Many of the characters in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child have regrets about the past, and the play explores what might happen if people were actually able to go back in time and try to change some of those past mistakes. For example, Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy use a Time-Turner to go back in time to the Triwizard Tournament to save Cedric Diggory from an unjust death, but in doing so, they create harmful ripple effects on the future. The play also examines how characters deal with past traumas, as Harry fixates on his abuse as a child and his worry about Voldemort returning. In showing how detrimental actually trying to change the past is, and in showing how fixating on the past often comes at the expense of dealing with one’s present problems, the play suggests that the best way to improve one’s life is to focus on what one can change and do in the present rather than to dwell on what can’t be changed in the past.
Albus and Scorpius learn the dangers of changing the past when they go back in time to save Cedric Diggory. While Albus and Scorpius believe they’re only making one simple change (preventing Cedric from winning the tournament so that he doesn’t die), even their minor actions at the tournament create major—and devastating—changes to the present. For example, a few comments they make to Hermione prevent Ron and Hermione from ever getting together and falling in love, meaning that Albus’s cousin Rose is never born. Hermione also never becomes Minister for Magic; instead, she ends up as a frustrated and bitter version of herself, teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts. In this way, the play demonstrates how attempting to change the past can have horrible, unexpected consequences. Furthermore, when Scorpius and Albus then try to go back a second time to correct their initial errors, they end up humiliating Cedric so badly that he becomes a Death Eater. This changes the world so drastically that Voldemort comes back to life and takes over the wizarding world. In this timeline, Harry is dead, meaning that Albus hasn’t been born and Scorpius finds himself in an authoritarian state dominated by torture, murder, and paranoia. In showing this devastating outcome—and showing that Scorpius has to correct it—the play suggests that focusing on trying to change the past is detrimental to the present and the future.
While Albus and Scorpius’s adventures explore the dangers of actually trying to change past mistakes through the magical means of the Time-Turner, Harry’s experiences show how fixating on past traumas in one’s childhood is unproductive and prevents one from addressing problems in the present. Throughout the play, Harry is plagued by dreams from his abusive childhood and the fear of Voldemort returning. He becomes so tortured by this possibility that he even separates Albus and Scorpius, worried that Scorpius is a bad influence on Albus but ultimately doing major damage to his own relationship with his son. Apologizing later to Albus for his actions, he states, “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.” In this quote, Harry recognizes that the importance of letting go of his past trauma is crucial to being a better father in the present. The play puts Harry’s realization to the test once again through the device of time travel. Harry has the opportunity to prevent his parents’ deaths, but he chooses not to do so, knowing that changing the past comes with dangers, and recognizing that this wouldn’t actually fix the actual problems that he’s been having. Instead, he has to do the work of repairing his relationship with his son in the present.
The play suggests the importance of trying to change what one can in the present rather than fixating on the past. Throughout the play, Albus and Scorpius struggle with other kids bullying them, and as a result they often withdraw even further from the other students. But after the ordeals of the play, Scorpius decides to try out for the Quidditch team. Albus is surprised, to which Scorpius responds, “people can change.” Rather than harping on his past struggles with the other students and not being popular, Scorpius is trying to forge a new path for himself, showing his desire to change what he can in the present. Albus does the same regarding his relationship with Harry. In the final scene, Harry acknowledges saying in the past that he sometimes wishes Albus wasn’t his son. He then admits that what he said was “unforgivable” and that he “can’t ask [Albus] to forget it but [he] can hope [they] move past it,” assuring Albus that he’ll be a better dad. Albus agrees; in this way, they both acknowledge that they can’t change what has happened between them, but they can find a way to focus on how they treat each other in the present. In the play’s final moments, Harry drives this point home regarding Cedric as well, after so much of the conflict has centered around trying to save Cedric’s life and change the past. Harry brings Albus to Cedric’s grave, explaining that he comes by to say sorry when he can. With this gesture, the play affirms that rather than trying to fixate on or change the past and potentially wreak havoc on the future, the best way to truly change one’s life is to focus on what a person can do in the present.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Time, Mistakes, and the Past ThemeTracker
Time, Mistakes, and the Past Quotes in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
ALBUS: When Amos Diggory asked for the Time-Turner my father denied they even existed. He lied to an old man who just wanted his son back—who just loved his son. And he did it because he didn’t care—because he doesn’t care. Everyone talks about all the brave things Dad did. But he made some mistakes too. Some big mistakes, in fact. I want to set one of those mistakes right. I want us to save Cedric.
SCORPIUS: Okay, whatever was holding your brain together seems to have snapped.
ALBUS: I’m going to do this, Scorpius. I need to do this. And you know as well as I do, I’ll entirely mess it up if you don’t come with me. Come on.
DELPHI: I can think of one reason why you should trust them, Uncle.
