ALBUS!
ALBUS (laughing)
Wow.
ACT ONE
SCENE FOUR
And now we enter a never-world of time change. And this scene is all about magic.
The changes are rapid as we leap between worlds. There are no individual scenes, but fragments, shards that show the constant progression of time.
Initially we’re inside Hogwarts, in the Great Hall, and everyone is dancing around ALBUS.
POLLY CHAPMAN
Albus Potter.
KARL JENKINS
A Potter. In our year.
YANN FREDERICKS
He’s got his hair. He’s got hair just like him.
ROSE
And he’s my cousin. (As they turn.) Rose Granger-Weasley. Nice to meet you.
The SORTING HAT walks through the students who spring into their houses.
It becomes quickly apparent he’s approaching ROSE, who is tense as she awaits her fate.
SORTING HAT
I’ve done this job for centuries
On every student’s head I’ve sat
Of thoughts I take inventories
For I’m the famous Sorting Hat.
I’ve sorted high, I’ve sorted low,
I’ve done the job through thick and thin
So put me on and you will know
Which house you should be in. .
Rose Granger-Weasley.
He puts his hat on ROSE’s head.
GRYFFINDOR!
There’s cheering from the Gryffindors as ROSE joins them.
ROSE
Thank Dumbledore.
SCORPIUS runs to take ROSE’s place under the SORTING HAT’s glare.
SORTING HAT
Scorpius Malfoy.
He puts his hat on SCORPIUS’s head.
SLYTHERIN!
SCORPIUS was expecting this, he nods and half smiles. There’s cheering from the Slytherins as he joins them.
POLLY CHAPMAN
Well, that makes sense.
ALBUS walks swiftly to the front of the stage.
SORTING HAT
Albus Potter.
He puts his hat on ALBUS’s head – and this time he seems to take longer – almost like he too is confused.
SLYTHERIN!
There’s a silence.
A perfect, profound silence.
One that sits low, twists a bit and has damage within it.
POLLY CHAPMAN
Slytherin?
CRAIG BOWKER JR
Whoah! A Potter? In Slytherin.
ALBUS looks out, unsure. SCORPIUS smiles, delighted, as he shouts across to him.
SCORPIUS
You can stand next to me!
ALBUS (thoroughly discombobulated)
Right. Yes.
YANN FREDERICKS
I suppose his hair isn’t that similar.
ROSE
Albus? But this is wrong, Albus. This is not how it’s supposed to be.
And suddenly a flying lesson is happening with MADAM HOOCH.
MADAM HOOCH
Well, what are you all waiting for? Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up.
The kids all hurry into position beside their brooms.
Stick out your hands out over your broom, and say, ‘Up!’
EVERYONE
UP!
ROSE’s and YANN’s brooms sail into their hands.
ROSE and YANN
Yes!
MADAM HOOCH
Come on now, I’ve no time for shirkers. Say ‘UP’. ‘UP’ like you mean it.
EVERYONE (bar ROSE and YANN)
UP!
Brooms sail up, including SCORPIUS’s. Only ALBUS is left with his broom on the floor.
EVERYONE (bar ROSE, YANN and ALBUS)
YES!
ALBUS
Up. UP. UP.
His broom doesn’t move. Not even a millimetre. He stares at it with disbelieving desperation. There’s giggling from the rest of the class.
POLLY CHAPMAN
Oh Merlin’s beard, how humiliating! He really isn’t like his father at all is he?
KARL JENKINS
Albus Potter, the Slytherin Squib.
MADAM HOOCH
Okay. Children. Time to fly.
And suddenly HARRY appears from nowhere beside ALBUS as steam expands all over the stage. We’re back on platform nine and three-quarters and time has ticked on mercilessly. ALBUS is now a year older (as is HARRY, but less noticeably).
ALBUS
I’m just asking you Dad if you’ll – if you’ll just stand a little away from me.
