Harry potter and the Cursed Child

Plot/ Summary

Part 1

Act I

Nineteen years after Voldemort's defeat, Harry Potter is the Head of Magical Law Enforcement

and has three children with Ginny Weasley: James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna.

Hermione Granger, now Minister of Magic, has married Ron Weasley – who has inherited

Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes – and has two children: Rose and Hugo, who go by the double

surname Granger-Weasley.

At King's Cross Station, Albus and Rose board the Hogwarts Express to start their first year at

Hogwarts. To Rose's disapproval, and in a scene mirroring Harry's and Ron's first meeting on the

train in the first book, Albus immediately befriends Scorpius Malfoy, son of Draco Malfoy, an

old rival of their parents. Both boys are sorted into Slytherin, Rose into Gryffindor. Over their

first three years at school, Albus is an undistinguished and unpopular student and his relationship

with his father becomes strained. Scorpius suffers the death of his mother, Astoria, and is dogged

by rumors that he is secretly Voldemort's son, fathered through the use of a Time-Turner, while

his crush on Rose is unrequited. Both boys fail to make other friends.
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The following summer, the Ministry of Magic confiscates an illegal and very powerful Time-

Turner from a hermit, Theodore Nott. Harry and Hermione discuss recent activity among

Voldemort's former allies. Cedric Diggory's father, Amos, suspects the existence of the Time-

Turner and demands that Harry attempt to use it to save Cedric, but Harry refuses due to the

implications of intervening greatly with the past. Albus befriends Delphi Diggory, Amos' niece

and caretaker, as they eavesdrop on the conversation. Harry later offers his old baby blanket to

Albus as a gift, the only thing he had from his mother, Lily; Albus rejects the gift, leading to an

argument in which they both express the wish that they were not related.

On the Hogwarts Express for their fourth year, Rose confirms to Albus the existence of the Time-

Turner. Albus convinces Scorpius that they should escape the moving train, obtain the Time-

Turner, and save Cedric Diggory to correct Harry's mistake in letting him die. They jump from

the roof of the train and go to see Amos and Delphi, resolving to continue their plan. Meanwhile,

Harry begins to experience nightmares and pain in his scar. He and Hermione hold a public

meeting, but the community is not convinced there is a threat. Harry, Ginny, and Draco learn that

Albus and Scorpius are missing; Ginny concludes Albus ran away after his argument with Harry,

and Draco is upset that Scorpius has been pulled into their family issues. Delphi provides

Polyjuice Potion; disguised as Harry (Scorpius), Ron (Albus), and Hermione (Delphi), they

infiltrate the Ministry and successfully obtain the Time-Turner.

Act II[edit]
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Albus decides that the best way to save Cedric is to stop him from winning the Triwizard

Tournament, which was held during the events of the fourth book. As it seems there's no role for

Delphi to play in the mission, and the fact that her age would potentially compromise the

mission, she reluctantly agrees to stay in the present. Albus and Scorpius, disguised as

Durmstrang students, travel back to the first task in the Tournament and disarm Cedric, causing

him to fail at the task of retrieving a golden egg from a dragon's hoard. The Time-Turner is

subsequently revealed to enable them to spend only five minutes in the past; they are unable to

control their return to the present and Albus is injured.

Harry's dream reveals Albus' location in the Forbidden Forest. As he searches, the centaur Bane

warns that a "dark cloud" haunts Albus. He, Ron, and Ginny find the boys just after they return

from the past. Albus is brought to the school's hospital wing, where Harry converses with a

portrait of Albus Dumbledore; it advises him to see Albus as he is. Harry demands that Albus

break off his association with Scorpius, going so far as to bully Headmistress Minerva

McGonagall into using the Marauder's Map to keep them apart. Furthermore, Albus discovers

that reality has changed: he is now a Gryffindor; Ron is married to Padma Patil and they have a

son, Panju, while Rose does not exist; a less-kind Hermione is the Defense Against the Dark Arts

professor. It is revealed that Albus and Scorpius inadvertently made the younger Hermione

suspicious of Durmstrang; she attended the Yule Ball as Ron's friend instead of as Viktor Krum's

date, and Ron never experienced the jealousy that turned out to be foundational to their romance.
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Albus avoids Scorpius, but Delphi appears at Hogwarts and convinces Scorpius to reconcile with

Albus, which he successfully does by upbraiding him for being a poor friend. Albus convinces

Scorpius that they should try again to save Cedric, which also stems from Scorpius's unrequited

love for Rose. They travel to the second task, where Cedric had to travel deep into the lake; again

working to make him fail, they use a charm to force Cedric to float up and out of the water.

