KING'S CROSS — PRESENT
HERMIONE hurries to stop them, arms spread wide.
PERCIVAL: Your compassion is to be admired, Hermione — but when man is unwilling to acquiesce, the might of a higher authority will usurp him.
HERMIONE: One more chance. He's owed that, at least.
PERCIVAL sighs and she faces DELPHI.
Go. Tell him to come out.
RON (to HERMIONE, under his breath): What are you doing? She's part of the problem here.
HERMIONE (to RON): Harry listens to her.
PERCIVAL: Tick-tock.
HERMIONE rushes to DELPHI.
HERMIONE (to DELPHI): Refusing an order from the Minister of Magic is a high crime. The sentence far outweighs the offense of dueling in front of Muggles.
DELPHI: He knows that already.
HERMIONE: Then he's confused. Remind him. This makes Harry look suspicious to the Rita Skeeters of the world. They don't see him like... like we see him. He's playing right into their hands. (beat) It'll get much worse if he resists. I can't help Harry if he resists.
DELPHI nods and approaches the ticket counter. She is alone.
PERCIVAL: Miss Drake...
She turns back worriedly.
Tidy up this mess, will you?
HARRY sees DELPHI coming. He takes a step back. She joins him behind the counter.
DELPHI (timidly): The world has gone crazy, have you noticed?
HARRY: You shouldn't be here.
DELPHI: But here I am anyway. Talking to you.
HARRY is looking past her.
HARRY: Well, I can't talk so...
DELPHI: You have to. You think you can just ignore everything that's happened?
PERCIVAL: Hiding is beneath you, Potter. Come out. Promptly!
HARRY: What have I become, Delphi?
DELPHI: You haven't become anything — you simply are as you are.
HARRY: What if I'm still a Horcrux? (beat) Maybe I should turn myself in. Let them — destroy it.
DELPHI: What? And have them kill you?
HARRY: Then tell me what to do.
DELPHI: Your soul is intact and greater than any splinter of his. Be yourself, not a Horcrux. And restore the wizarding world.
HARRY: But how do I restore the wizarding world if I'm the problem?
HARRY swallows and they look at one another for a long time.
PERCIVAL: How much blood is on your hands, Harry Potter? Don't make this worse.
HARRY (to DELPHI): Voldemort must be stopped. I won't become who they want me to be. I'll die before I do that. There has to be an answer out there somewhere.
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...
