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A Deeper Look at Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Writer's picture: Nathan BaessiNathan Baessi


Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (by J. K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany) was received with mixed-to-negative reviews by much of the Wizarding World fandom. Despite winning multiple awards in the industry and achieving financial success, the play remains a controversial addition to the canon of the franchise to this day. My personal feelings on the story of the play developed from when I first read the rehearsal script published 2016 until I had finally the opportunity to experience the West End production for myself just last year. Seeing this eighth story play out in the medium it was created for made my disparate thoughts on the script come together into a more complete understanding and a better appreciation of the achievements of this project. In this article, I am offering a deeper look into my interpretation of themes of Cursed Child, and well as sharing some insights on the elements that make this story the perfect monument to the Harry Potter novels.


The meta approach to storytelling taken by the authors in Cursed Child is almost unseen before in the Harry Potter franchise. Understanding this deliberate choice by J. K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany in taking a different route with this project is essential to comprehend what the play is trying to achieve with the story it is telling. The authors first clue the audience to this approach very early on with their choice of the main narrative driver: saving Cedric Diggory from certain death in the fourth school year of Harry. Why would Harry’s son choose this specific moment from so many others to alter? What is his connection to this dead character?


The answer to these questions is crucial to the meaning of Cursed Child. The entire seven-book series hinges at this very moment in the fourth novel, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The death of Cedric represents the death of innocence and fairness, qualities Voldemort does not possess. The killing of this character tints the world dark and changes everything in the narrative. Harry’s life is forever changed by the decisions he made with Cedric in the Maze of the third task of the Triwizard Tournament. It marks the most significant step of maturation of the main character in the entire series: from now on he would completely understand the meaning of death… and that is why his son looks to change it. Here is some insight on the main characters:


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The Bridge of The Present: Albus Severus Potter



Albus Severus Potter, Harry Potter’s son, is the main protagonist of Cursed Child. In this sense, he plays a crucial role in representing the legacy of his father. Albus Severus is the embodiment of the success of Harry’s fight against the Dark Lord; therefore he is naturally named after a Gryffindor and a Slytherin, providing some unification promised at the end of Deathly Hallows. Harry' son lives in the new world remade by the sacrifice of the victors of the battle against Voldemort, a place that allows for a less black-and-white division amongst people. Albus is a character of his own, but the play also uses off his character in both primary and secondary levels of the storytelling to make points both about the journey of Harry Potter.

Enters Amos Diggory, brought on by his then niece Delphi Diggory (more on her later). Despite the new status quo of the Wizarding World, Cursed Child makes it quite clear scars of the past take a long time to heal. Cedric’s father paying a visit to Harry reignites all the buried guilty in his mind. All great men and women look back at their deeds wondering if they could have done more, or if they could have pushed harder trying to achieve the impossible perfect result. Harry wishes he could have done more, that he could have avoided the pain caused by the death of Cedric. His death was the first stepping stone in what would become a road of suffering. Naturally, Albus Severus (standing in for the legacy of his father) overhears this interaction and acts thinking he could do better. This action is an extension of Harry’s feelings, mirrored by Albus Severus being the same age as Harry was in the Triwizard Tournament.

His son strangely feels inadequate in this post-Voldemort reality, as if he did not quite belong in it yet. A feeling of not living up to the legend that permeates both father and son. In a primary level, this is represented by Albus Severus failing in everything we would consider a defining quality of his father. He does not do well at Quidditch; he does not do well with his classmates; he does not do well at Hogwarts. The play uses these artifices to represent the shortcomings of Albus Severus to the legend of Harry Potter, flaws in a supposedly perfect legacy. Albus Severus is in an ungrateful place in this story, and this feeling acts as a catalyst for the character to change the single event to cement this reality in the novels: the death of Cedric Diggory. On a secondary level, this means so much more for the story. Albus Severus as a character is stuck in the middle of the road, burdened by the past while looking to the promising future. This is the reason I called the character the Bridge of The Present here. He is the link between the reality of the novels and the future to come. This decision of using Harry’s son to change an event in his fourth year for their play could not have been more meta from the authors - the character of Albus Severus is almost a personification of the message of the epilogue of Deathly Hallows if it could have a conversation with the events of the Goblet of Fire novel.

