Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J. K. Rowling
HERMIONE: Minerva. (There is an intake of breath.) Professor McGonagall --
PROFESSOR McGONAGALL: Your children didn't exist!
HERMIONE has no reply to that.
This happened in my school, under my watch. After all that Dumbledore did, I couldn't live with myself . . .
HERMIONE: I know.
PROFESSOR McGONAGALL (composes herself for a moment): Your intentions to save Cedric were honorable, if misguided. And it does sound as if you were brave, Scorpius, and you, Albus, but the lesson even your father sometimes failed to heed is that bravery doesn't forgive stupidity. Always think. Think what's possible. A world controlled by Voldemort is --
SCORPIUS: A horrific world.
PROFESSOR McGONAGALL: You are so young. (She looks at HARRY, DRACO, GINNY, and HERMIONE.) You're all so young. You have no idea how dark the wizarding wars got. You were -- reckless -- with the world some people -- some very dear friends of mine and yours -- sacrificed a huge amount to create and sustain.
ALBUS: Yes, Professor.
SCORPIUS: Yes, Professor.
PROFESSOR McGONAGALL: Go on. Get out. The lot of you. And find me that Time-Turner.
ACT THREE, SCENE ELEVEN
HOGWARTS, SLYTHERIN DORMITORY
ALBUS is sitting in his room. HARRY enters and looks at his son -- full of anger, but cautious to not let it spill.
HARRY: Thanks for letting me come up.
ALBUS turns, he nods at his dad. He's being cautious too.
No luck, as yet, with the Time-Turner searching. They're negotiating with the Merpeople to dredge the lake.
He sits down uncomfortably.
This is a nice room.
ALBUS: Green is a soothing color, isn't it? I mean Gryffindor rooms are all well and good but the trouble with red is -- it is said to send you a little mad -- not that I'm casting aspersions . . .
HARRY: Can you explain why you tried to do this?
ALBUS: I thought I could -- change things. I thought Cedric -- it's unfair.
HARRY: Of course it's unfair, Albus, don't you think I know that? I was there. I saw him die. But to do this . . . to risk all this . . .
ALBUS: I know.
HARRY (failing to contain his anger): If you were trying to do as I did, you went the wrong way about it. I didn't volunteer for adventure, I was forced into it. You did something really reckless -- something really stupid and dangerous -- something that could have destroyed everything --
ALBUS: I know. Okay. I know.
Pause. ALBUS wipes away a tear, HARRY notices it and takes a breath. He pulls himself back from the brink.
HARRY: Well, I was wrong too -- to think Scorpius was Voldemort's son. He wasn't a black cloud.
ALBUS: No.
HARRY: And I've locked away the map. You won't see it again. Your mum left your room exactly as it was when you ran away -- you know that? Wouldn't let me go in -- wouldn't let anyone go in -- you really scared her . . . And me.
ALBUS: Really scared you?
HARRY: Yes.
ALBUS: I thought Harry Potter wasn't afraid of anything?
HARRY: Is that how I make you feel?
ALBUS looks at his dad, trying to figure him out.
ALBUS: I don't think Scorpius said, but when we returned after failing to fix the first task, I was suddenly in Gryffindor House. Nothing was better between us then either -- so -- the fact that I'm in Slytherin -- that's not the reason for our problems. It's not just about that.
HARRY: No. I know. It's not just about that.
HARRY looks at ALBUS.
Are you okay, Albus?
ALBUS: No.
HARRY: No. Nor me.
ACT THREE, SCENE TWELVE
DREAM, GODRIC'S HOLLOW, GRAVEYARD
YOUNG HARRY stands looking at a gravestone covered in bunches of flowers. He has a small bunch of flowers in his hand.
AUNT PETUNIA: Go on then, lay down your grotty little flowers and then let's go. I already hate this poxy little village, I don't know why I even had the thought -- Godric's Hollow, Godless Hollow, more like, the place is clearly a hive of filth -- go on, chop-chop.
He approaches the grave. He stands a moment more.
Now, Harry . . . I don't have time for this. Duddy has his Cubs tonight and you know he hates to be late.
YOUNG HARRY: Aunt Petunia. We're their last living relatives, right?
AUNT PETUNIA: Yes. You and I. Yes.
YOUNG HARRY: And -- they weren't popular? You said they didn't have any friends?
