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hp-nextgen-fest · 5 years ago

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2020 HP Next Gen Fest Reveals!

The time has finally come for the 2020 @hp-nextgen-fest reveals! Thank you so very much to everyone who has made this fest such an amazing success! We were incredibly impressed with the overwhelming enthusiasm you all have for our favorite Next Gen characters. Everyone who submitted stories and art, and those who read, reviewed and recced: You guys are amazing!! It's been really great seeing everybody's fantastic creations, and we hope you all enjoyed the fest as much as we did! Without further ado, here's a list of all the amazing participants who worked so hard to create fabulous things for this year's fest!

ART

@miakagrewup drew AcciDental Magic [Rose, Hugo, & Grandparents | General] Hermione and Ron are called away for a case and left without their usual child-minder when Molly falls ill. Hermione’s parents step up to keep Hugo and Rose, in spite of Hermione’s warning that the two little ones have some big issues with accidental magic. The story is told comic book style, with illustrations and voice bubbles.

@eleonorapoe drew Woke up married! [James Sirius/Teddy | General] They get well and truly bladdered at Albus's stag do and wake up in bed together with matching wedding bands...

@mad1492 drew Sunday Practice [James Sirius/Teddy | General] Teddy thought that morning practice on Sunday was going to be something he would soon regret, but things may turn more interesting than expected.

@julcheninred drew Introduction [Albus, Severus, & Albus Severus | General] Albus Severus Potter gets to know the men he's named for by asking them about the experiences, memories, and motives that shaped their lives.

@garmrr drew Eyecandy [James Sirius/Teddy | General] After months of extensive Auror training, Teddy comes with the Potters to the beach. James. Cannot. Stop. Staring. At. Teddy. Shirtless.

FIC

@cassiaratheslytherpuff wrote We Keep Loving Anyway [Albus Severus/Scorpius | Explicit | 7.1k] After Albus finds out Scorpius is part vampire he can’t stop thinking about being bitten. He can’t stop thinking about Scorpius in general, but that’s been the case since he was fifteen. At least, when it comes to Scorpius he’s used to not getting what he wants. He’s happy with what he has, or at least, comfortable. That is until he accidentally asks for it, then it all starts to change.

@polly-darton wrote The perks of Veritaserum [James Sirius/Teddy | Explicit | 5.1k] James drank a long-lasting version of Veritaserum and is miserable and Teddy is having the time of his life. That is, until they’re both having the time of their lives.

@gracerene09 wrote Thunderstruck [Charlie/Teddy | Explicit | 2.6k] There’s not a lot for dragon tamers to do when stuck inside during a storm, but looking at this particular new recruit―well, Charlie can’t help but think of a few ways they could pass the time.

Quentin_threepwood wrote Hair Today, Hair Tomorrow [Albus Severus/Scorpius | Mature | 1.7k] Away on a book tour Albus Severus Malfoy grows a very creepy mustache, much to the horror of his still at home husband Scorpius Malfoy.

vitruvian8008 wrote Mission in Nairn [Draco/Lily Luna | Explicit | 7k] Lily Luna Potter is paired with Draco Malfoy for her first Auror Mission. On their last night, she decides to act on the lingering tension that had been building up between them.

@nerdherderette wrote No Other Alpha But You [Albus Severus/James Sirius | Explicit | 7.1k] Scorpius Malfoy has applied to be Albus' heat partner. There's no way James is letting that happen.

@aneiria-writes wrote The Scorpion King [Albus Severus/Scorpius | Explicit | 3.8k] Scorpius Malfoy, AKA the Scorpion King, has ruled Britain ever since his father turned his sights to conquering Europe. With his right-hand man and most trusted advisor, Albus Potter, Scorpius has a life of elegance and power. But he's had enough of the beautiful women that usually grace his bed. Scorpius has decided he wants something else in bed. Something more. Scorpius Malfoy wants Albus Potter.

@motherofmercury wrote Islands of the Upper Air [Lily Luna/Luna | General | 1.5k] Lily Luna has never liked her namesake, or her strange and sometimes absurd way of looking at the world. But a weekend full of ancient rituals and mountain forests is an eye opener, in more ways than one.

@shipperysails-bookofspells wrote Expecto Patronum!! [James Sirius/Teddy | Mature | 45.7k] James Potter had always known exactly what he wanted; to open a pub of his own, maybe travel the world, and live a simple life with the only man he’d ever loved. For years he waited, quietly determined to help Teddy see what could be between them. But just when everything he’d ever dreamed of was finally within his reach, it was ripped away in an instant. With Teddy missing, and presumed dead, James is left to pick up the pieces. John has no idea what he wants. He doesn’t even know who he is. But when he hears a strikingly familiar voice – on an otherwise ordinary day – he sets out to discover everything he can about the man that occupies his dreams. And Harry, well, Harry just wants to put his failures behind him. Until a series of unexpected events forces him to reexamine a case that he’d given up on solving. With the help of an unexpected ally, he just might find the answers he’s been looking for.

@lovealpenglow wrote lily's potter [Lily Luna/Lysander & Lily Luna/Draco | Mature | 8.3k] "But what if I keep it? What’s the contingency plan there?” She took a seat next to Lily. She spoke slowly, as if she was thinking about it for the first time, too. “Well, I mean, you keep your baby. You raise it. You love it. It goes on to do wonderful things because it’s a Potter.” Lily snorted. “It’s a Potter?” “Why not? I mean it’s just as much you as whoever is the father. Why shouldn’t it be a Potter first?”

@micheleblack wrote Snaked a Claim [Albus Severus/Scorpius | Teen | 1.6k] Everyone knew Albus was gay from age five when he would dramatically swoon every time Goncalo Flores the Quidditch player was mentioned. Twenty years later and Harry still tells the tale - much to Al’s embarrassment.

@ladderofyears wrote And I Fell Heavy (Into Your Arms) [James Sirius/Teddy | Explicit | 9.1k] When James Sirius Potter travels to America for three weeks, the turquoise-haired Healer Teddy Lupin misses his boyfriend very much indeed. Luckily, Teddy has (sexy) floo calls, charmed obsidian pendants and hastily made chastity promises to keep him busy. Based on the following prompt: Absence makes the heart grow fonder... Right? Smutty phone!sex? Longing letters? All up to you!

@veelawings wrote Dirty Duelling [Albus Severus/Draco | Explicit | 6.1k] Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want (Or — fucked up Dirty Dancing with wand fights)

@eleonorapoe wrote Albus’ Private Lesson of Sex Education [Albus Severus/James Sirius/Teddy | Explicit | 4.5k] Albus has some doubts about sex. Luckily he has an older brother, who can initiate him. How does this lesson go? James will be the teacher, Albus his good and obedient student and Teddy will be more than happy to serve them as a learning tool. In which a delicious Teddy sandwich is served.

@faeheyjesper wrote Four Reasons [James Sirius/Teddy | General | 8.1k] There were a couple of things James should've considered more seriously before coming back to work at Hogwarts as the new Flying Instructor. His dad being the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor there, for one. The fact that he hadn't really flown since a career-ending injury had put an abrupt end to his Quidditch fame two years ago, for another. His ridiculous, teenage crush on Teddy Lupin, his friend and Hogwarts' newest Charms professor, perhaps most of all.

@26timesbrighter wrote An Interlude [Lavender/Victoire | Explicit | 4.9k] Victoire is supposed to be chasing a serial killer, not shagging her uncle’s dead ex-girlfriend.

@drarryruinedme7 wrote Mint & Apples [Harry/Teddy | Explicit | 4.3k] Teddy Lupin's not-quite-wolf has chosen Harry Potter as his mate, that's all. He hasn't got a crush on his best friend's father, really. He also definitely isn't obsessed with Harry Potter's scent.

crazyparakiss wrote This is Love [Albus Severus/Scorpius | Explicit | 24.8k] Most of Albus’s bad life decisions can be summed up in a word: James. When he got a shitty tattoo in the Fifth Year—done by some bloke in a dirty flat—well, that was James’s idea. When he got picked up by Aurors for doing hallucinogens—James was the one who’d convinced him to do them at a party. That time they stole the flying motorbike Dad gave to Teddy—James was the one who insisted it was a rite of passage to drive it over London at dawn. Neither Dad nor Teddy was impressed with that explanation. Now, here Albus is living another bad choice that was born of James’s influence.

@gaeilgerua wrote The Balance Between Studying and Relaxing [Rose/Teddy | Explicit | 3.7k] Rose has been studying non-stop for her upcoming barrister exam. With Hermione attending Hugo’s Quidditch trials for moral support and Ron away on business, there’s only one person available to keep an eye on her. And Teddy is only too happy to take the role.

@r00wscribbles wrote The last ones to know [Albus Severus/Scorpius | General | 5.2k] Albus and Scorpius have a very close relationship. Everyone can see it. Perhaps they are the last ones to know jus how close they are.

@ohdrarry wrote You've Got A Second Chance (You Could Go Home) [James Sirius/Teddy | Teen | 16k] “What about James?” James, dear Merlin, not James, not again. His boy, his son, the brightest star in the constellation of Harry’s patchwork family, not him. “I think he’s relapsed.” – They tried this when James was nineteen and Teddy was twenty five. It crashed and burned. Teddy ran away to Finland and James... well Teddy's about to find out what happened to James, now that he's back two years later.

@maraudersaffair wrote Falling for You [James Sirius/Scorpius | General | 1.2k] Scorpius didn't care about Quidditch until he saw James Sirius on a broom.

@diligent-thunder wrote Heart-Shaped Ottoman [Draco/Teddy | Explicit | 6.3k] Draco has had interns before, but none so bothersome as Teddy Lupin.

@whenshereads wrote Living With Our Eyes Half Open [James Sirius & Scorpius | Teen | 5.5k] James didn’t mean to get his brother-in-law kidnapped alongside him that morning, but that is definitely what happened.

@shiftylinguini and @gracerene09 wrote Faim [Albus Severus/Scorpius | Explicit | 9.6k] "So, this is the city of love!" Scorpius declared, adjusting the straps on his backpack. Albus wrinkled his nose. "City of pigeons, more like," he corrected, stepping around another fat, grey bird Or: Scorbus go to France.

@articcat621 wrote Unexpected [Lily Luna/Pansy | Explicit | 1.2k] Draco and Harry's engagement party brings about an unexpected, but not unwelcome, event.

@fidgetyweirdo wrote Remember to Forget [Albus Severus/James Sirius | Mature| 17.5k] The moment they kissed, James and Albus knew that they'd never be able to live without this -- too in love to walk away. Years later, and well into adulthood, the possible repercussions of their relationship feel very real and very scary. Without the strength to break it off, they're left with a single solution: a company that specializes in erasing and altering memories. Now the only thing left to do, is to say goodbye.

#scorbus #jeddy #jalbus #pottercest #jorpius #scames #dralbus #HP Next Generation #hp next gen #harry potter next gen #hpnextgenfest #hp femslash #hp cross gen #masterlist #reveals #2020 fest #mod post

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torestoreamends · 7 years ago

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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child NYC Recap 28/09/18 (Part Two)

Once upon a time the original cast gave me my favourite ever Part Two, in a show performed on a Friday night almost two years ago, and last Friday’s performance reminded me of why their Part Two shines so much. There was so much about it that lived up to the bright but distant memories I had of what they used to achieve when they were on form, as well as some gorgeous new details that made the show sing. So here, without further ado, are my as many highlights as I can remember from last Friday’s show:

-It’s quite clear how much Anthony respects Alex and enjoys acting with him. The second they were in a scene together he came alive (hilariously Anthony thought that office scene was his worst scene of the show — it was not). That office scene was precisely what I needed for closure with these two, and it was a lovely thing. I forgot that Alex doesn’t face Anthony when Draco and Scorpius are close up and talking about Astoria, instead he faces off the front of the stage, with Scorpius to his left all small and hunched with his shoulders up and his arms folded like he wants to disappear. And as they talk they’re shining with that silver light, and they’re uncomfortable with each other but there’s so much desperate love there, with Scorpius hanging onto his dad’s words the way he does with no one else.

-I noted the Rakie influence when Noma did the ‘I’m minister for magic’ line. It’s not quite as vindictive, but it is an authoritative statement of power to Snape and it’s beautiful.

-Floorpius. Everywhere. I finally remember how Anthony inspired that mess, because he IS Floorpius. Most of the Voldy timeline was spent with him lying on the floor, and in Snape’s office he actually crawled across to the door before he got up to go through it. He also sat on the floor by the lake during the Patronus scene, and once he was out of the lake and back in the real world, he stayed on the floor. He was down there saying hi to everyone, and sort of kneeled up to say hi to his dad, who threw the robes right in his face, knocking him back to the ground. Then when he realised the Time-Turner was missing he lay down on his front by the lake and scrabbled at the water with his hands. There was more later on, but that sequence was the best Floorpius I’ve ever seen in my life. The people around must have been so confused about why I was laughing so much throughout the entire thing...

-Time to continue gushing about Jamie and James! I missed Jamie’s angry Harry so much. When he explodes, he really goes (having said that this might be one of the most restrained shows I’ve ever seen from him, which was cool), and there was a moment in this scene when he fired up so much that Albus actually flinched, shuffling back, head bowing, body hunching up small. I’m always astounded by how tiny the Albuses can make themselves, and James is one of the tiniest I’ve seen. More on those two later.

-The first fuck up of the day was when the jump scare didn’t work — the hand went before the sound. I’ve seen worse, but it was less than ideal.

-Jamie Parker reacting to Harry’s dreams. I love this man so much. When his Harry starts to spiral he crashes to rock bottom so fast, and this was the start of the spiral. He woke up screaming and convulsing and clutching his scar, absolutely panicked, unable to breathe. You know he’d rather be alone with his nightmare but it made me glad Ginny was there to take care of him, because he was lost to it. And then of course the second he realises what the dream means, Harry takes off running, because Jamie’s Harry is the quintessential action hero Harry. He’d rather be doing than standing around waiting. If he can feel like he’s doing something, influencing something, then he’s marginally more okay. (The way Jamie Parker runs — a hundred times faster than anyone else on stage, leaving them all in his dust — is one of my favourite things about his Harry.)

-This was a fun dorm scene. It was the start of the adorable little Scorbus moments, and by that I mean the physical signs of a ridiculous friendship. There was so much larking about between the two of them, and the scene ended with the sort of play fight that I’ve been desperately missing since the original cast left. The handsiness, I’m pleased to report, continued on throughout the rest of Part Two, especially in Godric’s Hollow.

-One of my (many) favourite James Romney moments came in the Owlery Scene. Albus handed Delphi the Time-Turner, and the second she took it he sagged in relief and buried his face in his hands. It was clear even from the dorm scene prior that he didn’t want responsibility for it, and that he was desperate to find someone who would help them — Delphi was his someone. He called her, she came, and he was so glad to have an adult in charge of the object that had ruined worlds. I’ve never seen an Albus so pleased to have the thing out of his hands, to be taken care of by someone. In fact it might be one of my favourite ever little Albus things, because it fits so perfectly with so much of what’s going on with him at that point in the show.

-Paul knelt for the reproposal and my heart melted. It was also so good to hear him say Scrupius again (and to see everyone’s reactions to Ron’s infuriating speech in that scene — he was having so much fun talking about getting drunk).

-The maze was the first time a bit of blocking on broadway made me jealous. Although the maze itself has been lifted and brought to London now, the blocking is very much not the same. My biggest complaint about the London blocking is the amount of time the boys spend offstage — Krum hovers at the front of the maze for a while unnecessarily, so the boys aren’t onstage for the line ‘what heroes do we have within our midst?’ Whereas in New York, Krum leaves the stage before that line, and the boys arrive back onstage during it. On the night we saw it, Scorpius stopped and hid with his back to the hedge, while Albus peered down the other pathway, they then whispered the next couple of lines. I’ve never seen an Albus and Scorpius really trying to hide like that before. I’ve seen them panicked and running and hoping they’ve got away, but never truly believing it to the extent that they’d try and hide.

-Because of the new blocking, Albus ended up on the other side of the stage during the second bit of torture, and the ensuing encounter with Cedric. It was strange to watch it in reverse, but I didn’t mind it at all. I actually think that Ben might be my favourite Cedric. The pacing of this encounter was beautiful. There were so many long pauses that were held perfectly still. Ben and James worked magic with this moment, and Ben had exactly the right poise and nobility to him. I also really loved how Albus reacted to having his bonds released. He gave this little hiss of pain and relief and rubbed his wrists.

-Another great result of the new blocking is that now, when Albus says ‘no, wait!’ as the walls pull back to reveal Delphi with the time-turner, it actually does make some sense. He sees what she’s doing and it seems as though he’s trying to work out what to do about it before they rush into something. I remember talking to Theo at one point about that line, and how Albus can’t see what’s happening, and I definitely prefer it when the walls peel away simultaneously and it’s very clear that Albus can see Delphi at the same time as Scorpius.

-The second fuck up of the day was the Time-Turner noise not working as the boys went back in time with Delphi. At first I thought this was deliberate, and I actually really liked it. It made it sound as though something was wrong, like they shouldn’t be doing what they were doing. You could hear the reverb of their voices (‘your dad loves you very much’ etc.) but not the ticking of the clock. However, when the voices faded and there were still no clock ticks and no smash of sound when they arrived in the past, it was clear that something had gone wrong. That arrival in the past is way less effective without the smash of sound: the boys just sort of hurled themselves away and kept going, but it didn’t have the same impact. However, there was some great acting thereafter, particularly when Albus ran at Delphi and tries to grab her foot to pull her down. I also loved the amount of Time-Turner glitter that rained down on the boys once Delphi started flying up.

-The blacklight section at the Lyric is really cool. In London not every surface is covered with writing, and the stuff written on the ceiling seems to be a projection rather than bona fide blacklight writing. However, in the Lyric they’ve covered everything and it’s all genuine. From the balcony I could see everything, all the boxes lit up, and the ceilings and the walls, throughout the entire theatre. The most exciting thing I spotted during the short time we had to take everything in was a huge snake drawn on the ceiling above my seat.

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This cast come into their own in Act Four. I suspect that’s how it’s always been, but I never had anything to compare it to. It’s also worth noting that the best shows I’ve ever seen them do have been on Friday nights. So basically we picked the right show to go to.

-The one time Jamie P resists being action hero Harry is at the end of the second EGM. When he’s wheeled offstage then, he sits on the steps in despair, and you could fully believe that Harry would just stay there for a while, sitting alone on the steps and feeling utterly hopeless and helpless before going off to his office to start reading those papers.

-I actually didn’t mind the Broadway station master! He was incomprehensible at least, which is always fun.

-The Broadway pumpkin transition is a lovely thing. I haven’t seen such a joyful Sorting Hat since Ged left. He threw the snow up in the air above his head, so it sprinkled gently down onto the stage as he walked away. The other highlight was that James and Lily actually interact during the scene. After they play with the snow together they put their arms round each other, and they’re the last couple to walk offstage as the boys run on. It’s so sweet, and it’s the most interaction they’ve ever had in any version of the show. And as they leave, the doors fall into a new, jumbled formation, leaving Lily and James’s door (red, with a lion’s head knocker) right at the heart of the street.

-Some Albuses run after Lily and James when they leave the house, some fall after them like they’re tied by a string; this one walked trancelike in their wake until Scorpius caught him and pulled him back.

-For those unfamiliar with my current interests, Lily and James’s door in New York remains lit with this white spectral light, even when the scene moves away from Godric’s Hollow. This gives the effect in other scenes of the ghosts of Harry’s past haunting him. It basically destroyed me. If anyone’s interested in the full meta (which includes ramblings about the doorway as a link between Harry and Albus), it’s here.

-I basically paid $400 and flew to New York just to see Jamie’s office scene again, and it really did not disappoint. It’s not the sob fest of London (and actually the second part with Draco was the more powerful for me on the night) but oh it’s still wonderful. One of the papers fell on the floor and he angrily snatched it up. He slammed his hand into the desk on ‘years! Years I spent there’ just the way he used to. Although there was more terseness, a Harry closing himself off from Dumbledore, rather than the emotion of London, every single decision, no matter what it was, come right from the core of Harry. Perhaps the only person in the world who understands Harry better than Jamie Parker is JK herself. He just gets it on a profound spiritual level, and everything he does works for the character. This scene (this whole act, the entire show in fact) is one of the best acting performances I’ve ever seen. Jamie is just stellar and professional and a cut above. It was a true joy to see him again. Also shoutout to Edward, who was a great Dumbledore and supported the scene beautifully.

-I forgot how much I love Alex’s version of the second half of the office scene. He didn’t do the ‘mwahaha’ at the start, which was sad, but instead he did this limpid laugh, like he started off laughing evilly and then realised how pathetic he sounded given the situation so it turned into a mockery of itself. Draco mocking his own behaviour as an adult is great, it shows how much self awareness he’s gained. As the scene goes on, Alex and Jamie get to flex their considerable rapport, and Alex gets to show off his emotional side. I’d forgotten until halfway through the scene that when Alex is acting emotional he makes himself sound on the verge of tears (when he actually cries there’s no indication in his voice), and he absolutely got me with it. This was another scene full of long pauses and lots of space. Harry hesitates, wanting to say yes, that they should go, but when he thinks about it logically he knows it doesn’t make sense, and if he’s to protect his son he needs something that will really work, not just get more people hurt. This is one of the moments when Harry and Albus are just so similar — their realisation that rushing into things has got people hurt, and the guilt they feel for that.

-The Lyric Theatre stage is pretty huge, and the Godric’s Hollow doors are pushed nearly all the way to the back. I’m pretty sure this is part of the reason why, on Broadway, Albus doesn’t do his traditional thing of starting the central Godric’s Hollow scene sitting on the doorstep. Instead the boys start the scene sitting at the front and centre of the stage, right on top of where the lake normally is. It made for a more intimate scene, and I actually loved the realism of it. It felt like they were two boys who had been out in the cold for hours and were running out of energy and ideas, sitting together on the freezing ground and grasping at straws. This was also the scene where they most felt like friends, with a healthy dose of play fighting, high fives, and messing around. This, for me, was the scene where the Scorbus came into its own, and it was the best friendship I’ve seen Anthony play out with a cover.

-At stage door after the show, Poppy said that she and Jamie had been trying some new things that night, and undoubtedly the scene where they find the blanket was one of the scenes where that was in evidence. There’s a different rhythm to these scenes now, different and fresh, but they’re just as emotional as they ever were. In this one they knelt together for a long time without speaking, clutching each other, in tears. When Harry finally picked up the blanket and realised that it was damaged, Ginny was so heartbroken for him that she didn’t move away from him to look at the blanket for a long time. She held his hands and comforted him, before finally acknowledging the problem and looking at the blanket.

-One thing that’s relevant to this scene that I forgot to mention in my Part One recap is how this cast rewrites lines to suit them. They say some of these lines in ways that aren’t written in the script and in ways that no one else will ever say them, and that is in no way a criticism. One such line comes in the blanket scene — ‘and maybe I can come and find it, and you, on Hallow’s Eve’. Jamie rewrites that line to centre it around Albus, whereas the line as it’s written focuses on the blanket. I love that his Harry is making that effort to make this about Albus, he’s trying, and that minute bit of phrasing is an example of how true he is in his love for his son.

