Author's Note: Hi! Thanks for reading my take on Harry Potter and The Cursed Child. Yes, it is a one-shot for the time being. Needless to say, there are major spoilers for The Cursed Child (or at least the spoilers that have been leaked so far). I have taken some liberties as we authors are wont to do in fanfiction. I hope you enjoy this peek into my headcanon of the trio's children. More notes after the end.
"You, Albus Potter, are an utter ignoramus of the highest order."
Rose Weasley was staring her cousin down with a disapproving glare worthy of her mother. Albus, the stubborn git that he was, didn't even flinch.
"How many points does 'ignoramus' get you on the Scrabble board, Rosie?" the green-eyed teenager retorted coolly.
Rose grit her teeth. Three years in Slytherin House surrounded by the tormenting jeers of him being the 'Cursed Child' of the Potter clan had only served Albus to actually grow a backbone. Rose fondly remembered winning all of the fights the two of them had as little kids, especially over who won at Scrabble, a Muggle board game her mother had introduced the family to as a subtle way to get all the kids to improve their literacy. But now they were fourteen years old, puberty had made Al grow taller than she, and Rose's withering glare was futile.
The sable-haired witch was put out, to say the least.
However, there were more things at stake at this very moment than Rose Weasley's pride. She, Albus and Scorpius Malfoy were sitting in the Restricted Section of the library, their strange but usual hang out. Albus and Scorpius were sitting side by side, their sharp, broad shoulders touching. Rose sat opposite them. Madam Pince, the librarian, was so ancient that she never bothered to go down to the back of the library. The trio had found this place in their first year when Scorpius had been desperate to find an account of what his father did in the Second Wizarding War. After making friends with the screaming textbooks and declawing a few ancient tomes, the Restricted Section made for a pleasant, covert (if dusty) meeting place.
It was only the second week of term, so the library was even more deserted than usual. The odd Ravenclaw could be seen furiously scribbling notes as they sat at a rickety desk; but apart from a few studious students, the three fourth-years were left undisturbed. In any case, Rose had quickly set free a few Muffling Moths from her dad's joke shop. The grey winged creatures set up positions around the trio, their dusty, fluttering wings creating a soundproof barrier. No one could hear them talk - of which Rose was particularly pleased, because her cousin and friend had gone absolutely barmy. And not just regular, 'I want to die my hair green' or 'I want Charlie to teach me to ride a dragon' barmy that was usually reserved for her other idiot cousin James Potter - these two had gone fully round the twist.
"I can't believe you want to bring back the dead," Rose said furiously.
Scorpius, for his part, gulped guiltily. Albus raised an eyebrow.
"Cedric Diggory's parents saw enough logic in this idea to suggest it to Dad," he argued quietly.
"They are mad with grief!" Rose replied, incensed. "Of course we'd all love to have dead people back. But what good would bringing Cedric Diggory back do?"
"The way mum and dad were talking about it, the Diggory's came up with a pretty good plan," Albus explained testily. "If Diggory and Dad were never taken by the portkey to that creepy graveyard place, Diggory would still be alive, and Voldemort would have never risen. And then no one would be dead!"
Rose had to admit that Voldemort never rising would be pretty great. Her dad wouldn't have those awful scars on his arms. Her mum wouldn't have chronic migraines stemming from torture at the hands of a Death Eater. Albus could obviously see Rose's position on this issue shifting, and so he kept providing reasons in that quiet, assured voice of his.
"Dad wouldn't have all those night terrors and flashbacks. He wouldn't have seen so many people die. Uncle Fred wouldn't have died. Uncle George wouldn't be a functional alcoholic. Teddy would still have his parents."
Rose felt a lump grow in her throat. Stop it! She told herself. It wouldn't do to be so emotional in front of these two oafs. But Albus had hit a nerve when he spoke of Teddy. Teddy and she had always been close. He was like a big brother to her. Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny treated him like a son, but she knew deep down they couldn't replace his biological parents. To have him spared that pain…
Scorpius softly interrupted her thoughts. "Maybe my mum would still be alive."