AUNT PETUNIA: Lily tried -- bless her -- she tried -- it wasn't her fault, but she repelled people -- by her very nature. It was her intensity, it was her manner, it was her -- way. And your father -- obnoxious man -- extraordinarily obnoxious. No friends. Neither of them.
YOUNG HARRY: So my question is -- why are there so many flowers? Why are there flowers all over their grave?
AUNT PETUNIA looks around, she sees all the flowers as if for the first time and it moves her hugely. She approaches and then sits by her sister's grave, trying hard to fight the emotions as they come to her but succumbing all the same.
AUNT PETUNIA: Oh. Yes. Well, I suppose there are a -- few. Must have blown over from the other graves. Or someone's playing a trick. Yes, I think that's most likely, some young rapscallion with too much time on his hands has gone around collecting flowers from all the other graves and deposited them here --
YOUNG HARRY: But they're all marked with their names . . . "Lily and James, what you did, we will never forget," "Lily and James, your sacrifice . . ."
VOLDEMORT: I smell guilt, there is a stench of guilt upon the air.
AUNT PETUNIA (to YOUNG HARRY): Get away. Get away from there.
She pulls him back. VOLDEMORT's hand rises into the air above the Potters' gravestone, the rest of him rises after. We don't see his face but his body provides a jagged, horrific shape.
I knew it. This place is dangerous. The sooner we leave Godric's Hollow the better.
YOUNG HARRY is pulled from the stage, but turns to face VOLDEMORT.
VOLDEMORT: Do you still see with my eyes, Harry Potter?
YOUNG HARRY exits, disturbed, as ALBUS bursts from within VOLDEMORT's cloak. He reaches out a desperate hand towards his dad.
ALBUS: Dad . . . Dad . . .
There are some words spoken in Parseltongue.
He's coming. He's coming. He's coming.
And then a scream.
And then, right from the back of the room, whispering around everyone.
Words said with an unmistakable voice. The voice of VOLDEMORT . . .
Haaarry Pottttter.
ACT THREE, SCENE THIRTEEN
HARRY AND GINNY POTTER'S HOUSE, KITCHEN
HARRY is in a horrible state. Petrified by what he thinks his dreams are telling him.
GINNY: Harry? Harry? What is it? You were screaming . . .
HARRY: They haven't stopped. The dreams.
GINNY: They weren't likely to stop immediately. It's been a stressful time and --
HARRY: But I was never in Godric's Hollow with Petunia. This doesn't --
GINNY: Harry, you're really scaring me.
HARRY: He's still here, Ginny.
GINNY: Who's still here?
HARRY: Voldemort. I saw Voldemort and Albus.
GINNY: And Albus . . . ?
HARRY: He said -- Voldemort said -- "I smell guilt, there is a stench of guilt upon the air." He was talking to me.
HARRY looks at her. He touches his scar. Her face falls.
GINNY: Harry, is Albus still in danger?
HARRY's face grows white.
HARRY: I think we all are.
ACT THREE, SCENE FOURTEEN
HOGWARTS, SLYTHERIN DORMITORY
SCORPIUS leans ominously over ALBUS's headboard.
SCORPIUS: Albus . . . Psst . . . Albus.
ALBUS doesn't wake.
ALBUS!
ALBUS wakes with a shock. SCORPIUS laughs.
ALBUS: Plea
SCORPIUS: You know it's the strangest of things, but ever since being in the scariest place imaginable I'm pretty much good with fear. I am -- Scorpius the Dreadless. I am -- Malfoy the Unanxious.
ALBUS: Good.
SCORPIUS: I mean, normally, being in lockdown, being in constant detention, it'd break me, but now -- what's the worst they can do? Bring back Moldy Voldy and have him torture me? Nope.
ALBUS: You're scary when you're in a good mood, you know that?
SCORPIUS: When Rose came up to me today in Potions and called me Bread Head I almost hugged her. No, there's no almost about it, I actually tried to hug her, and then she kicked me in the shin.
ALBUS: I'm not sure being fearless is going to be good for your health.
SCORPIUS looks at ALBUS, his face grows more contemplative.
SCORPIUS: You don't know how good it is to be back here, Albus. I hated it there.
ALBUS: Apart from the Polly Chapman fancying you bits.
SCORPIUS: Cedric was a different person entirely -- dark, dangerous. My dad -- doing anything they wanted him to. And me? I discovered another Scorpius, you know? Entitled, angry, mean -- people were frightened of me. It feels like we were all tested and we all -- failed.