-Back to Part Two, and I just want to acknowledge the fact that Jamie still does my favourite thing ever, and it’s still breathtaking. When Albus throws the blanket up in the air for Ginny to catch and goes sprinting off, Harry’s head whips round, like he’s felt the ghost of his son running by, like he can feel Albus’s presence in the room with him, and he’s going to keep staring at the spot where he knows Albus disappeared because it’s everything he has to hang on to. It was stunning when I first saw it, it’s stunning now, and I missed that moment so much.

-I enjoyed the blocking changes when the adults arrive in Godric’s Hollow. Ron is placed with Hermione between him and Draco. When Hermione says her line about old times it’s clearly not directed at Ron, which makes complete sense because he was never in Godric’s Hollow. It also means she can act as intervention between Ron and Draco, and that’s exactly what Noma does. She stands between them, a powerful presence who won’t let them fight each other when there are bigger things at stake. It really does give her a greater sense of authority over the scene, and I love that.

-That. Malfoy. Hug. Somehow in the last year and a half I’d forgotten about the magic, the genius sleight of hand, that Alex does with the Time-Turner to somehow have his hands completely free and unimpeded when Anthony comes running at him, so he can just hug, unencumbered, and keep hugging and holding for the rest of the scene. It’s something that no one else has ever been able to accomplish and I still don’t understand how he does it, but he does. Anyway, Anthony comes flying at him hard enough to knock him over, and Alex grabs him and catches him in the air, and there are legs everywhere and it’s so emphatic and joyful and it’s so Draco and Scorpius. That hug is everything. It’s the world and it’s beautiful, and it gets such a reaction and rightly so. And once the hug is over they keep going, holding each other’s hands, Draco ruffling Scorpius’s hair, more hugs, foot nudges, everything, because now they’re together again and everything is okay they can’t bear to be physically apart from another second.

-It’s a different story with the Potters. Ginny accepts her son into her arms with such utter relief. She squeezes him so tight and in this performance he looked so tiny, even next to her, small and swamped in his mum’s arms. Then, Ginny reaches desperately out to Harry, who hasn’t yet joined them, and she keeps reaching out. He looks at her, then he draws his cloak around himself, adjusts his cuffs, and turns away. He’s not ready yet. They’re not safe, Voldemort is still there, he still has so much to feel guilty for. He can’t. And that is the story of how the Potters broke my heart at the exact same time as the Malfoys were trying to heal it.

-This show was all about pacing. Careful, slow, deliberate. The cast had all the time in the world to play with. The scene between Ginny and Harry while Albus was sleeping on the bench had every ounce of that slow deliberacy. It was such an intimate conversation, different again to how it’s felt to me before — Ginny was a bit harder with Harry (that was sort of a theme of the whole show actually), but he thrives on that and they get there in the end, to that place where they’re holding each other again. That’s how they always end up, because they’re a team, and they’re facing everything together, no matter what.

-I think the Transfiguration may have been done in a different order here, but I didn’t keep a note of who joined the spell when so I can’t be sure. I suspect Hermione may have joined earlier, as she was on the other side of the church in the preceding scene (standing right behind Scorpius so their impeccable connection on ‘you’re right’ was all the more impressive and sweet).

-One thing that I noticed for sure with the Transfiguration was that every time someone joined the spell and there was that awful sizzling sound, Albus flinched, like just seeing his dad in pain was giving him pain. I also very much noticed that as well as the strobe lights that we have in London, which illuminate Voldy as he emerges from Harry’s robes, in NYC there’s a matching strobe light shining directly into Harry’s eyes and onto his face. How Jamie handles that I do not understand. It looked painful.

-We travel halfway round the world and we still get Paul’s Ron checking in on the Malfoys while they’re keeping watch by the door to Godric’s Hollow. He just can’t resist interfering with their business. You also get Draco touching his son on the shoulder not necessarily affectionately, but more to tell him to remember to keep watch.

-I missed grumpy Ron lingering outside the door to glare at Draco after the ‘mildly enjoying it’ line. Thornley really makes his point with that one (as he always has)

--So in London, Jamie B runs directly at the Expulso flame, so he’s painfully close to it when it erupts out of the ground. He seems to end up right on top of it, deliberately going towards it, and while I acknowledge that this is for dramatic effect, it’s still very stressful, and I swear he gets much closer to it than is reasonable. Anyway, Harrys wanting to set fire to themselves is clearly an international problem, because Jamie did the same thing. It did look a little safer on Broadway, but I suspect that was partly to do with my distance from and angle to the stage. One day someone’s going to slip or run an inch too far, and then it’ll be the bench all over again except there’ll be fire involved this time.

-I dearly missed Jamie’s screams in the death scene. No one can scream like Jamie P. He’s a master of it. He channels every ounce of Harry’s pain until you feel it like it’s your own pain. I’d like to say that I know exactly what Paul and Noma and Alex and Anthony were doing in this scene, but let’s be honest, I was clinging to my seat as the Potters ripped my heart out.

-This was actually the site of another of my favourite little Albus things too. When Harry fell, Albus didn’t go with him straight away, and he lost all physical contact with him in the process. He stayed standing, awkwardly, sort of glancing at the house like he didn’t know what to do. Then he slowly bent down and hovered his hands over his dad’s back, like he desperately wanted to touch him but wasn’t sure if he was allowed. Finally he dared to touch his dad’s back, and when he did he melted down onto the ground next to him and that was how they were when the lights faded, father and son, finally connected.

-I never thought I’d use this word to describe Anthony or his Scorpius, but there’s only one way to describe his descent down the stairs towards Rose in the penultimate scene: smooth. Of course smooth is a very relative term. Basically what I mean is that when he hurled himself down the stairs he didn’t look like he was putting himself in physical danger like he used to. There was no falling, no awkward splits, he just ended up sitting on the step with his cloak wrapped round himself, attempting to look suave. But there was something impressively slick about the manoeuvre. It’s been well practiced.

-I forgot how much I love the slow hug. I remember very clearly the first time I watched that one (it might have been the first time it happened because I remember not being alone that day and I remember everyone else also freaking out). Scorpius slowly, deliberately walking up the stairs to Albus like he’s doubting himself every step of the way but that he won’t be stopped by anything. And when he gets to Albus he stands on the step below and he reaches out and awkwardly leans in and administers a tight hug that wraps round Albus’s body and arms, and renders him incapable of hugging back or escaping until Scorpius realises what he’s doing and runs away. That was the quality of the hug on Friday night, and I wasn’t prepared to be reminded of how much I miss it.

-I’m sure I’ve mentioned the back wall of the stage in recaps before, once I was going to write a full on meta post about it but I never finished it, but if you haven’t seen me talk about this before, here’s some context. In the final scenes of the play (once upon a time from when the burning bed emerged from the floor but now only for the very last scene) the brick wall at the back of the stage peels away from the wood panelling below it to create a gap. In London this always gave the impression of extra space, but mostly of the stage becoming the ruins of Lily and James’s house and then a sort of framework, a scaffolding or structure for Harry and Albus to grow their new relationship around. Everything had been torn away, destroyed when Voldemort cursed the baby Harry, and now they were left with the raw materials to start over. In New York, where the stage is enormous and the wall pulls back a lot further, I got a different feeling. It made the space Harry and Albus meet in during the final scene feel very much outside, but somehow contained, like the sunlight was streaming through cloister windows or over a garden wall. It felt like the graveyard was contained within a courtyard at the centre of the castle or perhaps a walled garden in the grounds. It gave the final scene such a strong sense of setting, and it was beautiful. That scene felt new and unique, airy and bright, which is appropriate because it is absolutely all of those things.

-I have always loved with a passion the way Jamie does the ‘and I know that heart is a good one’ line. He did it differently in this performance, with a ferocity, no pauses, tearing straight through like he had to make his point and have Albus hear him. When he zipped up Albus’s jacket and ruffled his hair he was almost rough with it, rough and forceful and desperate, but then when he was done there was a long moment where they just looked at each other, Harry and Albus, shining in the golden sunlight, Albus hearing from his dad that he’s a good person and actually believing him for the very first time. The long beat of silence felt so bright and warm and hopeful, and then Albus bowed his head in a nod and Harry knew he’d understood and they moved on. I suppose the point of this description is to say that it was different but no less beautiful than ever before.

-Of my favourite James Romney lines, the pigeon racing line has to be well up there. I’ve talked about the pacing in this performance before and how masterful it was, well this was one of the bits where the pacing of lines really changed how the characters reacted. Here Albus said ‘I’m not going to be a wizard dad’, and then he stopped for a good second while his dad’s expression changed to confusion and horror. He toyed with him for a moment before finally making it clear that he was joking: ‘I’m going into pigeon racing’, and Harry was flooded with relief as he realised his son was teasing him. I think that might actually be my favourite pigeon racing line. There was that something to it that made it more than just an awkward joke.

-I can’t not mention the final hug, which was one of those ones where Harry took hold of Albus and hugged every inch of him, squeezing his body tight and cradling his head. I love it when they give us those hugs at the end of everything, and it’s pure beautiful relief.

To sum up, I’m so glad I went. There were things that I didn’t like about this performance, which I haven’t mentioned above and don’t really intend to discuss apart from in person. But on the whole and on reflection, I got everything out of my trip to New York that I wanted. I saw Jamie and Poppy and Paul again. I fell in love with Noma in a new way. I got my closure on Alex and Anthony. And I met a wonderful new Albus (I have now seen every Albus so far). There was nothing more I could have wished for from it, and I know that other people haven’t necessarily felt the same, but that was my personal response.

This performance gave me everything I always want in a performance of this show: it taught me new things about the characters and allowed me to explore in new ways the story I love. It also let me reconnect with a cast that I’d forgotten how much I love. The original cast do something to me, they give me this ability to see the show with such clarity, they sharpen my focus and my memory, and when I see them they make me want to write and write and keep writing until I’ve chronicled every tiny detail of their immensely rich performance. I love that about them. It’s unique to them, and no other cast will be able to do that for me. Cast two felt like home, cast three make me so immersed in the story and emotionally connected to it, and the original cast bring out some kind of intellectual depth in the show that captures and fires my imagination. They did that for me over two days in New York and I’m immensely grateful for that.

It’s also worth saying that I’ve thought a lot about the fact that James Romney will be the only Albus I ever see just once. I’m certain I’ll see Ryan again in London, and all the others I’ve seen multiple times. At first I didn’t know how I felt about it. I loved his performance so much that I thought I would be sad or feel like I was missing out, and I do a little bit. I wish I could see him many more times and find every little nuance in what he does. But actually, now, I’m happy that I get to have these glowing memories of his performance. He will always be the Albus whose performance is locked in my memory, that I will never be able to go back to. The memories will remain untarnished, unexplored, because I can’t look further than I did in those five hours, and that’s kind of cool. I will see his Albus though rose-tinted glasses, and maybe I’ll forever love him unreasonably, but that’s alright. Maybe that’s how other people who only see the show once and love it feel about everyone and everything involved. It’s fun to be able to get a glimpse into that world for once...

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ohscorbus · 7 years ago

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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Saturday 11th August, 2018

I’d call this a recap but it’s going to read like a love letter to this cast and in particular, Joe. You see, Albus has always been my favourite. I’m so emotionally attached and invested in this character that I panic every time a new actor comes in to play him. This isn’t just a character I like, he’s a kindred spirit I need in my life. I’m in too deep. My biggest fear is that there will be an Albus I can’t connect with and although Joe is the fourth Albus I’ve seen now and this has yet to happen, that fear still lingers. So I’ve been taking my time and just watching and learning who his Albus is and you know what? Good things come to those who wait because now, especially after today, I’m at a place where I can say he’s become one of my favourites to watch on stage. He completely pulled my focus for the entire show today. Which is really saying something when next to him you have Jonathan doing that smile he does. You know, the one that looks like it can cure cancer and bring about world peace? Anyway, my point being, Scorpius has always been distracting for us as an audience. That character is suppose to pull on our heartstrings that way. Albus always has to work a little harder to get that reaction. (Although I do appreciate the irony of people not seeing who he is. Life imitating art and all.) Yet each Albus has been quite distinctive. Each one different from the last but still inherently the same character. To me, Sam’s Albus was defensive and impulsive, Theo’s Albus was open with his vulnerability but found hope and determination in his despair, and Joe’s Albus is resigned to his lot in life. He accepts every hit but continues on in spite of them. There’s quiet sort of maturity about him. His shield is his humour, not his actions or words. It’s such an interesting take on the character and it’s one I don’t think I could ever tire of watching.

Act One, Scene Three

After Albus and Rose had decided to check out the compartments, Albus started to walk in the opposite direction to her and began peering down the ‘corridor’ of the carriage. He ended up in front of Scorpius’s compartment but he didn’t look in straight away, he just sort of lingered outside. He was completely unaware that Scorpius was watching him the whole time with this look of recognition and awe on his face. He knew who Albus was and couldn’t look away. On stage there’s no walls or doors that show us the Hogwarts Express, yet I’ve never felt that sliding glass door separating them in this moment more clearly than I did today. It was such a heart stopping, delicate moment. There was a stillness about it. Being able to see their two worlds so separately before they become entangled. You had Albus looking at all these compartments but it’s the one right in front of him that’ll change his life. The very thing he’s scared of will make him stronger. While Scorpius is alone in that compartment, still safe in the bubble his family have kept him in for years. We could only watch and wait. Then Albus looks and makes the decision almost instantly and as Albus steps in that compartment, into his bubble, Scorpius’s world changes too. You could feel the excitement rolling off Scorpius once he started talking to Albus and Rose. This is the boy who knows his history and has dreamt of having friends like Harry Potter. Then suddenly he finds a Granger, a Weasley, and a Potter standing in front of him. I think Hogwarts became very real to him in that moment. All the stories he’s read and now he’s living it. This is quite literally the dream. Except of course they reject him. He sat down and turned his back to the door to avoid having to watch them leave him behind. But then Albus says he’s staying and Scorpius was not expecting that. You could see the internal panic as he visibly breathed in and out to calm himself. Partly out of shock, probably mostly out of nervousness. His thank you was precious. He truly meant that. Which is why I think Albus really goes out of his way to make sure Scorpius knows he’s teasing him about only staying for his sweets. That reaction (“I didn’t stay for you”) is so Albus. You know how I said before about Joe’s Albus using his humour? I think this is a great example of that. I’m sure Albus is just as nervous as Scorpius in this moment. So he’s instinctively fallen back on his dry humour. But then he looked at Scorpius and sang, ‘I stayed for your sweeeets’, making Scorpius relax almost instantly. For a lack of a better word, it’s really sweet. They’ve known each other for a matter of minutes at this point and already they’re giving each other what they need. Reassurance and a clean slate. Albus needs someone to look past his family name just as much as Scorpius does.

Act One, Scene Four

As soon as Albus walked up to the Sorting Hat and stood there all happy and smiley, like he knew he’d got this, I knew this was going to be a good scene. Why? Because it made me realise this Albus doesn’t know yet. He’s got a good relationship with his dad, he’s nervous about school but he’s ‘ready’, he’s already made a friend, and now the Hat is going to listen to him just like his dad said it would. Nothing to worry about! But then that one word brings his whole world crashing down around him. Slytherin. There must be so much running through his head in that moment. Everything has changed. The future he’d expected is now unknown. Yet the worst part? His dad lied. The Sorting Hat hadn’t listened to him. (Although I’d argue it did, but you know, to Albus in this moment it felt like it hadn’t. Little did he know that house is exactly where he belongs and needs to be.) The look on his face tells you that much. This was not the answer he was expecting or on some level, hoping for. Then Scorpius’s voice cuts through the noise and Albus turned towards him. He then looked up at the Slytherin banner hanging above him before walking towards Scorpius, accepting his fate. I think for Albus, this was the first of many cases of ‘works for Harry Potter but not Albus Potter’ at Hogwarts. It’s what slowly crushes him over time. That feeling of not being good enough. For the Hat, for the other kids, and for his family.

“And be my good friend” – Albus’s face broke my heart today. He looked so heavy hearted and somewhat shocked by Scorpius’s words here. His good friend? Isn’t he already a good friend? Why is Scorpius even asking that? Albus reached out for him as the scene ended after this line and he still looked at a loss over his friend. It also made me think about the argument later on in the library. Albus is always floored and then completely guilt ridden over Scorpius’s accusations and evidence of him being an awful friend. It’s an interesting contrast with Joe’s Albus and other interpretations. I’ve seen others take that phrase and agree without a second thought because it goes without saying. It never occurs to them that Scorpius would think anything different of him. That he’d have to ask for that. Is he failing at this too?

Act One, Scene Six

“Meet the once great Harry Potter, now a stone cold Minister man” – As Amos is speaking, Delphi and Harry always shake hands. It’s not a big moment, they’re both just being polite and humouring Amos. It’s what happens afterwards that’s interesting. So Harry looks down at his hand after she’s gone. He doesn’t know why, it’s an instinct thing. Sometimes he’ll shake it or flex his fingers. Just something so small, a detail easily missed and overlooked, but there and a sign if you know. It’s great. But anyway, that’s not what had me on the edge of my seat. I don’t know if Eve always does this and I’ve only just noticed, but after she shook his hand, she slowly and subconsciously reached back for her wand with this look in her eye as she stared at Harry while he was focused on Amos. Then just as her hand was there, she seemed to snap out of it. Years she’s been watching and planning and her instincts nearly made her throw it all away. It was super interesting! It gave me a fascinating insight in her Delphi, and Delphi in general. It definitely made me pay more attention to her smaller movements for the rest of the show. Like how visibly relieved she was when Amos backed down in St. Oswalds. It makes me wonder whether that’s part of her mask, or her mask slipping. I ended up watching the show with that in mind and made me realise just how young she is. The disorganised, frantic, and repetitive words scribbled across the walls of her room (there’s a panel that just has the word ‘father’ written over and over again in her disjointed, pointy, jagged handwriting) now felt childish. I felt her age and isolation in them. They became less ‘writings of a mad man obsessed’ and more ‘rages of a hurting, angry soul’. If that makes any sense. Don’t get me wrong, she’s dangerous, I guess what I’m trying to say is that I could see more clear than ever that part of her that desperately wants her father. It drives her like it does Albus and Scorpius. (Although all three take completely different roads in terms of handling it, obviously.) That’s why she can manipulate them so easily in that respect. She understands. I know this is all level one of understanding the characters/plot. I don’t think I’m explaining it very well. I think what I’m trying to say is that Eve made me think about Delphi more than I have before. I like the idea of her slipping. That one little action created ripples, and I’ve been intrigued by it ever since.

Act One, Scene Seven

Ginny and Albus sharing a smile at the very beginning of this scene still warms my heart. I really love the openness of their relationship. They may not say anything to each other in words here but they communicate quite easily. It’s practiced and heartfelt.

I think it’s great how relaxed and at home Joe’s Albus feels in his bedroom. He’s lying down and one of the most chilled out Albus’s I’ve seen in terms of being comfortable with his family repeating invading his space. Probably because he doesn’t see it as that I guess… I loved Dylan’s James bragging about the cloak. The emphasis on the ‘my’ as he pointed to himself really rubbing salt in the wound. Except Albus is lying on his back and mocking him once he’d left, imitating him by mouthing back his mouths and his pointing. He then started to sit up to help Lily look for her book but once his mum took over he carried on lying down. Joe’s Albus feels less like an outsider to his family. His issue is a communication one with his dad specifically. Which is interesting, and leads me into my next point, that Tom’s Harry and Joe’s Albus really worked well with this in mind.

(Did I mention that Tom Peters was on as Harry today? I haven’t seen him before but he was barely half way through his first scene and I already knew he was going to be brilliant. He’s someone I would definitely go out of my way to see again.)

Joe’s Albus and Tom’s Harry were so different to how Joe plays against Jamie’s Harry. Or any Albus and Harry in fact. It was in scenes like this that you could really see it. Now I’ll admit my favourite versions of this scene are always the angriest ones. The ones where they shout, get all up in each other’s faces, and even hit the other with blanket). To me, the aggression made those ugly words make sense. They’re not thinking, they’re feeling. Too much. They’re both explosive when pushed so of course when that’s aimed at each other it’s going to be a catastrophic. But then today happened. The whole scene felt different, less volatile. Albus seemed more open with this Harry. He was lying down on his bed but then sat up when Harry walked into his room. Then Albus shuffled further away as Harry got closer and Harry stopped, mid speech and in his tracks. Albus realises what that movement must have looked like so he patted the space next to him on his bed and encouraged his dad to sit down next to him. He was simply making space, not trying to put distance between them. Harry continued talking and then at some point Albus brought his legs up onto the bed and sat cross legged, with his back against his pillow, so he could face his dad. By this point I was on the edge of my seat because I don’t feel like I’ve ever seen this dynamic before. This Albus was still giving his dad a chance, and this Harry was really trying. So it felt uneven worse when it fell apart. It was less explosive but hurt just the same. Albus’s resigned face said it all. Those words didn’t cut him down the way they have other Albus’s because they’re words he already believes. He’s a disappointment. It makes sense. Just like fairy wings makes sense and invisibility cloaks make sense.

Act Two, Scene Six

So ‘Hide and Seek’ is playing in this scene and right at the beginning, even though it’s the instrumental version, you hear the words ‘hide and seek’ sung as the two boys walk forwards out of the shadows and towards the light, towards Hogwarts. My head connected the two and all I could see was Albus lagging behind, looking to the left of him into the depths of the forest, while Scorpius proceeded on forwards, looking up in awe at the castle until he was bathed in the same warm light. Hide and seek. A random observation I know, but I like their differences as much as I do their similarities and the music is in show is beautiful. I should definitely talk about it more.

Act Three, Scene Seven

What struck me here was Scorpius’s happiness. He was noticeably excited to be there with Hermione and Ron. I can’t help but imagine a younger Scorpius reading all about the trio and wanting his own adventure. Now he’s here, with Hermione and Ron, and they’re doing something completely wild. These aren’t just stories anymore, he’s in one. I bet he gets a tingle. If not over that, then maybe the fact that if he’s with Hermione and Ron and surely that makes him Harry in this scenario? I’m sure that hits him later on. He’s too much of a nerd not to. (Although I’m sure part of his happiness is relief. Those two are familiar faces and he has a way of fixing things now. But thinking about Scorpius’s geeking out is way more fun.)

Act Three, Scene Nine

So while Scorpius was doing his whole ‘It’s Haaaarry Potterrrr’ thing, Albus looked round at his mum and pulled this ‘I don’t know this lunatic, I played no part in these antics’ face. I love that Albus clearly loves Scorpius, weirdness and all, but I also love that he sometimes pretends he’s judging him for it. Or maybe he is. But it comes from a place of love. The way only true, long lasting friendships can. Your best friend is judging you, but they’re allowed to because you both know they’re just as bad.

Act Three, Scene Ten

“I agree it doesn’t sound good” - What I really loved about this scene was Albus and Scorpius’s interactions. I’ve seen previous Albus and Scorpius’s share looks as McGonagall speaks but these two went beyond that. Scorpius in particular was talking/mouthing something to Albus after he spoke. I really love all these additional interactions. It reads so much like a four year long friendship should. They have that connection that makes them sometimes forget there’s other people in the room.

