Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Harry Potter, #8)(54)

ALBUS: You don’t like pigeons?

HARRY (he scrunches up his face): Nasty, pecky, dirty things. They give me the creeps.

ALBUS: But pigeons are harmless!

HARRY: I know. But the thing that scares me most, Albus Severus Potter, is being a dad to you. Because I’m operating without wires here. Most people at least have a dad to base themselves on — and either try to be or try not to be. I’ve got nothing — or very little. So I’m learning, okay? And I’m going to try with everything I’ve got — to be a good dad for you.

ALBUS: And I’ll try and be a better son. I know I’m not James, Dad, I’ll never be like you two — HARRY: James is nothing like me.

ALBUS: Isn’t he?

HARRY: Everything comes easy for James. My childhood was a constant struggle.

ALBUS: So was mine. So you’re saying — am I — like you?

HARRY smiles at ALBUS.

HARRY: Actually you’re more like your mum — bold, fierce, funny — which I like — which I think makes you a pretty great son.

ALBUS: I almost destroyed the world.

HARRY: Delphi wasn’t going anywhere, Albus — you brought her out into the light and you found a way for us to fight her. You may not see it now, but you saved us.

ALBUS: But shouldn’t I have done better?

HARRY: You don’t think I ask myself the same questions?

ALBUS (stomach sinking further, he knows this is not what his dad would do): And then — when we caught her — I wanted to kill her.

HARRY: You’d watched her murder Craig, you were angry, Albus, and that’s okay. And you wouldn’t have done it.

ALBUS: How do you know that? Maybe that’s my Slytherin side. Maybe that’s what the Sorting Hat saw in me.

HARRY: I don’t understand your head, Albus — actually, you know what, you’re a teenager, I shouldn’t be able to understand your head, but I do understand your heart. I didn’t — for a long time — but thanks to this — “escapade” — I know what you got in there. Slytherin, Gryffindor, whatever label you’ve been given — I know — know — that heart is a good one — yeah, whether you like it or not, you’re on your way to being some wizard.

ALBUS: Oh I’m not going to be a wizard, I’m going into pigeon racing. I’m quite excited about it.

HARRY grins.

HARRY: Those names you have — they shouldn’t be a burden. Albus Dumbledore had his trials too, you know — and Severus Snape, well, you know all about him —

ALBUS: They were good men.

HARRY: They were great men, with huge flaws, and you know what — those flaws almost made them greater.

ALBUS looks around himself.

ALBUS: Dad? Why are we here?

HARRY: This is where I often come.

ALBUS: But this is a graveyard . . .

HARRY: And here is Cedric’s grave.

ALBUS: Dad?

HARRY: The boy who was killed — Craig Bowker — how well did you know him?

ALBUS: Not well enough.

HARRY: I didn’t know Cedric well enough either. He could have played Quidditch for England. Or been a brilliant Auror. He could have been anything. And Amos is right — he was stolen. So I come here. Just to say sorry. When I can.

ALBUS: That’s a — good thing to do.

ALBUS joins his dad in front of CEDRIC’s grave. HARRY smiles at his son and looks up at the sky.

HARRY: I think it’s going to be a nice day.

He touches his son’s shoulder. And the two of them — just slightly — melt together.

ALBUS (smiles): So do I.



The End