Rose felt a thrill of pain for her friend hit her heart and heat up her face. She tried hard to maintain eye contact with the teenager. Scorpius' mother had died earlier that year in May, and it had shattered both he and his father. The grey-eyed boy had spent most of their classes together asleep on his textbooks or idly drawing in his notebooks. Even Albus couldn't get his boyfriend to talk most of the time. This afternoon was the first time Rose had seen him look alive or present.
"Oh, Scorpius," she said in a hushed tone. The blonde boy winced at the sympathy in her voice as Rose laid a reassuring hand over his own. Ebony over ivory, Scorpius slid his hand out from under hers.
The notion of saving Scorpius' mother, someone very real who Rose had met (and who was not just a memory brought up at the ever-elongated Weasley dining table after a few Christmas sherries) brought the damning reality in front of Rose's eyes.
"You, nor the Diggory's I'm afraid, have factored in the insurmountable variables that could completely cock up this whole endeavour," she said flatly.
Albus and Scorpius both gawked at Rose.
"You swore," Albus breathed. "You never swear."
Indeed, her mother had brought them up fearing monetary retribution if anything foul ever left she or her brother Hugo's lips. Her father had paid his wife close to one thousand sickles over the course of their marriage, courtesy of the Swear Jar in their kitchen.
Rose ran a hand through her raven afro, now feeling a little more confident since her obscene language choice had rattled her friends. Rose continued fiercely, "Hopefully me swearing will help you to see the gravity of this situation."
The two boys exchanged a wary glance. Scorpius dared to ask first, "What are the variables, then?"
Rose drew in a deep breath before rattling off her list. "If we were to travel back in time using the time turner to stop Diggory dying, how would you stop both Diggory and Uncle Harry from reaching for the Portkey? Stopping one person is hard enough. And really, if that plan did follow through, do you really expect Lord Bloody Voldemort to have that plan fail and go 'Oh, crumbs, I better not try and come back to life then!' No, he'd find some other way!"
Scorpius let out a small chuckle at the idea of the most feared Wizard in recent history saying 'Oh, crumbs'.
"You have a point," Albus said begrudgingly, determined not to crack a smile at the ridiculous imagery.
"So then you would have to find a reasonable excuse to stalk your Dad day and night for the rest of his life making sure that he was never kidnapped or attacked by Death Eaters, or even that some Death Eater in disguise never asked him to give blood to a Muggle blood bank."
Scorpius' eyes widened, finally alert at something in their conversation. "W-What is a blood bank?"
"A bank where Muggles can trade their money for blood," Albus said quickly.
"Hilarious," Rose commented. "Because Muggles don't have blood replenishing potions, they rely on donations to transfuse one person's blood to another when blood is lost."
"Muggles are weird," Scorpius said, pulling a face.
"Ten points to Slytherin," Rose hit back. She knew Scorpius tried to be careful about making Muggle comments, with the family history he had. Scorpius winced - he didn't have the greatest self esteem - and Rose was about to apologise when she was interrupted.
"Can we please get back to Rosie telling us why our plan would fail?" Albus interjected impatiently. He seemed anxious to understand all the variables.
"If you think you can overcome all these variables, think again," Rose warned before continuing. "Okay, so say that Voldemort has never managed to rise. Everyone's alive and all that jazz. But all of our parents got together in a time when Voldemort was creeping. Whose to say my parents would have ever finally admitted their love to each other if there wasn't the pressure of a whole Wizarding War on top of them? Scorpius, your parents would have never have gotten together if your grandparents still cared about marrying into your proper class, right?"
"…Correct, unfortunately…"
"So we couldn't be sure that everyone would couple off in the same way. And where would that lead us?"
"WE WOULDN'T EXIST!"
Rose screamed as Albus swore and Scorpius jumped a kilometre high. The disembodied head of James Sirius Potter was floating behind them, laughing his arse off.