Act Three, Scene Eleven

“Are you okay, Albus?” “No” “No. Nor me.” - These lines really hit home today. I felt them in a completely new way I’ve never thought about before. So Joe’s Albus is opening up to his dad here. He’s trying. His dad asking him if he’s okay means something to Albus because he responds honestly. No, he isn’t. What broke me today was how Harry’s own honesty back may have been taken. I felt like Albus started to believe they were connecting with this conversation. That his dad was finally listening to him and they were openly talking about the things that matter. But then Harry turns the conversation back onto himself (’Nor me’) and Albus breaks. Ginny is right, Albus does want him to be honest with him, but in this moment? I think he just needs his dad to listen. This look flashed across Joe’s face, of disappointed and hurt, and then he just walked off. He wanted his dad to hear that he’s not okay and do something about it, not just have him tell him he’s not okay either. It’s easy to forget that he’s simply just a child reaching out for his parent. I know people find it comforting to know they’re not alone in their pain, but I think here Albus feels like it trivialises his own. It didn’t surprise me to see Joe’s Albus looking more upset here than he did after their argument in his bedroom. That comment before was something he’d half suspected anyway, but to have Harry still overlooking him even now really hurts him. Meanwhile Harry was left sat on the suitcase at the end of Albus’s bed and staring off into space. Harry was so wrapped up in Harry (and the loss at what to do) that he fails to see Albus. Again. Quite literally too. He didn’t look at Albus for those last lines and I don’t think that helped Albus’s thought process.

Act Three, Scene Fourteen

“Do you think I’ve been tested too? I have, haven’t I?” - Another line which left a new impression on me. I think there’s a couple of ways to interpret its meaning but today I really felt Albus’s resounding disappointment. He isn’t asking if he’s been tested because he doesn’t want to feel left out or as a way of making sense of their adventure, it was said as if he’d already accepted he had failed. This was just another failure in a long list for Albus. You could hear it in his despondent tone.

Act Three, Scene Sixteen

I absolutely adore Albus and Scorpius’s interactions here. They shuffle in closer and face each other as they talk animatedly while the scene sets up around them. It’s like they’re in this bubble and are completely unaware as the world/stage moves around them. It portrays their relationship beautifully. You really feel the history and depth of their friendship in these moments.

“Let’s do something new, something fun” - I love, love, love, love that Albus’s idea of something ‘fun’ was to drop it off the owlery. He just sort of looked around and then stretched his arm out over the side with the Time-Turner in his hand. It’s so reckless and instinctive and you know what really intrigues me? It requires zero magic. I wonder whether that’s a conscious decision...

Back to Delphi again. I just want to add that I find her one of the most sinister Delphi’s I’ve seen. I think that’s why I’m so interested in where that comes from. This child, hidden from the wizarding world but the focus of rumours. The scary parallel with Scorpius probably isn’t lost on her. She hates Scorpius. Eve makes that blatantly obvious on stage. She’s spiteful at every given opportunity. Even right in front of Albus. It’s a fine line but it’s like she can’t help herself. I wonder if it’s because of his family and their deflection, or if it’s something more petty, like everyone believing him to be the son of Voldemort. This is what I meant before when I was trying (and probably failing) to explain what I meant by seeing her youth. It’s not about her literal age, but her approach to things. She’s focused yet reckless at times. It makes a terrifying, vicious combination. She’s definitely more like her mother than her father in that respect. With previous Delphi’s, I’ve seen her here still be quite playful and innocent with the boys. The act doesn’t drop until that very last second. But with Eve, I could see her slowing slipping. The point where she’s telling them about augureys, she was glaring down at Scorpius with this look on her face that told me she knew he was making the connections in his head, and she wasn’t scared or nervous, but enjoying it. She wants him to give her a reason to end this charade. She’s enjoyed playing with them, but she wants her goal. Now.

Act Three, Scene Nineteen

“Craig. Get away. Get help!” – Albus is bound on the floor and at the mercy of Delphi and yet his first words were to try and save Craig. I just wanted to highlight this before I make my next point. (I will fight anyone who tells me this boy doesn’t have the loveliest heart.)

“Avada Kedavra!” – Albus looked away as her words rang out. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Craig. He knows their meaning, he sees that flash of green. He knows, and he’s broken by it. The way she said the word ‘spare’ a few lines later really looked like they cut into him. He tried to save a spare, both Cedric and himself, but instead he’s created a whole new one. It wasn’t until the very end of this scene, when Delphi stands in front of his body with the Time-Turner in her hands that he finally looks. He was stood next to her and he looked over his shoulder at Craig’s body on the ground before looking back and finally placing his hands on the Time-Turner. It was such a heartbreaking moment. It was slow and felt fragile. Like he couldn’t leave, not without acknowledging what he’s done first. It added even more weight to his line (“what she did to Craig…”) a few scenes later.

Act Four, Scene Three

“The Bathilda Bagshot?” – Albus nerding out over Bathilda is everything. He went up and slightly stroked the door, and then ran away when it opened. His ‘acting casual’ as she walked past him afterwards was atrocious. The boy has no chill, and he calls Scorpius out for this! Bless.

Act Four, Scene Eight

The ‘Made Leanne Cry’ Award today goes to… James Howard! (He always looks far too happy every time I tell him.) So, background context. Although he didn’t do it today, Joe’s Albus has been running over to Scorpius during Act Four, Scene Three during his geek out over Bathilda. He focuses him and gets him to breathe in and out in time with him. It’s really sweet and a true testament to their relationship. Acknowledging your anxiety and panic attacks with someone and then letting that person not only see you but help you in your weakest moments speaks volumes as to how much Albus means to Scorpius. While I know that moment on stage is by no means a full blown panic attack, it’s just Scorpius freaking out so much he forgets breathe, I love that Albus recognises the signs instantly and stops his own geeking out to help him. We know they’re that close but to see it in such a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ moment says how these actions aren’t even a big deal to them. They will help and protect and save each other without question and move on with their day. I’m completely digressing now but that’s why I love Joe and Jonathan’s Albus and Scorpius so much. Their portrayal of the friendship is subtle but everywhere and so rich. Anyway, back to James Howard. So after they had all been reunited and hugged it out, Scorpius was trying to process how they’d got there and talk to them about Delphi and of course he started to stumble with his words and Draco, just like Albus, focuses him and makes a point to take a long, deep breath in and out as a way of telling him to do the same. It broke me. Jonathan is consciously playing Scorpius with these panic attacks in mind. It’s who his Scorpius is. I’ve always personally imagined Scorpius having these kind of issues so that in itself is nothing new, but I thought it was something he would probably keep hidden from his dad. So seeing that Draco was one hundred percent aware and knew exactly how to help him was unexpected but so completely welcomed. They may be having some communication issues but Scorpius needs his dad just as much as Draco needs him. I don’t know if it’s because it’s just the two of them but I feel their desperation and reliance on each other so much more than I do with Harry and Albus. Their relationship is so intense in those scenes once they’re back together it leaves you knowing without a doubt that they work through their issues.

One last point on this. I really love that Scorpius has the unwavering support of the two people in his life he needs the most. The fact that he doesn’t have to hide it from either of them and that they both play yet another role in his life, an important one too, really warms my heart. I’m glad Scorpius has this. That feeling when you can’t breathe and the moment when your vision falters and you can’t focus properly on the sounds around you, only the feeling of your chest as its about to burst, it feels life threatening and terrifyingly endless. Yet he gives them the power to pull him out of that. To be the light in the darkness. It speaks of so much trust and love. Again, it’s another ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ moment but it gave you such an incredible insight into Scorpius and his relationship with his dad. This cast are exceptional at providing these little moments. Look out for them!

Act Four, Scene Nine

This is going to seem like a really weird note to make but between scene nine and ten, they kind of lower the lights and the actors do this thing where they slowly move into place before snapping into the scene as the music and lights do. (It shows movement of time and I love it.) Anyway, sometimes the actors do things in character during this slow motion bit that make my heart burst. Like, Samuel’s Scorpius would do this little wave at Albus because they had just been separated while Albus slept and Scorpius was, presumably, hanging out with his dad. Anthony’s Scorpius would tuck his hair behind his ear. And, like father like son, Alex’s Draco once smoothed his hair down as he walked through the door. All these tiny actions brought me such joy. Is that weird? Anyway, Joe joined the club today by waking up during this part and doing this big yawn. I think I giggled. It’s so Albus-y. I love it. That boy’s relationship with sleep reads like a love story. He’s such a teenage boy.

Act Four, Scene Ten

“Draco, trust my dad. He won’t let us down.” – Two things about this scene. One, the look on Scorpius’s face as he looks between Albus and Draco is priceless. He’s on the edge of his seat (literally), not knowing what his dad will do after being spoken to like that. I think there’s also a little bit of awe in there? Albus speaking to his dad without fear means something when your dad is Draco Malfoy. Making friends isn’t easy when your family has that reputation. The fact it doesn’t phase Albus isn’t lost on Scorpius. (Although personally I do like to think they already sort of know each other. They’ve been best friends for four years, there’s no way they haven’t met each others parents yet. And I’ll fight anyone who doesn’t believe Albus met Astoria. You think a mother who knows she has years left not decades wouldn’t go out of her way to meet her son’s only friend?) Anyway, Draco doesn’t say anything back but his fingers were working overtime.

(To explain that last comment for those of you who haven’t read many of my recaps before, James’s Draco does this thing where he rubs this thumb and forefinger together, going round and round in frantic circles, whenever he’s stressed or anxious or angry for some reason or another. I think it’s a form of control for him? Like he’s channeled all that energy down into his fingers so it’s manageable. I’ve always been a big fan of this but now that we have Jonathan who’s emphasising Scorpius’s own anxiety, it’s added a whole new layer to it. Maybe that’s why he opened up to his dad or maybe how Draco spotted the signs. I really like the idea of these two helping each other out that way.)

And secondly, once Draco decides not to contest the plan anymore he pulls Scorpius (and sort of herds Albus) over towards the back of the church and behind him while he helps transfigure Harry. Today, once Draco had turned round and was facing away from the boys, Albus turned to Scorpius and pulled this face which can only be described as the grimace emoji. That kind of ‘eek! I can’t believe I just did that!’ face. It was great. He seemed so confident in the moment but obviously inside and afterwards he was not so chilled.

When Harry has transfigured into Voldemort, he turns round and faces everyone in the church. The reactions are what you’d expect. From Ron’s ‘bloody hell’ to the memories and fear cursing through Draco leaving him looking rather drained. But nestled behind the adults and peering through are Albus and Scorpius. I couldn’t see Scorpius that well but Albus’s face was loud and clear. His face hardened as he looked at ‘Voldemort’. It was unexpected but the more I think about it, it’s really not. For a boy with confidence issues he does have a tendency to tackle things head on. Visually though, it made such an interesting mix of reactions!

Act Four, Scene Eleven

“Alohomora!” - Joe’s Albus does this thing with his wand every time before he uses it. He holds out his arm and then wipes it on his sleeve quickly a couple of times. I love it because it’s a quirky Albus thing. But it also makes me a little bit sad when I think why he might be doing that. Because to me it reads like he’s doing it because he doesn’t believe in himself. He doesn’t trust his wand or his magic not to fail him. So maybe he’s cleaning it? Hoping by polishing it, it will somehow make it work better? Maybe he did it once and then he managed to successfully cast something and now he thinks he has to do it every time. Or maybe it’s just a ‘thing’ but you know me, I like to read into everything and make it angsty. It definitely feels like it’s something to do with his temperamental relationship with magic. Albus isn’t a Squib or bad at magic, it’s a self esteem issue that hinders his ability. The more pressure he puts on himself, the more it falters. The second he convinces himself he’s going to fail, he does. Back in the wand dance (Act One, Scene Four), Albus pulled this face as he held up his wand that clearly told us he knew this wouldn’t work but hey, he was going to have a go anyway. Of course then when he doesn’t work he’s proved himself right. Jump forward to this scene and what’s interesting here is that in this moment failure is not an option, and it’s in moments like this when there’s no time for doubt that Albus always succeeds. (For example, the cushioning charm as he jumps off the train.) Yet Albus still stopped here to swipe his wand across his sleeve before he cast. He’s exposed and there’s lethal spells flying all around and he still stops! I wonder if whether it’s a case of that seed of doubt being so ingrained in him that he still has to do it, or if it was done subconsciously out of habit, or even because he knows he can’t fail and does it to (in his mind) make sure he doesn’t fail.

On a personal note, as someone who’s struggled with OCD for the past fifteen or so years, that connection with cleaning and something working right isn’t lost on me. I’m not saying that’s what it’s about, or that act is a compulsion for Albus, but it could so easily be because that need to clean isn’t always about cleanliness. It’s sometimes just the act itself. It’s your brain telling you that you have to do this process otherwise something bad with happen. Sometimes you’re not even aware, you subconsciously do it with little thought. Other times it chips away at you until you break. Or worse, those times when you do it with no resistance because you’re convinced those voices in your head are right. This thing will work if only you do this process first. I’ve never really thought about what it would be like for a wizard with OCD before but there’s no way it wouldn’t affect their magic. Especially if it was in relation to their wand. Again, I’m not saying that’s what it is, but if it was then I could understand Albus not wanting to fight it in that moment.

You know what? It almost reminds me of Scorpius’s wand too and how Anthony felt the carvings on it were a kind of self harm born from Scorpius’s grief. Magic is so greatly affected by your emotions and both Albus and Scorpius have to deal that. They both do it in different ways but what’s interesting is that, in theory, they’ve both focused all that negative attention onto their wands. This physical extension of their magic. I might be completely wrong here but it definitely makes for an interesting line of thought...

Act Four, Scene Fifteen

“I’m going into pigeon racing. I’m quite excited about it.” - Another Joe thing that I loved! When he said this line he leaned into his dad and pointed upwards as if pointing out a pigeon in a nearby tree. Sadly, Harry didn’t look so he never reacted to it but Albus was having a great time teasing his dad. What a beautiful way to end the show. I love their mutual hug afterwards of course, that always feels like a conclusion. But seeing where their relationship was and where it’ll be again was something we need even more than that.

Trying to summarise this show in a few sentences is impossible. I’ve just written six thousand words on something I’ve been watching over and over again for two years now and I could still easily say more. That’s what I love about this play. You can’t see and know and understand it all. No one ever will. Every cast and every show gives you something new. I sat there today and I’m still in awe of the beauty of this story and its translation onto the stage. I tell people that this is my favourite instalment of the Harry Potter series and they’re baffled by that. I love the books and using my imagination because yes, even though it’s happening inside my head ‘why on earth should that mean that it is not real’? And as much as that is true, this play brings me out of my head in that sense. It makes it real in a way a movie can’t. I’m there at Hogwarts with Harry and better than that, I get to share the experience with others. Imagination is great but it’s so personal. No one’s Hogwarts in their head is going to be the same as anyone else’s. You’re always going to be alone in that sense. But there in the Palace Theatre I’m not. We’re all watching the same thing. It’s that Scorpius feeling of realising you’re not reading about this adventure, you’re part of it.

I think because I purposely distanced myself from fandom until Cursed Child, I never felt that inclusion of the wizarding world that way. Fandoms can be so destructive but here I’ve found a community of kind and passionate people (fans and actors alike) that has been so welcoming. It’s what Hogwarts should be. Every new cast feels like a new term, and each show feels like a lesson. You live, you laugh, you learn, and I come away feeling a little bit more connected to this world that I’ve loved since I was a child. My family often ask when I’m going to grow up and give up on Harry Potter and it confuses me every time. You don’t outgrow Harry Potter, you grow with it. I found myself in the teenage version of these characters and I still see myself in the adult versions now. They’re real to me, to a lot of us, and getting cast after cast who understand that is what makes this show what it is. Their skills as actors are of course phenomenal, but it’s the heart and energy they put into every show that makes it magical. That doesn’t come from acting lessons or theatre experience, it’s a feeling you just have if you’ve grown up with the books. It stays with you and inspires you.

#harry potter and the cursed child #cursed child #TCCleanne #this has been one of my favourite recaps to write!#it's some recap with a whole lot of rambling meta #6.5k words of it... enjoooy : )#text post #long post #@tumblr please sort out the 'read more' function on your mobile app!!!

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elixirsoflife · 7 years ago

Text

across seasons and seas

@inekepp

HAPPY BIRTHDAY INEKE!!

i’ve actually been planning this present for a while... i got the idea a few months ago, started it, stopped it when my muse flaked out on me and recently completed it (as of 23rd sept) just in time to spring it upon you. to my soulmate and the person who hyped dormitory 2.6a to a whole new level, here is a brand new novus one shot for you ^.^ <333

(i can’t guarantee it’s any good lmao)

(also bc you are a beast at validating on hpft, i had to upload it onto tumblr first)

"It can only be true love when you enable your other half to be better, to be the person they're destined to be." - Michelle Yeoh

PRÓLOGOS

It starts like this.

With a party in a cosy common room. The lights are dim, and the music is loud, and there are bodies everywhere, too many to count. There's a brief parting of the crowd, a glimpse of one tipsy girl's heartfelt laughter, and a momentary appreciation for the more beautiful things in life.

(Al stops. He stares.)

It starts with the party and then it stutters as the school year gives way to the summer holidays and Al forgets all about Nova Hale and her pretty little laugh.

(Elijah tackles him without warning. The trance he's in shatters as he hits the ground.)

♥

In sixth year, the engine groans to life again, hesitant at first - and then as the Scottish air rapidly chills, everything switches into fifth gear. Whatever is slowly blooming to life between the pair picks up speed, hurtles through the corridors of Hogwarts like drag racers along lamp-lit streets. One moment, Nova Hale is a mere classmate and the next, she's the star of his dreams.

(He's sixteen years old, months shy of his birthday, and he thinks he's in love.)

Loving Nova Hale is easy.

Granted, her friends are without a doubt her immediate concern at all times and she shies away when his hands are a little too familiar in public. But the smiles she offers are soft and sweet, like he's her entire world, and the way her cheeks darken makes his heart sing. Her laughter comes easily and her kindness quickly follows suit and her pinkie links delicately with his whenever they stroll through the courtyard.

They argue over each other's priorities and they're in love.

Exams drive them to the edges of their sanity and they're in love.

The wizarding world barges into their personal bubble the second they leave Hogwarts and they're still in love -

But sometimes love simply isn't enough. And the fact is that Nova has never been great with attention in the first place while Al's surname and dream career greedily sucks it all up like a black hole. Their regrets are countless and their tears are earnest, but in the end, they agree –

It ends like this.

♥

(Months earlier, one hundred and sixty seventh years loitered on the grass near the Black Lake, reluctant to clamber into the boats that first brought them there. Al remembers looking at the girl beside him, the way she tugged on the tassles of her graduation cap, and thinking that, though things will inevitably change, he knows she will always be a constant in his life.

He thought wrong.)

EPISODE ONE

Life without Nova Hale isn't necessarily life without Nova Hale.

There are a couple of months that immediately succeed the break up and though it wasn't messy, it still hurts. He sees her in Diagon Alley, snowflakes melting on her cheeks, and he wants. It's intense and sharp, far more powerful than the puppy adoration from those early days in sixth year when he didn't know the sweetness of her mouth or the press of her arm against his. And quite frankly, it’s…

It hurts.

Strictly speaking, their lives do not intersect much. Without him, there's no reason for Elijah or Adam the Puff or even Scorpius to go out of their way to contact her so there's little risk of Nova tumbling into his life without warning. But Al’s also good friends with Alice and good… something or the other with Dahlia, who both carry with them a constant reminder of everything he's lost whenever he sees them. So life without Nova Hale isn't necessarily life without Nova Hale, even when she abruptly leaves England with a backpack choking with clothes and a pouchful of Galleons, off to travel the world.

(Even when she's somewhere in the middle of Asia, sun on her back and skin darkening to honey, she remains in the peripheries of his existence. Sometimes he thinks that'll never change.)

Life without Nova Hale is –

Gruelling practices where he's run into the ground, thighs sore from clamping around a broomstick for hours on end. Days begin with the sun rising over Montrose and a quick trip to The Harpy for a coffee to wake him up. They end with a hot shower, maybe a night out to the pub with the boys, or crashing at someone's place for the evening. Life is a crappy flat he shares with the reserve Keeper, Ahmad, and Al’s brother – who technically doesn't live with them but can never be found elsewhere. It’s downing chocolate quaffles straight from the cereal box in lieu of an actual breakfast and then having his dad pinch his waist and reprimand him for not eating more.

It’s waking up one day and realising that it's getting a lot easier to breathe again.

(He's pissed out of his head on Firewhiskey when he realises he is no longer in love with Nova Hale. Nothing will scrub away the fondness he regards her with or make her less beautiful in his eyes, but he can accept that. He's moved on. He's moved on.)

♥

Months fly by and his career takes off with them.

Sure, Al's young and inexperienced compared to the big stars of the league, but he's also somewhat of a prodigy when it comes to Quidditch. Passion meets a keen eye when he circles the pitch on his broom; enthusiasm collides with his natural Slytherin instinct to strategise down to every last possibility. He complements this by training furiously and it shows.

Quidditch magazines all over Britain and Western Europe note his performance, the way he elevates the Magpies to even higher ranks. In the meantime, gossip rags note his blossoming relationship with enemy Seeker of the Falcons, Briar James, when they’re seen together a handful of times over the duration of several weeks before they go finally public.

RIVALRY FOR THE SNITCH, ROMANCE OFF THE PITCH, screams Witch Weekly when the news breaks out.

("I will honestly murder you," screams Dahlia Darzi instead.

Alice helpfully points out that it's been nearly a year since the Incident and that Nova herself is in the midst of a whirlwind romance somewhere in the depths of St Petersburg. Dahlia tells her to fuck herself.)

So for a time, life without Nova Hale is a life with Briar James, with her tight afro and her big doe eyes. It's impromptu matches of football in a half-empty Muggle park and pancakes on Sunday mornings and being labelled Briabus by their adoring fans. It's beer on Friday evenings and sex on Saturday mornings and accented English venomously spitting his name over an intense game of Mario Kart.

It’s being moonstruck and happy again.

But then that too fades away and Al is left - well, not heartbroken, not really, but certainly rather upset because he really did like Briar. She was relaxed and easy-going, just as down to re-enact her favourite WWE wrestling moves as she was to tug Al’s jumpers over his head. Time with her was like a hall full of floating candles: bright and pretty. It's a shame they eventually snuffed out.

STASIMON

Nova Hale returns from Europe on a slow Sunday afternoon. They meet in The Harpy, Al walking out of the bathroom to find her on his seat at the counter, sipping on his white chocolate mocha. A million disjointed thoughts fly through his head when he sees her, but he settles for a quirk of his lips and clears his throat.

"Shouldn't you ask me out before you steal my coffee?"

She chokes on it, eyes blown wide as she turns sharply in his direction. There's an eased slant to her shoulders and a new air of confidence that clings to her, scavenged all the way from the far reaches of China, but her cheeks burn as red as always.

"I - I," she stammers, glancing between Al and the drink in her hands. Finally, her eyes settle on the smug smirk of her friend behind the counter. "You said this was for me!"

Dahlia shrugs without care. "Oops."