In the present, Draco and Harry argue over their sons, resulting in a premature wizards' duel.

Draco surprisingly finds common cause with Ginny as they explain to Harry how important his

Hogwarts friendships were to his identity, going so far as to admitting he was not as happy with

Crabbe and Goyle, and Harry realises he is dangerously isolating Albus. They return to

Hogwarts, where Harry apologizes to McGonagall and they attempt to locate the boys, ultimately

discovering that they have the Time-Turner.

When Scorpius returns to the present, Albus has disappeared. Voldemort has installed Dolores

Umbridge as Headmistress of Hogwarts, now a school of dark magic, and Harry Potter is dead,

defeated with his allies in the Battle of Hogwarts, explaining Albus's disappearance as he had

never existed.
 Rowling / Harry Potter and the Cursed Child / 5

Part 2[edit]

Act III[edit]

To his horror, Scorpius learns that humiliating Cedric Diggory turned him into a bitter and cruel

young man who joined the Death Eaters and killed Neville Longbottom. As Neville had

originally killed Nagini, whose death made Voldemort mortal, Voldemort had never died, and has

assumed rule over the Wizarding world. Scorpius himself is a highly respected (and feared)

popular student at Hogwarts who makes others do his bidding, while his father Draco is the Head

of Magical Law Enforcement. While maintaing a façade "for Voldemort and Valor", he secretly

resolves to set things right again.

Scorpius converses with Professor Snape, who is still alive and teaching albeit a clandestine

member of Dumbledore's Army. After confirming some details about Snape's life that he would

otherwise be unaware of, he is led to their secret headquarters where Ron and Hermione, who are

both wanted fugitives, are living. At first treated with suspicion, Scorpius convinces the trio of

his origins and what happened after he used the Time-Turner; they agree to help him out, even if

it means Snape would be dead again. Scorpius is advised that going back in time once more and

blocking his other self's attempts to intervene with Cedric Diggory by using a Shield Charm

would solve things, which he does so, but not until after Snape, Ron, and Hermione are attacked

by Dementors and their souls sucked out, Snape asking Scorpius to tell Albus that he is proud he

is named after him.

 Rowling / Harry Potter and the Cursed Child / 6

Back in the present, Scorpius and the reappeared Albus have set things right, but appear to have

lost the Time-Turner. They confess what they have done to Professor McGonagall, who reminds

them that their world has been created and sustained by many people who lost their lives,

including those beloved to them all, and that Albus's and Scorpius's noble intentions

notwithstanding, the alternative world that they had just inadvertently created would be the last

thing they want. Harry visits Albus in his dormitory, and while the former is briefly barely unable

to contain his anger, the seeds for true reconciliation are sown.

Scorpius then secretly tells Albus that he lied to the adults about losing the Time-Turner, and that

he had it all along; both boys, however, resolve to destroy it once and for all. They decide to do

so in the Owlery so as not to be conspicuous; Albus has invited Delphi to join them due to his

apparent affections for her, which only grew during his rift with Scorpius. Delphi agrees that

their plan was futile, but inadvertently exposes herself after her tattoo of an Augurey, a sinister

creature that Scorpius heard was the symbol of a witch at the right hand of Voldemort in the

second alternative reality, is exposed. She reveals that she intends to still proceed with saving her

cousin and thus bringing back Voldemort, ushering in a new Dark age. She then takes the boys

hostage, destroying their wands and killing a prefect who had been looking for them, and forces

them to travel back in time to the third task, which involved a maze of obstacles.