James Potter pulled off his Dad's invisibility cloak and plopped down in between the bookshelves so that the trio now became a foursome.
The black-haired boy, who out of all the Potter kids was a perfect mix of his parents, with jet black hair, a light dusting of freckles, brown eyes and glasses, was looking at his brother with unbridled glee.
"Dad is going to ground you foreeeverrrr when he hears you wanted to steal that Time Turner from his office," James taunted.
"How did you hear us? I used the Moths!" Rose tried her usually withering glare on her elder cousin. It worked. James relented.
"Uncle George may have slipped me a few of the counter-muffling moth prototypes in the mail last week," he shrugged. "And don't change the subject, Rosie…please continue to describe all the ways my dork of a brother's plan would fail hardcore."
Rose found James even more annoying than Albus (who, she supposed, she didn't find too annoying since they were friends at school…). She had never forgiven him for telling her that her hair looked like a giant Pygmy Puff in front of the whole Gryffindor common room in first year. She didn't like taking his lead, but she did want to continue to persuade Albus and Scorpius out of their harebrained scheme.
"As James so eloquently shouted into our ears: the mathematical probability of us being born as the same exact person is slim to none," Rose continued. "Do I need to explain how babies are made for you to realise how small the chance is that we would have the exact same chromosomes and other biological factors that culminate in making us who we are? So in reality, whatever we do, we wouldn't be changing our lives. We would be changing someone else's lives. The only way to make sure you don't mess with time is to mess with it in a way that leaves not a single person the wiser that any changes happen."
"Like when your mum and our Dad saved that old Hippogriff," James supplied helpfully, much to Rose's chagrin.
"Exactly," Rose sighed. "In conclusion, for you two to go and save Cedric Diggory without irrevocably changing life as we know it, you would have to save him, then hide him for the rest of his life with everyone thinking he was dead. And what would the point of that be?"
"We'd be saving a life," Albus continued to argue, his quiet voice now testy and cracking with impatience.
"What's a life without living it, without your loved ones…?" Scorpius said to Al softly.
The two exchanged a sad look. Scorpius silently grasped Al's hand and smoothed a caring graze over the boy's knuckles. Rose felt she had to look away from the two's silent, intense exchange. Ever since the start of the school year, away from the accepting - if prying - eyes of Albus' parents, the two had grown to be more publicly affectionate with another. Rose was just glad she didn't seem to be a third wheel. The spell of the intimate moment between Albus and Scorpius was broken, of course, by an oblivious James.
"Yeah, have you SEEN Moaning Myrtle?" he barked with laughter.
The black-haired witch sighed. "As usual, James, your lack of subtlety is both embarrassing and illuminating."
Albus seemed to be charging through the final battle in his mind. He stared at Rose before moodily etching out, "Fine. You win." He threw his hands up in defeat. "No saving anyone, no stopping Lord Voldemort."
"No marrying our grandmother, either," Scorpius said, trying to stop Albus' bad mood from brewing.
"Not all of our blood traitor families do that, Malfoy," James said, and was met by two Bat Bogey Hex's courtesy of Albus and Scorpius.
"GAH!" James screamed, fighting off the tiny bogey-laden bats as they scratched at his face. He rolled on the ground, hollering.
Rose quickly cast a silencing spell on James and, after a moment, a spell to relieve him of the hexes. She peeked around the decrepit Restricted bookshelf to see if James' ungodly yelling had awoken Madam Pince. The librarian was too busy snoozing on The Collected Works of William Shakespeare.
Rose returned to the boys, letting out a few more Muffling Moths to resume their privacy. James was red faced and slightly bleeding, Albus looked dejected and Scorpius seemed to be withdrawing back into his depressive state. Rose felt a little guilty. She hated being so much like her mum (not that she'd ever to admit it to anyone, especially Dad!) But really, what was she supposed to do? Let Al and Scorpius ruin their lives because she was too afraid of being a 'fun-sucker' as Hugo liked to call her?