"Oh my god." Nova closes her eyes, mortified. "I honestly hate you."

"My life is complete."

"Good, now I won't feel bad about ending it," comes the retort before Nova turns to Al with a much gentler expression. Sheepish, she holds out the white chocolate mocha. "Sorry about that, I genuinely didn't realise. Here you go – or, never mind that, I'll buy you a new one if you'd like?"

He's already shaking his head. "No, I'm alright," he says not unkindly. Indulging in a small smile, he adds, "You probably need it more than me anyways. I hear travelling to half the countries in the world takes a lot out of you."

Nova returns the smile with one of her own. It's not nearly as lovestruck as it once was, but it's pretty all the same. "Not nearly as much as winning the Quidditch League," she replies and takes a fresh sip. The slant of her eyebrows is friendly and teasing over the lid.

"Ah. So you heard about that."

"Kind of hard not to," she confesses. "You're pretty big news, Albus Potter. The leagues love you."

On the surface, he preens under her compliments, pleased as ever to hear them. He's worked damn hard to get where he is, alright, and he deserves to accept some praise sometimes. But underneath that, beyond his teasingly arrogant response that of course he's big news and what else did you expect, Hale?, there's a moment of understanding between them.

Once they fell apart because of camera flashes and Quidditch robes. It was a struggle between wanting forever together and wanting their dreams - and now, over a year later, they can admit that they chose and chased the right option.

No matter how much it hurt at the time.

EPISODE TWO

Their story starts in a common room with Firewhiskey clouding their minds and the very edges of their worlds brushing. Then it hiccups, takes a quick detour over the summer, before hurtling down the motorway at ninety miles an hour. And then half a year after their childhood has drawn to an end, it stalls.

A season shy of two years later, it hums back to life again.

It happens like this.

♥

Italy's night sky is a dark blue overhead when Al sneaks out of his hotel. The past handful of days have been spent on Asinara as the wizarding world clamours around a glorious Quidditch stadium far from prying Muggle eyes. Country after country has played passionately, losing or rising to glory. And for the first time in a long time, England is storming ahead towards the World Cup.

The feeling is heady and exhilarating. Somewhere in the past, a twelve-year-old Albus Potter gazes at him in awe, trailing a wondrous finger over the number on the back of his robes. He's here; he's made it. He's finally reached the distant goal he set the second he made it onto the Slytherin Quidditch team.

There's a thrumming in his veins, faint and electric, a restlessness that begs to be dispelled. He apparates hundreds of miles away from the team’s accommodation to a fountain in the Eternal City and recalls a memory from years ago. Remembers the solidness of Nova Hale in his arms, the grandeur of the Trevi Fountain, the coin they tossed in for good measure.

He remembers being so wholeheartedly in love with this one girl.

It's been a little under two years since they went their separate ways. In that time, they've loved and known other partners, stitched together the hurts that lingered on their skin. They've avoided each other, ran away to different continents entirely, and then stood face to face and finally accepted that things have changed.

(The tricky thing about first loves, however, is that they never truly go away. As much as Al tries to kid himself, there's always a part of him that yearns to tuck himself into Nova's side and hide away.

As the months after her return draw on, that part of him grows.)

But here, here in front of this massive monument, the days of his youth burned into the back of his eyes, the acceptance of their situation seems to unravel. The night whispers of regression, of old things rising anew. He looks at the Trevi fountain and once more wants with a ferocity he hasn’t felt in a long while. Not since that winter they broke up.

He hears her footsteps before he sees her face. Hears her voice before she shifts out of the shadows and into view.

"Al?" Nova calls out softly across the courtyard. When their eyes meet, she breaks out into a hesitant smile, slowly drawing closer. "Fancy seeing you here."

Perhaps her presence there should be a little more jarring, a tad bit questionable. After all, as of a few weeks ago, Nova was still in England, scribbling away at the Quibbler. At most a month before that, she was in South America with his Aunt Luna, describing the sublime with words and painting a compelling picture with her articles. And now she's here in little old Italy by his side as they gaze up at the fountain once more.

It isn't.

Jarring, that is.

The last time he was here, it was with her. Back then, his arms were around her waist, fingers interlocking where they met - his chin on the top of her head, eyes drowsy as he absorbed the sight. Something in the quiet air whispered that there were far greater things than them at work here. Such intimacy can therefore only be shared with her; it makes sense for her to appear now.

"I couldn't sleep," he replies at last. His hands bury deep into his pockets. "Figured I should take a trip down memory lane."

Nova mimics his position and stuffs her hands into the silk depths of her coat with a sigh. It's not a particularly sad sigh, but Al struggles to place the emotions that lace it. Longing, maybe? Wistfulness? Or maybe that’s just him.

"Me too," she admits quietly. Her eyes are bright with soft gold lights and distant memories. "Luna brought me along to do a piece on Italy since the World Cup's here and I thought I might as well come here for old times' sake?" Her voice rises in a question at the end as if she's not sure whether it's okay for her to be there while he is. As if she’s an intruder on a private moment when the truth is, she’s the star of it all.

"I guess the coin worked then,” is what Al voices instead.

It takes her a moment to understand his words, but when she does, Nova lets out a surprised laugh. "I forgot about that!" She bats softly at his arm. "Maybe there really is magic going on here then, like all the rumours say. Sure feels like it, don’t you think?"

Al can't help but smile at her. No matter how many years it's been since their last visit, Nova's joy in the face of such grandeur has never diminished in its loveliness. A poet could write sonnets about it, he thinks. An artist could immortalise it in vivid sunsets. The sound of it, the sight - it makes him feel so, so warm.

"Since we're already here," he murmurs, "do you wanna see if anywhere's still open?"

When Nova looks at him, it's with very shrewd eyes. He can see puzzle pieces slot into place in her mind, conclusions being drawn in white chalk against midnight boards, decisions being made. But at last, she offers him her own smile - gentle and indulgent, a little nostalgic too - and cocks her head to one side.

"Lead the way."

♥

High school sweethearts rarely ever stay together. Did you know that? Hogwarts is not a microcosm of the wider world – and so, Al and Nova did not know how to function without the crutch of those castle walls. Life commanded them in different ways, tugged them to separate directions. Al flew up to Montrose, a stadium full of magpies calling his name, and Nova? Well, she travelled everywhere in the end.

Even when she officially returned to England, several countries under her belt and a year after they split ways, she was restless. A true child of wanderlust, she eventually signed up for a job that meant she was always on her feet, returning to town only to Portkey back out again. The Quibbler was more than happy to take her on as Luna’s travelling companion, her vivid descriptions of exotic locations partnered with the older woman’s magizoological finds. Both parties have never looked back since.

Such busy schedules have meant that neither Al nor Nova have had the proper chance to rebuild a genuine relationship beyond standard niceties. Meant that their conversations have always hovered on the strange edge between polite warmth and flirty friendliness, enough attraction lingering between the exes to charge their interactions with an indefinable energy that is never addressed.

That night in Italy quickly unravels into much more.

A catch-up over Butterbeer dissolves into a conversation about old memories, happiness pouring from their tongues and shoulders shaking with its force. As they talk, their ankles are familiar underneath the table, brushing up against each other every so often. And the spark of tension that hovers between them, even years later, rapidly flickers into something much less tentative.

They're not drunk.

Not when Nova laughs so hard she collapses against his arm. Not when they stay in the bar long after their glasses are drained to the last drop. Not when they leave their seats and linger on the cobblestones outside, reluctant to leave for their beds. Not when Al's fingers trace along her wrist and then flutter against the curve of her waist inquiringly – and not when she steps into his embrace as the world blurs around them.

They're not drunk. At least, not on alcohol.

Maybe on this feeling though. This oblivion that wipes all comprehension from Al's mind save the sweetness of honeysuckle kisses from Nova's mouth. Maybe off the pressure of ten fingers on his shoulders and sweat sticking to his back and his heartbeat racing, racing, racing behind the safety of his ribs. Maybe on the way he breathes her name and she murmurs his and how the world seems to align perfectly once again.

♥

(The next morning, his coach’s thunderous knock on his hotel room door startles Al out of his sated slumber. He jerks awake to see Nova still there, face puffy and eyelashes clamped tight. She flips over, a pout pressed against the base of his throat.

"Do we have to get up?" she whines. "Because if so, I think we should stage a protest."

Butterflies swoop in his stomach when she says we instead of you. His fingers intertwine with hers. She holds his hands like she doesn't plan on letting go.)

STASIMON II.

This is a story, did you know?

In the beginning, it starts like this: at a party in a common room underground. A boy sees a girl laugh across the room and for a moment, he forgets how to breathe. That summer, he forgets that he forgot how to do that - until sixth year arrives and he falls in love with that laugh again in a way that'll never really leave him, even when he tries for years.

Of course, all great stories must have conflict. They must have the readers on their edges of their seats, teeth worrying away at the crescents of their nails, desperate to know if their protagonists will make it through their turmoil. And so our story has a hiccup and the hiccup is - tragic, bittersweet - tainted with dreams that are too big and a love that weeps for it. There are Quidditch practices that demand all of Al's attention and cameras that gobble up some more until there is very little left for Nova.

So, she leaves.

Kisses him goodbye, sheds a few hundred tears and packs her bags for a town in France (and then Germany and Europe and then the rest of the world. It’s not running away if she meant to do it eventually, after all.)

They stay this way for years, seemingly for forever. For some tales, this would be where the story draws to a close, the final words stained with melancholy and regret. Others, however - the best ones some might say - have a happy ending. Here, the happy ending looks a lot like:

Italy in the late hours of the day with its silk skies and hidden stars, a sliver of a silver moon hanging low against the night.

Nova's skin when it's kissed by golden light, soft and lovely as a fountain spills magic mere metres away.

Al's pulse juddering under a hot, velvet coat.

Skin on skin and small hands tracing blazing trails along his freckles.

Lazy smiles on sunlit mornings and private meals in the evening

Aa promise made over neat hotel napkins.

(The promise agreed that things between them feel different. That they think they might have grown up since two winters ago. That perhaps this means they can grab the second chance they’ve been offered with both hands - and this time, they can hold on tight.)

EXODE

"Albus Potter, you've just won England the Quidditch World Cup final! How does it feel to bring the trophy home for the first time in half a century?" "It feels great, mate. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go kiss my girlfriend."

#hp #harry potter #hp next gen #harry potter next generation #dormitory 2.6a #albus potter #nova hale #scorpius malfoy??#well he's mentioned once #so is james potter #and adam the puff #dahlia darzi #alice longbottom #novus #extras

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xoruffitup · 7 years ago

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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child NYC Show Report: 4/15

It’s so exciting to get to write another one of these! :’’) I’m not sure if any other London frequenters have already seen and written about the Broadway iteration, but hopefully we’ll all get to compare notes soon. LET’S GO!

Act 1, Scene 3 (The Hogwarts Express)

Up until this point, the show felt mostly the same as in London. It was just like coming home to the coziest warm place imaginable – While at the same time my heart was pounding and fluttering in my chest with excitement, and with the thrill of once again being in the same room with this incredible bunch of actors who so convincingly brought my favorite characters to life. When I say the show felt “the same,” obviously I don’t mean “same old, same old” – I mean it was every bit the power and comfort and joy I remembered it to be. My memory hadn’t exaggerated at all the way that all breath leaves me when Jamie walks onto the stage the first time as Harry.

SO, it wasn’t until this scene when something happened to shake things up. I was already beaming to myself when I saw Anthony rolled on stage into the train compartment. Then, once he began speaking it was clear Scorpius was going to be entirely different. Anthony has always been known to sometime pitch his voice lower into that gravely, throaty tone – mostly when he’s shouting or in distress, but the longer he performed in London the more he modulated his normal speaking voice as well to be lower and somewhat nasal-y.

On Sunday, this tone was his whole voice. As the scene went on, it became apparent that the entire tone of the character had changed. He spoke deeper but his speech was also more calm and smooth. There were none of his trademark squeaky moments. My first impression was that this was a more mature, somber Scorpius.

Nonetheless, of course he still had the audience cracking up at his unexpected sweets song. To any new viewer, he would probably still seem plenty silly. But to my eyes, in comparison to Anthony’s usual antics, he was very restrained – To the point that I felt a bit off step, part of me very curious to see how Scorpius would behave as events progressed, and part of me slightly disappointed we might not see Anthony at his most ridiculous.

Scorpius sung out “SWEE-EE-EETS” swinging between multiple high pitches, then abruptly crashed in humiliation for the rest of the tune. But an added cute touch to the scene was Albus saying “no, I didn’t stay for you, I stayed for your swee-ee-eets” – also singing it in a hilarious imitation of Scorpius.

Act 1, Scene 4 (Hogwarts / Transition Scene)

The new Sorting Hat doesn’t do the fierce, ominous whisper like Chris Jarman used to. Instead, he rather clearly whispers the names of multiple houses in rotation before settling on the correct one. For Scorpius, the first whisper was clearly Ravenclaw. Then it went back and forth between settling on Slytherin. For Albus, it circled between Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor.

At the beginning of second year, Scorpius actually tries to give Rose a real rose with the cheese-ball line, “A rose for a Rose!”

Act 1, Scene 6 (Harry and Ginny Potter’s House)

This was the first time that Delphi was genuinely funny when she meets Albus on the stairs. She did the “give me all your chocolate frogs” joke in this faux-Western accent like a cowboy, before lapsing into chatting with Albus in almost a bro-matey sort of way. This Delphi has a much more confident, bigger personality. She’s effortlessly charming and funny, and honestly she’s very charismatic. For the first time, I see why Albus would have a crush on her.

Act 1, Scene 7 (Albus’s Room)

Jamie began this scene softly. Harry is so clearly, palpably trying his best. He so wants Albus to understand the enormous importance behind the gesture of giving him the blanket. Harry sounds so hopeful, almost to the point of being desperate with how badly he wants this gesture to reach Albus and build a bridge between them. Sitting beside Albus on the bed, even while Albus is hunched up and stiff, Harry is being as tender as he can, almost pleading with Albus to understand that this is more than just a blanket – he wants Albus to accept his larger appeal to give their relationship a chance again. It doesn’t have to be taken for broken yet.

Harry’s prior tenderness makes the sharp spike of his anger and the anvil of his words all the more painful. Albus is flippant with his own anger and his spiteful words, because Harry seems to have his walls down, and the danger seems minimal. So Albus keeps going and going, running with it, working himself up more and more while he fails to get a rise out of Harry. Even in “I’m not going to rise to your bait,” Harry remained calm, though growing strained. Then, at “I am done! Done being made responsible for your unhappiness!” Harry burst open into hurt, defensive flames.

When Harry says it, it’s like a visible blow to Albus. He steps back and he crumples. All the fight goes out of him in a second. In past performances, I usually remembered even while Albus was clearly wounded to the core by his father’s words, he remained resentful – anger still simmering below the surface. “No luck or love for me then!” was usually delivered with the exclamation point at the end, as Albus throws the blanket angrily onto the bed and storms out.

This time, none of that angry energy was present. The moment Albus hears the line, he visibly breaks instead. Through “You meant it, and honestly I don’t blame you…,” his voice cracked and it absolutely tore at my heart. He seemed to grow smaller by the time he said, “You should probably leave me alone now” and at this point there were audible tears in his voice. Albus leaves the room at the edge of crying, injured rather than angry, and I’d never seen him fall so quickly and terribly distraught during this scene.

This moment made me sit up and really notice Sam. Please let me make it clear before I say this: I have always loved Sam. But during performances in London I have to admit I would rarely really focus on him. He’s a strong and incredibly talented actor without a doubt, but I sometimes felt that Albus could fall a bit static in ensemble scenes.

I certainly did NOT feel that way on Sunday. Seeing how his father’s words so visibly pierced something in Albus’ heart, seeing that they made him cry – it made me connect to Albus in a new, powerful way.

(Spoiler alert: This isn’t the first time Sam would surprise me.)

Act 1, Scene 9 (Harry and Ginny Potter’s House, Bedroom)

Jamie Parker is a wonder. His acting talent just defies both belief and description. When I think back on his performances as Harry, I remember being floored each and every time, and having him wring me dry of every single emotion in existence by the end of Part 2.

His screaming when he wakes from his nightmare and when his scar burns absolutely wrenches at your heart. You’re truly scared for him; They cause pain – the screams are so real.

And then Jamie’s wonder is his incredible versatility. Two scenes ago he was a blustering, angry father speaking to his son in misguided rashness. He wakes from his nightmare in this scene, and then, sitting on the bed with his feet rubbing anxiously together and his face clamped in fear, he is so young and boyish and helpless it absolutely rends at the heart.

It’s incredible how Jamie manages to portray a new, adult visage of Harry who is absolutely credible and true to the young man we know so well. And in moments like these, Jamie almost becomes that young man too. Looking at his frightened expression in this scene, it feels like looking into Harry’s face in OOP, waking from a nightmare about going to places he doesn’t know or watching terrible things happen to people he cares about.

Jamie channels everything about Harry that moves us so – that has moved us since the very first book. And then he manages to add to it, spinning and elevating that boy into tricky, troublesome adulthood that turns out not to be any easier than school after all.

Act 1, Scene 10 (The Hogwarts Express)

There will never be a day when I don’t crack up at the nerdy adorableness of “Yes! A quiz!” This time, Scorpius fist-pumped his excitement and then high-fived Albus before excitedly launching into his mini-lesson on the Triwizard Tournament.

I love Scorpius’ excited little speech here – how much he usually delights in getting to retell thrilling history he learned all about – and I’ve heard Anthony deliver it enough to know how it usually sounds. If you’ve heard him before, you know how he usually adds the hilarious dramatic flair with: “…and transported them to Vooooldemort!”

While Scorpius on Sunday was definitely still excited to show off his book smarts, I didn’t catch any of his usual trademark ticks. In comparison to my expectations, he delivered it downright calmly.

At this point, it was clear that it was a deliberate choice on Anthony’s part to make Scorpius so different. His voice still remained deep and raspy; he wasn’t fidgeting or spazzing like he normally does; he was speaking whole sentences without launching into his squeaky voice or melodramatic exclamations.

By this point, I was starting to wonder what the intent behind the decision was. At first, I had the thought that maybe this is Anthony evolving and coming into his own as an actor. Maybe he’s developed confidence in himself now to play the role with more subtlety. Maybe he wanted to move away from playing Scorpius as an overactive, overly humorous spazz, and wanted to make him a more grounded, thoughtful, funny-in-softer-ways character.

Then Scorpius did something new in this scene, and I got a different idea entirely. When Albus urges him to climb up onto the train roof, Scorpius refused. He clearly mouthed ‘No’ several times, crossing his arms, shaking his head, and refusing to go where Albus points until Albus pulls him out of the way and climbs up himself. Sure, Scorpius is always unsure in this scene, but he always goes along with it. But this time, he clearly dug his heels in. His expression clearly showed he found Albus’s plan ludicrous and foolhardy, and at first, he really didn’t want any part in it.

Another possibility is that Anthony has interpreted the character differently – entirely separately from however he himself might feel as an actor. Here, I had the thought that perhaps Scorpius was rather the one who had discovered more confidence in himself.

Of course, he’s bullied because of the rumors about his parentage and he feels just as much an outsider as Albus, but perhaps this was a version of Scorpius who’s not quite so lost in himself that he’s willing to blindly follow Albus’ lead wherever it takes him. In the end, Scorpius still goes with him – He still makes the decision to follow his friend and abet his hare-brained scheme, but perhaps this is a Scorpius who really considers it on his own first so he can make up his own mind.

My new interpretations of Scorpius would continue to evolve as the play progressed. Leave it to Anthony to always do something interesting!

Act 1, Scene 14 (St. Oswald’s Home For Old Witches And Wizards)

This scene was unusually interesting. While Sam really shone, Anthony added complexity to my attempts to puzzle out this version of Scorpius.

Confession: When Albus is doing his speech about “how much blood is on my father’s hands. … Let me help correct one of his mistakes,” I have to admit I usually take that minute to stare at Anthony. Well, I certainly wasn’t doing that this time – Sam had all my attention absolutely riveted on him. His lines here aren’t even really that dramatic, but he kneeled down beside Amos’s wheelchair and delivered them with this soft, captivating intensity. In London I would often get the impression that Albus was kind of talking himself into this at the same time as he was trying to convince Amos, but this time there was no doubt – Albus held absolute conviction about doing this.

Scorpius remained leaning back against the wall for much of the scene, still looking a touch unconvinced. Then the moment comes when Amos seems to threaten Albus, and Scorpius launches into action. He grabs Albus and physically pulls him away. It’s clear that no matter what reservations Scorpius has about the sanity of his friend’s plan, he has an instinctive, unshakeable protectiveness of Albus that breaks through and overpowers all else.

This could also have been visible on the train roof. While the trolley witch reprimands them and they fall over from the wind, Scorpius reaches back for Albus’s thigh just for assurance Albus is still there and alright. I know Scorpius has done that before in London, but especially with this more thoughtful, calm, and collected new version of Scorpius – I love seeing that the compulsive urge that still bursts out of him strong as ever is his need to keep Albus safe, and at his side.

The tension remained taut and serious in the scene until Scorpius lightened it again with his classic “Do we?!” “Are we?!!!” And it was certainly every bit as funny as usual!

Act 1, Scene 15 (Harry and Ginny Potter’s House, The Kitchen)

I just have to say how wonderful it was to see the adult trio sitting there together around the table. For a while I thought we’d never see Jamie, Paul, and Noma sitting around that table again but (trying desperately to get my emotions under control) there they are!!

Little thing with the effects – The owl that delivers the letter was a fake owl that actually flew across the stage (On a wire, I imagine), rather than just a light!

Act 1, Scene 16 (Whitehall, Cellar)

I saw some pretty wild Polyjuice transformation scenes as their London run went on, so I figured I would be prepared and there was no way Sam and Anthony had worked up to that level of crazy already so quickly, anyway.

I was wrong!

So first, after they see Delphi transform before them, instead of saying “Wow” they do a much drawn-out, excitedly awed shout of “WI-I-I-IZZO!” Scorpius yelled it first and it was hilarious.

Then – they drink their potion. Within five seconds flat, Sam was already bright red in the face from flat-out yelling, and Scorpius was visibly drooling while making disgusted sounds. Sam was yelling like a human kettle about to blow up, holy moly.

And then it only got more ridiculous! Jamie absolutely went to town playing Scorpius – I don’t think I’ve ever in my entire life seen something more Extra.

When he pretended to scold Albus, “Go straight to your room. You’ve been an incredibly awful and bad son!” he actually swooshed his cloak up over his shoulder with such force that he nearly tangled himself in it and fell over. Then Paul gave him a good belly-bump after pointing out Uncle Ron’s gut.

Act 1, Scene 19 (Ministry of Magic, Hermione’s Office)

Just when I think Jamie couldn’t possibly get better, the impossible happens. He was killer hilarious in this scene, playing Scorpius to the uppermost echelons of squeaky, flaily excitement.

When he’s listing the books from the Restricted Section, his voice keeps rising higher and higher in gleeful excitement. When he gets to Sonnets Of A Sorceror, you can barely understand the title because his voice basically hits dolphin registers, and he actually melted to his knees on the floor, completely overcome with excitement. Rocking on the floor, he exclaimed in an overcome squeal, “That’s not even allowed at Hogwarts!!!”

