Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (4 page)

ALBUS:
I thought you’d send an owl . . .

SCORPIUS:
I couldn’t work out what to say.

ALBUS:
And now I don’t know what to say . . .

SCORPIUS:
Say nothing.

ALBUS:
Is there anything . . . ?

SCORPIUS:
Come to the funeral.

ALBUS:
Of course.

SCORPIUS:
And be my good friend.

And suddenly the
SORTING HAT
is center stage and we’re back in the Great Hall.

SORTING HAT:

Are you afraid of what you’ll hear?

Afraid I’ll speak the name you fear?

Not Slytherin! Not Gryffindor!

Not Hufflepuff! Not Ravenclaw!

Don’t worry, child, I know my job,

You’ll learn to laugh, if first you sob.

Lily Potter. GRYFFINDOR.

LILY:
Yes!

ALBUS:
Great.

SCORPIUS:
Did you really think she’d come to us? Potters don’t belong in Slytherin.

ALBUS:
This one does.

As he tries to melt into the background, the other students laugh. He looks up at them all.

I didn’t choose, you know that? I didn’t choose to be his son.

MINISTRY OF MAGIC, HARRY’S OFFICE

HERMIONE
sits with piles of paper in front of her in
HARRY
’s messy office. She is slowly sorting through it all.
HARRY
enters in a rush. He is bleeding from a graze on his cheek.

HERMIONE:
How did it go?

HARRY:
It was true.

HERMIONE:
Theodore Nott?

HARRY:
In custody.

HERMIONE:
And the Time-Turner itself?

HARRY
reveals the Time-Turner. It shines out alluringly.

Is it genuine? Does it work? It’s not just an hour-reversal turner — it goes back further?

HARRY:
We don’t know anything yet. I wanted to try it out there and then but wiser heads prevailed.

HERMIONE:
Well, now we have it.

HARRY:
And you’re sure you want to keep it?

HERMIONE:
I don’t think we’ve a choice. Look at it. It’s entirely different to the Time-Turner I had.

HARRY
(dry)
:
Apparently wizardry has moved on since we were kids.

HERMIONE:
You’re bleeding.

HARRY
checks his face in the mirror. He dabs at the wound with his robes.

Don’t worry, it’ll go with the scar.

HARRY
(with a grin)
:
What you doing in my office, Hermione?

HERMIONE:
I was anxious to hear about Theodore Nott and — thought I’d check whether you’d kept your promise and were on top of your
paperwork.

HARRY:
Ah. Turns out I’m not.

HERMIONE:
No. You’re not. Harry, how can you get any work done in this chaos?

HARRY
waves his wand and the papers and books transform into neat piles.
HARRY
smiles.

HARRY:
No longer chaotic.

HERMIONE:
But still ignored. You know, there’s some interesting stuff in here . . . There are mountain trolls riding Graphorns
through Hungary, there are giants with winged tattoos on their backs walking through the Greek Seas, and the werewolves have gone entirely underground —

HARRY:
Great, let’s get out there. I’ll get the team together.

HERMIONE:
Harry, I get it. Paperwork’s boring . . .

HARRY:
Not for you.

HERMIONE:
I’m busy enough with my own. These are people and beasts that fought alongside Voldemort in the great wizarding wars. These are allies
of darkness. This — combined with what we have just unearthed at Theodore Nott’s — could mean something. But if the Head of Magical Law Enforcement isn’t reading his files
—

HARRY:
But I don’t need to read it — I’m out there, hearing about it. Theodore Nott — it was me who heard the rumors about the
Time-Turner and me who acted upon it. You really don’t need to tell me off.

HERMIONE
looks at
HARRY
— this is tricky.

HERMIONE:
Do you fancy a toffee? Don’t tell Ron.

HARRY:
You’re changing the subject.

HERMIONE:
I truly am. Toffee?

HARRY:
Can’t. We’re off sugar at the moment.
(Beat.)
You know, you can get addicted to that stuff?

HERMIONE:
What can I say? My parents were dentists, I was bound to rebel at some point. Forty is leaving it a little late, but . . .
You’ve just done a brilliant thing. You’re certainly not being told off — I just need you to look at your paperwork every now and again, that’s all. Consider this a gentle
— nudge — from
the Minister for Magic
.

HARRY
hears the implication in her emphasis, he nods.

How’s Ginny? How’s Albus?

HARRY:
It seems I’m as good at fatherhood as I am at paperwork. How’s Rose? How’s Hugo?

HERMIONE
(with a grin)
:
You know, Ron says he thinks I see more of my secretary, Ethel,
(she indicates off)
than
him. Do you think there’s a point where we made a choice — parent of the year or Ministry official of the year? Go on. Go home to your family, Harry, the Hogwarts Express is about to
depart for another year — enjoy the time you’ve got left — and then come back here with a fresh head and get these files read.

HARRY:
You really think this could all mean something?

HERMIONE
(with a smile)
:
It could do. But if it does, we’ll find a way to fight it, Harry. We always have.