The young witch nudged Albus with her foot.
"Hey," she began softly.
Albus made a noise that told Rose he'd allow her to speak to him.
"So I assume you already do have the Time-Turner, right?"
Albus cast a quick glance at James to assess whether he'd tell. His brother was never the snitch, though. That was usually Lily's job.
"Yeah," he admitted with a quick nod. He pulled out the magical object out of his robes pocket.
These new Time-Turners were different to the old ones, as Rose's mother Hermione had explained long ago when she regaled her children of the adventures she had in her youth. The chain Albus held in his slender hands was long, thin and muted silver. The actual Time-Turner was a large, intricate silver pendant at the end of the chain. This pendant was made of interlocking metal circles enclosed around a bare clock face. Once the circles were spun by the user, five bejewelled clock hands would begin to move clockwise and anticlockwise in an eerier staccato pattern. This Time-Turner shone brightly in the dim library candlelight, but its immense power was clear. It was so small and delicate, and yet the gravity of its power seemed to weigh heavily in Albus' hands.
"Holy Merlin's Left Testicle!" Jame exclaimed. "Who knew you had the gonads, little bro!"
Rose was just as impressed. She couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from the Time-Turner. It throbbed with powerful magic. "How did you get past Harry's office defences?"
Albus shrugged like it was no big deal. "His secretary Lavender loves me, thinks it's so tragic and beautiful that I'm out of the closet at such a young age." He rolled his eyes. "I told her I was leaving Dad a present in his top drawer, so she undid the spells and jinxes. I got one of those joke Time Turners from Uncle Ron last time I was at the shop and replaced the real one with the fake."
Rose, Scorpius and James gave a moment of silence in acknowledgement of the awesomeness of the pale boy's plan. Coming from the Weasley family, an appreciation of hijinks was indoctrinated from birth. And ever since Albus and Scorpius met in Slytherin, the nervous blond had come to appreciate pranks, jokes and heists with the same fervour.
Rose bit her lip. She wasn't sure about suggesting this idea. But Scorpius was sad, they didn't have any homework and the brown-eyed witch really thought they ought to stop spending all their time in what some called a library, and others called a haven for dust spores and infections.
"Well…" Rose began. "As long as we don't change anything of consequence, why don't we use the Time-Turner to have some fun?"
"Rose Weasley, you bad girl," James crowed in glee as ideas started forming in everyone's minds. "We can hide all of the Ravenclaw Quidditch teams' clothes while they're in the shower."
"We can cheat on our Potions exam," Albus said, a smiling sweeping his face, his dejection long forgotten in the shine of the Time-Turner.
"Maybe we could have second desserts?" Scorpius murmured weakly.
Rose grinned at Scorpius, and was glad to see a weak smile begin to bloom in his lips in return.
"We cannot change the world," she breathed in excitement.
The possibilities, however small and inconsequential they may be, would lead them far from the Restricted Section of the library. Perhaps Albus was not an ignoramus after all.
Author's Note: Just to reiterate the headcanon in case it wasn't obvious or you are so outraged it bears repeating: Yep, they're in fourth year, Rose is a woman of colour, Albus is in Slytherin, Albus and Scorpius are a gay couple, Harry and Ginny are cool with it, Ron works at the joke shop, Scorpius' mum died and Muffling Moths were some freaky idea of mine that seemed to fit.
I would love to hear what you thought of my ideas. Honestly, I wrote it because I find the current spoilers for The Cursed Child...a little wanting. Especially in the HP verse, time travel is so fickle and fraught with long-lasting consequences. The idea that whatever the new trio does in the closed loop doesn't have any impact kind of seems like a waste of a play. But, I mean, I love AVPM (RED VINES!) so who knows - maybe it will be a fun and magical romp through time. Do you agree with Rose - are the possibilities too difficult? Or would you take a risk? (Or maybe for a second dessert?)