Act 2, Scene 3 (Hogwarts, Headmistress’ Office)

Alright I am rarely one to criticize, but I kind of feel an obligation to warn people about the American McGonagall. I found her accent a little painful, and to compound it, she speaks in what to me sounded like a very fake, high-pitched tone of voice that warbles a lot. It just completed removed me from the scene whenever she spoke, and it was a shame I couldn’t take her lines seriously. This is only previews though, so there’s every chance she’ll improve!

This, among a few other scenes in this Act, had new dialogue. I know I won’t remember verbatim, but essentially, the new sections try to lay a better explanation for the fears and paranoia that drive Harry to make the poor decisions he’s about to make – namely, ordering Albus to stay away from Scorpius.

I do remember: “That’s how they’re trying to get to me. They know he’s my weakness.”

When speaking to Albus in the hospital wing after Albus and Scorpius turn time the first time, he says “The Death Eaters are trying to get to me through you.”

Act 2, Scene 4 (Edge of the Forbidden Forest)

Here’s where I have to admit I kind of missed Anthony’s usual over-the-top humor a bit. Sometimes he just brings the house down with his “Okay, okay, two points! …. Second point – more significant point! …” but last night he delivered that section mostly just sounding logical. “She didn’t kiss me” was also delivered almost off-handedly. Like ‘ah, well.’

Act 2, Scene 8 (Hogwarts, Hospital Wing)

Dumbledore’s first appearance! I hadn’t been able to judge from his performance as Amos what kind of Dumbledore he would be, but I really loved this version. It’s like he almost has a visible twinkle in his eye or in his face. He is serenely calm, watching over Albus in the bed with a placid yet distant look of caring. He speaks to Harry in a slightly misty tone, listening intently to what Harry’s saying but answering in the normal Dumbledore way of gentle truisms and ambiguous instruction. His first appearance here definitely warmed my heart.

With the added dialogue “The Death Eaters are trying to get to me through you,” it comes less out of nowhere and seems a bit less cruel when Harry forbids Albus from seeing Scorpius here. I remember how shocked and disappointed I was by Harry’s brashness in this scene the very first time I saw it, so I’m glad they’ve built up his rationale at least a bit for what he does here.

Act 2, Scene 10 (Headmistress’ Office)

More new, interesting dialogue here. (Preeeetty sure it was here? Either here or Scene 13, when Harry’s talking to Ginny.)

Harry makes an explicit parallel between Malfoys and dark magic, using the example of Lucius Malfoy giving Ginny Tom Riddle’s diary. I don’t remember exactly what prompts Harry to think this, but he remembers Albus met Scorpius on the train in his first year, and since then Albus has had no other friends – only Scorpius to confide his hopes, fears, and dreams to; The same way Ginny was isolated during her first year, and poured all of her thoughts and feelings into the diary, thinking it was the only thing akin to a friend she had. In Harry’s mind, there’s a direct connection here, and Harry says something like “He (Albus) doesn’t know he’s being bewitched.” It’s not clear whether it’s Scorpius or Draco that Harry really suspects, but he convinces himself there’s a real plot here – not just an obscure ‘black cloud’ – and it entirely runs away with him.

It’s very reminiscent of Harry conspiracy-theory Potter in HBP, refusing to be anything but convinced that Draco was involved in some elaborate dark Death Eater scheme.

Act 2, Scene 13 (Harry and Ginny Potter’s House, Kitchen)

Since Harry’s convinced there’s some Malfoy plot afoot, this scene where he faces off with Draco was especially heated and intense. Harry was glaring at Draco from the second he walked in. Harry bulled his way through the dialogue remorselessly, and barely hesitated after Draco asked tersely, “What are you implying, Potter?” When Harry asked, “Are you really sure he’s yours?” there was no remorse whatsoever in it. It was pointed – almost an accusation. You could have cut the air between them with a knife, the tension and enmity was so strong.

So at first, the duel felt angry and frenzied. By the time they reached the “Keep up, old man!” lines, the audience’s wonder and audible reactions to the spell work softened the mood a bit and let Alex bring in the dry, disparaging humor he does so well.

There were a couple of new spells used, but try as I might I can’t remember exactly what they were. I think Jamie might have been thrown around a bit more. He flippendo’d off the table and totally nailed it; It was awesome to watch!

Act 2, Scene 14 (Hogwarts, Staircases)

This Delphi-Scorpius scene was actually more interesting and poignant than I’ve ever seen it. This was the first time I really thought I saw Scorpius and Delphi develop a connection in this scene. Of course, her words in this scene about Scorpius and Albus belonging together always hit Scorpius deeply and motivate him to confront Albus. But this was the first time that I thought I saw Scorpius possibly beginning to trust Delphi in her own regard – independently of the encouraging things she says pertaining to Albus. I think this is mostly due to a unique rapport of how Anthony and the new Delphi play off each other – And the fact that this new Delphi can really be convincing when she wants to be.

First – the hilarious bit. When a student walks by, Scorpius always has to hide Delphi from sight. In London he would either sit in front of her and lean forward to obscure her from sight, or would hold up his cloak to hide her completely.

This time, he went ALL OUT with the second option. He literally jumped to his feet, dramatically spread his legs between two steps, and thrust one arm out holding his cloak up like a cape. When the other student gave him a weird look and started walking past, Scorpius just stoically held the ridiculous pose, his face an incredible mixture of total embarrassment and desperately trying to look casual. It was hysterical.

I was glad that he went on to mention Hector his invisible friend! He said the name in a little sing-song voice, and I don’t even know why, but this is always one of my favorite small Scorpius moments.

But when Delphi says, “Albus needs you, Scorpius,” this really captures Scorpius’s attention. He comes down a few steps closer to her and sits down, leaning forward towards her, totally engrossed when he asks her, “He needs me to do what?” He genuinely wanted her advice and explanation here, and I was unexpectedly touched by this exchange.

Act 2, Scene 16 (Hogwarts, Library)

LIBRARY SCENE, HOW I MISSED YOU <3

I know I’ve probably said this about previous shows, but I truly believe this was the best I’ve ever seen this scene!! A large part of the reason was likely the new, more ‘mature’ base Anthony is setting for Scorpius, which gave a very nuanced, powerful depth of emotion for him to draw on in this scene.

When Albus took the time turner from Scorpius and Scorpius tried to get it back, the two boys launched into a very physical and aggressive struggle over it. When they wrench themselves apart and Albus exclaims, “Who’s saying that we’ll get it wrong?!” there was already a huge flair of anger blowing through their speech. When Scorpius shoots back, “We mess things up! We lose!” he’s already shouting, his words harsh and sharp.

Then Albus said with heat, “I wasn’t a loser before I met you!” and the whole audience audibly gasped with injury on Scorpius’ behalf.

I’ve never heard an audience react so strongly to that line – Another sign of Sam really stepping up his delivery across the board. But that reaction – The livewire immediacy of how clearly engrossed and finely tuned in the audience was to the boys’ confrontation here – that absolutely lit a spark in Anthony.

And the spark blew – spectacularly. When Albus said, “Without you holding me back, I can make a proper go of it,” Scorpius echoed first in a stunned, hollow sort of way, “Oh, without me?” with tears already visibly swimming in his eyes. I was sitting in the orchestra up towards the right side, so I could see directly into Anthony’s face and his eyes were already shining with tears waiting to fall.

“With a chip on his shoulder. Oh, poor Albus Potter,” was the explosive cinder burning down to its final inch, before “Try my life!” brought the true, shocking implosion.

Scorpius’s justified tirade here is always the moment when the audience kind of goes silent in shock, thinking “Wow, this character has had so much going on and churning within him the entire time – How did he bear it?” and also “Wow, this kid’s got some real acting chops. He doesn’t just tell jokes.”

But because Scorpius had been a bit more of a serious character up to this point, the audience didn’t need that shocked moment of adjustment to catch up with Scorpius’s overflowing anger and intensity here. It didn’t catch you off guard – It was easier to trace how this had all been building within him the whole time up until now. And because it was a bit more tied in to parts of him we saw before, it was so, so devastating to see the pieces of him come together in this furious fervor. I swear, it was like people weren’t even breathing – Every smidgeon of the audience’s attention was stunned and riveted on him.

His voice kept breaking in the most absolutely heart-wrenching places. Tears rushed into my own eyes when he said, “I’m still the child of Voldemort – Without a mother!” and not only his voice but his entire being seemed to break open across the word ‘mother.’

I mentioned that Anthony had been doing the deeper, raspy voice for Scorpius as the norm. I didn’t really like this at first, so I’d been trying to listen closely for hints to try to figure out what motivated that decision to pitch the voice that way. Once the boys come back from the past the first time and they’re in the first alternate world, I thought I heard his voice slide back to a more natural pitch a few times, but I wasn’t sure if I was either imagining it or if it wasn’t significant. In this scene, I definitely didn’t imagine that his voice was slipping back to a more relaxed tone.

Not, of course, while he’s in the shouting bit of this scene – but afterwards, after Albus pulls out the invisible cloak and Scorpius’s anger has all flooded out. This shift in voice tone, alongside how Scorpius comports himself in this whole scene, finally let me decide on my theory about Scorpius’s new characterization.

The deeper, throaty voice he used all the time in Act I was something akin to a front of bravado and a veneer of confidence he desperately wants to present to the world. Talking to my friend who was with me about his voice, she pointed out that Alex always pitches his voice lower and guttural in a similar way. The effect of this is largely to project an aura of aloof superiority and posh dignity. (Whether Draco has actually internalized this Lucius-type presentation is a matter for another post entirely… but hopefully you can just go with me on this for now.)

In line with Scorpius’s desire to please and impress his dad and hopefully thereby improve their relationship, Scorpius starts the play consciously imitating his dad’s airs. Furthermore, this is also a type of defense and coping mechanism against bullies at school – A posh veneer to protect the sensitivity beneath.

The library scene confirmed that I wasn’t imagining his voice relaxing into normalcy now and then, and that it was doing so more frequently as the play progressed. I believe that as Scorpius gradually grows into himself more and becomes more confident in his own ideas and decisions, that voice imitating his father gradually fades.

A significant sign of Scorpius’s growing maturity and confidence came in this scene, after he and Albus emerge from under the cloak. Usually, Scorpius immediately drops into one of the chairs, folds his arms around himself (or fiddles anxiously with his sleeves), and resolutely looks away from Albus.

But this time, he kept looking pointedly at Albus. When Albus begins to ramble about stealing the invisibility cloak from James’ cloak, Scorpius kept fixing him with a resolute, challenging look – Almost as if saying, “You’re really going to try pretending everything I just said didn’t happen?” Scorpius doesn’t back down or shy away from this difficult conversation – Instead, he challenges Albus to engage with him.

With this in mind, I noticed that Scorpius’s voice did regularly relax more as the play went on – with a few exceptions during his moments of duress in the Voldemort timeline. But I believe by the time we got to Part 2, Act 2, in Godric’s Hollow his voice sounded almost completely natural. This could be an indicator of Scorpius coming into his own – discovering his own identity, separate from his father’s expectations and confident enough to be his own person. His willingness to challenge Albus in this scene in the aftermath of Scorpius’s explosion, together with his initial refusal to follow Albus out onto the train roof – were to me very strong deviations of character.

I used to always have the feeling that Scorpius really was a follower – letting his father and then Albus determine much of his identity, until by the end of the play he finally feels comfortable in his own skin. But this was a Scorpius who was more thoughtful and introspective – in more control of his path and development from the beginning. Of course he was still wonderfully silly, but this Scorpius was one whose emotional growth and development came from a more internal source.

Act 3, Scene 1 (Hogwarts, Headmistress’ Office)

First of all, the Hogwarts uniforms in the Voldemort timeline are new. There’s a large collar on the front that looks almost like a lapel. Anthony looked very good in it. ;)

Scorpius did the nervous, forced echo of Umbridge’s laughter after he asks, “Has it?” and it was absolutely priceless. But from there, things got weird in this world.

I can’t remember exactly during which line this happened – I’m fairly sure it was while Umbridge was saying, “There’s rarely a Snitch you don’t catch. … Valued especially by me…” But she came over to stand very close beside Scorpius, paused for a moment while she was speaking, and… very deliberately looked him over. I mean, even leaned back for a moment like she was examining his backside. The audience gave an uncomfortable, disbelieving jitter. I definitely didn’t imagine it. I mean, there’s always been that predatory undertone here, but never this overt.

From there, this whole timeline seemed to have a strange sexual undertone. When Polly Chapman asks him to the ball, she wasn’t nervous or frightened at all by the world around her, like she seemed to be in London. Instead, she was fierce, almost aggressive in her come-on. (However, I must say I didn’t really care for the Polly portrayal. I thought she was much too ditzy-American. To me it just didn’t fit in at all.) Rather than giving the impression of playing the role she thinks is expected of her, this Polly wasn’t bashful at all in showing what seemed like real desire.

Then, when Craig sees Scorpius in the library and apologizes for not having his homework done yet, the exchange ended with Craig almost groveling in front of Scorpius, and just before running off stage Craig says in a rush, “I could do that assignment too – I’d do it all for you.”

???! And the hushed, almost desperate way Craig said it before literally running away – There was definitely a hint there of Craig wanting to do more than just Scorpius’s homework…

Act 3, Scene 9 (Edge Of The Forbidden Forest)

To me, one of the play’s most memorable lines was always “The world changes and we change with it.”

Scorpius didn’t say it! Maybe Anthony had a memory slip and skipped over it, but it always seemed like he emphasized that line so much, I kind of doubt it was an accident that it was missing. Instead, all he said was “I am better off in this world, but the world is not better.”

I do have to say that his pain and fear when the Dementor was making him relive painful memories of his mother – God, it was heart wrenching.

Then, the reunion lake scene! This is always one of my favorites! :D On Sunday, the second Albus burst up from the water, the whole audience gasped and immediately broke into jubilant applause and cheering. I love when that happens! (This audience also ‘aww’ed and applauded at the “Friends?” “Always” lines and Scorbus hug in the Part 1 library scene. I hope American audiences continue being so vocal!)

The way Scorpius splashed through the water to hug Albus was simply adorable; As was the way that you couldn’t tell whether the choked-up tone in Scorpius’s voice was profound relief or overwhelming joy. It was a perfect marriage of both.

Then the adults ran in! Scorpius was still on the ground at this point, having just pulled himself up out of the water. He kind of curled up and rolled onto his back when he exclaimed in glee, “IT’S HARRY POTTER!!!” The audience absolutely roared. When he got to “AND PROFESSOR MCGONAGALL!!” he was sitting up on his knees and did this little fist pump dance, churning his arms in wild circles.

IT WAS PRICELESS <3

Act 3, Scene 11 (Hogwarts, Slytherin Dormitory)

This was another scene where Sam just completely shone and took my breath away.

Again, I know this sounds terrible, but this is another scene where Sam used to kind of just be a placeholder for me. Usually, my focus would all be on Jamie.

Jamie played this scene with less forceful anger than usual. I could feel he was right there on the brink, just clinging to the edge of his anger and all the fear that almost consumed him while Albus was missing – But I could also feel him working desperately to keep it all within his control. There were only moments when bursts of his sentences would crescendo up into a shout before being wrangled down again.

While Jamie played this scene with more restraint, Sam had an opportunity for more nuance rather than just returning his father’s anger. When Albus says, “I know!” his voice hitched and there were visible tears in his eyes. Somehow, he looked simultaneously defiant and helplessly guilt-ridden.

Once he got to “That’s not the reason for our problems,” every bit of my attention was fixed on him. For the first time watching this scene, I really felt how hard Albus was trying to make his dad understand – and how hard Albus was trying himself.

Perhaps one of the key differences that made Sam’s performance so incredibly compelling this time was that now, Albus really is trying on his side as well to fix the relationship with his dad. His emotional range towards Harry was widely expanded from simply varying degrees of anger. Here, there was also despair and persistence. Sam really had my heart feeling for Albus in a way I never have before.

Act 3, Scene 14 (Hogwarts, Slytherin Dormitory)

Once Scorpius got out of bed, he tip-toed over to kneel down by the foot of Albus’s bed when he whisper-yelled Albus’s name. When Albus bolted awake, he spent a moment looking around in confusion before Scorpius popped up at the foot of the bed, laughing. What precious babies!!

For “Scorpius the Dreadless,” Anthony kind of flexed his arms like he was about to lift some weights. For “Malfoy the Unanxious,” he took up a ridiculous fencing pose.

When he quipped “Turns out Malfoy the Unanxious is a pretty good lii-aaar!” he had this overly-dramatic, scandalized face, complete with his mouth hanging wide open as if in shock at himself. Another of my absolute favorite Scorp moments. <33

Act 3, Scene 19 (Hogwarts, Quidditch Pitch)

I mentioned before that I liked the new Delphi actress, as she brought out and strengthened elements of the character I’d never seen fully realized before.

She definitely fully realized the sadistic, gleeful cruelty of the character. Perhaps it’s because she looks older, but she absolutely radiates danger and insanity, and you’re kind of fascinated by her while at the same time wanting to get as far away from her as possible. She’s Bellatrix’s daughter through and through.

After she kills Craig, her cruelly flippant “Oh, did you not understand? These are not childish games we’re playing here” gave me absolute chills.

Also, the two Crucios in this scene were incredibly devastating. During the second one, Albus’s whole body was thrashing on the ground, as if he were experiencing every ounce of the same pain as Scorpius.

Act 3, Scene 20 (Triwizard Tournament, Maze, 1995)

Sam created another incredibly touching moment here, when Albus and Scorpius encounter Cedric in the maze.

The deliberate, genuine tenderness with which Albus said, “Your father loves you… very much,” almost slowed down and stopped the whole scene. When Cedric replies, “Okay… thank you,” sometimes he sounds confused and there’s a little laugh from the audience while the moment fades to comedy. But that certainly didn’t happen this time. Cedric just stared at Albus intensely for a long moment, while Sam’s poignant delivery hung in the air. Cedric says, “What?” and Albus repeated a second time that his father loves him – Albus just thought he should know. Cedric hesitates, rooted to the spot not because he’s confused or weirded out, but because he is deeply touched and his emotions hold him down for a long moment.

It was a beautiful scene – one that sometimes gets a bit lost. But Sam’s gentle, precise delivery really made this scene hurt in the best way.

At the end of this scene, Delphi destroys the time turner and then flies away. In the moment Delphi disappears above the stage, Albus shouted “No!” and ran over to where she’d disappeared, looking up helplessly. Then he kneels, making a futile effort to pick up the time turner’s broken pieces.

Perhaps this production purposely had more of the silvery bits of the time turner drifting down through the air, but there was something really gorgeous about this moment I’ve never noticed before.

There was a long moment of silence while Albus kneels amidst the broken time turner pieces, and Scorpius stands down stage, regarding Albus with frozen horror on his face. There was a moment of pause and incredulity, before Albus confirmed, “The Time-Turner – it’s destroyed.”

To me, it was a stunning, exquisite moment: Albus just kneeling there in the broken remains of the item he thought could be their salvation, while this silver snow falls around him and Scorpius looks on in awed silence.

Act 3, Scene 21 (St. Oswald’s Home For Old Witches And Wizards)

Just a small addition in this scene. After Draco says, “Voldemort had a daughter?” Harry adds the line, “The ultimate Horcrux.”

Act 4, Scene 4 (Ministry of Magic, Harry’s Office)

OH MAN. This is the scene my friend and I were emotionally gearing up for all night. Jamie, of course, threw us for a loop with it.

Every time, I know “The years I spent there!” is when Harry will lose his composure, yet every time, it shocks me and slices my heart. Jamie finds a new intensity for this line every single time.

This time, his anger exploded like a solar flare. After slamming his hand on the table, he whirled around and stormed across half the distance to Dumbledore’s painting, nearly shouting the rest of his lines.

While Dumbledore responds, Harry stalked back to his table. He started reshuffling papers while Dumbledore spoke, his face rippling and turning stony every few seconds in furious attempts to contain the emotions and hurt welling up within him.

It wasn’t until “Dumbledore, I loved you too,” that Harry’s anger ebbed enough for his pained sincerity to filter in.

He didn’t completely break down in this scene, but Jamie wasn’t nearly finished yet…

Draco enters, and here was Alex’s moment to completely floor me with how much his performance has developed as well. When giving the explanation of he and Astoria’s decision to have Scorpius despite Astoria’s frail health, Alex didn’t move an inch. He stood in one place, completely still, his eyes gazing out over the audience’s heads, and every bit of emotional depth was packed into his voice alone. It was truly impressive and breathtaking in its effectiveness.

Act 4, Scene 5 (Godric’s Hollow)

Usually, while discussing and debating potential plans, Albus used to sit near Lily and James’s door, while Scorpius ambled around him, talking while he spoke.

This time, both boys were seated side-by-side at the very front of the stage, and they stayed seated while they talked. I really liked this. There was such an aura of boyish innocence about it. You could really see and feel them both pouring everything they have into solving this predicament. This staging also developed a real feeling of intimacy – not only between the audience and actors, who are sitting just about as close to the audience as they could get – but also between Scorpius and Albus themselves.

Act 4, Scene 6 (Harry and Ginny Potter’s House, Albus’s Room)

Okay, HERE’S where Jamie dumped the true trauma on us. Usually the scene with Dumbledore before this is the climax of Harry’s emotional collapse. This time, it was this scene.

The script says ‘Harry starts to cry’ after Ginny says the line, “Can we not treat this as if the battle’s already lost?” and SHIT, this time he sure did.

When he began, “I shouldn’t have survived - it was my destiny to die..,” Harry had collapsed on the bed. With the blanket in his lap, every ounce of fight and anger had left him and the only thing filling him anymore were broken tears. His words were barely comprehensible as the tears streamed out of him.

“All that blood on my hands. And now our son has been taken too…” – This was not only one of the most painful, difficult to bear moments I’ve ever witnessed in this play, but possibly on stage ever. Harry was crying uncontrollably, his voice weak and uneven, the blanket cradled in his hands.

It was the one of the most terrible, cruel, beautiful things I’ve ever seen in theatre, and I had to stifle sobs.

Act 4, Scene 7 (Godric’s Hollow)

For “Is that a farmer’s market?” Draco seemed less excited, more disgusted. Either way, it remains one of the best lines in the whole play.

Act 4, Scene 8 (Godric’s Hollow, 1981)

Time for Malfoy family feels! Draco initiated the hug! Rather than Scorpius running towards his dad and careening to a hesitant stop, Draco walked over to Scorpius while Albus embraced Ginny. Draco stopped right in front of Scorpius to tell him, “We can hug too if you like…” at which point Scorpius launched himself into his father’s arms.

After this, the feels only grew because father and son kept touching. They must have hugged at least three times in total, and even when they stopped and were just standing beside each other, Draco kept reaching out to smooth Scorpius’s hair. AGH <3

Act 4, Scene 11 (Godric’s Hollow, Church)

They took out Delphi’s voice-magic bits. When she declares to Voldemort “I am the Augury to your Dark Lord,” it’s just in her normal voice, rather than the surround-sound echo that travels through the theatre. And when Harry’s fighting her, she doesn’t steal his voice for the “I’ll deal with you alone,” voice echo trick. Instead, during that part Harry was dragged towards her across the stage, and he seemed to be silently gasping for air, as if Delphi had stolen all breath from him.

