J.K. Rowling shocked everyone on Friday when she released new details about her upcoming play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”
The beloved author updated her Facebook page with a new post that confirmed the play will “start where the seventh book left off.”
The “Cursed Child” website also updated to include new artwork that gave even more hints into what the play will be about: “The eighth story. Nineteen years later.”
“Harry Potter” fans immediately realized that this was the same time period as the epilogue of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” when we learned that Harry and Ginny Weasley had gotten married and had three children: James, Albus, and Lily.
But who is the “Cursed Child”? Many fans immediately assumed that the new play will focus on Harry’s relationship with his middle son, Albus.
—Michael J Ritchie (@fellfromfiction) October 23, 2015
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Pottermore, the fan website created by J.K. Rowling, confirmed that the “Cursed Child” would focus on Harry and his youngest son Albus:
It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.
While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.
Thanks to the epilogue and J.K. Rowling’s continual updates to her magical universe, we actually know quite a bit about Albus. Here’s everything we know about Albus Potter, the “Cursed Child."
- J.K. Rowling has previously admitted on the TV show “A Year in the Life” that she finds him to be the most intriguing of Harry’s children.
- His full name is Albus Severus Potter. He was named in honor of Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape, and his initials are A.S.P. An "asp" is a type of venomous snake. Snakes have always been important in the "Harry Potter” universe, used to represent Slytherin and magical traits like Parseltongue, which both Harry and Lord Voldemort spoke. Could J.K. Rowling be hinting at a Slytherin son for Harry?
- Albus has a brother, James, who is two years older and a sister, Lily, who is two years younger. Albus seems to get along with his sister, but his brother James constantly teases him. Harry in the epilogue says he’ll let James and Albus “share a room only when I want the house demolished.”
- Albus is the most like Harry of his three children. He has black and untidy hair, seems quiet and thoughtful, and was the only one to inherit his father and grandmother’s green, almond-shaped eyes. And like Harry once was, he says he's worried about being sorted into Slytherin in the epilogue.
- Albus during the epilogue appears incredibly close with his father. Harry is the only person that Albus confesses his insecurities and fears about Slytherin to.
- We learned in a Rita Skeeter article that J.K. Rowling wrote for Pottermore that Neville Longbottom is Albus’s godfather.
- In that same article, we learned that Albus wore green clothes to support Brazil because he likes the chaser Gonçalo Flores. The rest of his family wore red to support Bulgaria and Viktor Krum.
- Albus was born sometime in 2006 and left for his first year of Hogwarts on September 1, 2017. He will be in the same class as his cousin Rose Weasley (Ron and Hermione’s daughter) as well as Scorpius Malfoy (Draco Malfoy’s son).
Want more on the entire Potter family? J.K. Rowling gave us all the info here.
