Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Harry Potter, #8)(27)

PROFESSOR McGONAGALL: I just don’t think I can interfere in friendships and I believe — HARRY: I need to say sorry to you and sorry to Albus, will you give me that chance?

DRACO arrives behind them with a bang of soot.

PROFESSOR McGONAGALL: Draco?

DRACO: He needs to see his son, and I need to see mine.

HARRY: Like I say — peace — not war.

PROFESSOR McGONAGALL studies his face; she sees the sincerity she needs to see. She takes the map back out of her pocket. She opens it up.

PROFESSOR McGONAGALL: Well, peace is certainly something I can be part of.

She taps it with her wand.

(Sighs.) I solemnly swear that I’m up to no good.

The map is lit into action.

Well, they are together.

DRACO: In the girls’ bathroom on the first floor. What on earth would they be doing there?





ACT TWO, SCENE NINETEEN





HOGWARTS, GIRLS’ BATHROOM

SCORPIUS and ALBUS enter a bathroom. In the center of it is a large Victorian sink.

SCORPIUS: So let me get this right — the plan is Engorgement . . .

ALBUS: Yes. Scorpius, that soap, if you may . . .

SCORPIUS fishes a soap out of the sink.

Engorgio.

He fires a bolt from his wand across the room. The soap blows up to four times its size.

SCORPIUS: Nice. Consider me engorgimpressed.

ALBUS: The second task was the lake task. They had to retrieve something which was stolen from them, which turned out to be — SCORPIUS: — people they loved.

ALBUS: Cedric used a Bubble-Head Charm to swim through the lake. All we do is follow him in there and use Engorgement to turn him into something rather larger. We know the Time-Turner doesn’t give us long, so we’re going to be quick. Get to him and Engorgio his head and watch him float out of the lake — away from the task — away from the competition . . .

SCORPIUS: But — you still haven’t told me how we’re going to actually get to the lake . . .

And then suddenly a jet of water emerges from the sink — and after it ascends a very wet MOANING MYRTLE.

MOANING MYRTLE: Whoa. That feels good. Never used to enjoy that. But when you get to my age, you take what you can . . .

SCORPIUS: Of course — you’re a genius — Moaning Myrtle . . .

MOANING MYRTLE swoops down onto SCORPIUS.

MOANING MYRTLE: What did you call me? Do I moan? Am I moaning now? AM I? AM I?

SCORPIUS: No, I didn’t mean . . .

MOANING MYRTLE: What’s my name?

SCORPIUS: Myrtle.

MOANING MYRTLE: Exactly — Myrtle. Myrtle Elizabeth Warren — a pretty name — my name — no need for the moaning.

SCORPIUS: Well . . .

MOANING MYRTLE (she giggles): It’s been a while. Boys. In my bathroom. In my girls’ bathroom. Well, that’s not right . . . But then again, I always did have a soft spot for the Potters. And I was moderately partial to a Malfoy too. Now how can I help you pair?

ALBUS: You were there, Myrtle — in the lake. They wrote about you. There must be a way out of these pipes.

MOANING MYRTLE: I’ve been everywhere. But where specifically were you thinking?

ALBUS: The second task. The lake task. In the Triwizard Tournament. Twenty-five years ago. Harry and Cedric.

MOANING MYRTLE: Such a shame the pretty one had to die. Not that your father is not pretty — but Cedric Diggory — you’d be amazed at how many girls I had to hear doing love incantations in this very bathroom . . . And the weeping after he was taken.

ALBUS: Help us, Myrtle, help us get into that same lake.

MOANING MYRTLE: You think I can help you travel in time?

ALBUS: We need you to keep a secret.

MOANING MYRTLE: I love secrets. I won’t tell a soul. Cross my heart and hope to die. Or — the equivalent. For ghosts. You know.

ALBUS nods at SCORPIUS, who reveals the Time-Turner.

ALBUS: We can travel in time. You’re going to help us travel the pipes. We’re going to save Cedric Diggory.

MOANING MYRTLE (grins): Well, that sounds like fun.

ALBUS: And we’ve no time to lose.

MOANING MYRTLE: This very sink. This very sink empties directly into the lake. It breaks every bylaw but this school has always been antiquated. Dive in and you will be piped straight to it.

ALBUS pulls himself into the sink, dumping his cloak as he does. SCORPIUS copies.

ALBUS hands SCORPIUS some green foliage in a bag.

ALBUS: Some for me and some for you.

SCORPIUS: Gillyweed? We’re using gillyweed? To breathe underwater?

ALBUS: Just like my dad did. Now, are you ready?

SCORPIUS: Remember, this time we can’t be caught out by the clock . . .

ALBUS: Five minutes, that’s all we allow for — before we get pulled back to the present.

SCORPIUS: Tell me this is all going to be okay.

ALBUS (grinning): It’s all going to be entirely okay. Are you ready?

ALBUS takes the gillyweed and disappears down.

SCORPIUS: No, Albus — Albus —

He looks up, he and MOANING MYRTLE are alone.

MOANING MYRTLE: I do like brave boys.

SCORPIUS (a little bit scared, a tiny bit brave): Then I’m entirely ready. For whatever comes.

He takes the gillyweed and disappears down.

MOANING MYRTLE is left alone onstage.