NUMBER FOUR PRIVET DRIVE — MIDNIGHT
It is nighttime. Music plays. It is very delicate, very enchanting. We open on a simple neighborhood with rows of street lamps and identical houses that stretch further into the stage, getting smaller and smaller, as if the auditorium was magically lengthened for this final scene. At the center of it all, a street sign. This is Privet Drive.
There is a tabby cat resting on a low garden wall of brick and ivy. It stirs as HARRY enters at the back of the stage. He reaches into his pocket for a cigarette lighter. He holds it out in front of him and snaps it open. One by one, the street lamps are snuffed. It is darker, but the glow of the moon is more than enough to light his way.
HARRY walks carefully down Privet Drive. He notices the cat on the garden wall and smiles.
HARRY: Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall.
The cat transforms into PROFESSOR MCGONAGALL through a bit of stage magic.
McGONAGALL: He's late.
HARRY: He'll be here soon.
McGONAGALL: Was that Albus Dumbledore's Put-Outer I saw?
HARRY: I'm borrowing it from Ron.
McGONAGALL: You've learned what happened, then? Did it work?
HARRY: Yes. The Tempest was never formed.
McGONAGALL: That's a relief.
HARRY: After the Battle of Hogwarts, when Bellatrix Lestrange died, the magical protection guarding the bedchamber at Malfoy Manor adapted, providing access to her husband.
McGONAGALL: Rodolphus Lestrange.
HARRY: When the Chimaera egg was found smashed on the floor next to Voldemort's broken wand, it was widely believed that the heir had been murdered out of jealousy. Lestrange was hunted.
McGONAGALL: But he was caught by Aurors and sent to Azkaban.
HARRY: Which he welcomed. And Rodolphus never escaped because my son wasn't there to inspire him toward another future.
McGONAGALL: What of the prophecy?
HARRY: It was never expanded upon — because that future never existed. Outside of my mind, that is.
McGONAGALL: And the Ministry of Magic?
HARRY: Safe. Never infiltrated. In the absence of a powerful enemy, Percy's time in office was uneventful, leaving him open to considering a new platform to solidify his legacy. He listened to witches like Hermione and elves like Robespierre who were fighting for the freedom and inclusion of all magical beings. The Elvish Welfare Division was never disbanded.
McGONAGALL: True. In fact, it magnified. There are departments for trolls, goblins, werewolves, even vampires.
HARRY smiles.
HARRY: The broader aims of The Tempest were realized by the Ministry, and without a single death.
McGONAGALL: We have much to be thankful for.
She looks at him, desperately moved.
HARRY: This is how it was always meant to be. Everyone is alive and well. (beat) It's incredible how much can change by removing one child from history.
YOU ARE READING
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (The M. Clifford MOD)
Fanfiction"It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn't much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and the father of three school-age children. While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where...
