It turns out that even the brightest witch of her age gets a little nervous!
During the emotional HBO Max special Harry Potter th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts, Emma Watson sat down with her legendary co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint to look back at a decade of magic. While the reunion was packed with nostalgic tears, it was Watson’s confession about a certain polarizing scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part that has fans buzzing across TikTok and X.
The scene in question? The intimate, wordless dance between Harry and Hermione in the tent to Nick Cave’s “O Children.”
For years, fans have debated the moment—which wasn’t actually in the books—as being either “cringe” or “pure art.” Watson admitted that she initially fell into the first camp.
“The scene that I thought was gonna be really awkward, and I wasn’t sure about at all, which was us doing our dance,” Watson told Radcliffe during the special. “Now that’s one of my favorite scenes from the whole series.”
The scene takes place at one of the duo’s lowest points. Ron has abandoned them, their mission feels impossible, and the weight of the world is on their teenage shoulders. In a rare moment of levity, Harry leads a devastated Hermione in a clumsy, sweet slow dance to lift her spirits.
Watson explained that the scene worked because of the real-life connection she shared with Radcliffe after years on set together.
“The level of familiarity that you and I had with each other at that point… I didn’t think I could have done a scene like that with another actor,” she shared. “There was so much said in the scene. It was unspoken. I loved that.”
Fans on social media have long praised the sequence for showing a more “human” side of the Wizarding World War, and Watson totally agrees. She noted that just as the characters needed a “moment of fun,” the actors did, too.
“I feel like you and I got to have a moment of fun, which we needed at that point,” she added, reflecting on the intense filming schedule of the final two movies.
While the dance starts with that relatable teenage awkwardness, it quickly evolves into a beautiful display of a platonic “soulmate” bond. It’s a rare breath of air in an otherwise dark chapter of the saga, and as Watson points out, it’s a testament to the “emotional maturity” they all gained while growing up at Hogwarts.
It’s clear that whether they’re fighting Voldemort or just dancing in a tent, the magic between Emma and Dan is very much real.
Would you like me to find out what song Daniel Radcliffe would have picked for that scene instead?
