Listen, I'm not a parent, so I guess it's not really my place to police fictional dads, but now that I've seen the cast photos of Draco and Scorpius Malfoy in Cursed Child , I have but one plea: someone please help Scorpius Malfoy . Look at this little dude's face. He looks like he is trying to blink out "help me" in Morse code. He looks like he just guzzled a cup of tea and the leaves at the bottom formed a giant Grim. He looks like he was just forced to swallow a snitch and is now enduring the unthinkable torture of it flitting around his stomach lining. He looks, in short, like an adorable little person who is completely and utterly terrified — and yeesh, when you look at Draco's face, can you blame him?
I had high hopes for Scorpius and Draco Malfoy's relationship. High hopes because a) I am an unrepentantly naive fangirl with #dreams about everyone in the narrative being hunky dory and great and what is canon I can't hear you, and b) because Pottermore 100 percent hinted that it was going to be cuter than this. In fact, regarding Draco's parenting style, J.K. Rowling herself wrote, "I have high hopes that he will raise Scorpius to be a much kinder and more tolerant Malfoy than he was in his own youth."
And ... yet.
Um, did anybody else's life just flash before their eyes?
Of course, we are dealing with a Draco Malfoy whose once powerful family has fallen from grace in the eyes of the Wizarding World, arguably falling further than any of the notorious families involved with the Death Eaters. That legacy now falls completely on Draco's shoulders. It is entirely possible that the blatant rage we see in his face is a product of reconciling that with the very self-important image his parents cultivated in him pretty much since birth, and not any #rage toward his 11-year-old son.
That, and I really, really want to believe that Draco wouldn't be a bad father after the impossible crap that Lucius put him through (did I mention my whole unrepentantly naive fangirl schtick?). Draco went on to marry Astoria Greengrass, the little sister of a fellow Slytherin who, according to Rowling, endured the same conditioning as Draco did in his teen years, and ultimately decided not to raise her son to think Muggles were scum. This seems like a solid parenting decision, and like the sort of parenting decision that two humans would ostensibly make together. So maybe Draco is not the reason why Scorpius looks like he is expecting a Howler from Satan himself?
We don't actually know all that much about Scorpius yet, so there's no way to pinpoint the reason for his obvious discomfort. Maybe he's just nervous to be starting out as a first year, but the Malfoys have never been the type to sweat things like that — unless, of course, in this reformed new world, the Malfoys are so fallen from grace that the tables have turned, and Scorpius is the one who ends up getting bullied. Worse still for Scorpius, there is a possibility he looks this terrified because he wasn't sorted into Slytherin. One can't help but notice that there are no House indicating colors on his Hogwarts robes.
I will say this, though: if the very nervous expression on one Albus Severus Potter's face in his family shot is any indication, at least Scorpius and his existential terror are not alone. Only time will tell what exactly is making them so uneasy, but in the meantime, guys, send some love Scorpius's way. His "SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME" face deserves whatever you can give.
To learn more about Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, visit the official play website here.
Images: Courtesy of Charlie Gray
