Anyone that knows me knows that I am a hardcore Harry Potter fan. When the Patronus test got released on Pottermore recently, I took it almost immediately (it’s a dolphin, by the way). When I could get sorted into Houses, I did. At Hogwarts I'm in Ravenclaw, at Ilvermorny I'm in Pukwudgie. I even tested to see what my wand is! When the eBooks got announced that further explore parts of the Harry Potter universe, I got exceptionally happy, despite my personal distaste for eBooks. I am more excited for the Fantastic Beast movies that are coming out than I have been for any other movie in recent years. And as you can guess months ago when Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was announced I nearly died. I recently finished it, and all I can say is…wow.

[SPOILERS AHEAD! DO NOT CONTINUE READING IF YOU DON’T WANT SPOILERS]

The brief scene in both the final book and movie of the Harry Potter series shows Harry with his son Albus, but shows just a typical father-son relationship. Cursed Child develops this in a new way. The best thing here is that because of such little development in the previous installments, the character of Albus Potter can be molded in any possible way. And that is exactly what was done with him.

J.K. Rowling decided to break every stereotype she had already established about the Potter family and goodness. Albus, being the son of the savior of the wizarding world, literally had the student body of Hogwarts at his fingertips. He could choose anyone for his friends. His cousin, Rose, even had their options set out for them already. Instead, Albus chose the lonely boy sitting in a train cart all by himself. This boy had rumors around him for years as being the illegitimate son of Voldemort. This boy also happened to be Scorpius Malfoy, the son of Harry’s bully and enemy all throughout his school years.

Yeah, JKR decided to create the wildest friendship she could. You think she stopped there though?

She put Albus in Slytherin. Yeah, that’s right. She put Harry Potter’s son in Slytherin. She can also do anything she wants though, she kind of creates the world.

Let’s see, what else did she decide to do? She made Hermione Minister for Magic (although, is that really a huge surprise?). She kept McGonagall as Headmistress at Hogwarts. She did bring into the story a child of Voldemort and Bellatrix, though it was a girl named Delphi instead of Scorpius. She took a new spin on Time-Turners. She did a lot in such little time.

What I loved about the play though, is that she kept her fundamentals the same: friendship is important; love is important. Albus becomes friends with the boy he can tell needs it. Their friendship is so amazing and the scenes between those two were some of the best I’ve read. Albus also struggle with a relationship with his father. They fight, they don’t get along. That is where Albus becomes more real. Not everyone has an ideal relationship with their parents, especially when so much is expected out of them because of their parents. Harry even offers Albus his blanket from his mom as a peace offering, which actually brings them together ultimately. In the end, though, the two begin to learn to love each other and a strong relationship is forming over the grave of Cedric Diggory.

A lot of the criticism I have seen about the play is understandable, though I like to keep an open mind on the topics. Mainly it revolves around how JKR changed the way her magic works. For example, creating a Time-Turner that can go back years…instead of following the “five-hour rule.” Another example being Albus suggesting whipping up a batch of Polyjuice potion quickly, despite the recipe for it being stated to be incredibly complicated and to take a very long amount of time. My thoughts? Maybe magic advanced since we last saw the Harry Potter world. Maybe someone perfected the Polyjuice potion recipe to allow it to be made quicker. Maybe the Time-Turner situation existed all along, but we were never told about it. I like to believe that ultimately there is a reason.

In the end, I would give

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ten out of ten stars. I would give more stars, but that defeats the purpose of a system. It was great and I really recommend it to anyone who enjoys Harry Potter.