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YANN FREDERICKS: "He's got his hair. He's got hair just like him."

Initially we're inside Hogwarts, in the Great Hall, and everyone is dancing around ALBUS.

POLLY CHAPMAN: "Albus Potter."

ROSE: "And he's my cousin." (As they turn.) "Rose Granger-Weasley. Nice to meet you."

He puts his hat on ROSE's head.

The changes are rapid as we leap between worlds. There are no individual scenes, but fragments, shards that show the constant progression of time.

The SORTING HAT walks through the students, who spring into their Houses.

SORTING HAT: "I've done this job for centuries, On every student's head I've sat, Of thoughts I take inventories, For I'm the famous Sorting Hat. I've sorted high, I've sorted low, I've done the job through thick and thin. So put me on and you will know. Which House you should be in… Rose Granger-Weasley.

It becomes quickly apparent he's approaching ROSE, who is tense as she awaits her fate.

KARL JENKINS: "A Potter. In our year."

And now we enter a never-world of time change. And this scene is all about magic.

SCORPIUS runs to take ROSE's place under the SORTING HAT's glare.

He puts his hat on ALBUS's head -- and this time he seems to take longer -- almost as if he too is confused.

ALBUS looks out, unsure. SCORPIUS smiles, delighted, as he shouts across to him.

He puts his hat on SCORPIUS's head.

A perfect, profound silence.

There's cheering from the Gryffindors as ROSE joins them.

There's a silence.

One that sits low, twists a bit, and has damage within it.

POLLY CHAPMAN: "Well, that makes sense."

SORTING HAT: "Scorpius Malfoy."

ROSE: "Thank Dumbledore."

POLLY CHAPMAN: "Slytherin?"

SORTING HAT: "GRYFFINDOR!"

SCORPIUS was expecting this, he nods and half smiles. There's cheering from the Slytherins as he joins them.

SORTING HAT: "SLYTHERIN!"

SCORPIUS: "You can stand next to me!"

SORTING HAT: "Albus Potter."

YANN FREDERICKS: "I suppose his hair isn't that similar."

SORTING HAT: "SLYTHERIN!"

ALBUS walks swiftly to the front of the stage.

ALBUS (thoroughly discombobulated): "Right. Yes."

CRAIG BOWKER JR.: "Whoa! A Potter? In Slytherin."

Stick out your hands out over your broom, and say, "Up!"

ROSE: "Albus? But this is wrong, Albus. This is not how it's supposed to be."

KARL JENKINS: "Albus Potter, the Slytherin Squib."

MADAM HOOCH: "Well, what are you all waiting for? Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."

EVERYONE: "UP!"

EVERYONE (bar ROSE and YANN): "UP!"

Brooms sail up, including SCORPIUS's. Only ALBUS is left with his broom on the floor.

MADAM HOOCH: "Okay. Children. Time to fly."

His broom doesn't move. Not even a millimeter. He stares at it with disbelieving desperation. There's giggling from the rest of the class.

ROSE's and YANN's brooms sail into their hands.

ROSE and YANN: "Yes!"

MADAM HOOCH: "Come on, now, I've no time for shirkers. Say "UP." "UP" like you mean it."

EVERYONE (bar ROSE, YANN, and ALBUS): "YES!"

ALBUS: "Up. UP. UP."

And suddenly a flying lesson is happening with MADAM HOOCH.

POLLY CHAPMAN: "Oh Merlin's beard, how humiliating! He really isn't like his father at all, is he?"

The kids all hurry into position beside their brooms.

HARRY (amused): "Second-years don't like to be seen with their dads, is that it?"

JAMES (long gone): "See you at Christmas, Dad."

ALBUS: "I'm just asking you, Dad, if you'll -- if you'll just stand a little away from me."

HARRY: "Unnecessary, James."

HARRY: "It's just people looking, okay? People look. And they're looking at me, not you."

ALBUS: "At Harry Potter and his Slytherin son."

And suddenly HARRY appears from nowhere beside ALBUS as steam expands all over the stage.

An OVER-ATTENTIVE WIZARD begins to circle them.

ALBUS: "No. It's just -- you're you and -- and I'm me and --"

ALBUS: "At Harry Potter and his disappointing son."

HARRY: "What does that mean?"

JAMES rushes past them, carrying his bag.

The OVER-ATTENTIVE WIZARD proffers something for HARRY to sign -- he signs it.

We're back on platform nine and three-quarters and time has ticked on mercilessly. ALBUS is now a year older (as is HARRY, but less noticeably).

JAMES: "Slythering Slytherin, stop with your dithering, time to get onto the train."

HARRY: "Are the other kids being unkind? Is that it? Maybe if you tried making a few more friends… without Hermione and Ron I wouldn't have survived Hogwarts, I wouldn't have survived at all."

DRACO: "I need a favor."

DRACO: "These rumors -- about my son's parentage -- they don't seem to be going away. The other Hogwarts students tease Scorpius about it relentlessly -- if the Ministry could release a statement reaffirming that all Time-Turners were destroyed in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries…"

ALBUS: "My name is Albus, not Al."

HARRY: "Draco."

HARRY: "But I wanted to be here…"

But ALBUS is gone. DRACO MALFOY, his robes perfect, his blond ponytail precisely placed, emerges from within the crowds to be beside HARRY.

