As elsewhere on this site, I treat Cursed Child as essentially a work of fan fiction despite Mrs. Rowling’s name on it. Where I reference it at all, it is to note how it conflicts with or distorts what the seven core novels and Mrs. Rowling’s own interviews have established. See my fuller discussion in Nineteen Missing Years.
With that caveat, this section looks at relationships from two angles.
Canon Relationships examines the pairings Mrs. Rowling established by the epilogue and in post-series interviews. Some of these hold up reasonably well; others raise serious questions about long-term viability. I walk through each pairing and what we can infer about how they would actually function.
Shipping turns to how fan fiction authors have handled relationships — the common pairings, the motivations behind them, the recurring distortions of characters like Lily and James, and my own philosophy for writing relationships in fan fiction.
Themes collects observations that cut across both canon and fanon: the tension between career and family, the role of wish fulfilment in both Mrs. Rowling’s choices and fandom’s responses, and what the series implies about marriage and commitment.