پرده ی چهارم 15-12

ACT FOUR, SCENE TWELVE

GODRIC’S HOLLOW, 1981

HARRY looks after VOLDEMORT helplessly.

HARRY: Voldemort is going to kill my mum and dad — and there’s nothing I can do to stop him.

DRACO: That’s not true.

SCORPIUS: Dad, now is not the time . . .

ALBUS: There is something you could do — to stop him. But you won’t.

DRACO: That’s heroic.

GINNY takes HARRY’s hand.

GINNY: You don’t have to watch, Harry. We can go home.

HARRY: I’m letting it happen . . . Of course I have to watch.

HERMIONE: Then we’ll all witness it.

RON: We’ll all watch.

We hear unfamiliar voices . . .

JAMES (from off): Lily, take Harry and go! It’s him! Go! Run! I’ll hold him off . . . There is a blast, and then a laugh.

You keep away, you understand — you keep away.

VOLDEMORT (from off): Avada Kedavra!

HARRY flinches as green light flashes around the auditorium.

ALBUS takes his hand. HARRY grasps hold of it. He needs it.

ALBUS: He did everything he could.

GINNY rises beside him and takes HARRY’s other hand. He leans into them, they’re holding him up now.

HARRY: That’s my mum, at the window. I can see my mother, she looks beautiful.

There’s the sound of banging as doors are blasted off.

LILY (from off): Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry . . . VOLDEMORT (from off): Stand aside, you silly girl . . . Stand aside, now . . . LILY (from off): Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead . . . VOLDEMORT (from off): This is my last warning — LILY (from off): Not Harry! Please . . . Have mercy . . . have mercy . . . Not my son! Please — I’ll do anything.

VOLDEMORT (from off): Avada Kedavra!

And it’s like lightning passes through HARRY’s body. He’s sent to the floor, a pure mess of grief.

And a noise like a shrunken scream descends and ascends around us.

And we just watch.

And slowly what was there is no longer there.

And the stage transforms and rotates.

And HARRY and his family and his friends are rotated off and away.

ACT FOUR, SCENE THIRTEEN

GODRIC’S HOLLOW, INSIDE JAMES AND LILY POTTER’S HOUSE, 1981 And we’re in the ruins of a house. A house that has undergone a vicious attack.

HAGRID walks through the ruins.

HAGRID:James?

He looks about himself.

Lily?

He walks slowly, unwilling to see too much too soon. He is entirely overwhelmed.

And then he sees them, and he stops, and he says nothing.

Oh. Oh. That’s not — that’s not — I weren’t — They told me, but — I were hoping for better . . .

He looks at them and bows his head. He mutters a few words, and then he takes some crumpled flowers from his deep pockets and lays them on the floor.

I’m sorry, they told me, he told me, Dumbledore told me, I can’t wait with yeh. Them Muggles are coming, yeh see, with their flashing blues and they won’t ’preciate a big lummox like me, would they?

He lets out a sob.

Hard though it is to leave yeh.

I want yeh to know — yeh won’t be forgotten — not by me — not by anyfolk.

And then he hears a sound — the sound of a baby snuffling. HAGRID turns towards it, walking with more intensity now.

He looks down and stands over the crib. Which seems to radiate light.

Well. Hello. Yeh must be Harry.

Hello, Harry Potter.

I’m Rubeus Hagrid.

And I’m gonna be yer friend whether yeh like it or not.

’Cos yeh’ve had it tough, not that yeh know it yet.

An’ yer gonna need friends.

Now yeh best come with me, don’t yeh think?

As flashing blue lights fill the room giving it an almost ethereal glow — he lifts BABY HARRY gently into his arms.

And then — without looking back — he strides away through the house.

And we descend into soft black.

ACT FOUR, SCENE FOURTEEN

HOGWARTS, CLASSROOM

SCORPIUS and ALBUS run into a room, full of excitement. They slam the door after themselves.

SCORPIUS: I can’t quite believe I did that.

ALBUS: I can’t quite believe you did that either.