ALBUS: But you changed things. You had a chance and you changed time back. Changed yourself back.
SCORPIUS: Only because I knew what I should be.
ALBUS digests this.
ALBUS: Do you think I've been tested too? I have, haven't I?
SCORPIUS: No. Not yet.
ALBUS: You're wrong. The stupid thing wasn't going back once -- anyone can make that mistake -- the stupid thing was being arrogant enough to go back twice.
SCORPIUS: We both went back, Albus.
ALBUS: And why was I so determined to do this? Cedric? Really? No. I had something to prove. My dad's right -- he didn't volunteer for adventure -- me, this, it's all my fault--and if it wasn't for you everything could have gone Dark.
SCORPIUS: But it didn't. And you're to thank for that as much as me. When the dementors were -- inside my head -- Severus Snape told me to think of you. You may not have been there, Albus, but you were fighting -- fighting alongside me.
ALBUS nods. Touched by this.
And saving Cedric -- that wasn't such a bad idea -- not in my head, anyway -- though, you know, right -- that we definitely can't try again.
ALBUS: Yes. I do. I do know that.
SCORPIUS: Good. Then you can help me destroy this.
SCORPIUS reveals the Time-Turner to ALBUS.
ALBUS: I'm pretty sure you told everyone that was on the bottom of a lake.
SCORPIUS: Turns out Malfoy the Unanxious is a pretty good liar.
ALBUS: Scorpius . . . We should tell someone about this . . .
SCORPIUS: Who? The Ministry kept it before, do you really trust them not to keep it again? Only you and I have experienced how dangerous this is, that means you and I have to destroy it. No one can do what we did, Albus. No one. No, (slightly grandly) it's time that time-turning became a thing of the past.
ALBUS: You're quite proud of that phrase, aren't you?
SCORPIUS: Been working on it all day.
ACT THREE, SCENE FIFTEEN
HOGWARTS, SLYTHERIN DORMITORY
HARRY and GINNY move quickly through the dormitory. CRAIG BOWKER JR. trails after them.
CRAIG BOWKER JR.: Can I repeat again? This is against the rules and it's the middle of the night.
HARRY: I need to find my son.
CRAIG BOWKER JR.: I know who you are, Mr. Potter, but even you must understand that it's against school covenant for parents or professors to enter a House quarters without express permission from . . .
PROFESSOR McGONAGALL charges in behind them.
PROFESSOR McGONAGALL: Please don't be tiresome, Craig.
HARRY: You got our message? Good.
CRAIG BOWKER JR. (shocked): Headmistress. I'm -- I was just --
HARRY pulls open a bed-curtain.
PROFESSOR McGONAGALL: He's gone?
HARRY: Yes.
PROFESSOR McGONAGALL: And young Malfoy?
GINNY pulls open another.
GINNY: Oh no.
PROFESSOR McGONAGALL: Then let's turn this school upside down. Craig, we've work to do . . .
GINNY and HARRY stay, looking at the bed.
GINNY: Haven't we been here before?
HARRY: Something feels even worse this time.
GINNY looks at her husband, full of fear.
GINNY: You spoke to him earlier?
HARRY: Yes.
GINNY: You came to his dorm and talked to him?
HARRY: You know I did.
GINNY: What did you say to our son, Harry?
HARRY can hear the accusation in her voice.
HARRY: I tried to be honest like you said -- I didn't say anything.
GINNY: And you controlled yourself? How heated did it get?
HARRY: . . . I don't think I . . . You think I've scared him away again?
GINNY: I can forgive you for one mistake, Harry, maybe even two, but the more mistakes you make, the harder to forgive you it becomes.
ACT THREE, SCENE SIXTEEN
HOGWARTS, OWLERY
SCORPIUS and ALBUS emerge onto a roof bathed in silver light. There's soft hooting all around them.
SCORPIUS: So I think a simple Confringo.
ALBUS: Definitely not. For something like this you need Expulso.
SCORPIUS: Expulso? Expulso and we'll be clearing bits of Time-Turner from this owlery for days.
ALBUS: Bombarda?
SCORPIUS: And wake up everyone in Hogwarts? Maybe Stupefy. They were originally destroyed using Stupefy . . .
ALBUS: Exactly, it's been done before -- let's do something new, something fun.
SCORPIUS: Fun? Look, many wizards overlook the importance of choosing the right spell, but this really matters. I think it's a much-underestimated part of modern witchcraft.