In the maze, Albus and Scorpius decide to stall Delphi, since they only have five minutes. Before

the time elapses, they inadvertently stumble upon Cedric Diggory himself, who believes the trio
 Rowling / Harry Potter and the Cursed Child / 7

are another obstacle. He momentarily disables Delphi, but she regains control of the situation,

destroys the Time-Turner, and abandons Albus and Scorpius in time.

Act IV[edit]

Back in the present, Harry and his friends learn that Albus and Scorpius had been last seen with

Delphi, and interrogate Amos Diggory about it, only to learn that he had been Confunded by

Delphi into believing she was his niece and caretaker; neither he nor his wife had any siblings.

Searching the room for clues, they stumble upon a prophecy that, if fulfilled, would enable the

return of Voldemort, and realize Delphi's true identity as Voldemort's secret daughter. However,

because they do not know where in time Delphi, Albus, and Scorpius are, they can only bide

their time and wait.

Delphi, Albus, and Scorpius are all revealed to have traveled back into 1981. Using a train

station timetable, Albus and Scorpius learn that the date is 30 October 1981 - one day before All

Hallows' Eve of 1981, the night that Voldemort killed Harry's parents. Realizing that Delphi

plans to kill Harry herself, so as to prevent Voldemort's Killing Curse from rebounding on him as

what had happened, they travel to Godric's Hollow, where they spot baby Harry and his parents.

Thinking of a way to communicate with the future, Albus recalls the blanket that his father had

given him, which when he flung across the room during their argument, collided with a love

potion, causing it to be partially burnt. They figure out that ingredients from the said potion

could be used to scribble a message on the blanket, which would appear in the present time, as
 Rowling / Harry Potter and the Cursed Child / 8

around this time, Harry would surely be fondling the blanket as a reminder of his parents. They

sneak into the house of Bathilda Bagshot, the author of A History of Magic, who does not believe

in the importance of securing one's door, and manage to write a message on the blanket that

shows in the present. Harry and Ginny manage to decipher the message, giving their location and

time, and alert Ron and Hermione. Draco, who joins in, secretly reveals to them that his family

has a Time-Turner that is more potent and valuable than the one seized by the Ministry, which

was merely a prototype and thus not as covetable to a true Death Eater.

They travel back in time to join Albus and Scorpius. However, upon Ginny's prodding, they

realize that Delphi chose this very moment not to kill baby Harry, who was already more than a

year old at the time, but to forestall Voldemort and prevent him from causing the attack in the

first place, thereby ensuring his reign would continue and become even stronger as he would

know love, which was what had originally led to his downfall. They agree to Transfigure Harry,

who understands Parseltongue once more since his scar began hurting again and the only one

who has been in Voldemort's mind, into Voldemort himself. Here, the reader learns that Delphi is

Voldemort's daughter by Bellatrix Lestrange, and she was born in Malfoy Manor in 1997 or

1998, where Voldemort sojourned, during the events of the seventh book, before the Battle of

Hogwarts. She pleads with her father to recognize her, which Harry does before the spell is

undone. Delphi, seeing she has been set up, engages in a fierce duel with Harry, who is later

joined by his friends and Albus. They manage to subdue her, where she pleads that she only

wants to know her father, to which a surprised Harry explains that this would not be possible and

that they cannot change the past.

 Rowling / Harry Potter and the Cursed Child / 9

Upon hearing the real Voldemort arrive to kill Harry's parents, Delphi tries calling out to him, but

Hermione and Malfoy silence her and send her to the future. Harry resolves to watch the scene of

his parents' murder once more, with Albus by his side, to provide a sense of closure for them;

after the murder has been completed, they return to the present. A devastated Hagrid arrives at

the scene to prepare to bring Harry to the Dursleys, sparking the events of the first book.

Back in school, Scorpius has managed to ask Rose out on a date; while she initially turns him

down, he is convinced that his initiative will set the stone for their friendship, which finally

begins after an encounter in the hallways. Albus is asked by Harry to join him that afternoon for

a walk somewhere; Harry reveals that he has brought Albus to Cedric Diggory's grave, which he

regularly visits so he can apologize for his role in his death.