HARRY: "Al --"

ALBUS: "You didn't need to bring me to the station, Dad."

HARRY looks at ALBUS, concerned.

ALBUS picks up his case and makes hard away.

ALBUS: "But I don't need a Ron and Hermione. I've -- I've got a friend, Scorpius, and I know you don't like him but he's all I need."

HARRY: "Look, as long as you're happy, that's all that matters to me."

HARRY: "If you answer the gossip, you feed the gossip. There've been rumors Voldemort had a child for years, Scorpius is not the first to be accused. The Ministry, for your sake as well as ours, needs to steer well clear."

SCORPIUS (hopeful): "Hi, Rose."

SCORPIUS runs on -- with big hopes and an even bigger case.

SCORPIUS (still hopeful): "She's melting."

ALBUS: "As soon as the train leaves you don't have to talk to me."

PROFESSOR McGONAGALL: "And I'm pleased to announce Gryffindor's newest member of the Quidditch team -- our --" (she realizes she can't be partial) "your superb new Chaser -- Rose Granger-Weasley."

DRACO: "My son is suffering and -- Astoria hasn't been well recently -- so he needs all the support he can get."

And suddenly we're in the Great Hall and PROFESSOR McGONAGALL is standing at the front with a big smile on her face.

ROSE: "I know. We just need to keep the pretense up in front of the grown-ups."

DRACO frowns, annoyed, as the stage clears and ROSE and ALBUS stand ready with their cases.

HARRY: "Draco, just let it blow over -- they'll soon move on."

ROSE (definitive): "Bye, Albus."

SCORPIUS: "She's your cousin, Albus."

ALBUS: "Are you clapping her too? We hate Quidditch and she's playing for another House."

The students circle ALBUS again as suddenly a Potions class begins.

And suddenly he's back on platform nine and three-quarters with his dad -- who is still trying to persuade his son (and himself) that everything is okay. Both have aged another year.

ALBUS: "Do you think she'd clap for me?"

ALBUS: "And now we add -- is it horn of bicorn?"

POLLY CHAPMAN: "Albus Potter. An irrelevance. Even portraits turn the other way when he comes up the stairs."

SCORPIUS: "I think she's brilliant."

ALBUS hunches over a potion.

KARL JENKINS: "Leave him and Voldemort's child to it, I say."

SCORPIUS: "Okay. What's the counter-ingredient? What do we need to change?"

ALBUS: "With just a little salamander blood…"

ALBUS: "Everything."

The potion explodes loudly.

And with that, time moves ever onwards -- ALBUS's eyes become darker, his face grows more sallow. He's still an attractive boy, but he's trying not to admit it.

The hall erupts into cheers. SCORPIUS claps alongside them all.

HARRY: "Of all the stupid things!"

HARRY: "How can you hate a place you haven't actually visited yet?"

ALBUS: "Because I know it'll be full of Hogwarts students."

HARRY: "Third year. Big year. Here is your permission form for Hogsmeade."

HARRY: "Just give it a go -- come on -- this is your chance to go nuts in Honeydukes without your mum knowing -- no, Albus, don't you dare."

ALBUS: "So what would you like me to do? Magic myself popular? Conjure myself into a new House? Transfigure myself into a better student? Just cast a spell, Dad, and change me into what you want me to be, okay? It'll work better for both of us. Got to go. Train to catch. Friend to find."

ALBUS: "I hate Hogsmeade."

ALBUS screws up the paper.

ALBUS: "The ironic thing is I didn't expect it to work. I'm terrible at that spell."

HARRY: "Al -- Albus, I've been exchanging owls with Professor McGonagall -- she says you're isolating yourself -- you're uncooperative in lessons -- you're surly -- you're --"

The ball of paper bursts into flame and ascends across the stage.

ALBUS (pointing his wand): "Incendio!"

LILY: "Yes!"

SCORPIUS: "Come to the funeral."

As he tries to melt into the background, the other students laugh. He looks up at them all.

ALBUS: "This one does."

ALBUS: "And now I don't know what to say…"

And suddenly the SORTING HAT is center stage and we're back in the Great Hall.

SORTING HAT: "Are you afraid of what you'll hear? Afraid I'll speak the name you fear? Not Slytherin! Not Gryffindor! Not Hufflepuff! Not Ravenclaw! Don't worry, child, I know my job, You'll learn to laugh, if first you sob. Lily Potter. GRYFFINDOR."

ALBUS: "Of course."

SCORPIUS: "Did you really think she'd come to us? Potters don't belong in Slytherin."

ALBUS: "Is there anything…?"

ALBUS runs to SCORPIUS, who is sitting on his case -- numb to the world.

Your mum? It's got worse?

I didn't choose, you know that? I didn't choose to be his son.

SCORPIUS says nothing. ALBUS tries to read his friend's eyes.

SCORPIUS: "And be my good friend."

SCORPIUS: "It's got the worst it can possibly get."

ALBUS: "Great."

ALBUS sits down beside SCORPIUS.

SCORPIUS: "Say nothing."

ALBUS: "I thought you'd send an owl…"

SCORPIUS: "I couldn't work out what to say."

ALBUS: (Delighted.) "Scorpius…" (Concerned.) "Scorpius… Are you okay?""