Most of the fight seemed the same from here, until when Albus climbed out from the floor.

As soon as Delphi begun turning her wand towards Albus, Harry launched himself at Albus and bodily threw him out of harm’s way. In the remainder of the scene, after everyone else has unlocked the doors and run out, there was an extra intense physicality in Harry’s panicked protection of Albus. While the others are alternating sending curses at Delphi, Harry bodily throws himself in front of Albus and holds Albus behind him - Harry’s arms extended and every inch of him resolutely determined to be a shield for his son against whatever comes at them.

Act 4, Scene 12 (Godric’s Hollow, 1981)

God, the other scene that causes absolute emotional breakdown.

When Lily is killed and Harry sinks to the ground, it was literally as if his body had been physically hit with a mortal wound at the same moment his mother’s was. The script says, “And it was like lighting had passed through Harry’s body. He’s sent to the floor, a pure mess of grief.” This is the closest thing to a perfect description, and yet doesn’t even begin to approximate the impact of really seeing Harry drop to the floor, doubled over and sobbing.

If you’ve seen Jamie before, you know there is absolutely nothing melodramatic or over-the-top about this. It is, without exaggeration, one of the most heartbreaking, emotionally devastating moments you will ever witness. His sobs fill the entire theatre. They are wrenched from the deepest depths of him, fighting to be free even while they embody pain of such raw acuity, it should be unthinkable and irreconcilable to our world.

He sobbed the entire time while he rotated off stage, while I sobbed into my coat.

Act 4, Scene 14 (Hogwarts, Classroom)

When Rose walked in and startled Scorpius, he fell down several stairs and landed with one foot propped up on the stair above him. He rolled with it and stuck with the ridiculous pose, pretending to relax and act suave in it.

After Rose says, “This is only going to be weird if you let it be weird,” he at first just goes “Mmhm,” with this air of desperately trying to look cool, while he bounces the foot that’s extended up on the step above him.

The Scorbus hug was GOOOOOD! Scorpius went all-in, burying his face in Albus’s shoulder and tightly clinging for a long time. How I missed seeing their hugs!! :’’’)

Act 4, Scene 15 (A Beautiful Hill)

Since I’m usually thinking when this scene starts that I can’t believe the play’s about to be over already – I always forget how much I love this scene, and my emotional response to it always catches me off guard.

This time, it was truly the perfect resolution and struck the perfect, satisfying chord after the emotional beating we had all just taken. Jamie struck the ideal balance between being a loving, attentive father listening to his son’s concerns – and being zealous in his assurances to Albus against his fears.

When Albus begun talking about James and Lily and seeing them with Harry as a baby, Harry smiled in this encouraging but infinitely sad sort of way. This really pulled at my heart a lot, because usually Harry’s expression remains stiff and guarded when Albus starts speaking about his parents.

When Harry promises Albus that he knows “that heart is a good one,” the intensity with which he speaks is nothing but the most intense, genuine form of love. When Albus makes the joke about pigeon racing, seeing Harry relax for a moment as he laughs with his son is one of the most delightful things you’ll ever see. It’s such a relief – such a hard-fought victory, for father and son to share this brief, loving laugh together.

The image of Harry looking up with a peaceful smile, his son standing at his shoulder is the most perfect image to complete this powerful, wonderful story. You see Harry reach out to touch Albus’s shoulder, and the words “I think it’s going to be a nice day,” are the perfect hopeful precursor to a kinder, brighter future. They seem so simple, and yet you realize they are everything you needed to hear.

#Harry Potter and the Cursed Child #Broadway #Jamie Parker #Sam Clemmett #Anthony Boyle #Noma Dumezweni #Paul Thornley #Harry Potter

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ship-all-ships · 8 years ago

Text

Stranger: ((5th year Christmas)) Why do you hate me so?? -SM What have I done to deserve such a punishment from you??? -SM

You: What have I done other than get sick this year?-AP

Stranger: The Christmas present you gave my dad.... -SM Why would you give him a pun book! -SM What have I done to you to deserve this torture?? -SM

You: Oh, ha. Thought he could use some humour in his life. Does he like it?-AP

Stranger: ...he loves it -SM

Stranger: I never thought I'd ever want to blow a book up ever so much in my life -SM

Stranger: I told you to buy him an actual book! -SM Like Jane Austin or something -SM

Stranger: He doesn't even understand half the jokes cause it's talking about muggle stuff! -SM

You: It was the only book they had at the joke shop and my Christmas shopping time was very limited-AP And he's read everything at the bookshops in the wizarding world, so I thought this would be interesting-AP Besides, your family doesn't really know a lot about muggles. Not that mine is /much/ better, but we've got two raised muggle in the immediate family so...-AP

Stranger: This is not the way to teach him about muggles, Al... -SM

You: How did I teach you?-AP

Stranger: It's awful -SM He's laughing to himself and then asking to explain jokes and then laughing again -SM

Stranger: Teddy. Teddy taught me. -SM You just made fun of me for saying Rad. -DM

Stranger: How was I supposed to know rad was outdated, Al?? -SM

You: Because you learned it from Teddy? He's a total hipster-AP And he didn't teach you /everything/-AP

Stranger: ...True -SM But Al, at least like an encyclopedia would've been nice -SM

You: I wish I could see this-AP

Stranger: You wish, huh? Why don't you come over and see the chaos you've made -SM Maybe you could apologize to the house elves too -SM The house elves, Al! They have done nothing but feed you and care for you! -SM

You: [....] Would they make me that tea and some soup if I did come over?-AP

Stranger: ...Yes -SM

You: Maybe-AP

Stranger: You know you could actually come over though -SM I'm sure you wouldn't mind slipping away from your family for a bit? -SM

You: Ha, yeah. I'm so congested and drugged up I can barely get through a conversation without my head spinning, but Christmas is at nan's so just slipping out to find a place to sleep is /hard/-AP

Stranger: Awee, sorry to hear that Al -SM

Stranger: Ask if you can sleep here though -SM And like, go in the morning maybe? -SM

You: Or I'll just pop over now and fall asleep-AP

Stranger: Yeah! -SM

Stranger: Wait. I'm supposed to be mad at you -SM

Stranger: Come here and apologize to me -SM

Stranger: Then we can have cocoa -SM

You: Hmm, okay. On my way-AP

Stranger: Great! -SM

Stranger: I'll be expecting a formal apology, Mr Potter -SM

You: I'm wearing like, three jumpers and my /glasses/. There's no formal here-AP

Stranger: Lol I cannot wait to see this -SM

You: Scorp.....-AP

You: I mean, you've seen it before, I think-AP

Stranger: I have -SM

Stranger: But I love seeing it -SM

Stranger: It makes you look so cute! -SM

Stranger: Like a big marshmallow -SM

You: Merlin, I'm going to regret this-AP

Stranger: Yup. -SM

Stranger: And I'm going to love it -SM

You: Your dad still has the pun book though-AP

Stranger: Unfortunately -SM

Stranger: But maybe he'll torture you with it now! -SM

You: He won't torture me, I'm sick-AP

Stranger: It will be the kindest torture you'll endure -SM And my dad probably has some potions stocked up to help you -SM

You: Merlin, I hope so. Nan made her famous cure, but it hasn't cured this yet-AP

Stranger: Really? Your Nan's recipe didn't work? Awe, must be a really bad bug then -SM I'll ask my dad if he's got anything at home -SM

You: Okay. I'm on my way now-AP

Stranger: Dad says he might have something -SM

Stranger: See you soon, Al -SM

You: ((paras?))

Stranger: ((Yup. Do you mind starting?))

You: ((not at all! Just give me a moment))

You: Albus had managed to let his mum and Teddy know offhand that he was going to Scorpius's to take a nap. At least, he tried. He was so congested that he didn't really know when what he said made sense or not. He was mumbling quite a lot. Sneaking off to the fireplace, Albus stole a pinch of floo powder and quickly sent himself away to the Malfoy Manor. The trip left him a little dizzy and disoriented, but he recovered a few moments after stepping out of the hearth. Sighing, he rubbed his eyes, groaning at the pressure behind them before stumbling off to find someone who actually lived here. "Scorpius?" He asked, walking from the living room and down the hall. "You still here?"

Stranger: Scorpius smiled at his enchanted notebook and hurried to tuck it away and rushed down from his room to the kitchens in the basement. He was so pleased that Albus was coming. It had been awfully lonely, especially since the Pureblood families hosted their yearly ball yesterday and Scorpius was once again left to socialize with a group of people who hated him. So, yes, he was happy Albus was coming. Scorpius had just finished the making the cocoa and carried the tray using his magic before hearing the crash of the fireplace. He jumped and bit and hurried up the stairs and towards the familiar steps. "Albus! Hi," he called out and hurried over, careful not to lose the balance of the tray. He hugged him tightly before pulling back, frowning a bit. "Oh, look at you. You're so pale," he said and hurried him into the cozy parlour. "I have cocoa here and a bunch of blankets. Don't you worry."

You: The Malfoys were bad with illness. They were never entirely certain when to react, and Albus felt bad that he figured it had to be because of Scorpius's mom, but he didn't ever ask. In truth, he loved the coddling. If Scorpius was bad, Draco was worse. Once, Albus came over with a fever so high Draco actually forced him to bed and brought a private doctor to him, then contacted his family and calmly explained that he'd be staying over until his fever subsided. He then poured over every one of Albus's requests. Albus had cried at how loved he felt. All he could do was smile as Scorpius ushered him into the parlour, sitting down on his favourite sofa and grabbing the cocoa, humming as he brought the hot liquid to his lips. "You're the sweetest" he murmured, patting the spot next to him for Scorpius to join him. "Merry Christmas, Scor"

Stranger: Scorpius pouted as Albus sat down on the plush sofa, making sure he had a nice hot mug of cocoa before getting to work. He grabbed the blankets and started to wrap Albus up. First tucking one around his legs, then a separate one on his feet. He added one more to cover his back and around his shoulders before a final one all over, leaving enough room for himself. Scorpius waved his wand to slowly bring over his own cocoa and cuddled up next to Albus' blanket barrier, smiling at him. "Merry Christmas, Al," he said and leaned over to give him a simple peck on the cheek. "Dad'll be here soon. He's just looking to see what he's got."

You: If his cheeks weren't already flushed with fever, then they would have grown red as Scorpius kissed his cheek. Grinning, Albus closed his eyes and rested his head on top of Scorpius. That was, of course, until that change of movement made it hard to breathe, so he had to move again. Merlin, this was miserable. Everything hurt and he just sort of wanted to die, but being in the warm quiet of Scorpius's house made things so much better than at at his Nan's. Humming, Albus closed his eyes and tried to rest until he heard footsteps approaching the parlour. He forced himself to look up then, smiling lightly as he looked up blearily at Scorpius's father.

Stranger: Scorpius pursed his lips at the disgruntled sounds Albus made. He adjusted a pillow against the armrest and leaned against it, pulling Albus and his blanket suit against him, hooking his leg around him to keep him secure in place, knowing that Albus wouldn't stay still unless forced to. He even pulled him back down when he noticed Albus was going to sit up for his dad. "Al, don't. You rest. Dad won't mind," he said softly. Draco knocked and opened the door, holding a silver tray with a couple bottles of potions. "Hello, Albus," he said calmly. Draco would never minded admitting that he adored Albus. The two Slytherins clicking instantly when they first met, their first conversation being of Scorpius of course. Now, Draco treated him like his own son. Especially in times of need. Just like this. "How are you feeling?" he asked and set the tray down on the coffee table, kneeling down beside the couch and placed the back of his hand against his forehead.

You: Albus wanted to fight the embrace that Scorpius forced him in, but he couldn't. It was so sweet, and in a moment he knew Scorpius would start playing with his hair, and maybe if he was lucky he'd be able to fall asleep because he hadn't done that in centuries. Still, he felt bad for cuddling up against Scorpius with Draco coming in. Even though they were so close, Albus still felt the need to be formal with him. The man always presented so nicely, it seemed a shame to be seen like this. Huffing as Draco placed a cold hand on his forehead, Albus pouted and still tried to sit up a bit. "Your son is slowly trying to roast me alive, but other than that?" He asked, just as his voice caught and sent him into a small coughing fit. "Miserable"

Stranger: Scorpius laughed softly and leaned down to press his lips against his head before scrunching up his nose slightly. Albus had been sweating a lot. Scorpius and Draco looked down at Albus as he coughed, staring an equally concerned look before Draco turned back to Albus. "I can see that," he hummed before turning to the potions on the tray, mixing two or three into a small cup. "Scorpius. I want you to get Albus in the bath. Freshen him up and give him a new set of clothes and let him lay in bed," he said and watched the small amount of potion boil together. Scorpius nodded seriously before looking down at Albus. "Al, you think you can do that? I think you'll actually feel much better if you wash the sweat off you," he said and pressed his hand against his cheek, hoping his warm hands may help him. God, how he hated seeing his best friend like this.

You: Sitting back up again after the coughing fit had made Albus dizzy. He hadn't actually listened to Draco or Scorpius too much, but then Scorpius was next to him and all Albus wanted to do was burrow into his side and hide. So he did, curling up as Draco mixed a potion for him, hiding in Scorpius's shoulder. He grunted when Scorpius asked him if he'd be up for it, but he didn't fully hear what he'd be up for. "Yeah, sure" he agreed regardless, because being less sweaty sounded really nice, but then again so did a nap. "Will it make breathing any easier?"

Stranger: Draco turned around and nodded. "It will. The steam with help," he said. Scorpius smiled and took off the layers of blankets from him and stood up, helping Albus to his feet. "We can add lavender scents in it too to help you ease up more," he reassured before turning to his dad, placing one arm around Albus' waist to support him. "How long will the potion take, dad?" Draco looked up at them, unaffected by the obvious affection Scorpius was showing Albus, already used to it. "Around twenty minutes. Plenty of time for him to bathe and get dressed."

You: While the blankets might have been roasting him alive only moments ago, the absence of them made Albus shiver as if he'd never get warm again. Cursing Scorpius quietly, Albus stood up with help and regained some of his balance. He still didn't feel great though, and he happily leaned against Scorpius once the other had an arm around him. He hummed at their short conversation before being brought up to Scorpius's bathroom and sat down on the toilet as he watched the other draw a beautiful looking bath. "Make it warm" Albus murmured as he watched, his arms wrapped around him to try and stay warm now that he was suddenly chilled. "You took my heat away, Scorpius"

Stranger: Scorpius nodded and hurried Albus upstairs and into his bathroom. He waved his wand to warm up the room before rolling his sleeves up as he filled the bath, laughing softly at his orders. "Yes, master," he said, teasingly before he made sure the water was hot enough for Al, pinching a few drops of lavender into the water. He then turned to Al and walked over to him, kissing his head. He knew it was weird for friends to do things like that. But since when did Albus and Scorpius ever listen to the rules. "Do you need help in the bath or are you good? I can keep my back to you if you want? Don't want to leave you alone just in case you pass out."

You: In all honesty, Albus loved the affection Scorpius gave him. It made him feel good, it made him feel loved. He giggled when Scorpius kissed his forehead and then slowly started to peel his clothes off. "You think I'm gonna....pass out?" He asked, pulling off his jumper and throwing it on the floor. He was slowly slipping into uninhibited territory the more his fever climbed, which only made him want to be closer to Scorpius. "You could join if you want....I wouldn't mind"

Stranger: Scorpius nervously bit his lip, wondering if he should get his dad if Albus was going to pass out. But when he stepped closer, he blushed, holding him upright in his arms. He chuckled nervously and helped him take off the last of his layers, looking away when Albus was fully exposed, helping him into the bath. "Why don't I stay outside and help you," he whispered and made sure Albus was comfortable in the tub before cupping some water in his hands and pouring it over his hair, trying to rinse out the sweat.

You: While he was blushing and giggling the whole time, Albus did enjoy the help Scorpius was giving him in undressing. And while he pouted about not getting Scorpius to join, this wasn't so bad. He leaned back towards the other once he was settled in the bath and sighed, trying to keep himself together, even though all Scorpius wanted to do was clean him it seemed. "You're so good to me" Albus hummed, closing his eyes as he tried to relax. "You and your dad and....you're all so good"

Stranger: Scorpius smiled down at Albus, making sure to clean his hair thoroughly, reminding himself to change his own sweater as it got slowly wetter and wetter. "That's because we both like you, Al," he said softly and sighed happily when Albus seemed to be relaxing. "You're like family to us, Al. Us Slytherins gotta stick together you know," he said, teasing softly as he chuckled. Once Albus' hair seemed clean enough, he grabbed the soap and leaned over to clean Albus' chest, not being too thorough as he tried to force his mind into a safer place. He couldn't be thinking thoughts like that in a time like this. Albus was his best mate! And he was sick too! Scorpius bit his lip as he concentrated on washing him up and nothing else.

You: This was heaven to Albus. He could fall asleep to this, it was practically a dream at this point. Humming as he let Scorpius clean his chest, Albus moved one of his hands to lay on top of Scorpius's, chuckling lightly. "I love you" He murmured, slumping back against the other. "Thank you for letting me stay here. You're...you're so great"

Stranger: Scorpius froze at Albus' words, watching him with wide eyes for a moment before nervously chuckling, fondly shaking his head. "Oh, Al. The fever's really getting to you," he said and made sure all the soap was washed off before setting it down and picked up a towel. "Anytime, Al. You can come by anytime you wish," he said and wrapped his arm around Albus and helped him up, looking away as he wrapped his lower body in a towel, quickly picking up around one for his shoulder and the third one for his hair. He held his arms and helped him out of the tub. "How're you feeling?"

You: "It's not the fever!" Albus protested, a little offended at how Scorpius took it all. He continued to try and protest as he was getting wrapped in towels, but there wasn't much he could do. Frowning once he was all wrapped up, Albus shrugged off the towel across his shoulders. "They're itchy, even though they're the nice ones" he murmured with a huff. "And I'm not....delusional I'm just....." He was caught off guard then by a fit of sneezes, causing him to double over and nearly loose the other two towels. "I'm sick, okay? shut up"

Stranger: Scorpius blushed when Albus tried to defend himself. How could he mean it though? They were friends. But Scorpius quickly let those thoughts slip away when he rushed forward, to keep him standing, letting Scorpius sneeze over his shoulder. "Alright, alright. No need to get fussy," he hummed. "Let's get you changed," he said softly and led him into his room, making him sit on his bed before walking over to his drawers and pulling out his comfiest pair of pajamas.

You: Albus knew those pajamas. He knew those pajamas like the back of his hand, because they were Scorpius's favourite. He loved those pajamas, and right now he was forefiting those on Christmas so that Albus could wear them. The sentiment was so sweet, that once Albus realized what he was doing, tears sprang to his eyes. "Scorp...." he mumbled, reaching a shaking hand for the set. "These are your favourite pajamas"

Stranger: Scorpius looked at him curiously as he made his way with the pyjamas in his hands. "What's wrong?" he asked, suddenly worried before realizing what those emotions were about. He honestly could feel his heart melt. He loved his friend so goddamn much. To his angstiest fits to the cutest way he acted when he was sick. "It's okay, Al. I want you to wear them," he said and held them out to him. "You need them more than I do," he said, offering him a soft, reassuring smile.

You: These were Scorpius's bad day jammies. They were the "the world is ending and I need comfort" jammies. These were the way that Albus knew he needed to give his best friend more attention, because something was wrong in his life. These were the "I miss my mom" pajamas, and the fact that Albus got to wear them right now, when he was stock full of gross sick germs and snot only made the whole exchange better. Leaning in for a hug before he took the pajamas, Albus wrapped his arms around the other and sniffled a few times. "If it didn't hurt to cry so much, I' be crying so much more" He mumbled. "Are you sure?"

Stranger: Scorpius laughed when the other leaned over to hug him, catching his friend in his arms and hugged him back. "I'm sure, Al. They're just jammies," he said, though he knew they were so much more. Honestly, Scorpius felt Albus needed them. He was sick and weak and super emotional and Scorpius knew Albus hated being all three- thus, comfort jammies. Scorpius pulled back and smiled at him. "Just change into them, Potter. Because I change my mind and give you the itchy ones," he teased, hinting at the other to hurry up. He couldn't have his dad come in while Albus is tearing up and nude.

#scorbus #scorpius malfoy #albus potter

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hp-nextgen-fest · 5 years ago

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2020 HP Next Gen Fest Anonymous Masterlist

Here is the complete Anonymous Masterlist for the 2020 @hp-nextgen-fest! Reveals will be going up next Monday on November 30, so there is still plenty of time to make your way through any entries you might have missed. Don't forget to leave some comments on these amazing creations to let the authors and artists know how much you've enjoyed their hard work! :D

ART

AcciDental Magic [Rose, Hugo, & Grandparents | General] Hermione and Ron are called away for a case and left without their usual child-minder when Molly falls ill. Hermione’s parents step up to keep Hugo and Rose, in spite of Hermione’s warning that the two little ones have some big issues with accidental magic. The story is told comic book style, with illustrations and voice bubbles.

Woke up married! [James Sirius/Teddy | General] They get well and truly bladdered at Albus's stag do and wake up in bed together with matching wedding bands...

Sunday Practice [James Sirius/Teddy | General] Teddy thought that morning practice on Sunday was going to be something he would soon regret, but things may turn more interesting than expected.

Introduction [Albus, Severus, & Albus Severus | General] Albus Severus Potter gets to know the men he's named for by asking them about the experiences, memories, and motives that shaped their lives.

Eyecandy [James Sirius/Teddy | General] After months of extensive Auror training, Teddy comes with the Potters to the beach. James. Cannot. Stop. Staring. At. Teddy. Shirtless.

FIC

We Keep Loving Anyway [Albus Severus/Scorpius | Explicit | 7.1k] After Albus finds out Scorpius is part vampire he can’t stop thinking about being bitten. He can’t stop thinking about Scorpius in general, but that’s been the case since he was fifteen. At least, when it comes to Scorpius he’s used to not getting what he wants. He’s happy with what he has, or at least, comfortable. That is until he accidentally asks for it, then it all starts to change.

The perks of Veritaserum [James Sirius/Teddy | Explicit | 5.1k] James drank a long-lasting version of Veritaserum and is miserable and Teddy is having the time of his life. That is, until they’re both having the time of their lives.

Thunderstruck [Charlie/Teddy | Explicit | 2.6k] There’s not a lot for dragon tamers to do when stuck inside during a storm, but looking at this particular new recruit―well, Charlie can’t help but think of a few ways they could pass the time.

Hair Today, Hair Tomorrow [Albus Severus/Scorpius | Mature | 1.7k] Away on a book tour Albus Severus Malfoy grows a very creepy mustache, much to the horror of his still at home husband Scorpius Malfoy.

Mission in Nairn [Draco/Lily Luna | Explicit | 7k] Lily Luna Potter is paired with Draco Malfoy for her first Auror Mission. On their last night, she decides to act on the lingering tension that had been building up between them.

No Other Alpha But You [Albus Severus/James Sirius | Explicit | 7.1k] Scorpius Malfoy has applied to be Albus' heat partner. There's no way James is letting that happen.