She smiles once more, pops a toffee in her mouth, and leaves the office.
HARRY
is left alone. He packs his bag. He walks out of the office and down
a corridor. The weight of the world upon his shoulders.

He walks, tired, into a telephone box. He dials 62442.

TELEPHONE BOX:
Farewell, Harry Potter.

He ascends away from the Ministry of Magic.

HARRY AND GINNY POTTER’S HOUSE

ALBUS
can’t sleep. He is sitting at the top of the stairs. He hears voices below him. We hear
HARRY
’s voice
before he’s revealed. An elderly man in a wheelchair is with him,
AMOS DIGGORY
.

HARRY:
Amos, I understand, I really do — but I’m only just home and —

AMOS:
I’ve tried to make appointments at the Ministry. They say, “Ah, Mr. Diggory, we have an appointment for you, let’s see, in two
months.” I wait. Very patiently.

HARRY:
—and coming to my house in the middle of the night — when my kids are just getting ready for their new year at school —
it’s not right.

AMOS:
Two months pass, I receive an owl, “Mr. Diggory, I’m awfully sorry, but Mr. Potter has been called away on urgent business,
we’re going to have to shift things around a little, are you available for an appointment in, let’s see, in two months’ time.” And then it repeats again, and
again . . . You’re shutting me out.

HARRY:
Of course I’m not. It’s just, I’m afraid, as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement I’m afraid I’m
responsible —

AMOS:
There’s plenty you’re responsible for.

HARRY:
Sorry?

AMOS:
My son, Cedric, you do remember Cedric, don’t you?

HARRY
(remembering Cedric hurts him)
:
Yes, I remember your son. His loss —

AMOS:
Voldemort wanted you! Not my son! You told me yourself, the words he said were, “Kill the spare.” The spare. My son, my beautiful
son, was a spare.

HARRY:
Mr. Diggory, as you know, I sympathize with your efforts to memorialize Cedric, but —

AMOS:
A memorial? I am not interested in a memorial — not anymore. I am an old man — an old dying man — and I am here to ask you
— beg you — to help me get him back.

HARRY
looks up, astonished.

HARRY:
Get him back? Amos, that’s not possible.

AMOS:
The Ministry has a Time-Turner, does it not?

HARRY:
The Time-Turners were all destroyed.

AMOS:
The reason I’m here with such urgency is I’ve just heard rumor — strong rumor — that the Ministry seized an illegal
Time-Turner from Theodore Nott and has kept it. For investigation. Let me use that Time-Turner. Let me have my son back.

There’s a long, deadly pause.
HARRY
is finding this extremely difficult. We watch as
ALBUS
moves closer,
listening.

HARRY:
Amos, playing with time? You know we can’t do that.

AMOS:
How many people have died for the Boy Who Lived? I’m asking you to save one of them.

This hurts
HARRY
. He thinks, his face hardens.

HARRY:
Whatever you’ve heard, the Theodore Nott story is a fiction, Amos, I’m sorry.

DELPHI:
Hello.

ALBUS
jumps a mile as
DELPHI
— a twenty-something, determined-looking woman — is revealed, looking through the
stairs at him.

Oh. Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle. I used to be a big stair-listener myself. Sitting there. Waiting for someone to say something the tiniest bit interesting.

ALBUS:
Who are you? Because this is sort of my house and . . .

DELPHI:
I’m a thief, of course. I’m about to steal everything you own. Give me your gold, your wand, and your Chocolate Frogs!
(She
looks fierce and then smiles.)
Either that or I’m Delphini Diggory.
(She ascends the stairs and sticks out a hand.)
Delphi. I look after him — Amos — well, I try.
(She indicates
AMOS
.)
And you are?

ALBUS
(rueful grin)
:
Albus.

DELPHI:
Of course! Albus Potter! So Harry is your dad? That’s a bit wow, isn’t it?

ALBUS:
Not really.

DELPHI:
Ah. Have I just put my foot in it? It’s what they used to say about me at school. Delphini Diggory — there isn’t a hole she
couldn’t dig herself into.

ALBUS:
They do all sorts with my name too.

Pause. She looks at him carefully.

AMOS:
Delphi.

She makes to depart and then hesitates. She smiles at
ALBUS
.

DELPHI:
We don’t choose who we’re related to. Amos . . . isn’t just my patient, he’s my uncle, it’s part
of the reason I took the job at Upper Flagley. But that’s made it difficult. It’s tough to live with people stuck in the past, isn’t it?

AMOS:
Delphi!

ALBUS:
Upper Flagley?

DELPHI:
St. Oswald’s Home for Old Witches and Wizards. Come see us sometime. If you like.

AMOS:
DELPHI!

She smiles and then trips as she travels down the stairs. She enters the room with
AMOS
and
HARRY
in it.
ALBUS
watches her.

DELPHI:
Yes, Uncle?

AMOS:
Meet the once-great Harry Potter, now a stone-cold Ministry man. I will leave you in peace, sir. If peace is the right word for it. Delphi, my
chair . . .