Friendship, Family, Love, and Bravery Theme in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

The plots of the original Harry Potter books as well as theCursed Child all show the power of love to inspire bravery. In the play, Albus and Scorpius’s friendship strengthens them as they face bullies, a vicious trolley witch, and ultimately a dark wizard. Likewise, at the end of the play, Harry is only able to fight the dark witch Delphi and ensure that Voldemort does not rise to power again with the help of his friends and family, affirming explicitly that their shared love is what allows them to win against dark magic. Thus, the play suggests that it is the love anchoring friendship and family—rather than any inherent personal valor—is what allows them to overcome whatever obstacles they have to face.

Albus and Scorpius’s friendship is an anchoring force in their lives, as they are able to fight bullies and other obstacles solely because of the comfort they find in each other. Albus and Scorpius are both often bullied—Albus because he doesn’t boast the same accomplishments as Harry, and Scorpius because people believe that he is Voldemort’s son. From the outset of their time at Hogwarts, the boys become instant sources of comfort to each other. When Albus is surprisingly placed into Slytherin House instead of Gryffindor, Scorpius immediately welcomes Albus and says that they can stand together. Even in what is a devastating moment for Albus, Scorpius’s friendship helps him feel less alone. Similarly, when Scorpius’s mother Astoria dies, Albus’s friendship alone provides some solace for Scorpius. Even though Albus doesn’t know exactly how to comfort his friend, Scorpius tells Albus that he only needs to come to the funeral and “be [his] good friend.” Friendship alone helps them brave the struggles and tragedies in their lives. Then, when Albus decides to save Cedric from his unjust death at the Triwizard Tournament, he tells Scorpius that he’ll “entirely mess it up” if Scorpius doesn’t come with him, and Scorpius agrees to go. This again affirms how Scorpius’s friendship gives Albus the bravery to do what he believes is right. He knows that only with his friend’s help can he accomplish what he sets out to do.

By contrast, Albus and Scorpius feel desolate and alone when they can’t be friends, affirming how they need each other’s friendship and love to face the challenges in their lives. Believing that Scorpius is dangerous, Harry tells Albus that he and Scorpius cannot be friends. A silent scene on a Hogwarts staircase reveals just how lonely they are as a result, as they run into each other and look at each other with “abject loneliness.” Later, Scorpius approaches Albus anyway to ask him to help correct a mistake that they made when they traveled back in time. Scorpius has the Time-Turner and could easily go back himself, but the fact that he believes he can only do it with Albus’s help shows how, without each other’s friendship, the boys aren’t able to overcome their problems. Scorpius’s father Draco even approaches Harry to tell him how devastated Scorpius is when kept apart from Albus. Draco says that being alone can send a person to a “truly dark place,” that Draco and Voldemort were also lonely as children, and that this caused them to do horrible things. In this way, Draco emphasizes how friendship and love can help people fight their own demons as well as external obstacles. Even when Scorpius is alone, he uses his friendship with Albus as a source of comfort and bravery when he encounters soul-sucking dementors in the alternate timeline. Snape, a professor, tells Scorpius to think of Albus to overcome the dementors. When he is able to correct the timeline and Albus returns, Scorpius tells his friend, “You may not have been there Albus, but you were fighting—fighting alongside me.” His and Albus’s friendship—even in Albus’s absence—thus helped him maintain his bravery.

The ending of the play—in which Albus’s friends and family join together to defeat Voldemort—drives home that courage and power come from love. When Harry is fighting the dark wizard Delphi alone and she proves stronger than him, she taunts him for being weak. Harry acknowledges that he’s not strong enough to face her alone, but at that moment, Albus, Hermione, Ron, Draco, and Ginny arrive to help, and Harry says, “I’ve never fought alone, you see. And I never will.” Having friends and family in his life not only makes him braver, but it also provides him with the support he needs to defeat dark magic. At the end of this encounter, Harry also relies on their love for emotional strength. He has to watch his parents die, knowing that he can do nothing to stop their deaths without disrupting the future. Hermione says that they’ll “all witness it,” and Harry takes hold of Ginny and Albus’s hands for support. Knowing that they are there allows him to witness his parents’ deaths and work through his grief rather than trying to stop their deaths, showing how their love both allows him to be vulnerable and makes him strong.

Harry’s saga essentially begins when his mother, Lily, sacrifices herself to save his life. Her love protects him, and characters repeatedly explain that love is “the only spell Voldemort couldn’t understand.” In this way, the play explicitly shows that love is crucial to defeating evil, and it is what sets worthy, victorious heroes apart from treacherous villains.

Friendship, Family, Love, and Bravery ThemeTracker

The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Friendship, Family, Love, and Bravery appears in each scene of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.

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