DRACO: You take that back . . . right now.
But HARRY doesn’t take it back.
So DRACO takes his wand out.
HARRY: You do not want to do this.
DRACO: Yes, I do.
HARRY: I don’t want to hurt you, Draco.
DRACO: How interesting, because I do want to hurt you.
The two square up. And then release their wands.
DRACO and HARRY: Expelliarmus!
Their wands repel and then break apart.
DRACO: Incarcerous!
HARRY dodges a blast from DRACO’s wand.
HARRY: Tarantallegra!
DRACO throws himself out of the way.
You’ve been practicing, Draco.
DRACO: And you’ve got sloppy, Potter. Densaugeo!
HARRY just manages to get out of the way.
HARRY: Rictusempra!
DRACO uses a chair to block the blast.
DRACO: Flipendo!
HARRY is sent twirling through the air. DRACO laughs.
Keep up, old man.
HARRY: We’re the same age, Draco.
DRACO: I wear it better.
HARRY: Brachiabindo!
DRACO is bound tightly.
DRACO: That really the best you got? Emancipare.
DRACO releases his own binds.
Levicorpus!
HARRY has to throw himself out of the way.
Mobilicorpus! Oh, this is too much fun . . .
DRACO bounces HARRY up and down on the table. And then as HARRY rolls away, DRACO jumps onto the table — he readies his wand, but as he does, HARRY hits him with a spell . . .
HARRY: Obscuro!
DRACO releases himself from his blindfold as soon as it hits.
The two square up — HARRY throws a chair.
DRACO ducks underneath it and slows the chair with his wand.
GINNY: I only left this room three minutes ago!
She looks at the mess of the kitchen. She looks at the chairs suspended in the air. She signals them back to the floor with her wand.
(Drier than dry.) What did I miss?
ACT TWO, SCENE FOURTEEN
HOGWARTS, STAIRCASES
SCORPIUS walks unhappily down a staircase.
DELPHI scurries in from the other side.
DELPHI: So — technically — I shouldn’t be here.
SCORPIUS: Delphi?
DELPHI: In fact, technically I’m endangering our entire operation . . . which is not . . . well, I’m not a natural risk-taker as you know. I’ve never been to Hogwarts. Pretty lax security here, isn’t there? And so many portraits. And corridors. And ghosts! This half-headless, strange-looking ghost told me where I could find you, can you believe that?
SCORPIUS: You’ve never been to Hogwarts?
DELPHI: I was — unwell — as a child — for a few years. Other people got to go — I did not.
SCORPIUS: You were too — ill? I’m sorry, I didn’t know that.
DELPHI: I don’t advertise the fact — I prefer not to be seen as a tragic case, you know?
This registers with SCORPIUS. He looks up to say something but DELPHI suddenly ducks from view as a student walks past. SCORPIUS tries to look casual until the student passes.
Have they gone?
SCORPIUS: Delphi, maybe it is too dangerous for you to be here —
DELPHI: Well — someone’s got to do something about this.
SCORPIUS: Delphi, none of it worked, time-turning, we failed.
DELPHI: I know. Albus owled me. The history books changed but not enough — Cedric still died. In fact, failing the first task only made him more determined to win the second.
SCORPIUS: And Ron and Hermione have gone completely skewwhiff — and I still haven’t figured out why.
DELPHI: And that’s why Cedric has to wait. It’s all become quite confused and you’re entirely right to be keeping hold of the Time-Turner, Scorpius. But what I meant was — someone’s got to do something about the two of you.
SCORPIUS: Oh.
DELPHI: You’re best friends. Every owl he sends I can feel your absence. He’s destroyed by it.
SCORPIUS: Sounds like he’s found a shoulder to cry on. How many owls has he sent you now?
DELPHI smiles softly.
Sorry. That’s — I didn’t mean — I just — don’t understand what’s going on. I’ve tried to see him, talk to him, but every time I do he runs off.
DELPHI: You know, I didn’t have a best friend when I was your age. I wanted one. Desperately. When I was younger I even invented one but —
SCORPIUS: I had one of those too. Called Flurry. We fell out over the correct rules of Gobstones.
DELPHI: Albus needs you, Scorpius. That’s a wonderful thing.
SCORPIUS: He needs me to do what?
DELPHI: That’s the thing, isn’t it? About friendships. You don’t know what he needs. You only know he needs it. Find him, Scorpius. You two — you belong together.
ACT TWO, SCENE FIFTEEN
HARRY AND GINNY POTTER’S HOUSE, KITCHEN
HARRY and DRACO sit far apart. GINNY stands between them.
DRACO: Sorry about your kitchen, Ginny.
GINNY: Oh, it’s not my kitchen. Harry does most of the cooking.
DRACO: I can’t talk to him either. Scorpius. Especially since — Astoria has gone. I can’t even talk about how losing her has affected him. As hard as I try, I can’t reach him. You can’t talk to Albus. I can’t talk to Scorpius. That’s what this is about. Not about my son being evil. Because as much as you might take the word of a haughty centaur, you know the power of friendship.
HARRY: Draco, whatever you may think . . .
DRACO: I always envied you them, you know — Weasley and Granger. I had —
GINNY: Crabbe and Goyle.
DRACO: Two lunks who wouldn’t know one end of a broomstick from another. You — the three of you — you shone, you know? You liked each other. You had fun. I envied you those friendships more than anything else.
GINNY: I envied them too.
HARRY looks at GINNY, surprised.
HARRY: I need to protect him —
DRACO: My father thought he was protecting me. Most of the time. I think you have to make a choice — at a certain point — of the man you want to be. And I tell you that at that time you need a parent or a friend. And if you’ve learnt to hate your parent by then and you have no friends . . . then you’re all alone. And being alone — that’s so hard. I was alone. And it sent me to a truly dark place. For a long time. Tom Riddle was also a lonely child. You may not understand that, Harry, but I do — and I think Ginny does too.
GINNY: He’s right.
DRACO: Tom Riddle didn’t emerge from his dark place. And so Tom Riddle became Lord Voldemort. Maybe the black cloud Bane saw was Albus’s loneliness. His pain. His hatred. Don’t lose the boy. You’ll regret it. And so will he. Because he needs you, and Scorpius, whether or not he now knows it.
HARRY looks at DRACO, he thinks.
He opens his mouth to speak. He thinks.
GINNY: Harry. Will you get the Floo powder or shall I?
HARRY looks up at his wife.