Ever since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 was released in 2011, fans have been waiting on Platform 9 3/4 for another glimpse of the Golden Trio. It finally came in 2016, albeit in an unexpected manner, with the release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a stage play.
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Since its debut, fan reception of Cursed Child has been mixed, to say the least. But what happens in the follow-up to the beloved franchise, and who is the titular Cursed Child?
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What is Harry Potter and the Cursed Child About?
The Cursed Child begins right where Deathly Hallows ended, on Platform 9 3/4, where Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione are watching their children board the Hogwarts Express. Albus Severus Potter, Harry and Ginny's middle child, and Rose Granger-Weasley, Ron and Hermione's oldest child, wander the train looking for the right place to sit. They open a compartment door and find themselves face to face with Scorpius Malfoy, son of Draco and Astoria Greengrass.
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That's where the parallels between their parent's story and their own end. While Rose leaves, initially refusing to associate with the child of their parents' rival, Albus stays, and the two boys become fast friends. At the Sorting Ceremony, Rose is sorted into Gryffindor, as expected, but Albus shocks everyone when he joins Scorpius in Slytherin. For the next three years, the young Potter boy's time at Hogwarts is one never-ending struggle - he's bullied for being a Slytherin, for struggling with even the most basic forms of magic, and for lacking his father's natural talent with a broomstick.
Where Rose becomes incredibly popular, both in class and as a Chaser for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Albus grows increasingly isolated from both his peers and his father. He feels suffocated by the weight of living up to the Potter name and believes that, if not for his father's fame, he'd have an easier time at school. With Rose in a different house and a different social circle entirely, Albus leans heavily into his relationship with Scorpius. The two become inseparable, and by the end of the book, it's revealed that their feelings for one another are romantic.
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Scorpius is having his own troubles at Hogwarts as rumors begin to circulate that Draco and Astoria merely adopted him and he is actually the son of Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange. In the summer before the boys' fourth year, Scorpius' mother dies from a fatal blood curse. Around the same time, Harry's scar begins hurting again, and he confiscates a prototype Time-Turner, which allows its user to travel as far back in time as they want but only for five minutes. Though all the details weren't known at the time, Lucius Malfoy had hired Theodore Nott to create the improved Time Turner so that he could save Voldemort and alter the timeline.
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Two such devices were created - the initial prototype that Harry recovered and an improved model that allowed its user to remain in the past for as long as they wanted. Neither Lucius nor Nott actually used the Time-Turners, but Lucius passed the improved one down to Draco, who kept it hidden.
Hearing about the confiscated Time-Turner, Amos Diggory meets with Harry and begs him to use it to prevent his son Cedric from being murdered during the Triwizard tournament. Harry refuses, explaining that messing with the timeline is too dangerous. Albus overhears their conversation and meets Delphi Diggory, who claims to be Amos' niece. She tells Albus about how much pain her uncle has suffered since the death of his son, planting a seed in the boy's mind.
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Ultimately, Albus and Scorpius decide to steal the confiscated prototype Time-Turner from Hermione after Rose accidentally confirms its existence. Hermione is now the Minister for Magic, and the boys have to use the Polyjuice Potion to break into the Ministry to find it. They succeed and decide to team up with Delphi to save Cedric. But unbeknownst to them, Delphi is the true child of Voldemort and Bellatrix. After several smaller timeline alterations, Delphi betrays the boys to create a new timeline where Harry was killed, Albus was never born, and Voldemort successfully conquered the Wizarding World.
Who is the Cursed Child?
The play never actually provides a definitive answer about the identity of the Cursed Child. Some fans have claimed that it is Albus, arguing that he is cursed by a family name he can never live up to. Others, albeit less convincingly, have pointed to Scorpius. They reason that his mother's fatal curse may have passed down to him and that he may be cursed by public perception since many in the Wizarding World believe he is Voldemort's son.
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Perhaps the most convincing theory is that Delphi is the Cursed Child. Not only was she born of two insane, evil parents, but she and Harry were both orphaned from infancy. This creates a fascinating parallel between the two of them. Harry always wished he'd had the opportunity to grow up with his parents and, at times, would've done anything to see them again. Delphi is fundamentally the same. The only difference is that, unlike Harry, she actually had the opportunity to save her parents, and, through no fault of her own, she inherited a much darker legacy.
She is cursed to forever exist outside the margins of Wizarding society. The same reality in which she isn't alone, the one she craves so desperately, is the one in which the world burns. For Delphi, up is always down, and left is always right. Harry addresses this during their final confrontation, in which he tells her that she must simply learn to come to terms with her parents' death as he did. Refusing to do so only leads to more pain.
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How does Harry Potter and the Cursed Child end?
In the end, Harry, Draco, and the rest of the adult gang use Draco's improved Time-Turner to travel back in time and save their children. They track Delphi back to the night Voldemort killed Harry's parents and prevent her from warning the Dark Lord against attacking the family. With Delphi captured, Harry remains to watch his parents die all over again, making the sacrifice that Delphi couldn't for the greater good.
Will There Be A Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Movie?
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In short, no. Or at least it is very unlikely. With Warner Brothers rebooting the universe for a Max Original TV series and much of the original cast expressing their lack of interest in returning to the Rowling-affiliated universe, a Cursed Child seems improbable. But it is always possible that Max will adapt it for a straight-to-streaming release after the show ends. No release date has been given for the new series. So, for now, fans will have to keep waiting on the Hogwarts Express.
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