ABSTRACT
In the Harry Potter series, both the original septology and the recently published script of the play, there are significant and powerful deaths in the narrative. One of the most interesting types of death in the Potterverse is that of the innocent bystander – the character who is in the wrong place at the wrong time. The innocent bystander’s purpose in fiction is to act as the observer and bear witness to the narrative’s events. After an exploration of the innocent bystander trope in media, this chapter explores the intersection of innocent bystander and death as portrayed in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child through Cedric Diggory and Craig Bowker Jr. This chapter explores the deaths of “spare” characters, and the desire to spare them, that drives the protagonists in Cursed Child – which, as a development of this universe, has yet to draw the same amount of critical engagement. With an emphasis on New Criticism modes of analysis, it is argued that the innocent bystanders’ deaths are constructed as a turning point for Harry Potter and his son Albus to live reflectively and meaningfully as penance for the lives that were stolen before their time.
