Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

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.

Then BANG — a shower of books are released from the bookcase — and

SCORPIUS

reemerges. Smashing the books aside.

SCORPIUS: No! You don’t! Sybill Trelawney. No!!!!

He looks around, sunk but full of energy.

This is all wrong. Albus? Can you hear me? All this for a frigging Time-Turner. Think, Scorpius. Think.

Books try and grab him.