Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Harry Potter, #8)

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: Pleasant. That’s a pleasant and not scary way to wake up.

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.