Harry Potter and the Order of Archetypes: Scorpius Malfoy, the Guide

In a weekly series, we look at some of our favorite witches and wizards, and how they fit into literary and social archetypes. This week: Scorpius Malfoy

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Reviews for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child may be mixed, but they’ve all agreed on at least one thing. Anthony Boyle’s performance as Scorpius Malfoy steals the show. It’s not hard to see within the mere script of Cursed Child that Scorpius is the darling of the play, and well on his way to major favorite character status. That’s even if you’re among the fans who don’t have the opportunity to experience Boyle’s reported charisma.

As lovable as his father was detestable in his youth, Scorpius catches your attention with his easy humor. His social awkwardness, and outward comfortability with himself, combats the ugly (and, quite frankly, narratively absurd) rumors that surround his parentage. Scorpius searchers for his identity as much as Albus Potter does for his own. But his hardships have made him more adept at carrying the burden of his name and the world’s consequent expectations of him.

The Malfoy name is infamous where the Potter one is celebrated. As such Scorpius has learned the hard truths of how to shoulder his legacy while Albus struggles to do the same, to separate himself from his family’s glory and carve his own path. This is, at its heart, the real plot of Cursed Child, however bogged down it is by its tortuous details. The search for identity, self-actualization, and a purpose that is entirely your own.

It may sound like a solo journey, but Albus could not have embarked upon it with success without Scorpius to show him where to go and how to get there. Albus struggles to find his voice, and so Scorpius’ function is that of the guide’s. To speak the wisdom of the universe, to right the protagonist’s wrongs in such a way that he learns how to meet the end he seeks. The guide is the personified wisdom that the hero must channel in order to properly tackle his adventure. In this way the guide is really an extension of the hero himself.

Warning: Cursed Child spoilers follow

If you haven’t seen or read the play and don’t wish to know any details, turn back now…

Indeed, Scorpius and Albus seem to be two halves of a whole. Each of them brings out the best in the other, and that they tackle the worst of themselves together. There is an instant connection between them upon their first train ride to Hogwarts, which is defined in the stage directions. “ALBUS smiles. SCORPIUS smiles back.”

While Rose is wary of Scorpius as soon as she recognizes him, Albus remains unperturbed by Scorpius’ family ties and the dark rumors that follow him, despite their fathers’ own notorious rivalry. Rather, Scorpius and Albus’ relationship plays more to the tune of Harry and Ron’s. Scorpius offers his sweets and companionship to Albus in much the same fashion as an eleven-year-old Harry. And like Ron with Harry, Scorpius sees Albus for who he is as a person. Not for whatever identity the Wizarding world expects of him based on his historical name.

Scorpius understands the burden of a legacy, perhaps better than Albus. After all, Scorpius bears the name of those who so famously played on the losing side of both the First and Second Wizarding Wars. Scorpius knows what Albus doesn’t, and so he doesn’t share in the popular scorn that places expectations on Albus, based on what people they think they know rather than any actual truth.

All the same, Scorpius is too much the voice of reason in an otherwise unreasonable story to let Albus off the hook. Much of the tension in Cursed Child exists between Harry and Albus and their inability to communicate honestly with each other. Albus has lived in the shadow of his own self-doubt that tells him he’s not enough to carry the Potter name. It’s Scorpius who teaches Albus that it’s not about what your name is, but how you act because of or in spite of it. Scorpius refuses to let the Malfoy reputation define him, and pushes Albus to be better when the Potters’ heroic legacy fails to do so.

This becomes apparent when Scorpius is the first of the pair to realize what a mistake it was for them to try their hand at reparative time travel. He acknowledges the scope of the damage they’ve done, realizes the cost. He knows that their intentions—however noble—were ignorant and, in the end, destructive. While he’s the one who points out that they have a mess to clean up, his reason dictates that they can’t do it alone.

"ALBUS: Who says that we’ll get it wrong?SCORPIUS: I say. Because that’s what we do. We mess things up. We lose. We’re losers, true and total losers. Haven’t you realized that yet?"

Their failures escalate into the friends fighting between themselves. In that moment, Scorpius spills the truth that shows Albus that his actions define him more than his name does:

"SCORPIUS: [Y]ou can’t see beyond the end of your nose. Because you can’t see beyond the end of your stupid thing with your dad. He will always be Harry Potter, you know that, right? And you will always be his son. And I know it’s hard, and the other kids are awful, but you have to learn to be okay with that, because—there are worse things, okay?[…] So I’m sorry if I’ve ruined your life because I tell you—you wouldn’t have a chance of ruining mine—it was already ruined. You just didn’t make it better. Because you’re a terrible—the most terrible—friend."

This, I think, is the most heartfelt moment in the play. It’s harsh and precisely what Albus needs to hear. It serves as a turning point for him because it’s the honesty he doesn’t get from anyone else. He’s coddled by his parents and shunned by his peers. By his own admission Scorpius is the only person he needs. In that vein, it falls to Scorpius to play the archetype of the guide, because only through him will Albus find it within himself to change. To take responsibility for himself rather than blame it all on his unfortunate lot as Harry Potter’s Slytherin son. Scorpius speaks the universal wisdom of Get over it, and ensures that Albus begins to do so.

Not only does Scorpius play the guide within the scope of the narrative. He also takes the audience by the hand and leads us back into the Potterverse through his own nature. Scorpius is an amalgamation of some of the trio’s defining qualities: Harry’s reserve, Ron’s humor, Hermione’s intellect. In this way he connects us to the original series, by encompassing these characteristics that made the trio so rich, relatable, and memorable.

Cursed Child highlights the sadness that ran throughout Harry Potter by bringing it to the forefront of the plot. Perhaps too much so, as the tone of the play is almost entirely melancholic. There is little humor or good nature to be found within the narrative. It’s a problem which dilutes one of the central themes of the series. Nothing is entirely good nor entirely bad. Rather, the bad doesn’t overcome the good, and hope tethers you to the eventual triumph over your struggles. Early on, Scorpius exemplifies this by summing up in one line the entirety of the original series. “If we’re doing this, we’re doing it together.”

And that, when it comes down to it, is really what Harry Potter’s all about; it just took a Malfoy to make us see it.

Next: Will There Be a Cursed Child Movie?

Be sure to check out our other Harry Potter and the Order of Archetypes installments.

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