Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Harry Potter, #8)(6)

He walks, tired, into a telephone box. He dials 62442.

TELEPHONE BOX: Farewell, Harry Potter.

He ascends away from the Ministry of Magic.





ACT ONE, SCENE SIX





HARRY AND GINNY POTTER’S HOUSE

ALBUS can’t sleep. He is sitting at the top of the stairs. He hears voices below him. We hear HARRY’s voice before he’s revealed. An elderly man in a wheelchair is with him, AMOS DIGGORY.

HARRY: Amos, I understand, I really do — but I’m only just home and —

AMOS: I’ve tried to make appointments at the Ministry. They say, “Ah, Mr. Diggory, we have an appointment for you, let’s see, in two months.” I wait. Very patiently.

HARRY: —and coming to my house in the middle of the night — when my kids are just getting ready for their new year at school — it’s not right.

AMOS: Two months pass, I receive an owl, “Mr. Diggory, I’m awfully sorry, but Mr. Potter has been called away on urgent business, we’re going to have to shift things around a little, are you available for an appointment in, let’s see, in two months’ time.” And then it repeats again, and again . . . You’re shutting me out.

HARRY: Of course I’m not. It’s just, I’m afraid, as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement I’m afraid I’m responsible —

AMOS: There’s plenty you’re responsible for.

HARRY: Sorry?

AMOS: My son, Cedric, you do remember Cedric, don’t you?

HARRY (remembering Cedric hurts him): Yes, I remember your son. His loss —

AMOS: Voldemort wanted you! Not my son! You told me yourself, the words he said were, “Kill the spare.” The spare. My son, my beautiful son, was a spare.

HARRY: Mr. Diggory, as you know, I sympathize with your efforts to memorialize Cedric, but —

AMOS: A memorial? I am not interested in a memorial — not anymore. I am an old man — an old dying man — and I am here to ask you — beg you — to help me get him back.

HARRY looks up, astonished.

HARRY: Get him back? Amos, that’s not possible.

AMOS: The Ministry has a Time-Turner, does it not?

HARRY: The Time-Turners were all destroyed.

AMOS: The reason I’m here with such urgency is I’ve just heard rumor — strong rumor — that the Ministry seized an illegal Time-Turner from Theodore Nott and has kept it. For investigation. Let me use that Time-Turner. Let me have my son back.

There’s a long, deadly pause. HARRY is finding this extremely difficult. We watch as ALBUS moves closer, listening.

HARRY: Amos, playing with time? You know we can’t do that.

AMOS: How many people have died for the Boy Who Lived? I’m asking you to save one of them.

This hurts HARRY. He thinks, his face hardens.

HARRY: Whatever you’ve heard, the Theodore Nott story is a fiction, Amos, I’m sorry.

DELPHI: Hello.

ALBUS jumps a mile as DELPHI — a twenty-something, determined-looking woman — is revealed, looking through the stairs at him.

Oh. Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle. I used to be a big stair-listener myself. Sitting there. Waiting for someone to say something the tiniest bit interesting.

ALBUS: Who are you? Because this is sort of my house and . . .

DELPHI: I’m a thief, of course. I’m about to steal everything you own. Give me your gold, your wand, and your Chocolate Frogs! (She looks fierce and then smiles.) Either that or I’m Delphini Diggory. (She ascends the stairs and sticks out a hand.) Delphi. I look after him — Amos — well, I try. (She indicates AMOS.) And you are?

ALBUS (rueful grin): Albus.

DELPHI: Of course! Albus Potter! So Harry is your dad? That’s a bit wow, isn’t it?

ALBUS: Not really.

DELPHI: Ah. Have I just put my foot in it? It’s what they used to say about me at school. Delphini Diggory — there isn’t a hole she couldn’t dig herself into.

ALBUS: They do all sorts with my name too.

Pause. She looks at him carefully.

AMOS: Delphi.

She makes to depart and then hesitates. She smiles at ALBUS.

DELPHI: We don’t choose who we’re related to. Amos . . . isn’t just my patient, he’s my uncle, it’s part of the reason I took the job at Upper Flagley. But that’s made it difficult. It’s tough to live with people stuck in the past, isn’t it?

AMOS: Delphi!

ALBUS: Upper Flagley?

DELPHI: St. Oswald’s Home for Old Witches and Wizards. Come see us sometime. If you like.

AMOS: DELPHI!

She smiles and then trips as she travels down the stairs. She enters the room with AMOS and HARRY in it. ALBUS watches her.

DELPHI: Yes, Uncle?

AMOS: Meet the once-great Harry Potter, now a stone-cold Ministry man. I will leave you in peace, sir. If peace is the right word for it. Delphi, my chair . . .

DELPHI: Yes, Uncle.

AMOS is pushed out of the room. HARRY is left, looking forlorn. ALBUS watches on, thinking carefully.





ACT ONE, SCENE SEVEN





HARRY AND GINNY POTTER’S HOUSE, ALBUS’S ROOM

ALBUS is sitting on the bed as the world goes on outside his door. Still against the constant motion outside. We hear a roar from JAMES (off).