They stop.
They’re the only ones volunteering to help. They’re prepared to bravely put themselves at risk to return your son to your side.
In fact, I’m pretty sure they put themselves at risk even getting here…
AMOS: This is Cedric we’re talking about…
DELPHI: And—didn’t you say yourself, having someone inside Hogwarts might be a massive advantage?
DELPHI kisses the top of AMOS’s head. AMOS looks at DELPHI, and then turns to look at the boys.
AMOS: Why? Why do you want to put yourself at risk? What’s in it for you? ALBUS: I know what it is to be the spare. Your son didn’t deserve to be killed, Mr. Diggory. We can help you get him back.
DRACO: My father thought he was protecting me. Most of the time. People say parenting is the hardest job in the world—they’re wrong—growing up is. We all just forget how hard it was.
As hard as he tries to resist them, these words resonate with HARRY.
I think you have to make a choice—at a certain point—of the man you want to be. And I tell you that at that time you need a parent or a friend. And if you’ve learnt to hate your parent by then and you have no friends… then you’re all alone. And being alone—that’s so hard. I was alone. And it sent me to a truly dark place. For a long time. Tom Riddle was also a lonely child. You may not understand that, Harry, but I do—and I think Ginny does too.
SCORPIUS: Have you heard me, Albus? This is bigger than you and your dad. Professor Croaker’s law—the furthest someone can go back in time without the possibility of serious harm to the traveler or time itself is five hours. And we went back years. The smallest moment, the smallest change, it creates ripples. And we—we’ve created really bad ripples. Rose was never born because of what we did. Rose.
SCORPIUS: You—Polly Chapman—want me to take you to a—ball?
There is the sound of screaming behind him.
What is that screaming?
POLLY CHAPMAN: Mudbloods, of course. In the dungeons. Your idea, wasn’t it? What’s going on with you? Oh Potter—I’ve got blood on my shoes again…
She bends and carefully cleans the blood of her shoes.
Like the Augurey insists—the future is ours to make—so here I am, making a future—with you. For Voldemort and Valor.
SCORPIUS: For Voldemort it is.
POLLY walks on, SCORPIUS look agonized. What is this world—and what is he within it?
SCORPIUS: An Augurey?
DELPHI: Haven’t you met them in Care of Magical Creatures? They’re sinister-looking black birds that cry when rain’s coming. Wizards used to believe that the Augurey’s cry foretold death. When I was growing up, my guardian kept one in a cage.
SCORPIUS: Your… guardian?
DELPHI looks at SCORPIUS, now she has the Time-Turner she’s enjoying the game of this.
DELPHI: She used to say it was crying because it could see I was going to come to a sticky end. She didn’t like me much. Euphemia Rowle… she only took me in for the gold.
ALBUS: Why would you want a tattoo of her bird, then?
DELPHI: It reminds me that the future is mine to make.
CEDRIC: Emancipare! Emancipare!
The boys are freed.
And now I can go on? Finish the maze?
The boys look at CEDRIC—they know exactly what it means for him to finish the maze.
ALBUS: I’m afraid you have to finish the maze.
CEDRIC: Then I shall.
CEDRIC walks confidently away. Albus looks after him—desperate to say something, unsure what to say.
ALBUS: Cedric-
CEDRIC turns towards him.
Your dad loves you very much.
HARRY: “Love blinds us”? Do you even know what that means? Do you even know how bad that advice was? My son is—my son is fighting battles for us just as I had to for you. And I have proved as bad a father to him as you were to me. Leaving him in places he felt unloved—growing in him resentments he’ll take years to understand—
[…]
DUMBLEDORE: No. I was protecting you. I did not want to hurt you…
DUMBLEDORE attempts to reach out of the portrait—but he can’t. He begins to cry but tries to hide it.
But I had to meet you in the end… eleven years old, and you were so brave. So good. You walked uncomplainingly along the path that had been laid at your feet. Of course I loved you… and I knew that it would happen all over again… that where I loved, I would cause irreparable damage. I am no fit person to love… I have never loved without causing harm.
A beat.
HARRY: You would have hurt me less if you had told me this then.
DUMBLEDORE (openly weeping now): I was blind. That is what love does. I couldn’t see that you needed to hear that this closed-up, tricky, dangerous old man… loved you.
DRACO: Astoria always knew that she was not destined for old age. She wanted me to have somebody when she left, because… it is exceptionally lonely, being Draco Malfoy. I will always be suspected. There is no escaping the past. I never realized, though, that by hiding him away from this gossiping, judgmental world, I ensured that my son would emerge shrouded in worse suspicion than I ever endured.
HARRY: Love blinds. We have both tried to give our sons not what they needed, but what we needed. We’ve been so busy trying to rewrite our own pasts, we’ve blighted their present.
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.
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…
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.
