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Part 1, Act 1, Scene 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Parenthood
Time, Mistakes, and the Past
Friendship, Family, Love, and Bravery
Reputation and Expectation
Death and Sacrifice
Summary
Analysis
The magical platform nine and three quarters springs into view, where tons of wizard families are saying goodbye to their children. Just then, Ron, Hermione, and their daughter Rose approach Harry and Ginny. Ron (who manages Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes) does a lame magic trick stealing Lily’s nose, which everyone enjoys. Around them, people start to stare, and Ron jokes that it’s because he’s extremely famous.
Even many years after the events of the Harry Potter series, the play emphasizes how Harry, Ron, and Hermione—but particularly Harry—have an inescapable reputation. Harry will always be stared at as the boy who saved the entire wizarding world, and even though this is positive attention, it is still a burden he carries with him everywhere.
Themes
Albus pulls Harry aside, worrying again about what might happen if he’s put in Slytherin, which is notorious for dark witches and wizards. Harry reassures his son by telling him that he was named after two men—Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape. Snape was a Slytherin, and Harry tells Albus that Snape was the bravest man he ever knew. Harry adds that the Sorting Hat will take Albus’s feelings into account—it did for Harry.
Albus’s two names—for two men who sacrificed themselves in order to fight the dark wizard Voldemort—reinforce the burden of expectation that Albus feels. Even though Harry is trying to alleviate Albus’s worry that he will be placed in Slytherin, Albus’s name also hints at the burden of living up to two exceptionally brilliant and brave wizards in addition to his father’s example.
Themes
Harry, Ginny, Hermione, and Ron then say goodbye to Albus, James, and Rose. Albus hugs his parents nervously and climbs on board. As they watch their children go, Harry thinks it’s strange that Albus is worried about being sorted into Slytherin. Hermione remarks that Rose is worried about breaking Quidditch records and taking her O.W.L.s. Ginny asks how Harry would feel if Albus were sorted into Slytherin, but they’re interrupted. Hermione asks to go, saying that people are always staring at them, and as they leave, Harry assures Ginny that Albus will be alright.
Albus isn’t the only one worried about expectations—Rose, Hermione and Ron’s daughter, also feels the pressure to play Quidditch well like her father and live up to her mother’s lofty academic achievements at school. Harry’s interest in Albus’s worry—and the fact that he doesn’t answer Ginny’s question—foreshadows Albus’s eventual disappointment and the wedge it will drive between him and Harry.
Themes
