nbsp; DUMBLEDORE attempts to reach out of the portrait, but he can’t. He begins to cry but tries to hide it.

  But I had to meet you in the end . . . eleven years old, and you were so brave. So good. You walked uncomplainingly along the path that had been laid at your feet. Of course I loved you . . . and I knew that it would happen all over again . . . that where I loved, I would cause irreparable damage . . . I am no fit person to love . . . I have never loved without causing harm . . .

  Beat.

  HARRY

  You would have hurt me less if you had told me this, then.

  DUMBLEDORE (openly weeping now)

  I was blind. That is what love does. I couldn’t see that you needed to hear that this closed-up, tricky, dangerous old man . . . loved you . . .

  A pause. The two men are overcome with emotion.

  HARRY

  It isn’t true that I never complained.

  DUMBLEDORE

  Harry, there is never a perfect answer in this messy, emotional world. Perfection is beyond the reach of humankind, beyond the reach of magic. In every shining moment of happiness is that drop of poison: the knowledge that pain will come again. Be honest to those you love, show your pain. To suffer is as human as to breathe.

  HARRY

  You said that to me once before.

  DUMBLEDORE

  It is all I have to offer you tonight.

  He begins to walk away.

  HARRY

  Don’t go!

  DUMBLEDORE

  Those that we love never truly leave us, Harry. There are things that death cannot touch. Paint . . . and memory . . . and love.

  HARRY

  I loved you too, Dumbledore.

  DUMBLEDORE

  I know.

  He is gone. And HARRY is alone. DRACO enters.

  DRACO

  Did you know that in this other reality – the reality Scorpius saw into – I was Head of Magical Law Enforcement? Maybe this room will be mine soon enough. Are you okay?

  HARRY is consumed in his grief.

  HARRY

  Come in – I’ll give you the tour.

  DRACO walks hesitantly inside the room. He looks around distastefully.

  DRACO

  The thing is though – never really fancied being a Ministry man. Even as a child. My dad – it’s all he ever wanted – me, no.

  HARRY

  What did you want to do?

  DRACO

  Quidditch. But I wasn’t good enough. Mainly I wanted to be happy.

  HARRY nods. DRACO looks at him a second more.

  Sorry, I’m not very good at small talk, do you mind if we skip on to the serious business?

  HARRY

  Of course. What – serious – business?

  Beat.

  DRACO

  Do you think Theodore Nott had the only Time-Turner?

  HARRY

  What?

  DRACO

  The Time-Turner the Ministry seized was a prototype. Made of inexpensive metal. It does the job, sure. But only being able to go back in time for five minutes – that’s a serious flaw – it isn’t something you’d sell to true collectors of Dark Magic.

  HARRY realises what DRACO is saying.

  HARRY

  He was working for you?

  DRACO

  No. My father. He liked owning things that no one else had. The Ministry’s Time-Turners – thanks to Croaker – were always a little vanilla for him. He wanted the ability to go back further than an hour, he wanted the ability to travel back years. He’d never have used it, secretly I think he preferred a world without Voldemort. But yes, the Time-Turner was built for him.

  HARRY

  And did you keep it?

  DRACO reveals the Time-Turner.

  DRACO

  No five-minute problem, and it gleams like gold, just the way the Malfoys like it. You’re smiling.

  HARRY

  Hermione Granger. It was the reason she kept the first, the fear that there might be a second. Hanging on to this, you could have been sent to Azkaban.

  DRACO

  Consider the alternative – consider if people had known that I had the ability to travel in time. Consider the rumour that would have been given increased – credence.

  HARRY looks at DRACO, understanding him perfectly.

  HARRY

  Scorpius.

  DRACO

  We were capable of having children, but Astoria was frail. A blood malediction, a serious one. An ancestor was cursed . . . it showed up in her. You know how these things can resurface after generations . . .

  HARRY

  I’m sorry, Draco.

  DRACO

  I didn’t want to risk her health, I said it didn’t matter whether the Malfoy line died with me – whatever my father said. But Astoria – she didn’t want a baby for the Malfoy name, for pure blood or glory, but for us. Our child, Scorpius was born . . . it was the best day of both our lives, although it weakened Astoria considerably. We hid ourselves away, the three of us. I wanted to conserve her strength . . . and so the rumours started.

  HARRY

  I can’t imagine what that was like.

  DRACO

  Astoria always knew that she was not destined for old age. She wanted me to have somebody when she left, because . . . it is exceptionally lonely, being Draco Malfoy. I will always be suspected. There is no escaping the past. I never realised, though, that by hiding him away from this gossiping, judgemental world, I ensured that my son would emerge shrouded in worse suspicion than I ever endured.