SCORPIUS: Rose Granger-Weasley. I asked out Rose Granger-Weasley.

ALBUS: And she said no.

SCORPIUS: But I asked her. I planted the acorn. The acorn that will grow into our eventual marriage.

ALBUS: You are aware that you’re an utter fantasist.

SCORPIUS: And I’d agree with you — only Polly Chapman did ask me to the school ball . . . ALBUS: In an alternate reality where you were significantly — really significantly more popular — a different girl asked you out — and that means — SCORPIUS: And yes, logic would dictate I should be pursuing Polly — or allowing her to pursue me — she’s a notorious beauty, after all — but a Rose is a Rose.

ALBUS: You know logic would dictate that you’re a freak? Rose hates you.

SCORPIUS: Correction, she used to hate me, but did you see the look in her eyes when I asked? That wasn’t hate, that was pity.

ALBUS: And pity’s good?

SCORPIUS: Pity is a start, my friend, a foundation on which to build a palace — a palace of love.

ALBUS: I honestly thought I’d be the first of us to get a girlfriend.

SCORPIUS: Oh, you will, undoubtedly, probably that new smoky-eyed Potions professor — she’s old enough for you, right?

ALBUS: I don’t have a thing about older women!

SCORPIUS: And you’ve got time — a lot of time — to seduce her. Because Rose is going to take years to persuade.

ALBUS: I admire your confidence.

ROSE comes past them on the stairs. She looks at them both.

ROSE: Hi.

Neither boy knows quite how to reply — she looks at SCORPIUS.

This is only going to be weird if you let it be weird.

SCORPIUS: Received and entirely understood.

ROSE: Okay. “Scorpion King.”

She walks off with a smile on her face. SCORPIUS and ALBUS look at each other. ALBUS grins and punches SCORPIUS on the arm.

ALBUS: Maybe you’re right — pity is a start.

SCORPIUS: Are you heading to Quidditch? Slytherin are playing Hufflepuff — it’s a big one — ALBUS: I thought we hated Quidditch?

SCORPIUS: People can change. Besides, I’ve been practicing. I think I might make the team eventually.

Come on.

ALBUS: I can’t. My dad’s arranged to come up — SCORPIUS: He’s taking time away from the Ministry?

ALBUS: He wants to go on a walk — something to show me — share with me — something.

SCORPIUS: A walk?

ALBUS: I know, I think it’s a bonding thing or something similarly vomit-inducing. Still, you know, I think I’ll go.

SCORPIUS reaches in and hugs ALBUS.

What’s this? I thought we decided we don’t hug.

SCORPIUS: I wasn’t sure. Whether we should. In this new version of us — I had in my head.

ALBUS: Better ask Rose if it’s the right thing to do.

SCORPIUS: Ha! Yeah. Right.

The two boys dislocate and grin at each other.

ALBUS: I’ll see you at dinner.

ACT FOUR, SCENE FIFTEEN

A BEAUTIFUL HILL

HARRY and ALBUS walk up a hill on a beautiful summer’s day. They say nothing, enjoying the sun on their faces as they climb.

HARRY: So are you ready?

ALBUS: For what?

HARRY: Well, there’s the fourth-year exams — and then the fifth year — big year — in my fifth year I did —

He looks at ALBUS. He smiles. He talks quickly.

I did a lot of stuff. Some of it good. Some of it bad. A lot of it quite confusing.

ALBUS: Good to know.

HARRY smiles.

I got to watch them — you know — for a bit — your mum and dad. They were — you had fun together. Your dad used to love to do this smoke ring thing with you where you . . . well, you couldn’t stop giggling.

HARRY: Yes?

ALBUS: I think you’d have liked them. And I think me, Lily, and James would have liked them too.

HARRY nods. There’s a slightly uncomfortable silence. Both are trying to reach each other here, both are failing.

HARRY: You know, I thought I’d lost him — Voldemort — I thought I’d lost him — and then my scar started hurting again and I had dreams of him and I could even speak Parseltongue again and I started to feel like I’d not changed at all — that he’d never let me go — ALBUS: And had he?