DELPHI: "A much-underestimated part of modern witchcraft" -- you two are the greatest, you know that?
SCORPIUS looks up, surprised to see DELPHI has emerged behind them.
SCORPIUS: Wow. You're . . . um . . . What are you doing here?
ALBUS: It felt important to send an owl -- let her know what we're doing, you know?
SCORPIUS looks at his friend accusingly.
This concerns her too.
SCORPIUS thinks, and then nods, accepting this.
DELPHI: What concerns me? What's this about?
ALBUS gets out the Time-Turner.
ALBUS: We need to destroy the Time-Turner. The things Scorpius saw after the second task . . . I'm so sorry. We can't risk going back again. We can't save your cousin.
DELPHI looks at it and then at them both.
DELPHI: Your owl said so little . . .
ALBUS: Imagine the worst possible world, and then double it. People being tortured, dementors everywhere, a despotic Voldemort, my dad dead, me never born, the world surrounded by Dark Magic -- we just, we can't allow that to happen.
DELPHI hesitates. And then her face breaks.
DELPHI: Voldemort ruled? He was alive?
SCORPIUS: He ruled everything. It was terrible.
DELPHI: Because of what we did?
SCORPIUS: Humiliating Cedric turned him into a very angry young man, and then he became a Death Eater and -- and -- it all went wrong. Really wrong.
DELPHI looks at SCORPIUS's face carefully. Her face sinks.
DELPHI: A Death Eater?
SCORPIUS: And a murderer. He killed Professor Longbottom.
DELPHI: Then -- of course -- we need to destroy it.
ALBUS: You understand?
DELPHI: I'll go further than that -- I'll say Cedric would have understood. We'll destroy it together, and then we'll go to my uncle. Explain the situation.
ALBUS: Thank you.
DELPHI smiles at them sadly, and then takes the Time-Turn
Oh, nice mark.
DELPHI: What?
DELPHI's cloak has loosened. An Augurey tattoo is visible on the back of her neck.
ALBUS: On your back. I hadn't noticed it before. The wings. Is that what the Muggles call a tattoo?
DELPHI: Oh. Yes. Well, it's an Augurey.
SCORPIUS: An Augurey?
DELPHI: Haven't you met them in Care of Magical Creatures? They're sinister-looking black birds that cry when rain's coming. Wizards used to believe that the Augurey's cry foretold death. When I was growing up my guardian kept one in a cage.
SCORPIUS: Your . . . guardian?
DELPHI looks at SCORPIUS, now she has the Time-Turner she's enjoying the game of this.
DELPHI: She used to say it was crying because it could see I was going to come to a sticky end. She didn't like me much. Euphemia Rowle . . . she only took me in for the gold.
ALBUS: Why would you want a tattoo of her bird, then?
DELPHI: It reminds me that the future is mine to make.
ALBUS: Cool. I might get an Augurey tattoo.
SCORPIUS: The Rowles were pretty extreme Death Eaters.
A thousand thoughts whir inside SCORPIUS's head.
ALBUS: Come on, let's get destroying . . . Confringo? Stupefy? Bombarda? Which would you use?
SCORPIUS: Give it back. Give us back the Time-Turner.
DELPHI: What?
ALBUS: Scorpius? What are you doing?
SCORPIUS: I don't believe you ever were ill. Why didn't you come to Hogwarts? Why are you here now?
DELPHI: I'm trying to bring my cousin back!
SCORPIUS: They called you the Augurey. In -- the other world -- they called you the Augurey.
A slow smile grows on DELPHI's face.
DELPHI: The Augurey? I rather like that.
ALBUS: Delphi?
She's too quick. Leveling her wand, she repels SCORPIUS, and she is far stronger. SCORPIUS tries to keep her back, but she quickly overpowers him.
DELPHI: Fulgari!
SCORPIUS's arms are bound in vicious, luminous cords.
SCORPIUS: Albus. Run!
ALBUS looks around, bewildered. And then starts to run.
DELPHI: Fulgari!
ALBUS is propelled to the floor, his hands tied by the same brutal binding.
And that is the first spell I've had to use on you. I thought I'd have to use plenty more. But you're far easier to control than Amos -- children, particularly male children, are so naturally pliant, aren't they? Now, let's sort this mess out once and for all . . .
ALBUS: But why? But what? But who are you?