Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

ACT FOUR, SCENE FIVE
GODRIC’S HOLLOW, OUTSIDE JAMES AND LILY POTTER’S HOUSE, 1981
ALBUS and SCORPIUS look hopelessly around, trying to think themselves out of the most epic of
problems.
ALBUS: We tell my granddad and grandma?
SCORPIUS: That they’ll never get to see their son grow up?
ALBUS: She’s strong enough — I know she is — you saw her.
SCORPIUS: She looked wonderful, Albus. And if I were you I’d be desperate to talk to her. But she
needs to be able to beg Voldemort for Harry’s life, she needs to think he might die, and you’re
the worst spoiler in the world that didn’t turn out to be true . . .
ALBUS: Dumbledore. Dumbledore’s alive. We get Dumbledore involved. We do what you did
with Snape —
SCORPIUS: Can we risk him knowing your dad survives? That he has kids?
ALBUS: He’s Dumbledore! He can cope with anything!
SCORPIUS: Albus, there have been about a hundred books written on what Dumbledore knew, how
he knew it or why he did what he did. But what’s undoubtedly true — what he did — he needs
to do — and I’m not going to risk messing with it. (Beat, he looks imploringly at his friend.) I
was able to ask for help because I was in an alternate reality. We aren’t. We’re in the past. We
can’t fix time only to create more problems — if our adventures have taught us anything,
they’ve taught us that. The dangers of talking to anyone — infecting time — are too great.