Harry Potter And The Cursed Child Characters That Are More Important Than You Realized

For Harry Potter fans, these are magical times. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth installment in J.K. Rowling's wizarding saga, and reveals what became of the Boy Wizard after he defeated Lord Voldemort. The play, set two decades after the Battle of Hogwarts, journeys back to Platform 9¾ as Harry faces the second-toughest challenge of his life: raising teenagers. Not only do we revisit some favorites and Lumos Maxima new light on their lives, but we're also introduced to an array of newcomers who are more important to the Harry Potter universe than we could've possibly imagined. (Beware the spoilers!)

Being named after two legends is a weighty enough lot in life, but being the less skilled and charming son of the one and only Harry Potter? Blimey, that's a lot of pressure. Especially for a kid who's just been sorted into Slytherin. Before now, we knew little to nothing about Albus except he was named after Harry's beloved headmaster and the long-misunderstood Professor Snape.

The crux of Cursed Child, though, is his angst and dissociation from the legend of his family name. Albus, without meaning to, essentially echoes the identity crises and thirst for adventure that his father had at the same age (albeit with less enthusiasm). Just as Harry knew little of his father before following in his footsteps, Albus has to think he's going his own way to realize he's not so different from daddy after all. D'aw.

Draco Malfoy's son is kind and intelligent. His grandparents' generation of Death Eaters called for the expulsion of wizards with bloodline impurities, and since payback's a witch, Scorpius has been cruelly outcast to the scourge of school society because of some nasty rumors that he might be the secret spawn of Lord Voldemort. He's got his own grandfather Lucius to thank for the contempt leveled at the Malfoy fam. Scorpius doesn't believe the gossip (he can look in the mirror and see those ice blonde locks that prove Malfoy blood fills his veins), but still. He's suffering.

Unlike his dad, though, he refuses to dishonor others. He's even given the chance to live like a king in exchange for Voldemort's victory in a time-turning snafu, but he doesn't entertain it for one moment. A Malfoy that's good through and through? Whodathunkit?

Chances are, Theodore Nott is not a name most fans immediately recall from the original Harry Potter septet, but he was part of the pure-blood Slytherin squad run by Draco Malfoy way back when, and his father was among the Death Eaters imprisoned at Azkaban. In Cursed Child, he's returned as the unseen smuggler of one of the world's last known time-turners, so he's still up to his old ways, but if it weren't for that, we wouldn't have a story here. So...thanks for the treachery, Theodore?

The death of Cedric Diggory marked a visceral moment of violence which was equal parts senseless and scary and elevated the true stakes at play in Harry's battle against the Dark Lord. It was also simply sad—especially for Amos Diggory, whose day of joy and pride over having a son reach such a major milestone in his young wizarding career became a living nightmare at the snap of a wand.

Flashing forward two decades, he's far from healed over his loss. In fact, it's his crazy scheme to journey back and save Cedric from being the expendable "spare" that day that launches our new heroes into their time-traveling misadventures in the first place. Amos is probably not a name Potter fans expected to ever see again, especially not with such significance, but here we are.

Delphi presents herself as the highly benevolent and involved niece of Amos Diggory, who's made it her personal mission to rescue Cedric from his former fate for the sake of her sad, sad uncle. It's all a ruse, of course. What she really wants is to rescue someone else by way of the butterfly effect: her dad, Voldemort. Yep, turns out, those rumors about the Dark Lord fathering a child before his passing were true (he and Bellatrix LeStrange apparently got busy with some baby-making before hitting the battleground), and thus Delphi was born to carry on his sinister love of chaos.

Everyone seems surprised Hermione, once called the cleverest witch, would hang onto a time-turner seized by the Ministry of Magic, but they shouldn't be. Hermione's had actual hands-on experience with this kinda device, after all—she even budgeted time-travel into her double-booked daily curriculum so she could take extra classes because she was a nerd like that. Plus, she's read enough books to know dangerous toys like this tend to have a twin (see also: Harry and Voldemort's sister wands).

Even so, Cursed Child paints Hermione as a less competent charmer than she'd once been. Her office is easily infiltrated by children in Polyjuice Potioned disguise, and they figure out her concealment code faster than even she would've on her best day. The good news is that she's got a daughter who's following right in her old footsteps and has emerged as the newest brainiac of the bunch. (The bad news is Rose doesn't get nearly enough face time in this story. Petition to have a Rose Granger-Weasley spin-off, anyone?)

Draco had very few moments of redemption in the Harry Potter series, but this new chapter shows he's become far less gross in his grown-up life, and we have his wife to thank for it. Unlike everyone else in his life, Astoria is sweet and considerate (which is probably where Scorpius gets it from) and teaches Draco that there's a better way to be than bad to the bone. It's thanks to that change of heart that Draco gives Harry, Hermione, and Ron an essential item, which...young Draco would never.

For a character whose skilled duplicity has long spoken to the depths of his commitment to double-crossing Lord Voldemort and has always taken top billing in the wizarding world, Severus Snape got an even bigger boost in The Cursed Child when he made a very significant cameo in one of the alternate universes created by Albus and Scorpius' time-tinkering. The potions professor was part of a time slide scenario in which Voldemort defeated Dumbledore's Army and loomed large around the halls of Hogwarts, but guess who was still busy working the underground to undermine the Dark Lord, against literally all odds? Snape. "Always."

He only gets a passing mention in Cursed Child, but what we do learn about the future version of Harry's maddening brat of a cousin is that he has developed at least a sliver of humanity in middle age. After the passing of his mum Petunia (who's also redeemed just a hair here), Diddykins discovers that she saved the baby blanket Harry was shrouded in the night he was dropped at the Dursley's doorstep. Rather than trashing it, he was gracious enough to return it to Harry, who cherished the fabric as the only material thing he had left from his mother. (Sob.)