HARRY: The part of me that was Voldemort died a long time ago, but it wasn’t enough to be physically rid of him — I had to be mentally rid of him. And that — is a lot to learn for a forty-year-old man.

He looks at ALBUS.

That thing I said to you — it was unforgivable, and I can’t ask you to forget it but I can hope we move past it. I’m going to try to be a better dad for you, Albus. I am going to try and— be honest with you and . . .

ALBUS: Dad, you don’t need to —

HARRY: You told me you don’t think I’m scared of anything, and that — I mean, I’m scared of everything. I mean, I’m afraid of the dark, did you know that?

ALBUS: Harry Potter is afraid of the dark?

HARRY: I don’t like small spaces and — I’ve never told anyone this, but I don’t much like — (he hesitates before saying it) pigeons.

ALBUS: You don’t like pigeons?

HARRY (he scrunches up his face): Nasty, pecky, dirty things. They give me the creeps.

ALBUS: But pigeons are harmless!

HARRY: I know. But the thing that scares me most, Albus Severus Potter, is being a dad to you. Because I’m operating without wires here. Most people at least have a dad to base themselves on — and either try to be or try not to be. I’ve got nothing — or very little. So I’m learning, okay? And I’m going to try with everything I’ve got — to be a good dad for you.

ALBUS: And I’ll try and be a better son. I know I’m not James, Dad, I’ll never be like you two — HARRY:James is nothing like me.

ALBUS: Isn’t he?

HARRY: Everything comes easy for James. My childhood was a constant struggle.

ALBUS: So was mine. So you’re saying — am I — like you?

HARRY smiles at ALBUS.

HARRY: Actually you’re more like your mum — bold, fierce, funny — which I like — which I think makes you a pretty great son.

ALBUS: I almost destroyed the world.

HARRY: Delphi wasn’t going anywhere, Albus — you brought her out into the light and you found a way for us to fight her. You may not see it now, but you saved us.

ALBUS: But shouldn’t I have done better?

HARRY: You don’t think I ask myself the same questions?

ALBUS (stomach sinking further, he knows this is not what his dad would do): And then — when we caught her — I wanted to kill her.

HARRY: You’d watched her murder Craig, you were angry, Albus, and that’s okay. And you wouldn’t have done it.

ALBUS: How do you know that? Maybe that’s my Slytherin side. Maybe that’s what the Sorting Hat saw in me.

HARRY: I don’t understand your head, Albus — actually, you know what, you’re a teenager, I shouldn’t be able to understand your head, but I do understand your heart. I didn’t — for a long time — but thanks to this — “escapade” — I know what you got in there. Slytherin, Gryffindor, whatever label you’ve been given — I know — know — that heart is a good one — yeah, whether you like it or not, you’re on your way to being some wizard.

ALBUS: Oh I’m not going to be a wizard, I’m going into pigeon racing. I’m quite excited about it.

HARRY grins.

HARRY: Those names you have — they shouldn’t be a burden. Albus Dumbledore had his trials too, you know — and Severus Snape, well, you know all about him — ALBUS: They were good men.

HARRY: They were great men, with huge flaws, and you know what — those flaws almost made them greater.

ALBUS looks around himself.

ALBUS: Dad? Why are we here?

HARRY: This is where I often come.

ALBUS: But this is a graveyard . . .

HARRY: And here is Cedric’s grave.

ALBUS: Dad?

HARRY: The boy who was killed — Craig Bowker — how well did you know him?

ALBUS: Not well enough.

HARRY: I didn’t know Cedric well enough either. He could have played Quidditch for England. Or been a brilliant Auror. He could have been anything. And Amos is right — he was stolen. So I come here. Just to say sorry. When I can.

ALBUS: That’s a — good thing to do.

ALBUS joins his dad in front of CEDRIC’s grave. HARRY smiles at his son and looks up at the sky.

HARRY: I think it’s going to be a nice day.

He touches his son’s shoulder. And the two of them — just slightly — melt together.

ALBUS (smiles): So do I.

The End