Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Parenthood
Time, Mistakes, and the Past
Friendship, Family, Love, and Bravery
Reputation and Expectation
Death and Sacrifice
Summary
Analysis
Back in the present, Ron, Scorpius, Hermione, and Snape are in the middle of the forest, and Ron is in severe pain. Snape realizes that they’re way too exposed—they need to find shelter. Suddenly, wind starts to rise, and dementors float down in approach. Hermione tells Ron that she loves him, and she says that she’s going to sacrifice herself for them to ensure a better future.
Here Hermione shows her true heroic colors again, being willing to sacrifice herself so that Scorpius and the others can get away and complete their plan, thereby restoring the world to its natural order and presumably saving countless lives.
Themes
Snape and Scorpius run off, but Ron stays with Hermione, saying that he will help her keep the dementors there. They nod to each other sadly, acknowledging that they have a daughter and son. They kiss, and then the dementors descend on them, sucking their souls out of their bodies.
Ron shows that he, too, is willing to sacrifice himself, not only for the broader wizarding world but also for the lives and the children that he and Hermione share. This exchange also emphasizes how their love bolsters their bravery as they face the dementors.
Themes
Scorpius and Snape stumble down to the lake, and Scorpius is consumed by despair. A dementor swoops towards them, but Snape assures Scorpius that they will only attack if they sense Scorpius’s fear—he’s a Malfoy, after all, and Snape is a professor. Snape tells him to think about those he loves—about Albus. He says that Scorpius is giving up his kingdom for Albus, just as Snape devotes his life to the cause that Lily (Harry’s mother) was fighting for. Scorpius acknowledges that he is better off in this world, but the world is not better.
Even though Albus isn’t even there to help fight off the dementors, Scorpius still uses the love that they share to feel braver in the face of the dementors’ despair-inducing powers. His and Albus’s friendship—even in Albus’s absence—thus helps him overcome the obstacles he faces, showing the importance of that kind of love in accomplishing one’s goals. Meanwhile, Scorpius also willingly sacrifices his own more powerful position in this alternate world in order to try to bring back the other, better world.
Themes
Suddenly, Dolores Umbridge emerges behind Snape and Scorpius. She informs them that they found the traitorous Hermione Granger, and she becomes increasingly suspicious of why Snape and Scorpius are outside as well. Snape wonders how long Umbridge has suspected him, and she tells him years. Snape pulls out his wand, casting a spell that propels her backwards.
Snape continues to sacrifice himself, attacking Umbridge in order to give Scorpius the best fighting chance to correct the timeline.
Themes
Get the entire Harry Potter and the Cursed Child LitChart as a printable PDF.
Dementors close in on Snape and Scorpius, and Snape casts a Patronus—a doe, like Harry’s mother Lily’s Patronus. Snape tells Scorpius to run, and Scorpius thanks Snape for everything he did. Snape tells Scorpius to tell Albus Severus that he’s proud the boy carries his name. Scorpius runs after the doe toward the lake, and dementors descend on Snape, pulling him into the air and sucking out his soul.
Like Ron and Hermione, Snape makes an ultimate sacrifice in allowing the dementors to suck out his soul so that Scorpius can save the wizarding world from Voldemort’s wrath. The play highlights how it is this bravery and sacrifice that makes him a great wizard, and one worthy of Harry naming his son after Snape.
Themes
There’s a flash and a bang as time warps, and then silence—until Scorpius ascends from the lake’s waters. He looks up at the sky, which seems lighter. And then, suddenly, Albus emerges after Scorpius—they’ve just come from the second task. Scorpius smiles, so glad to see his friend again, hugging him fiercely. Albus says that Scorpius saw him two minutes earlier, but Scorpius explains that a lot has happened since then. Albus asks if they succeeded, but Scorpius says delightedly that they failed.
As Albus emerges from the lake—thus indicating that their plan succeeded—it shows how Hermione, Ron, and Snape’s sacrifices were not in vain, and they were able to save the wizarding world. Scorpius’s delight at the fact that they failed emphasizes how wrong they were to try to change the timeline in the first place. The play thus suggests that even when presented with the opportunity to change the past, it doesn’t mean one should do so.
Themes
Suddenly, Harry, Draco, Ginny, and Professor McGonagall find Scorpius and Albus, explaining that Myrtle told them some of what happened. Scorpius realizes suddenly and with dread that he lost the Time-Turner. Professor McGonagall tells them that they have a lot of explaining to do.
Harry, Draco, Ginny, and Professor McGonagall’s disappointment confirms the danger that they’ve posed in trying to affect the past. But the fact that Scorpius loses the Time-Turner, which symbolizes that danger, only foreshadows the looming danger ahead.
Themes