  HARRY

  Love blinds. We have both tried to give our sons not what they needed, but what we needed. We’ve been so busy trying to rewrite our own pasts, we’ve blighted their present.

  DRACO

  Which is why you need this. I have been holding on to it, barely resisting using it, even though I would sell my soul for another minute with Astoria . . .

  HARRY

  Oh, Draco . . . we can’t. We can’t use it.

  DRACO looks up at HARRY, and for the first time – at the bottom of this dreadful pit – they look at each other as friends.

  DRACO

  We have to find them – if it takes centuries, we must find our sons . . .

  HARRY

  We have no idea where they are or when they are. Searching in time when you’ve no idea where in time to search, that’s a fool’s errand. No, love won’t do it and nor will a Time-Turner, I’m afraid. It’s up to our sons now – they’re the only ones who can save us.

  ACT FOUR SCENE FIVE

  GODRIC’S HOLLOW, OUTSIDE JAMES AND LILY POTTER’S HOUSE, 1981

  ALBUS

  We tell my granddad and grandma?

  SCORPIUS

  That they’ll never get to see their son grow up?

  ALBUS

  She’s strong enough – I know she is – you saw her.

  SCORPIUS

  She looked wonderful, Albus. And if I were you I’d be desperate to talk to her. But she needs to be able to beg Voldemort for Harry’s life, she needs to think he might die, and you’re the worst spoiler in the world that didn’t turn out to be true . . .

  ALBUS

  Dumbledore. Dumbledore’s alive. We get Dumbledore involved. We do what you did with Snape—

  SCORPIUS

  Can we risk him knowing your dad survives? That he has kids?

  ALBUS

  He’s Dumbledore! He can cope with anything!

  SCORPIUS

  Albus, there have been about a hundred books written on what Dumbledore knew, how he knew it or why he did what he did. But what’s undoubtedly true – what he did – he needs to do – and I’m not going to risk messing with it. I was able to ask for help because I was in an alternate reality. We aren’t. We’re in the past. We can’t fix time only to create more problems – if our adventures have taught us anything, they’ve taught us that. The dangers of talking to anyone – infecting time – are too great.

  ALBUS

&nb
sp; So we need to – talk to the future. We need to send Dad a message.

  SCORPIUS

  But we don’t have an owl that can fly through time. And he doesn’t have a Time-Turner.

  ALBUS

  We get a message to Dad. He’ll find a way to get back here. Even if he has to build a Time-Turner himself.

  SCORPIUS

  We send a memory – like a Pensieve – stand over him and send a message, hope he reaches for the memory at exactly the right moment. I mean, it’s unlikely, but . . . stand over the baby – and just repeatedly shout HELP. HELP. HELP. I mean, it might traumatise the baby slightly.

  ALBUS

  Only slightly.

  SCORPIUS

  A bit of trauma now is nothing compared to what’s happening . . . and maybe when he then thinks – later – he might remember the faces of us as we – shouted—

  ALBUS

  Help.

  SCORPIUS looks at ALBUS.

  SCORPIUS

  You’re right. It’s a terrible idea.

  ALBUS

  It’s one of your worst ideas ever.

  SCORPIUS

  Got it! We deliver it ourselves – we wait forty years – we deliver it—

  ALBUS

  Not a chance – once Delphi has set time the way she wants she’ll send armies to try and find us – kill us—

  SCORPIUS

  So we hide in a hole?

  ALBUS

  As pleasurable as it will be to hide in a hole with you for the next forty years . . . they’ll find us. And we’ll die and time will be stuck in the wrong position. No. We need something we can control, something we know he’ll get at exactly the right time. We need a . . .

  SCORPIUS

  There’s nothing. Still, if I had to choose a companion to be at the return of eternal darkness with, I’d choose you.

  ALBUS

  No offence, but I’d choose someone massive and really good at magic.

  LILY exits the house with BABY HARRY in a pram, she carefully puts a blanket on him.

  His blanket. She’s wrapping him in his blanket.

  SCORPIUS

  Well, it is a moderately cold day.

  ALBUS

  He always said – it’s the only thing he had from her. Look at the love with which she’s put it on him – I think he’d like to know about that – I wish I could tell him.

  SCORPIUS

  And I wish I could tell my dad – well, I’m not sure what. I think I’d like to tell him that I’m occasionally capable of more bravery than he might think I am.