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The Shadow of The Past: Delphini Diggory



If Albus Severus represents the legacy of Harry Potter, the character of Delphini Diggory represents the legacy Lord Voldemort (and Bellatrix Lestrange) left behind after his second reign of terror. She is a representation of the shadow lurking in the mind of Harry Potter, a personification of the lives twisted and damaged by the actions of her father. Delphi, for short, is the orphaned child who grew up looking at the past with a reverence for a father she never had the chance to meet and understand. We meet Delphi exactly at the same moment we met Amos Diggory and the shame that persecutes Harry. She is the personification of the pain and the death he had to endure in his heroic legacy. His enemy might have been vanquished, but that shadow will haunt Harry forever. Just as Albus is born out of the present world created by our heroes, Delphi was created of the past horrors they had to face. They are at odds with each other, despite beginning their journeys in this story at the same common point.

Raised by Euphemia Rowle, who took her on only for the gold, Delphi has a similar life story to her father. She did not have the change to enjoy the love of a parent, growing up looking up to a reality which was no more. The character raises the question of the children of Voldemort’s regime, and what sort of people they would become given their circumstances. Delphi is permanently stuck in the past. She is a product of a society that was obsessed with blood status. Meeting Albus Severus and enlisting him in a journey to capture a Time-Turner to bring her father back to live is a desperate attempt to conciliate her present reality to that of the past. She recognizes Cedric’s death is the point of the story in the life of her father that needs to be altered due to misinterpretation of a prophecy and meddles with time together with Albus Severus to change the events to her liking. Delphi repeats the past mistakes of her father by acting on the prophecy, she is the Shadow of The Past because she does not learn from it:

“When spares are spared, when time is turned, when unseen children murder their fathers: then will the Dark Lord return”


In the last act of the play, Delphi reveals the truth behind her actions: to meet her father. She is the product of a legacy of pain, which will never recognize the damage it has inflicted upon her and many others; part of a generational and seemingly unbreakable circle of violence. The Augurey (as she dubs herself) never had a chance. The character of Delphi truly shines on when seen from a secondary level perspective in the text: she is defeated by our heroes who have finally learned they need to face the burdens of their past together to have a chance in succeeding bury the pain from yesterday. Delphi disappears from the story as quickly as she appeared, as the shadow from the past our characters (namely, Harry) must keep at bay. Albus Severus, as a stand-in for the legacy of Harry Potter, learns from Delphi’s actions not only that we cannot change the past but also that we must learn from it to build a better future. Ultimately, in the play her character acts as an anti-thesis to the ideas represented in the epilogue of Deathly Hallows, the authors making use of Delphi to emphasize the meta-narrative.

Note: To offer a brief comment on the decision of Lord Voldemort to have a child with Bellatrix Lestrange, I believe we do not have enough information on the script to have a meaningful discussion of this subject. It is not important for the story the play is telling, and I would not like to detract attention from a potential exploration of the character of Delphi since more in-depth discussions are usually prevented by bringing up the topic.

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The Promise of The Future: Scorpius Malfoy



One highlight of the play is Scorpius Malfoy, son of Draco Malfoy. This character is a beautiful representation of the mending of the Wizarding World following the war against the Dark Lord. Born from an ex-Death Eater, Scorpius is raised in a world in which the importance of blood purity has been overturned, a world that has learned tolerance is the right the direction of the future. If Delphi cannot break the cycle of violence and abuse, this character is the direct answer to the the question whether this is even possible. Draco Malfoy has actively learned from his past mistakes with the support of his wife, Astoria Greengrass. Scorpius is a representation of the legacy of his father, he is everything in this story that his father could not be in the original novels. Through learning his lesson, Draco offers a bright outlook into the remade Wizarding World through his son. The importance of atonement is highlighted thoroughly by what Scorpius Malfoy represents as a character, which allows for a second look at the much-maligned house of Slytherin.