The Scorpion King [Albus Severus/Scorpius | Explicit | 3.8k] Scorpius Malfoy, AKA the Scorpion King, has ruled Britain ever since his father turned his sights to conquering Europe. With his right-hand man and most trusted advisor, Albus Potter, Scorpius has a life of elegance and power. But he's had enough of the beautiful women that usually grace his bed. Scorpius has decided he wants something else in bed. Something more. Scorpius Malfoy wants Albus Potter.

Islands of the Upper Air [Lily Luna/Luna | General | 1.5k] Lily Luna has never liked her namesake, or her strange and sometimes absurd way of looking at the world. But a weekend full of ancient rituals and mountain forests is an eye opener, in more ways than one.

Expecto Patronum!! [James Sirius/Teddy | Mature | 45.7k] James Potter had always known exactly what he wanted; to open a pub of his own, maybe travel the world, and live a simple life with the only man he’d ever loved. For years he waited, quietly determined to help Teddy see what could be between them. But just when everything he’d ever dreamed of was finally within his reach, it was ripped away in an instant. With Teddy missing, and presumed dead, James is left to pick up the pieces. John has no idea what he wants. He doesn’t even know who he is. But when he hears a strikingly familiar voice – on an otherwise ordinary day – he sets out to discover everything he can about the man that occupies his dreams. And Harry, well, Harry just wants to put his failures behind him. Until a series of unexpected events forces him to reexamine a case that he’d given up on solving. With the help of an unexpected ally, he just might find the answers he’s been looking for.

lily's potter [Lily Luna/Lysander & Lily Luna/Draco | Mature | 8.3k] "But what if I keep it? What’s the contingency plan there?” She took a seat next to Lily. She spoke slowly, as if she was thinking about it for the first time, too. “Well, I mean, you keep your baby. You raise it. You love it. It goes on to do wonderful things because it’s a Potter.” Lily snorted. “It’s a Potter?” “Why not? I mean it’s just as much you as whoever is the father. Why shouldn’t it be a Potter first?”

Snaked a Claim [Albus Severus/Scorpius | Teen | 1.6k] Everyone knew Albus was gay from age five when he would dramatically swoon every time Goncalo Flores the Quidditch player was mentioned. Twenty years later and Harry still tells the tale - much to Al’s embarrassment.

And I Fell Heavy (Into Your Arms) [James Sirius/Teddy | Explicit | 9.1k] When James Sirius Potter travels to America for three weeks, the turquoise-haired Healer Teddy Lupin misses his boyfriend very much indeed. Luckily, Teddy has (sexy) floo calls, charmed obsidian pendants and hastily made chastity promises to keep him busy. Based on the following prompt: Absence makes the heart grow fonder... Right? Smutty phone!sex? Longing letters? All up to you!

Dirty Duelling [Albus Severus/Draco | Explicit | 6.1k] Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want (Or — fucked up Dirty Dancing with wand fights)

Albus’ Private Lesson of Sex Education [Albus Severus/James Sirius/Teddy | Explicit | 4.5k] Albus has some doubts about sex. Luckily he has an older brother, who can initiate him. How does this lesson go? James will be the teacher, Albus his good and obedient student and Teddy will be more than happy to serve them as a learning tool. In which a delicious Teddy sandwich is served.

Four Reasons [James Sirius/Teddy | General | 8.1k] There were a couple of things James should've considered more seriously before coming back to work at Hogwarts as the new Flying Instructor. His dad being the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor there, for one. The fact that he hadn't really flown since a career-ending injury had put an abrupt end to his Quidditch fame two years ago, for another. His ridiculous, teenage crush on Teddy Lupin, his friend and Hogwarts' newest Charms professor, perhaps most of all.

An Interlude [Lavender/Victoire | Explicit | 4.9k] Victoire is supposed to be chasing a serial killer, not shagging her uncle’s dead ex-girlfriend.

Mint & Apples [Harry/Teddy | Explicit | 4.3k] Teddy Lupin's not-quite-wolf has chosen Harry Potter as his mate, that's all. He hasn't got a crush on his best friend's father, really. He also definitely isn't obsessed with Harry Potter's scent.

This is Love [Albus Severus/Scorpius | Explicit | 24.8k] Most of Albus’s bad life decisions can be summed up in a word: James. When he got a shitty tattoo in the Fifth Year—done by some bloke in a dirty flat—well, that was James’s idea. When he got picked up by Aurors for doing hallucinogens—James was the one who’d convinced him to do them at a party. That time they stole the flying motorbike Dad gave to Teddy—James was the one who insisted it was a rite of passage to drive it over London at dawn. Neither Dad nor Teddy was impressed with that explanation. Now, here Albus is living another bad choice that was born of James’s influence.

The Balance Between Studying and Relaxing [Rose/Teddy | Explicit | 3.7k] Rose has been studying non-stop for her upcoming barrister exam. With Hermione attending Hugo’s Quidditch trials for moral support and Ron away on business, there’s only one person available to keep an eye on her. And Teddy is only too happy to take the role.

The last ones to know [Albus Severus/Scorpius | General | 5.2k] Albus and Scorpius have a very close relationship. Everyone can see it. Perhaps they are the last ones to know jus how close they are.

You've Got A Second Chance (You Could Go Home) [James Sirius/Teddy | Teen | 16k] “What about James?” James, dear Merlin, not James, not again. His boy, his son, the brightest star in the constellation of Harry’s patchwork family, not him. “I think he’s relapsed.” – They tried this when James was nineteen and Teddy was twenty five. It crashed and burned. Teddy ran away to Finland and James... well Teddy's about to find out what happened to James, now that he's back two years later.

Falling for You [James Sirius/Scorpius | General | 1.2k] Scorpius didn't care about Quidditch until he saw James Sirius on a broom.

Heart-Shaped Ottoman [Draco/Teddy | Explicit | 6.3k] Draco has had interns before, but none so bothersome as Teddy Lupin.

Living With Our Eyes Half Open [James Sirius & Scorpius | Teen | 5.5k] James didn’t mean to get his brother-in-law kidnapped alongside him that morning, but that is definitely what happened.

Faim [Albus Severus/Scorpius | Explicit | 9.6k] "So, this is the city of love!" Scorpius declared, adjusting the straps on his backpack. Albus wrinkled his nose. "City of pigeons, more like," he corrected, stepping around another fat, grey bird Or: Scorbus go to France.

Unexpected [Lily Luna/Pansy | Explicit | 1.2k] Draco and Harry's engagement party brings about an unexpected, but not unwelcome, event.

Remember to Forget [Albus Severus/James Sirius | Mature| 17.5k] The moment they kissed, James and Albus knew that they'd never be able to live without this -- too in love to walk away. Years later, and well into adulthood, the possible repercussions of their relationship feel very real and very scary. Without the strength to break it off, they're left with a single solution: a company that specializes in erasing and altering memories. Now the only thing left to do, is to say goodbye.

#jeddy #scorbus #jalbus #scames #jorpius #cheddy #dralbus #HP Next Generation #hp femslash #hp next gen #harry potter next gen #hpnextgenfest #hp cross gen #mod post #anonymous masterlist #2020 fest

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torestoreamends · 8 years ago

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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Recap: Part One, 24th May

Where to begin with this? I’m not sure whether to give opening assessments of the characters first, or line by line details. How about we start with the characters!

Ron

Thomas is just really delightfully funny. You forget that he doesn’t look like Ron, because he inhabits the character so well. Because he’s so jovial and bubbly all the time, the second timeline Ron is a stark and entertaining contrast. I think he’s brilliant, and he’s one of about five or six cast members who is completely nailing it already.

Hermione

I adore Rakie. She exudes Hermione’s authority, and she has this beautiful sort of Hermione-ish quality to her that I’m not sure I ever personally felt from Noma. She just has this presence about her. I feel so comfortable when she’s on stage, I trust her implicitly, and she and Thomas have already given me one of my favourite ever Romione moments.

Rose

Helen’s Rose is simply adorable. She’s young and bubbly and seems like she’s having so much fun. I love how she has no time for Scorpius’s flirting, and she seems to have such a sweet relationship with her parents.

Harry

I was surprised and delighted by how much I liked Jamie. I was really worried about him, because in the past I don’t have a good track record of enjoying Harrys who weren’t played by Jamie Parker, but I didn’t have any issues with him. There were a couple of decisions that he made that I thought were really beautiful, especially in the second timeline. I could really feel a change between his normal timeline Harry and how he was in the second timeline. You could tell, especially at times in that timeline, that he loves Albus and wants the best for him.

Ginny

I lot of the good Ginny moments come in Part Two (which I hadn’t realised; it’s fascinating how a new cast changes the whole balance and feel of the show), so I don’t think we’ve seen too much of Emma yet. But what I have seen I’ve liked, especially things she did around the duel scene. I can’t help but wonder if this cast have rehearsed the second timeline a lot, because that felt the most complete section of Part One for me.

Albus

From the first moment I saw the first photo of Theo in character, my impression was that he was uptight and insecure and nerdy, and that’s exactly what we got on stage. The photos and videos actually do give a really good sense of how these characters are being played, looking back on them with hindsight. I think Theo is really scared, but there are flashes of how he will be when he’s relaxed, and I do think we got a small sense of how he’ll be playing Albus going forward, which is entirely contrary to anything Sam or Tom ever did (although I actually really like that).

Draco

James has always been my favourite Draco. He exudes confidence and pain, and is one of those actors who’s shining. His Draco feels the most complete of all the characters on the stage, just because he’s had so much time to dig into him. I am so excited for his big moments in Act Two. I should also mention that it helps that James seems to have chemistry with everyone, from Thomas, to Jamie, to Samuel. All the people you want him to have chemistry with.

Scorpius

There is nothing to be said about Samuel beyond wow. His Scorpius is nothing like anything we’ve ever seen before. In a similar way to Theo, it’s the opposite to how Anthony or James played Scorpius. Brimming with confidence. Enthusiastic and excitable. His crush on Rose is so explicit and painfully cute. He’s just adorable, and he’s owning this character in a completely new way. Scorpius is Samuel’s now, and I’m delighted with him.

And with all that initial assessment out of the way, let’s have a look at the play itself!

Act One

Opening

One of the things that made the biggest impression on me when I first saw the play was the quality of Chris Jarman’s movement. He took so much time over every motion, and gave it all so much significance. I was afraid with what would happen when he left, but Mark Theodore completely nailed it. He did exactly what I loved about Chris, but in a whole new way. He’s more staccato in both his lines and his movements, but he really takes his time and owns the moments. He just stood and looked at the hat for a moment before putting it on, and because he took so much time we heard more of the music, which was pretty cool. He’s a lot more playful and buoyant than Chris’s sombre Sorting Hat. It’s a refreshing little change.

Platform 9 ¾ (Scenes One and Two)

The Potters now feel a bit like a posh family, less down to earth than before, and James Sirius fits that mould too. They’re sort of restrained and distant. They don’t have the same warm, open heart as before. Which is exactly what I got from their photo, so I think that’s how they’re going to play it.

The moment I decided I was fine with Jamie as Harry was ‘Don’t stop, and don’t be scared, you’ll crash right into it’. I don’t know what it was about that line, but I just sort of looked at him and felt that things were going to be okay.

I may or may not have had my fingers crossed during the transition onto the platform itself. I think I did that for all the big technical moments.

Tom was nailing it as Ron right from the word go. His nose stealing trick was great, and he milked it even more than Paul did.

I loved how much the Granger-Weasleys felt like a family in this scene. They just looked so fond of each other, and the lines where they were teasing Ron about his driving test felt completely natural and like they’d been having that sort of banter for years.

My highlight of the scene was the way Ron slipped James a bag of sweets while Harry and Albus were talking. Such an adorable little family moment, that I only happened to notice by chance.

I actually really loved end section when the adults are alone and talking after the kids have left. I thought they all did a great job with that, and the Hinny vibes I got were sweet. I liked their conversation, and that was the moment where I decided Emma was going to be fine. She’d already given Theo a massive hug, and I enjoyed how she was talking to Harry.

Scene Three

When Karl went and sat in the carriage with Scorpius, Scorpius got really excited and looked up from his book all enthusiastic. Karl stretched out a hand to him, and Scorpius was all ready to take it, but at the last second Karl withdrew his hand and thumbed his nose at Scorpius. (If there is anyone in the world who isn’t excited to see Mackley and Samuel as Albus and Scorpius then… I don’t really know what to say to you.)

I loved how Theo actually did a thorough assessment of the various carriages before going to the empty compartment. It always felt like Sam was either inexorably drawn to Scorpius, or maybe that his Albus was just kind of glancing into the bus carriages. But Theo took his time to study each one before deciding that they were too full.

I really have no idea where to start with Samuel. His ‘Hi Scorpius. I mean, I’m Scorpius. You’re Albus. I’m Scorpius’ had this sort of self-deprecating feel to it. He isn’t awkward and unsure of himself, he’s confident, and it felt like he was just laughing at his silly mistake. He wasn’t embarrassed by it at all.

He does have his own sweets song! I couldn’t possibly sing it for you, but he does have his own one, and that’s all I really wanted from him.

Theo’s ‘What do you mean, you know who I am?’ made it feel like all Albus’s fears were coming true at once. It wasn’t really a question, it was more resignation. He expected Scorpius to know who he was, and was scared that Scorpius would have a problem with it.

There’s a massive nose gag going on now. They’ve taken the stuff about Voldemort’s nose and run with it. When Rose said ‘look, you’ve got a nose’, Scorpius sort of felt it for a second like he was surprised it was there, and laughed. Also, later on, in the transition scene, the line ‘leave him and Voldemort’s child to it’, Mackley sort of pushed his nose flat against his face, making it into a Voldy nose.

Theo’s smile is really sweet. He really does smile when he’s around Samuel, which is nice. They have great chemistry, and there are times where Albus and Scorpius feel like an old married couple.

Theo really took his time considering whether Albus preferred Albus or Al.

I’m not sure if Samuel has more steam loaded into his Pepper Imp steam machine thing, or if he’s just figured out how to get more from it than James or Anthony ever did, but wow was that a lot of steam. He also took a really long time over that line. He said the line, then really carefully picked the right sweet from the bag, then tucked it away, then popped it into his mouth, then he grinned and made the steam go everywhere. Milking the trick for all it was worth.

Transition Scene

Polly Chapman is now Scottish and has purple streaks in her hair.

Mark’s Sorting Hat rhymes are a perfect demonstration of how he’s more staccato than Chris. He was sort of static as he delivered them, but in a good way, leaping from line to line in a sort of jagged fashion. Also, when he was sorting people he made almost beat boxing sounds, sort of muttering and ticking and hissing, and he did these jerky movements with his body.

Samuel does a lot of the muttering and mouthing that I’ve always liked, both when he’s being sorted and later on. I couldn’t work out what he was saying, but he was muttering something.

Karl started sweeping the floor with his broom when he said ‘Albus Potter, the Slytherin Squib’.

James Howard was perfect as Draco right from the word go. I loved the little hint of pain we got when he said ‘Astoria hasn’t been well recently’.

Samuel’s ‘Hi Rose’ was the most hopeful, enthusiastic little thing.

During Polly’s line ‘Even portraits turn the other way when he comes up the stairs’, Karl was pretending to be one of the portraits, turning his back and pretending to walk away. I hope whoever decided to give Mackley a speaking role in this thing knew what they were getting into. I’m not sure Karl is meant to steal the show…

The moment in the third year carriage ride is when you really get a sense of the front Scorpius is trying to put up. He was broken, but visibly struggling not to be so. The confidence and jokes make up this unshakeable shield around him, and you get flashes that tell you that this is a boy who has really deep running issues that he’s suppressing with all his might. I’m hoping that thread feels resolved, and I think it might do after the Voldemort timeline, although I’m not sure if I’ll be left wanting more of that. I’m not sure if the script gives the opportunities Samuel needs to fully play out that character choice. (But if it doesn’t, we can just fix it ourselves with fic, so that’s fine.)

Theo takes every opportunity he can to give Samuel a hug. When they left the carriage, Albus wrapped his arm right round Scorpius’s shoulders.

During the wand dance, Albus stayed with his wand the whole time, desperately trying to prise it from the ground.

Scene Five

I completely adored Rakie in this scene. Just her level of authority. Also her disapproval at Harry’s mess was deeply entertaining to me. She walked into that office and instantly despaired.

Jamie wasn’t bouncy and enthusiastic like Jamie P always was in this scene, which was a little bit of a shame. He also didn’t shout. He’s nowhere near as explosive and incendiary. He’s not Harry in the way Jamie P was, but I don’t think anyone ever will be. I’m convinced that Jamie P knows Harry Potter with a level of depth that is second only to JK herself. And that is impossible to top.

Jamie does an interesting thing where he stands up when he’s being told off, it’s like he’s trying to bring himself up to Hermione’s level. It goes along with the slightly stern demeanour he has, trying to bring himself an air of increased authority.

Scene Six

The moments where Barry and Sandy were on as Amos/Dumbledore and McGonagall/Trolley Witch felt like a wave from an old familiar friend. It was a little heartbreaking, but at the same time I’m so glad they’re still there.

I really liked how Jamie played with scene with Amos. There were little flashes of pain. He was struggling to be civil and authoritative and not let it show how much he was hurting.

I loved how Theo played the bit where Albus is eavesdropping on Harry and Amos. He sort of had his ear pressed to the banister on the stairs, like he was listening really hard through a wall, and you could really tell he was reacting to their conversation, rather than just moving up and down the stairs for the sake of it.

Annabel is a really cute Delphi. She just has a sort of lively energy to her, and so much enthusiasm. She feels really experienced beside the boys, and it’s actually comforting when she’s on stage with both of them. I could feel her encouraging them both along.

When Amos called her back, she made a little robot nose, but she didn’t do the whole mechanical walk down the stairs that Esther used to do. She hopped up on the bannister and tried to slide down it in a way that was really awkward, didn’t really work, and was presumably just to make Albus laugh. Also, before she left with Amos, she glanced back and gave Albus a wave. Her Delphi cares far more about connecting with Albus in that moment, than she cares about meeting Harry, which makes sense. Although Harry is Harry, Albus is her target.

Scene Seven

I think both Jamie and Theo were very nervous in the blanket scene. I could see Jamie’s hands shaking as he was messing with the blanket.

Jamie said a line in this scene that I have never ever heard Jamie P say. Possibly he said it during the previews, but he definitely always skipped it as a matter of course: ‘James has been going on about the Invisibility Cloak since time itself, and Lily – I knew she’d love wings – but you…’

I really liked the bit with the love potion. That worked well from both sides, Albus’s dismissiveness, and Harry’s attempts to justify it and defuse the conversation.

I loved how Theo was all curled up really small on the bed. He had his legs crossed and was just sort of perched there, looking vulnerable and tiny.

This scene didn’t ignite in the way it always did with Sam and Jamie P. With them it was like some had lit a fuse, and you could see the sparks working their way down to the dynamite at the bottom. It was only a matter of time before the whole thing went up. But with Theo and Jamie the anger sort of came out of nowhere without the build, which certainly made it shocking.

They both reeled back when Harry said he line, and Harry looked so heartbroken by what he’d just said. The second he’d said it you could see him shuffling his feet and flailing his hands, and panicking about it. He wanted to take it back, but he couldn’t. And Albus just looked broken.

As he ran out of the room, he dumped the blanket on the bed like he was fleeing, and only paused in the doorway to shoot the ‘no luck or love for me then’ over his shoulder as an after-thought.

The First Dream (Scenes Eight and Nine)

When Uncle Vernon was holding the gun, Dudley (Mackley again of course) was holding his fingers up like a little gun too.

Mark didn’t seem entirely confident walking down the stairs in Hagrid’s massive shoes. I can’t image it’s an easy thing to do. I never noticed with Chris that it might be tricky, but clearly it is.

Mark’s Hagrid is really happy and jokey. Again, he’s less sombre than Chris, and just seems to be having fun all the time.

I just realised that the way Jamie played out the beginning of waking up from the dream is basically exactly what’s written in the script. He didn’t scream or anything. He woke and sat on the side of the bed, breathing deeply and trying to calm himself down. He also got up and was really shaky and unsteady on his feet. Harry actually looked ill in that moment.

Again, I really liked the relationship between Harry and Ginny here. It was sort of quiet and caring and supportive.

Escaping the Train (Scenes Ten and Eleven)

I loved Samuel’s bread section. He just wasn’t at all deterred by Rose’s reaction. He kept digging and digging and explaining and explaining. Completely adorable.

The hug was really cute. Scorpius isn’t hugging back yet, so I know the hugs are just going to get sweeter and sweeter as we go on.

Scorpius was so happy about the quiz. He was having great fun. And Albus was quite delighted with how geeky he was. Scorpius was really thrilled to be called a geek, and his thank you was sort of breathless and excitable.

I loved how when Albus asked the third question, Scorpius just sort of looked at him, at a loss. Like he really didn’t know the answer to the question. And then in response, Albus stepped in to answer it for him.

Neither of the boys were as physical on the train roof as Sam was, but Sam was always truly excellent at the movement side of things.

I really loved the two Molliare spells, especially Samuel’s. He pronounced it in the cutest way, with a sort of like flick of his tongue on the ‘r’. It was very serious and correct. Which is perfectly Scorpius. That geek would definitely be really careful with his spell pronunciation.

The EGM (Scene Twelve)

I really liked how Hermione addressed Harry at the end of her speech. You can feel the friendship between them.

I loved James in this scene. He had a really commanding presence, and his voice is really powerful. When he shouted you knew about it.

The ‘a vote you only won because you are his friend’ line was really excellent. I can’t remember the exact detail of it, but I remember absolutely loving it. I think Draco might have pointed accusingly up at Hermione? It was really well delivered though.

James’s impression of Harry was spot on. He went very posh and mocking. And it’s genuinely hilarious for Draco of all people to mock someone for being posh.

St Oswald’s (Scenes Thirteen and Fourteen)

Much to my disappointment, the kids no longer play the old people, it’s all adults now. We had Mark and Martin and David and Rosemary, and a few others. So there’s no Mackley antics in that scene. However, Martin was wearing a dress, which more than makes up for the lack of Mackley any day.

Albus and Scorpius stuck really close side by side when they were calling for attention. They went very carefully and systematically to each of the three groups of people in turn to ask for help.

When the boys go into Amos’s room, I noticed that it was Delphi who cast the spell to make the wall close in on them. She flicked her wand at it, and then it started moving. Also, the boys no longer yell at the wall to stop, they seem to mostly trust Delphi’s magic, although they did keep glancing at it apprehensively as it followed them across the room.

This was the scene where the boys really felt like an old married couple, constantly muttering to each other and strategizing together, and checking in on one another.

When Amos was saying he’d read about Albus, Scorpius stepped forward to defend him, and then Amos turned on him, and Scorpius shrank back into his corner looking angry and upset, and Albus turned to make sure he was okay.

When Delphi offered to go with the boys, Albus mouthed a thank you at her, and she smiled.

Scene Fifteen

There was a lot I liked about this scene, and some things I was uncertain about. My main issue was that Ron and Ginny don’t feel like brother and sister. They’ve connected with their respective on stage partners, but not with each other so much yet.

