They start to search. SCORPIUS/HARRY looks at his friend, concerned.
SCORPIUS/HARRY: Why didn’t you tell me?
ALBUS/RON: My dad says he wishes I weren’t his son. Hardly a conversation starter, is it?
SCORPIUS/HARRY tries to work out what to say.
SCORPIUS/HARRY: I know the — Voldemort thing isn’t — true — and — you know — but sometimes, I think I can see my dad thinking: How did I produce this?
ALBUS/RON: Still better than my dad. I’m pretty sure he spends most of his time thinking: How can I give him back?
DELPHI/HERMIONE tries to pull SCORPIUS/HARRY towards the bookshelves.
DELPHI/HERMIONE: Maybe if we could concentrate on the matter at hand.
SCORPIUS/HARRY: My point is, there’s a reason we’re friends, Albus — a reason we found each other, you know? And whatever this — adventure — is about . . .
Then he spots a book on the shelf that makes him frown.
Have you seen the books on these shelves? There are some serious books here. Banned books. Cursed books.
ALBUS/RON: How to distract Scorpius from difficult emotional issues. Take him to a library.
SCORPIUS/HARRY: All the books from the Restricted Section and then some. Magick Moste Evile. Fifteenth-Century Fiends. Sonnets of a Sorcerer — that’s not even allowed in Hogwarts!
ALBUS/RON: Shadows and Spirits. The Nightshade Guide to Necromancy.
DELPHI/HERMIONE: They are quite something, aren’t they . . .
ALBUS/RON: The True History of the Opal Fire. The Imperius Curse and How to Abuse It.
SCORPIUS/HARRY: And lookee here. Whoa. My Eyes and How to See Past Them by Sybill Trelawney. A book on Divination. Hermione Granger hates Divination. This is fascinating. This is a find . . .
He pulls the book from the shelf. And it falls open. And speaks.
BOOK: The first is the fourth, a disappointing mark.
You’ll find it in parked but not in park.
SCORPIUS/HARRY: Okay. A book that talks. Bit weird.
BOOK: The second is the less fair of those that walk on two legs.
Grubby, hairy, a disease of the egg.
And the third is both a mountain to climb and a route to take.
ALBUS/RON: It’s a riddle. It’s giving us a riddle.
BOOK: A turn in the city, a glide through a lake.
DELPHI/HERMIONE: What have you done?
SCORPIUS/HARRY: I, uh, I opened a book. Something which has — in all my years on this planet — never been a particularly dangerous activity.
The books reach out and grab ALBUS/RON. He only just eludes their grasp.
ALBUS/RON: What is that?
DELPHI/HERMIONE: She’s weaponized it. She’s weaponized her library. This is where the Time-Turner will be. Solve the riddle and we’ll find it.
ALBUS/RON: The first is the fourth. You’ll find it in parked, not in park. Ed — de — The books start to try to swallow DELPHI/HERMIONE.
SCORPIUS/HARRY: The second is a disease of the egg, the less fair of those who walk on two legs . . .
DELPHI/HERMIONE (effusively): Men! De-men . . . tors. We need to find a book on dementors. (The bookcase pulls her in.) Albus!
ALBUS/RON: Delphi! What is going on?
SCORPIUS/HARRY: Concentrate, Albus. Do what she said. Find a book on dementors and be very careful.
ALBUS/RON: Here. Dominating Dementors: A True History of Azkaban.
The book flies open and swings dangerously at SCORPIUS/HARRY, who has to dodge out of the way. He falls hard against a bookcase which attempts to consume him.
BOOK: I was born in a cage
But smashed it with rage
The Gaunt inside me
Riddled me free
Of that which would stop me to be.
ALBUS/RON: Voldemort.
DELPHI plunges through the books, back as herself.
DELPHI: Work faster!
She’s pulled back in, screaming.
ALBUS/RON: Delphi! Delphi!
He tries to grab her hand, but she’s gone.
SCORPIUS/HARRY: She’d become herself again — did you notice?
ALBUS/RON: No! Because I was more worried about her being eaten by a bookcase! Find. Something. Anything on him.
He finds a book.
The Heir of Slytherin? Do you think?
He pulls the book from the shelf, it pulls back, ALBUS/RON is consumed by the bookcase.
SCORPIUS/HARRY: Albus? Albus!!
But ALBUS/RON is gone.
Okay. Not that. Voldemort. Voldemort. Voldemort.
He scans the shelves.
Marvolo: The Truth, this must be . . .
He pulls it open. Again it swings away, revealing a splintering light, and a deeper voice than previously heard.
BOOK: I am the creature you have not seen.
I am you. I am me. The echo unforeseen.
Sometimes in front, sometimes behind,
A constant companion, for we are entwined.
ALBUS emerges from the books. As himself again.
SCORPIUS/HARRY: Albus . . .
He tries to grab him.
ALBUS: No. Just — THIIIIIIINK.
ALBUS is violently pulled back into the bookcase.
SCORPIUS/HARRY: But I can’t . . . an invisible echo, what is that? The only thing I’m good at is thinking and when I need to think — I can’t.
The books pull him inside them; he’s powerless. This is terrifying.
There’s silence.