Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

DELPHI/HERMIONE tries to pull SCORPIUS/HARRY towards the bookshelves.

DELPHI/HERMIONE: Maybe if we could concentrate on the matter at hand.

SCORPIUS/HARRY: My point is, there’s a reason we’re friends, Albus — a reason we found each other, you know? And whatever this — adventure — is about . . .

Then he spots a book on the shelf that makes him frown.

Have you seen the books on these shelves? There are some serious books here. Banned books. Cursed books.

ALBUS/RON: How to distract Scorpius from difficult emotional issues. Take him to a library.

SCORPIUS/HARRY: All the books from the Restricted Section and then some. Magick Moste Evile. Fifteenth-Century Fiends. Sonnets of a Sorcerer — that’s not even allowed in Hogwarts!

ALBUS/RON: Shadows and Spirits. The Nightshade Guide to Necromancy.

DELPHI/HERMIONE: They are quite something, aren’t they . . .

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.