Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a play set in the Harry Potter universe, taking place nineteen years after the Final Battle at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a two-part West End stage play written by Jack Thorne based on an original new story by Thorne, J. K. Rowling and John Tiffany. A book was released with the full script of the play.
==Canon==
The play begins with the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with Albus Severus Potter boarding the Hogwarts Express with his cousin Rose Weasley. On the train ride, he befriends Scorpius Malfoy who's the son of Death Eater Draco Malfoy. However at the Sorting Ceremony, Albus shocks the Hall by becoming the first Potter to get sorted into Slytherin. 
Due to the controversial nature of his sorting and his friendship with Scorpius, rumors spread that Scorpius is Voldemorts child. The duo are bullied by their classmates while becoming isolated from their families.
==Fandom & Fan Reactions to the Play==
===Initial Reactions===
===Reactions to Hermione Granger's Casting===
Meta: She's not PCR, but goddamn, at least she's passing us the milk rather than pissing in our cornflakes.
===Accusations of Queerbaiting===
The portrayal of the friendship between Albus Severus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy has attracted vehement accusations of queerbaiting from fans - particularly those who ship Albus/Scorpius (or Scorbus), but also non-shippers who are invested in seeing representation of queer relationships in the series. 
During the play, Albus and Scorpius are shown to have a strong, close friendship with heavy romantic overtones, particularly through the use of the word "Always", which has a particular significance to the Potter fandom as a word used by Severus Snape to describe his enduring love for Lily Evans - giving it strong connotations of everlasting love and faithfulness.
However, at the end of the play Scorpius is shown to be romantically interested in Rose Weasley, thereby supposedly nullifying the possibility of any romance between Scorpius and Albus.
thebloggerbloggerfun summed up the frustration of many fans towards the play on tumblr:
In an article for The Guardian entitled 'Harry Potter and the Possible Queerbaiting: why fans are mad over a lack of gay romance', Ilana Masad noted the strong presence of Albus/Scorpius shipping and fanworks in Harry Potter fandom long before the Cursed Child play was released, and the suspicions of some fans that the play was specifically and cynically designed to appeal to those shippers, without ultimately following through.
===Shipping===
* Scorpius Malfoy/Albus Severus Potter
* Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley 
* Scorpius Malfoy/Rose Weasley
* Astoria Greengrass/Draco Malfoy 
* Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley 
* Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter 
* Bellatrix Lestrange/Voldemort 
* Teddy Lupin/Victoire Weasley 
* Teddy Lupin/James Sirius Potter
==Fanworks==
===Meta===
* Meta on Harry and Albus Potter's relationship by littlerose13writes on tumblr
* by kyrilu
==Archives & Fannish Links==
* Harry Potter and the Cursed Child works at AO3
* Cursed Child Theatre a tumblr blog that collects fan reviews of the performed show, rather than the script.
==Resources==
==References==
<references>
Category:Harry Potter
Category:Theater
Category:Books & Literature
Category:Fandoms by Source Text