Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Read online

Page 13


  HERMIONE: And what does it say?

  HARRY: How do I . . . ? I haven't been able to understand Parseltongue since Voldemort died.

  HERMIONE: And nor has your scar hurt.

  HARRY looks at HERMIONE.

  HARRY: It says "Welcome, Augurey." I think I need to tell it to open . . .

  DRACO: Then do it.

  HARRY shuts his eyes. He speaks in Parseltongue.

  The room transforms around them, becoming darker and more desperate. A writhing mass of painted snakes emerges on all the walls.

  And on them, written in fluorescent paint, a prophecy.

  What is this?

  RON: "When spares are spared, when time is turned, when unseen children murder their fathers: Then will the Dark Lord return."

  GINNY: A prophecy. A new prophecy.

  HERMIONE: Cedric -- Cedric was called a spare.

  RON: When time is turned -- she has that Time-Turner, doesn't she?

  Their faces sink.

  HERMIONE: She must do.

  RON: But why does she need Scorpius or Albus?

  HARRY: Because I'm a parent -- who hasn't seen his child. Hasn't understood his child.

  DRACO: Who is she? To be so obsessed with all this?

  GINNY: I think I've got the answer to that.

  They all turn to her. She points up . . . Their collective faces sink further and fill with fear.

  Words are revealed on all the walls of the auditorium -- dangerous words, horrible words.

  "I will rebirth the Dark. I will bring my father back."

  RON: No. She can't . . .

  HERMIONE: How is it even -- possible?

  DRACO: Voldemort had a daughter?

  They look up, terrified. GINNY takes HARRY's hand.

  HARRY: No, no, no. Not that. Anything but that.

  Cut to black.

  ACT FOUR, SCENE ONE

  MINISTRY OF MAGIC, GRAND MEETING ROOM

  Wizards and witches from all over cram into the grand meeting room. HERMIONE walks onto a hastily made stage. She raises her hand for silence. Silence falls. She's surprised at the lack of effort it took. She looks around herself.

  HERMIONE: Thank you. I'm so pleased so many of you were able to make my -- second -- Extraordinary General Meeting. I've got some things to say -- I ask that we deal with questions -- and there will be a lot of questions -- after I speak.

  As many of you know, a body has been found at Hogwarts. His name was Craig Bowker. He was a good boy. We have no firm information who was responsible for the act but yesterday we searched St. Oswald's. A room there revealed two things -- one, a prophecy that promised -- the return of darkness -- two, written on the ceiling, a proclamation -- that the Dark Lord had a -- that Voldemort had a child.

  The news reverberates around the room.

  We don't know the full details. We're only just investigating -- questioning those with a Death Eater connection . . . And as yet no record has been found either of the child or of the prophecy -- but, it does look like there's some truth to it. This child was kept hidden from the wizarding world, and now she's -- well now she's . . .

  PROFESSOR McGONAGALL: She? A daughter? He had a daughter?

  HERMIONE: Yes. A daughter.

  PROFESSOR McGONAGALL: And is she now in custody?

  HARRY: Professor, she did ask for no questions.

  HERMIONE: It's fine, Harry. No, Professor, that's where this gets worse. I'm afraid we've no means of taking her into custody. Or indeed, stopping her doing anything. She's out of our reach.

  PROFESSOR McGONAGALL: We can't -- look for her?

  HERMIONE: We have good reason to believe -- she's hidden herself -- in time.

  PROFESSOR McGONAGALL: Of all the reckless stupid things, you kept the Time-Turner even now?

  HERMIONE: Professor, I assure you --

  PROFESSOR McGONAGALL: Shame on you, Hermione Granger.

  HERMIONE flinches in the face of the anger.

  HARRY: No, she doesn't deserve that. You have a right to be angry. You all do. But this is not all Hermione's fault. We don't know how the witch got hold of the Time-Turner. Whether my son gave it to her.

  GINNY: Whether our son gave it her. Or whether it was stolen from him.

  GINNY joins HARRY on the stage.

  PROFESSOR McGONAGALL: Your solidarity is admirable, but it doesn't make your negligence negligible.

  DRACO: Then it's a negligence I too should face.

  DRACO walks up to the stage and stands beside GINNY. This is almost a Spartacus moment. There are gasps.

  Hermione and Harry have done nothing wrong but try and protect us all. If they're guilty then I am too.

  HERMIONE looks across at her cohort -- moved. RON joins them on the stage.

  RON: Just to say -- I didn't know about much of it so can't take responsibility -- and I'm pretty sure my kids had nothing to do with it -- but if this lot are standing up here then so am I.

  GINNY: No one can know where they are -- whether they're together or apart. I trust that our sons will be doing all they can to stop her, but . . .

  HERMIONE: We haven't given up. We've gone to the giants. The trolls. Everyone we can find. The Aurors are out flying, searching, talking to those who know secrets, following those who won't reveal secrets.

  HARRY: But there is one truth we can't escape: That somewhere in our past a witch is trying to rewrite everything we ever knew -- and all we can do is wait -- wait for the moment she either succeeds or fails.

  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 STATIONMASTER, apprehensively.

  ALBUS: One of us should talk to him, don't you think?

  SCORPIUS: Hello, Mr. Stationmaster. 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.

  STATIONMASTER (in very strong Scots): Ye ken th' auld reekie train is running late, boys?

  SCORPIUS: Sorry?

  STATIONMASTER: 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 STATIONMASTER.

  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 30th October, 1981. Day before Hallows' Eve, thirty-nine years ago. But -- why is she? Oh.

  SCORPIUS's face falls as he realizes.

  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 brin
g 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 center 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.

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

  HARRY: Professor Dumbledore, in my office, I'm honored. 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. Marshaling 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 . . .

  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.

  A 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 realizes 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, th
e 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 rumor 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 pureblood 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 rumors 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 realized, though, that by hiding him away from this gossiping, judgmental 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?

 

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