Thomas was really doing well in this scene. He and Rakie were kind of holding it together and driving it along. His bit about the trolls going to a party was really well done, and I loved Rakie’s line about not being Cornelius Fudge. She really does have a lot of authority, and is very sensible and level-headed as Hermione. I just love that quality about her.

The Polyjuice Sequence (Scenes Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, and Nineteen)

Samuel is already delivering on Scorpius’s disgust about fish. It took Anthony ages to reach that level. I love it.

Annabel did a little bit of Sam’s ringing/alarm clock noise that he used to make when he would transform. It was just a subtle little thing, but it felt like a tiny tribute to the second hand embarrassment of watching Sam and Anthony do that scene. I appreciated it.

Jamie and Thomas completely nailed their transformations, and got a round of applause for it. Their pain and yelling was great.

I also think that Jamie and Thomas both did really well with capturing Scorpius and Albus. Jamie had all of Scorpius’s confidence, and Thomas was just so awkward at times. When I was watching Thomas, I felt like I was getting a flash of how Theo’s Albus will be when he has more confidence.

Rakie was really late into Scene Seventeen, and they had to wait for her for a while.

The line about the Prime Minister has definitely been changed to ‘she’ now. Nicola always said she, but Noma never did, however Rakie definitely went for she.

Draco and Ginny yelling at each other was really good. I was really happy with how they did that.

James is heartbreaking with the ‘he’s my sole heir’ line. He broke himself off even before he’d started the word heir, and he just looked down and finished the line. He really does look so much like Lucius, and you can sense the ‘every inch his father’, but at the same time, the fundamentals of that line are so different from how his father would have been. In the script that is the line where Draco is most closely compared to Lucius, but onstage it’s one of the lines where he’s furthest from him in terms of attitude.

During the part where they’re trying to hide outside Hermione’s office, I heard a lot more of the offstage dialogue than I usually do. They really paused to let that be heard which was cool. I liked hearing the details of that conversation. I don’t think I’ve ever heard them before.

Thomas’s baby or a holiday section had me in physical pain from laughing so hard. The comedy was very physical, more so than how Paul played it.

After the first kiss, Albus was just pulling the most disgusted face and wriggling his tongue around like he was trying to get rid of an awful taste.

When Hermione was trying to get into her office, she kept reaching in, and Albus would bat her hand away, then she’d come from another angle, and Albus would bat it away again.

The baby or a holiday line was said with Albus kind of hugging Hermione awkwardly from behind, and kissing up and down her arm and across her neck. Apparently that’s what he thinks of as affection.

The really cool thing about how this scene was played was that it was definitely Albus doing it. There was no confusion for me at all between Albus and Ron, but sometimes when Paul used to do the scene, I would forget it was Albus doing all those things. It’s great having the really distinct separation.

I thought Jamie was absolutely great as Scorpius. In fact, I thought all the adults were really wonderful in this scene. This was one of my favourite scenes of the night. When they were going through the books on the shelves they seemed to be having so much fun, and there were moments where Jamie just really palpably owned the confidence that Samuel has.

I am relieved to say that the answer to the first riddle is now delivered in a way that actually makes sense to me. I no longer have to cringe every single time we reach that line.

At one point one of the books didn’t come out on cue, and then Theo started to go too early for the bit where Albus is briefly spat out of the bookcase then sucked back in. Thankfully he managed to wriggle back in without anyone (apart from me apparently) noticing.

Samuel brought as much to the end of this scene as Anthony always has, which was just really exciting. When he plucked the book off the shelf he sort of punched the air and cheered, and he was just really excitable, owning the stage when he was out there alone. He’s really exceptional.

I felt a real genuine emotion and relief from the actors during the line ‘only just begun and it’s almost half-killed us’. All three of them were really happy at that moment. They survived Act One! Only just, but they did survive it. And the only way is up.

Act Two

Scene One

I really quite like the new Petunia. I haven’t seen a lot of her yet, but I think she’s good!

I absolutely loved how Jamie played this dream. He made it so Harry was just nodding off on the stairs, rather than that he was in physical pain and discomfort. Then when the time came for him to look at his younger self, he didn’t seem to jerk awake, he just rose exactly like he was sleepwalking and turned to look. It made so much more sense to me that way.

Scene Three

The new cast aren’t yet one hundred percent comfortable with the Floo Powder transitions. They haven’t quite got the nimble timing of the original cast yet. But in a way that’s actually quite nice, because Floo travel is a pretty awkward and uncomfortable thing anyway.

Ron came up from the kitchens with a half-eaten apple, which was pretty entertaining. I don’t remember Paul ever coming on with food, but maybe he did and I never noticed!

I absolutely loved the animosity between Ron and Draco as they glared at each other across the table in this scene. That was the moment that showed me the chemistry between them. They��re going to be great.

Scene Four

There was a truly sweet little moment with Theo and Annabel at the beginning of the Expelliarmus scene. As they ran on, they went to the back of the stage, and it looked like they had a little moment of interaction before they came forward to start the actual scene itself. It felt like Annabel was giving Theo some confidence, and I was wondering whether maybe the Expelliarmus trick hadn’t worked during rehearsals that day or something. It worked perfectly of course on the night, and they both looked incredibly pleased with themselves.

Annabel gave Theo a little sort of nose boop thing after the second Expelliarmus. She also did a silly little jazz hands thing when she said ‘Great. Wizzo!’, and then Samuel copied the jazz hands when he asked ‘What’s wizzo?’

Scorpius’s level of excitement and over-enthusiasm when he said he’d found a way through to the school was adorable and very funny. And when no one reacted he just sort of deflated and started checking that the plan really would work.

Delphi apologised to Scorpius that Albus had picked her. She glanced at him and gave him a little apologetic wave, and he was all ‘fine, fine’ while looking slightly mutinous.

One of my favourite Anthony lines was the ‘second point, more significant point’, and Samuel absolutely nailed that one. He just spat it at Delphi, and it was great.

Annabel added in a little bit of a line in this scene. She said something like ‘I don’t think I’m smart enough to pretend to be a student’, just a little self-deprecating twist on the line that Esther definitely didn’t ever do, and that isn’t in the script. I find it fascinating that there are still adjustments being made to the script and to the tracks.

Scorpius kind of leant in to Albus for the ‘pale and red’ line, and was all conspiratorial about it. Also he did this sort of circling gesture to his own face, and he seemed genuinely concerned for Albus’s well-being. He wasn’t teasing Albus at all, he was worried at the extraordinary colour he’d gone.

Theo put his arm round Samuel as they ran off after this scene. That was a perfect example of their unnecessary hugging.

Scene Five

This was one of just a handful of scenes where I really missed Jamie P. Jamie’s searching for the boys just didn’t convince me. He didn’t seem terrified enough, and there was no variation in how he called their names.

Nuno was great of course, although there was some hesitation before Bane came on, and I wondered if Bane’s back legs weren’t ready or something. But I’m glad Nuno’s staying. He’s the movement captain, and every time he was onstage I felt a confidence in the cast. I think all the originals are doing a great job of encouraging and inspiring their new cast mates.

Scene Six

This was really beautiful. I wondered if it might be, because this is the first time the two boys have really been to Hogwarts. They have to say these lines, and they’re finally there, onstage, living the magic. It must have been a powerful moment, and I could see the pure wonder on Samuel’s face, and Theo’s too.

There was so much joy in how Samuel delivered this speech. He was completely wonderful.

I’m not sure how convincing it was though, Scorpius saying he was scared, when he was so clearly just confident and excitable. But at the same time, the internalisation of feelings seems to be one of the hallmarks of Samuel’s Scorpius, so I feel like we probably don’t see half of what he’s really feeling inside.

I was mildly terrified the boys weren’t going to get to their marks. They hung around in the middle of the stage for so much longer than Anthony or Sam ever did. But they made it, and the Time-Turner effect worked perfectly, much to my relief.

One cute little thing, I noticed that Samuel kept puffing his cheeks out, and it looked like he was blowing on the Time-Turner to make it spin. I’m not really sure what he doing. I never saw Anthony or James doing that. Maybe it was just Scorpius doing terrified deep breathing or something.

Scene Seven

The wilder members of the original cast are now positioned together, side by side, right in the middle of the crowd for the first task scene. Rosemary and Mackley. A potent combination. And boy did they whip the new cast up into a frenzy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a wild first task scene. It was carnage.

Josh came shoving through the crowd to give Mackley a massive hug before going to stand with the Slytherins, Mackley kept telling Rosemary off for being too over-excited, and Mackley shouted at Fleur to say he wanted to give her a Hufflepuff hug. He’s really embracing his new role, bless him.

The boys came up with their own new chant, to replace the ‘go go Krazy Krum’. The chant now goes: “I love Krum, you love Krum, Krum is the one for everyone!’ Which was awkward, nerdy, embarrassing, and delightful all in equal measure. I’m so glad they’re getting into this thing properly and making it their own.

It really is difficult to give you any notes on Theo and Samuel when the rest of the crowd were being so raucous. I’m sorry I don’t have more observations about this scene.

The cutest moment of the night, our first glimpse into what is sure to be an absolutely delightful Malfoy relationship, was when Scorpius hung back as everyone was rushing to get Albus to the hospital wing, simply so he could walk side by side with his dad. It was just the tiniest detail, but so sweet. I’m anticipating the Malfoy hug tonight getting the biggest round of applause ever.

Scene Eight

I mentioned earlier how Jamie stands up a lot to talk to people, and this was one of those scenes. Both when he was addressing Albus and when he was chatting to Dumbledore. He stands straight backed and authoritative and looks at people when he’s talking to them, or wants to intimidate them I suppose.

When Albus was just waking up, and he mumbled ‘dad…’, Harry immediately went to his side and started comforting him. Jamie P used to do this sort of ‘hold on a second’ gesture in Albus’s direction, but none of that with new Jamie. He started stroking Albus’s hair, and rubbing his arm, and touching his forehead to check he was okay. As a result, when Theo sat up, his hair was an absolute fluffy mess. It was such a classic Albus hair moment.

This was absolutely Theo’s best scene. I don’t know if it was having Jamie reassure him at the start that did it? But he loosened up considerably, and there were some really nice lines where Albus shone through. For example, ‘We decided we didn’t want to come to school. We thought we could start again – in the Muggle world – we discovered we were wrong’.

A truly adorable thing, Harry broke off a piece of chocolate for himself, then handed Albus the entirety of the rest of the bar, instead of breaking Albus a bit and putting the rest back in his pocket. Harry really couldn’t care less about Ginny’s sugar ban in that moment.

Theo’s other great line was ‘you can’t make me go into Gryffindor! I’m Slytherin!’ I think it was @bounding-heart who’s been talking about how Theo is really good at the dramatic moments, which is true! You can see at those points how he’s really giving everything.

Scene Nine

Thomas in this timeline looks really cool, with the slicked back hair and restrained clothing. I really enjoyed him.

One of my observations was that all of this cast seemed really good at the second timeline. I wonder if they’ve just done this section more than any of the rest? I felt they achieved a new level of confidence. For example, Jamie’s Harry fired up and started to get more angry, Emma had some great moments, I loved Rakie (although opinions about her in this bit seem to differ wildly), and Samuel and Theo were great.

On the stairs, somehow Theo and Jamie stayed right at the bottom of the right hand set of stairs, so Samuel had to get all the way to the top of the left hand staircase before they were in view.

Samuel played this bit on the stairs with as much panache as Anthony or James. He stood and held Harry’s gaze for the longest time, and then he went and curled up in a miserable little heap to listen to the McGonagall scene.

Scene Ten

This was the scene where we started to see bits of angry Harry from Jamie. He was slowly firing up, and really exerting his authority over McGonagall.

I also really loved Emma in this scene. She was great in sort of scolding Harry for what he said to McGonagall. She seems to be very good at telling him off, cause there was another great moment of that later on.

Scene Eleven

I’m not entirely sure why some other people I’ve talked to didn’t really get Rakie in this scene. I thought she was really good! She doesn’t have the level of bitter brokenness that either Noma or Nicola brought, but she was still sort of twisted and unhappy, and she had less of her shining authority. You could still tell that she wasn’t who she should be, and that she was a fragment of her former self.

Theo kept kicking his stool miles across the stage when he fell off it, and then had to walk to go and get it. The first time it went so far it hit the stage wall (down where Sam used to hide from Bathilda Bagshot).

I adored how shaky and unstable Hermione was in the final moments of this scene. There were so many pauses, and deep steadying breaths, and you could tell she was in so much pain talking about it. It was awful in the best way.

The Staircase Ballet

Someone told me they thought something was amiss in this scene, but I personally didn’t notice anything! Maybe I was too absorbed in Samuel.

The boys were definitely copying some Sam and Anthony things in this scene, for example Theo did the wiping of Albus’s eyes that Sam always used to do.

The part where the boys meet at the top of the stairs was awful. Scorpius looked like he was desperate to say something , anything, and Albus looked the same. They were just staring at each other with this desperation, not knowing what to do, until Albus walked away because he had to.

And when the boys were facing each other at the end of the scene, Scorpius started walking down the stairs right away, like he simply couldn’t face having to look at Albus any longer. He was completely heartbroken.

Scene Thirteen

My absolute favourite Emma line of the night – ‘Saved by the door’. Poppy always said this like she was referring to Ginny, like Ginny was being saved by the conversation. With Emma it was absolutely a threat to Harry. She glared at him and said it in the most ‘we will talk about this later’ voice. It was amazing. Really brilliant.

James was incredible in this scene. When Harry asked if he was sure Scorpius was his he really slowly and menacingly drew his wand, and he told Harry to take it back in a voice of menacing calm, with seething anger bubbling away underneath. It was so much more serious and threatening than the way Alex was playing it by the end.

The duel was pretty great. James’s timing on the Rictumsempra chair block was absolutely spot on, better than I ever saw Alex do it.

There was only one thing amiss in this scene, and that was Jamie’s Flipendo. I imagine he hasn’t been cleared to do it out of rehearsals yet, because there was no attempt to flip him, and it didn’t feel like there were any mistakes or confusions there. I think they just decided not to do it. I’ve seen Jamie P take some pretty hard landings on that one, and I imagine they had no desire to break Jamie’s ankles on his first show out. Definitely a sensible decision to leave it out, but I hope it’s back in soon!

Emma’s re-entry to the room was really great. She absolutely nailed her bits in this scene.

Scene Fourteen

Delphi was running away up the staircases when Scorpius found her. I’m not sure why she was sneaking around, and she didn’t seem unhappy to be found, but it also seemed like she hadn’t been looking that hard for Scorpius.

This was a really great scene between Delphi and Scorpius. Some really cute, funny moments. For example when Polly walked past, Delphi dived headfirst for cover, and Scorpius sat down next to her and sort of crossed his legs, almost resting them on top of her back so he was using her as a footrest in an attempt to hide her. It was so awkward and ridiculous and perfect.

The ‘sounds like he’s found a shoulder to cry on’ was really really bitter. There was so much emotion in that.

I wondered if Samuel might rename Scorpius’s invisible friend, but nope, he’s still Hector.

At the end of the scene Delphi smiled at Scorpius, then ran off up the stairs, and looked back once again to smile at him. There wasn’t the sinister twist that Esther used to give that moment. She was just being nice.

Scorpius didn’t run off at the end of this scene, he just sat in a little huddle on the stairs, presumably trying to mull things over and decide what he wanted to do.

Scene Fifteen

James kept Alex’s delighted little smile at the news that Harry does most of the cooking!

There was just the one mistake in this scene that I noticed – James skipped ‘Maybe the black cloud Bane saw was Albus’s loneliness. His pain. His hatred,’ and went straight for ‘Don’t lose the boy,’ otherwise he was really great and I enjoyed the scene immensely.

The Library Scene

Why is it that every scene with Samuel in, I want my first bullet point to be ‘holy shit Samuel Blenkin’? Because that’s basically my reaction to him. Not a very constructive reaction though, so I’ll try to do better!

Scorpius and Albus were sitting quite far apart in this scene, like Scorpius didn’t dare get too close to Albus in case he frightened him off or something.

Poor Scorpius was really really heartbroken by the loss of Rose in this timeline. I always thought it was sad when Anthony did it, but Samuel makes so much of the crush, that it was just devastating.

One of the times the boys were shushed, Theo threw a book at Samuel, and they both started pretending to study really hard. It was hilarious, cause Samuel was fumbling to get the book open, and Theo was rustling with his papers, and you could see how fast Samuel’s eyes were going, like Scorpius thought that the faster he pretended to read, the more believable the charade would be.

The wrestling was pretty great. I thought it might be, but yeah. They fought over that Time-Turner for ages. None of the whole, giving it a gentle tug one way then the other and then letting Albus have it. This was a proper fight. No floor pinning though.

The problem with Albus being so nerdy and awkward is that the line ‘I wasn’t a loser before I met you!’ just really didn’t work. Poor kid.

God I want to do it again! Okay I’m going to give in to temptation. Samuel. Fucking. Blenkin. Oh my god. That speech.

I was sitting in Row C in the stalls, so close enough to see the detail, and you could see the tears welling up in his eyes. He almost made me cry. It was incredible. When he was talking about his mum he was just slowly breaking apart. All the confidence and all the walls were shattering and you saw through to the inner Scorpius who was struggling and in so much pain. Completely heartbreaking.

It’s fascinating how different this speech felt from Anthony’s or James’s. You felt in their speeches that they were dealing with Astoria’s death, that they had sort of come to terms in a way, and that they were bringing her up to make a point. But with Samuel it just wasn’t like that. It was like all this raw, unprocessed emotion was coming through for the first time in a wave, like he’d never said any of this to anyone before, and it was awful. It made me realise just how little time Scorpius actually gets in the rest of the script to speak about his mum and deal with her loss. Draco talks about Astoria a lot, but Scorpius doesn’t, and I just want him to have chance to talk about her. I can’t help but think there’s going to be a painful lack of resolution to the way Samuel plays Scorpius.

Theo was great in this scene. When Albus was talking about how the cloak made avoiding bullies easier in particular. That was a beautiful little moment and there were a couple of others too.

Samuel sat sideways on the chair when they were chatting through the apology, so he ended up facing Albus most of the time.

The bit about Scorpius being the son of Voldemort was the bit that nearly shattered my heart. The two boys had such awful reactions around that line. Scorpius had pain and shock and resentment, like he hadn’t realised they thought that, and Albus seemed to want to try and reassure him. I think that was the bit where Scorpius had to start wiping away his tears.

Scorpius’s ‘as apologies go’ was hilarious. He was trying to stop Albus all the way through Albus’s little preamble, sort of waving his hand in a ‘hello, you can stop now’ motion, and eventually he just got sick of it and interrupted with so much exasperation, but fond exasperation.

The hug was cute. Samuel still didn’t hug back. Like I say, the Scorpius initiated hugs are going to be great. I don’t think Albus will be able to resist returning the hug.

Scorpius sounded amazed at how brilliant Albus’s strategy was. He was genuinely impressed and delighted by it.

Scene Seventeen

This was where the four days of tech rehearsals showed. They wheeled the staircases on in perfect symmetry. Unfortunately, they were symmetrically aligned far too close to the little decal bits on the columns at the edge of the wings. As the staircases came out, there was a big bang, and on one side the decal came right off, on the other it ended up hanging off the wall. Super awkward.

But this scene itself was pretty amazing. One of my favourite Romione moments ever (I’m aware this is controversial and that other people hated this scene).

It was flirty and awkward, and their reactions to touching hands were to die for. It wasn’t stiff like Noma and Paul’s version. It was almost a little giggly, and there was a moment where Rakie looked like she was about to melt. I really loved it.

Scene Eighteen

Just the one note here really. James’s ‘what on earth would they be doing there?’ got as big a laugh as Alex’s ever did. Nice work.

Scene Nineteen

Samuel totally nailed the ‘Engorgimpressed line’. He didn’t look ashamed by it either, but Albus looked like he wanted to sink into the floor with embarrassment on his behalf. He shook his head and turned away, and only then did Scorpius seem to consider that that was the worst joke ever.

There was something about the way Scorpius said ‘people they loved’ and pointed right at Albus. Lovely little Scorbus moment.

April Hughes as Moaning Myrtle was simply incredible. On Sunday I said that no one could ever beat Annabel’s performance, but boy is April having a go. She was flirty and a little bit gross, and just wonderful. She growled at Scorpius and pretended to bit him at one point, and she was so desperate for Harry. Just amazing. If that’s her baseline performance, she’s going to be a show stealer every single night pretty soon.

She looked at both boys when she was talking about the love incantations in the bathroom. Some of her bits of crying were just mocking rather than real tears. She just seemed really delighted to have drama back in her bathroom again. Also, her voice was completely spot on. It was a little more nasal than Annabel’s, thinner and sort of reedy, a little closer to how Myrtle’s voice is in the films (although Annabel was already doing an amazing job with that), and just all the flirtation was ramped up so much. The ‘or the equivalent for ghosts’ line got a massive laugh, cause she left a long gap after ‘cross my heart and hope to die’ in which she seemed to consider the plausibility of this. She was really just great. I could watch her do that scene over and over again.

Samuel’s ‘then I’m entirely ready’ was about as ridiculous as you might expect.

One of the best Myrtle moments was when Harry asked her what trinket the boys were using, and she beckoned him in really close and breathed ‘I think it was a secret’, and he just looked so disgusted with her. Completely beautiful.

Scene Twenty

Mackley is still on the wires as double Scorpius (I presume they haven’t trained Henry properly yet), and he did his waving at Cedric just the way he did on Sunday.

A warning to anyone who wins Friday Forty, Samuel is not even a little bit restrained in the lake. If you are anywhere near the middle of Row AA you will get wet. Bring brollies.

Scorpius’s shock at Harry Potter’s death was wonderful. He was completely horrified.

When Scorpius was encountering the Dementors he was doing his muttering again. It looked like he was going ‘no no no no no, stop’ over and over again as they came up to him, but he just had no idea what to do to get away, until eventually he did manage to get past them.

Final general observations

The play feels sort of bare at the moment, and lacking in rich, vivid detail. But of course that’s just because the cast is so new. The old cast had been doing it for over a year when we last saw them. It will fill out and improve.

The new cast do the show really slowly. They added ten minutes to Part One so I missed my train (plan accordingly). We heard Jack and Sonia chatting about it at the back of the theatre on the way out, how they started out very slow then sped up towards the end. Their pacing (which I actually really enjoyed, I savoured everything more at the slower speed), was inconsistent, and I’m sure it will improve. It sounded like there were going to be lots of notes. I think Sunday will probably a rehearsal day. I imagine the experience of the audiences next week will be vastly different to those of us going this week. It’ll be fascinating to see.

Personally after tonight I’m going to wait until June to see the play again. A whole month for the cast to get into it, relax, and feel comfortable. But really my overall impression was hugely positive. I love the new feel, and all the new little touches. I’m so so excited for Part Two (especially how amazing Samuel’s Voldy timeline will be). It really isn’t the same show (I actually forgot there were badges to pick up on the way out; it was a surprise to me), but we’ll get used to it, and it’s certainly different and refreshing. I, for one, am excited. I can’t wait to hear what others thing when they go in the coming days and weeks! I hope you enjoy yourselves as much as I did.

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