ALBUS (with a bad accent): Sorry. Hermione. He’s got you mixed up with someone else.
YOUNG HERMIONE: How do you know my name?
LUDO BAGMAN: And with no time to lose let’s bring out our first champion — facing a Swedish Short-Snout, I give you — CEDRIC DIGGORY.
A dragon roar distracts YOUNG HERMIONE, and ALBUS readies his wand.
And Cedric Diggory has entered the stage. And he seems ready. Scared, but ready. He dodges this way. He dodges that. The girls swoon as he dives for cover. They cry as one: Don’t damage our Diggory, Mr. Dragon!
SCORPIUS looks concerned.
SCORPIUS: Albus, something is going wrong. The Time-Turner, it’s shaking.
A ticking begins, an incessant, dangerous ticking. It’s coming from the Time-Turner.
LUDO BAGMAN: And Cedric skirts left and he dives right — and he readies his wand — what has this young, brave, handsome man got up his sleevies now —
ALBUS (extending his wand): Expelliarmus!
CEDRIC’s wand is summoned to ALBUS’s hand.
LUDO BAGMAN: — but no, what’s this? Is it Dark Magic or is it something else entirely? His wand is flying away — Cedric Diggory is Disarmed —
SCORPIUS: Albus, I think the Time-Turner — something is wrong . . .
The Time-Turner’s ticking gets louder still.
LUDO BAGMAN: It’s all going wrong for Diggors. This could be the end of the task for him. The end of the tournament.
SCORPIUS grabs ALBUS.
There’s a crescendo in the ticking, and a flash.
And time is turned back to the present, with ALBUS hollering in pain.
SCORPIUS: Albus! Did it hurt you? Albus, are you —
ALBUS: What happened?
SCORPIUS: There must be some limit — the Time-Turner must have some kind of time limit . . .
ALBUS: Do you think we’ve done it? Do you think we’ve changed anything?
Suddenly the stage is invaded from all sides by HARRY, RON (who now has a side parting in his hair and whose wardrobe choices have become rather more staid), GINNY, and DRACO. SCORPIUS looks at them all — and slips the Time-Turner back into his pocket. ALBUS looks at them rather more blankly — he’s in a lot of pain.
RON: I told you. I told you I saw them.
SCORPIUS: I think we’re about to find out.
ALBUS: Hello, Dad. Is something wrong?
HARRY looks at his son disbelievingly.
HARRY: Yes. You could say that.
ALBUS collapses onto the floor. HARRY and GINNY rush to help.
ACT TWO, SCENE EIGHT
HOGWARTS, HOSPITAL WING
ALBUS is asleep in a hospital bed. HARRY sits troubled beside him. Above them is a picture of a concerned kindly man. HARRY rubs his eyes — stands — and walks around the room. He stretches out his back.
And then he meets eyes with the painting. Which looks startled to be spotted. And HARRY looks startled back.
HARRY: Professor Dumbledore.
DUMBLEDORE: Good evening, Harry.
HARRY: I’ve missed you. Whenever I’ve dropped in on the headmistress lately, your frame’s been empty.
DUMBLEDORE: Ah, well, I do like to pop into my other portraits now and then. (He looks at ALBUS.) Will he be all right?
HARRY: He’s been out twenty-four hours, mostly in order so Madam Pomfrey could reset his arm. She said it was the strangest thing, it’s like it was broken twenty years ago and allowed to set in the “most contrary” of directions. She says he’ll be fine.
DUMBLEDORE: A difficult thing, I imagine, to watch your child in pain.
HARRY looks up at DUMBLEDORE, and then down at ALBUS.
HARRY: I’ve never asked how you felt about me naming him after you, have I?
DUMBLEDORE: Candidly, Harry, it seemed a great weight to place upon the poor boy.
HARRY: I need your help. I need your advice. Bane says Albus is in danger. How do I protect my son, Dumbledore?
DUMBLEDORE: You ask me, of all people, how to protect a boy in terrible danger? We cannot protect the young from harm. Pain must and will come.
HARRY: So I’m supposed to stand and watch?
DUMBLEDORE: No. You’re supposed to teach him how to meet life.
HARRY: How? He won’t listen.
DUMBLEDORE: Perhaps he’s waiting for you to see him clearly.
HARRY frowns as he tries to digest this.
(With sensitivity.) It is a portrait’s curse and blessing to . . . hear things. At the school, at the Ministry, I hear people talking . . .
HARRY: And what is the gossip about me and my son?
DUMBLEDORE: Not gossip. Concern. That you two are struggling. That he’s difficult. That he is angry with you. I have formed the impression that — perhaps — you are blinded by your love for him.
HARRY: Blinded?
DUMBLEDORE: You must see him as he is, Harry. You must look for what’s wounding him.
HARRY: Haven’t I seen him as he is? What’s wounding my son? (He thinks.) Or is it who’s wounding my son?
ALBUS (mumbles in his sleep): Dad . . .
HARRY: This black cloud, it’s someone, isn’t it? Not something?
DUMBLEDORE: Ah really, what does my opinion matter anymore? I am paint and memory, Harry, paint and memory. And I never had a son.
HARRY: But I need your advice.
ALBUS: Dad?
HARRY looks at ALBUS and then back at DUMBLEDORE. But DUMBLEDORE is gone.
HARRY: No, where have you gone now?
ALBUS: We’re in — the hospital wing?
HARRY turns his attention back to ALBUS.
HARRY (discombobulated): Yes. And you’re — you will be fine. For recuperation, Madam Pomfrey wasn’t sure what to prescribe and said you should probably eat lots of — chocolate. Actually, do you mind if I have some — ? I’ve got something to tell you and I don’t think you’ll like it.
ALBUS looks at his dad, what does he have to say? He decides not to engage.
ALBUS: Okay. I think.
HARRY takes some chocolate, he eats a big chunk. ALBUS looks at his dad, confused.
Better?
HARRY: Much.
He holds out the chocolate to his son. ALBUS takes a piece. Father and son munch together.
The arm, how does it feel?
ALBUS flexes his arm.
ALBUS: It feels great.
HARRY (soft): Where did you go, Albus? I can’t tell you what it did to us. Your mum was worried sick . . .
ALBUS looks up, he is a great liar.
ALBUS: We decided we didn’t want to come to school. We thought we could start again — in the Muggle world. We discovered we were wrong. We were coming back to Hogwarts when you found us.
HARRY: In Durmstrang robes?
ALBUS: The robes were . . . The whole thing — Scorpius and I — we didn’t think.
HARRY: And why — why did you run? Because of me? Because of what I said?
ALBUS: I don’t know. Hogwarts isn’t actually that pleasant a place when you don’t fit in.
HARRY: And did Scorpius — encourage you to — go?
ALBUS: Scorpius? No.
HARRY looks at ALBUS, trying to see almost an aura around him, thinking deeply.
HARRY: I need you to stay away from Scorpius Malfoy.
ALBUS: What? Scorpius?
HARRY: I don’t know how you became friends in the first place, but you did, and now — I need you to —
ALBUS: My best friend? My only friend?