Is Scorpius Malfoy a Descendant of the Maledictus?
SPOILERS AHEAD: PROCEED WITH CAUTION
The final trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald sent fans into a tizzy when it revealed that Nagini, Voldemort’s serpentine sidekick, will take the form of a human woman in the new film. In the wake of this 20-years-in-the-making truth bomb, J.K. Rowling took to Twitter to answer some burning fan questions and clear up just what a Maledictus is.
They're different conditions. Maledictuses are always women, whereas werewolves can be either sex. The Maledictus carries a blood curse from birth, which is passed down from mother to daughter. https://t.co/wYfvPeQFRW
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 25, 2018
Here’s a quick debriefing for those who are new to the idea of a Maledictus: A Maledictus is always a woman, and the condition is passed down through generations. Victims of the curse eventually turn permanently into a beast, and the specific beast varies from curse to curse.
As expected, Jo’s tidbits of information still leave us with many questions. While we count down the days until Crimes of Grindelwald premieres, fans are looking for clues. Could it be that this isn’t the first time we’ve seen mention of a similar blood curse in the wizarding world? Some particularly sharp-eyed fans picked up on traces of the Maledictus in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
In Cursed Child – Part Two, Draco Malfoy explains to Harry that his wife, Astoria Greengrass, was sick for many years. Draco says she suffers from a “blood malediction,” which ultimately ends up killing her the summer before Scorpius’s third year. While it isn’t clear that Astoria’s and Nagini’s conditions are the same, Draco’s description of her illness seems to match up with new information from Rowling’s tweets.
An ancestor was cursed…and it showed up in her. You know how these things can resurface after generations…” (CC 260; Act 4 Scene 4)
A generational blood curse that shows up in a witch? The two situations seem similar enough.
Let’s say that Astoria Greengrass is, in fact, a Maledictus. Would the curse die out with her son, Scorpius? From whom did she inherit this mysterious illness? Could it be that Nagini turns up on the Greengrass family tree?
Rowling has given us very little information about the Greengrass family. We do know that they’re a part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, a group of British families that were declared “truly pure-blood” in the 1930s. This means fans would be able to debunk Nagini’s connection to the Greengrass family if Crimes of Grindelwald confirms her as anything other than a pure-blood witch. Right now, we only know that Nagini is a member of Circus Arcanus, where she uses her transformation to entertain Muggle audiences. For now, Nagini’s origins are just another addition to our never-ending list of questions we have about the new film!
If you think combing through your copy of Cursed Child will clear things up, think again. In fact, there’s one huge detail that’s missing from this theory. Draco doesn’t give us any indication that his wife transforms into an animal as a symptom of her “malediction.” According to Jo, the cursed Maledictuses are ultimately destined to “transform permanently into a beast.” What beast do you think Astoria would turn into?
If this theory rings true, it could set up some pretty interesting problems for Scorpius and the future of the Malfoy bloodline. Remember, the wizarding world is already suspicious of Scorpius’s parentage. Rumors that he is the child of Voldemort follow the boy all throughout Cursed Child. It certainly wouldn’t help the Malfoy family’s case to discover that they’re all descendants of Nagini. Is J.K. Rowling setting us up for a new saga that follows Scorpius or future Malfoy descendants?
Of course, this connection could be a stretch of the imagination. “Malediction” isn’t necessarily an unusual word: It literally means a curse, which is not a strange concept in the wizarding world. However, I have a hard time believing this is a term Rowling would just throw around with no weight behind it, given that she’s been holding this secret about Nagini and the Maledictus for over 20 years now!
It may be revealed on November 16, and the folks at MuggleNet can’t wait! What questions about Crimes of Grindelwald are driving you crazy?
