Questions For Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

What questions do we want to see answered in the “eighth” Potter tale Harry Potter and the Cursed Child?

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The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.

In 2007, I read those last words and took them for granted. Twenty years on from the events of the mid to late 1990s wizarding world, and Harry Potter had won: peace had remained. There was no “Third Wizarding War” the way there had been a second one a decade and a half after he was responsible for the end of the first one.

But I’ve grown up since then. And so has Harry. And though back in the mid-aughts Rowling said she was finished with this story, the truth is that no story is ever over. Not even death ends the story, only one thread of it. And though the world may still be safe from imminent destruction, is Harry really well? Is Hermione? How about Ron? As a therapist I know who grew up with the books is fond of pointing out, all three of these characters went through a horrific experience. Therapy, let alone PTSD therapy, doesn’t seem to be a big thing in wizarding society. Did these characters ever truly recover?

That’s only one of the hundreds of questions I find myself asking as I look to my pre-ordered copy of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The book will not be a novelization of the story presented on London’s stage. Rather, it’s the rehearsal script: what the actors will sit down to read in a few weeks time when pre-production gives way to rehearsals. And at 320 pages, it’s no wonder the play is making for a complex show. In theater, one is taught that one should expect a page of dialogue to equal a few minute of stage time. That puts Cursed Child at a running time of 320 minutes for both parts, or five hours and twenty minutes. No wondered they had to split it in half: if they did it equally, it will be a pair of 2 hour and forty minute shows.

So what are we going to learn in those five hours? What questions do we fans want answered?

The “Golden Trio,” now in their 40s.

How is Harry? As the synopsis says, not totally well, despite his scar no longer hurting:

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 father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

But are they still married? Or are they divorced co-parenting?

“An overworked employee in the ministry of magic.” We knew Harry wanted to be an Auror, and it’s hard to imagine that the Ministry would deny The Boy Who Lived his desired job, at least in those first years after the Second Wizarding War. Harry never struck me as being interested in doing the political thing. (Remember how he always turned down the chance to be a figurehead.) Working the room and the system to make his way up to Minister doesn’t seem to be his style, though I think we all know the position easily could have been his had he been willing to play the game. Many thought that Dumbledore took himself away to Hogwarts in the 1930s to never be tempted to take such a position of power. But Harry, for whatever reason, has not taken that route either. He chooses to stay in the Ministry, and yet not go for the top job. Why not? Living in the in-between place, of being the most famous wizard of his time without being in a position of great power, cannot be an easy balance. How about Ginny? We know a bit of Ginny’s story—after becoming a major figure in Quidditch with the Hollyhead Harpies, she now works as a sports writer for The Daily Prophet. In her own way, she has become just as famous as her husband, just in a different field.

But though I have many questions about the adult Potter now that he is my age, with the same problems of a person in their 30s, one cannot help but be acutely aware that the Harry Potter novels were always children’s stories, focused on Hogwarts and growing up. And although we’re curious about the adult versions of our characters, this synopsis promises the “eighth” Potter story will be no different. We will be at Hogwarts with the next generation: James Potter II, Teddy Lupin, Rose Weasley, all the rest. Most importantly, we’ll be focused on the son with the most heavy of names: Albus Severus Potter. Named for both the most famous wizard of the last generation, the man who killed him, and baring his father’s last name, Albus is the “Cursed Child” of the title.

Why is he cursed? Is this to be taken literally?

Why is he cursed? Is this to be taken literally, as if he is cursed by Voldemort? Or is it merely the curse of being the second son of a once-famous celebrity? Is it the struggle to live up to some fantasy legacy of his father than never really was? Harry experienced a bit of this when he first arrived at Hogwarts. He was the child of two very famous people, but his own fame eclipsed theirs, since it was he in the end who lived. And he also had an evil to fight against, and an easy line to stand on the right side of. An Albus who finds himself sorted into Slytherin, who finds himself jealous of a successful older brother, resentful of a father (and perhaps his also-famous mother?) could easily find himself looking to the wrong side of that line, purely based on rebellion.

Let’s face the elephant in the room, the one that in the 21st century is almost impossible not to wonder. Yes, Hermione, Harry, Ron and Ginny all stood on that platform and waved their kids goodbye as they got on that train to Hogwarts. But are they all still married? Or are they divorced co-parenting? It seems rather impossible that Hermione, the greatest witch of her age, and one of the most driven women in fantasy would stay with a man who, by all accounts, dropped out of his job as an Auror after a couple of years to help his brother George run the joke shop. Even Rowling herself has suggested it was wrong to put them together for life. Rupert Grint seems to think Ron’s chances of still being married are slim. Are they? And if they are, how are they making it work? Do they still flash back to those days of terror when they were on the run from Voldemort? Do they jump at shadows?

Are Ginny and Harry still married? She had her own share of horrors throughout the 90s. But let’s be real: there’s having your own case of PTSD, and then there’s being married to the biggest case of them all. And there’s been no proof she and Harry are still together. I could easily see her moving back in with her mother after a decade, not being able to take it anymore.

How far did Hermione go in her career? For many female fans, this one will be oh so important. Hermione was bound to be a careerist. Is there a “glass ceiling” for witches, the way there is for women in Muggle society? Did she hit it? Or did she smash it down? How does she balance that life between being a careerist and a mother? Does she find herself having to make the decision that Muggle women are so familiar with, the one between rushing home to pick up the sick child or making that really important meeting? Does she fly her house along with her to wherever she goes, and really can have it all?

Next: Matt Luscas shares his vision of Harry Potter at 80

What else am I missing? What else do we want to learn from Harry Potter and the Cursed Child? Other than perhaps how good a professor is Longbottom anyway?

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