Scorpius is introduced with a rumour suggesting he is the son of Voldemort. This rumour makes complete sense when looking at the story from a meta angle. Being a son of a family with a dark legacy who is subsequently placed in Slytherin, is an echo to Draco’s journey in the original novels. What was once a proud legacy is no more, in a Wizarding World that has learned from the damage inflicted by Lord Voldemort. Scorpius cannot fit into the Hogwarts community because of his baggage. The authors of the script use of this rumour to provide commentary on the expectations placed on this character based on this dark family past. By spreading this rumour that Scorpius is the son of Voldemort we are holding on to a past notion that house Slytherin is intrinsically evil, that all Slytherins are a product of Voldemort’s corruption. However, as we have seen in the epilogue of Deathly Hallows, this is a notion that is slowly going away as the Wizarding World drifts towards a unification previously considered unthinkable by status quo in the novels. Scorpius is the answer to where this story goes next, he is the Promise of The Future.

The relationship of Scorpius with Albus Severus is beautifully constructed because they depend on each other, just as the future depends on the present. Together they stand-in for the repercussions of the victory of our heroes in the last novel. Scorpius teaches us to let go from prejudices and to test notions we consider as set-in-stone in the fictional world. His character is a response to the possibility of redemption of reformed Death Eaters: their children will grow to become better men and women than they ever could be given their circumstances, a silver lining born amid the mess of the past. Scorpius is an anti-thesis to the character of Delphi, in this sense. He helps his friend but is the first to understand this mission is a mistake. Through his effort they achieve the fixing of the timelines, meaning Scorpius helped Albus Severus to better thread the line of the present, leading him towards a better future while leaving the painful and obsolete past represented by Delphi behind.


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What About Rose Granger-Weasley?



In the play, the character of Rose Granger-Weasley is used to represent an ideal state of balance in the Wizarding World. She is just a child, worried about making friends and doing well at a school. Rose does not carry the same weight as Albus Severus, Scorpius, and Delphi - she should not have to. The pairing of Scorpius with Rose at the conclusion of the play shows we are going into the right path for the overall direction of the Wizarding World. The getting together of a Malfoy and a Granger-Weasley is a product of the legacy of our heroes, breaking down barriers through their courage. The future represented by Scorpius is flirting with the ideal represented by Rose.


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The storytelling in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has a lot of thematic richness to offer for those willing to delve deeper into its meaning. One mistake the larger Harry Potter fandom has made in considering this eighth story is not taking into consideration the medium it was developed for, and the meta-approach to the story. Cursed Child was created for theatre as a mean to take the Harry Potter series to theatre and must be taken as such. Efforts to make it seem streamlined with either the novels or the movie adaptation fail to consider what it actually is: a West End production. There are key differences in how the material is written to accommodate a live audience, for example. Theatre is not as straight-forward as one might think. Keep in mind Cursed Child is meant to be seen and the published script does not do it justice. Reading the screenplay of a massive West End production provides for a drastically different experience than seeing it. The story might be the same, but delivery and execution are everything.


This story is an exploration of the legacy of Harry Potter (which include a good amount of trauma) done in the most spectacular fashion possible, considering the medium. Unlike a novel, a narrator cannot express Harry’s thoughts to us, therefore then the authors must personify those struggles on stage as fully realized characters. This exploration combined with the use of the Time-Turner as a device to explore the legacy of the Harry Potter stories in an active manner ensure the play positions itself as a monument dedicated to the series and as a meditation on what it ultimately meant. I could go for a long time, analyzing some other meta aspects of the script surrounding secondary characters, such as the discussion of the relationship of Ron and Hermione, the exploration of the regrets of Dumbledore, and the poignant look it offers at action of Snape; however, I think this deeper look into the main characters of the story of the play might already help some of you to re-evaluate what it offers as a piece of Harry Potter canon. There is much to explore beneath the primary narrative level of this play, and I hope more people in the future engage with the opportunities for serious discussion on the meaning of Cursed Child apart from canon trivialities.

Note: Whether you enjoyed Cursed Child or not on a personal level, I think we all should agree we must be respectful to author J. K. Rowling and understand this is her vision for her own story. Constructive criticism is always welcome, but the negative reaction stemming from some of the most passionate within Harry Potter fandom has been borderline abusive towards the author, and those who enjoyed the material. I do not condone such behaviour and neither should you.


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