KING'S CROSS — DATE UNKNOWN

A steady ray of moonlight illuminates the stage. HARRY and DRACO stand alone in the empty train station.

DRACO: What have you done to us? What year is this?

HARRY: We're about thirty years into the future.

DRACO (perplexed): Why? What's so special about this time?

HARRY: Nothing. I just needed someplace... some time... to bring you.

DRACO: Is this supposed to intimidate me? Spook me into talking? It won't work.

HARRY: Yes, it will.

HARRY holds out a glittering potion vial.

Now drink.

DRACO: Veritaserum? Again? (beat, his laugh echoes around them) Better to have tried and failed, eh? No. This is stupid. Bring us back.

HARRY (callously): Tell me what I want to know, or I destroy the Time-Turner and we're both stuck here. You claim to care so much about Scorpius. You wouldn't want him to think he's been abandoned now, would you?

DRACO stares at HARRY with an expression of utter disbelief — he has never seen HARRY so cold and calculating.

DRACO (softly): You can't be serious? What about your children?

HARRY: I'm prepared to make sacrifices. Are you?

HARRY sets the Veritaserum on the ground and points his wand at the Time-Turner. DRACO thinks quickly.

DRACO: Accio Time —

HARRY: Protego!

The attempt is foiled. DRACO grabs for the Time-Turner, HARRY pushes him back, they wrestle inexpertly. DRACO limps back a step, shaking his head as HARRY suddenly winces, reaching for the scar on his forehead.

DRACO: There's more of Voldemort in there than I thought.

HARRY: Drink.

DRACO (relenting): Fine. You win.

He picks up the potion vial.

I could've told you without this.

HARRY: I need to be certain that it's the truth.

DRACO: Just to say — I didn't know about much of it, so I can't take responsibility —

HARRY: Drink.

DRACO uncorks the bottle of Veritaserum and brings it to his lips.

DRACO: You've gone mad, you know.

HARRY: I know.

DRACO drinks it down. He leans his head back and breathes long through his nose.

DRACO: Where shall I start, then?

HARRY: Where it all began.

There is a moment of reluctance in DRACO until it is evident that the truth serum has taken hold. He speaks without reservation. Even the tone of DRACO's voice is relaxed, more trustworthy.

DRACO: Aunt Bella was the first to move in. Then the Death Eaters made our home their new headquarters. When Voldemort arrived... it was like he had brought the winter. The air at Malfoy Manor had never felt so cold. I had trouble sleeping, but my parents... they...

HARRY: Get to the point.

DRACO: I could hear a lot from my bed at night. I slept directly above the drawing room. There were discussions I didn't understand. Ways to protect the Dark Lord. When I made it to Hogwarts, I went right to the library, but there weren't any books on Horcruxes. It wasn't until I returned home for the Easter holiday that I learned about the child.

HARRY: That's when I was captured and brought to Malfoy Manor with Ron and Hermione. But Bellatrix didn't look pregnant. She had already given birth?

DRACO: No. Aunt Bella took a potion to hide the pregnancy. But she was due any day. It was your escape with Dobby that made Bellatrix go into labor. The potion faded. Then, the baby girl was born at Malfoy Manor before the Battle of Hogwarts.

HARRY: A girl? Voldemort had a daughter?

DRACO: Yes.

DRACO limps into the moonlight. He looks back at HARRY.

The child of Bellatrix Lestrange and Lord Voldemort was kept in the chamber below the drawing room floor. Only they were allowed to see the child. I could hear her crying at night. My parents did not approve. Mother had to charm her own tongue so she wouldn't say something that could get us all killed. I needed to know why, so my father explained everything. What the child would represent. And I was allowed to witness the ritual taking place before returning to Hogwarts. When Voldemort died, my parents were confused as to why the ritual had failed, but they were also relieved. Voldemort had perished, or so we thought. That's when we learned that an attempt was made on the child's life. On the back of her neck was a scar in the shape of a lightning bolt.

HARRY: The Killing Curse. It failed?

DRACO nods.

DRACO: The battle was lost and, from all appearances, someone took out their anger on the child. Fearing a reprisal, my parents cared for the cursed child until Rabastan Lestrange arrived on our doorstep one afternoon with the ghost of my aunt. They left soon after Rodolphus Lestrange escaped from Azkaban. Before father died, he kept in contact with the Death Eaters who had aligned with Rodolphus. A plan was developing, based on a prophecy. A new prophecy. The Death Eaters became The Tempest and the cursed child became the Augurey. Her destiny was to signal what they had called "the return of darkness".

DRACO locks eyes with HARRY.

I didn't know the rest. It wasn't until years later, after Scorpius was born. I went to see a friend of my fathers, a former Death Eater, to have the Dark Mark removed. He told me things about you. About the last surviving Horcrux. The new prophecy. It was difficult for me to believe. They were worshipping Harry Potter? And without his knowledge? But it was true. Lord Blitzfanger was their last hope. And still is today.

HARRY scratches his unshaven jaw.

HARRY: Perhaps... prophecies can be prevented. Maybe prophecies can be broken.

DRACO: That's what your son believed.

HARRY looks away in pain. He is not prepared to hear the rest.

HARRY: Al knew?

DRACO: Only about the Augurey. (beat) I was telling you the truth before, Potter. Albus believed that stopping the Augurey in the past would prevent the death of his mother. So, with the help of my son, they stole the Time-Turner from you and went back to the one moment in time when the child was least protected.

HARRY: During the Battle of Hogwarts...