Heart-melting Deathly Hallows Scene Gets Way More Off-Putting Upon Rewatch
When Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 was released in theaters, my favorite scene was the one where Harry and Hermione have a little dance in their tent.
Exhausted, drained, and depressed after Ron's departure, Harry reaches out to Hermione and offers her his hand, and for a moment they decide to turn the world off and dance.
For the most part, it's awkward, silly teen dancing, reminding us that these are just kids – but at the same time, it's a quiet, tender moment between two friends who have nothing except each other. When the music is over they're dragged back to terrible reality, and the moment is gone.
What soured me on this scene? Learning that most fans think it's actually meant to be a romantic moment. From this perspective, Ron has just left and Harry and Hermione aren't trying to find a moment of levity, they're actually leaning in towards an attraction to each other. Some fans even insist that the two nearly kiss at the end of the scene, though I don't see it myself.
But ugh – suddenly a scene that I always thought was a beautiful, bittersweet platonic moment between friends is soured. If you see the dance as having romantic tension, it's pretty off-putting. Ron stormed off because the Horcrux has caused him to be jealous of Harry and Hermione – and in this read of the scene, the Horcrux was kinda right.
Other viewers had the opposite journey that I did: as teen viewers they found it weird and slow and assumed there was romantic intent involved. As adults they love it for the same reasons I used to.
So what's really happening in this scene? A platonic moment between friends or a romantic connection? Director David Yates said:
"Harry and Hermione's relationship is about true friendship. We wanted to do a scene without words that kind of caught that relationship. There's just something really tender and moving about seeing them trying to alleviate the pain by dancing."
However, Emma Watson (Hermione) told an interviewer from JoBlo that she and Daniel Radcliffe (Harry) both saw the scene as potentially romantic, saying:
"If you spend that period of time with one person alone on the road and you don't know when you're going to see anyone else again, I dunno, I feel like maybe there could have been something there, but not really from Hermione's end. I think whether or not you like that storyline or not, the scene has a tension but it's open to interpretation. It's not fixed."
So it seems like both interpretations of the scene (romantic or platonic) are on the table… but knowing this scene ruined the movie for so many fans makes it difficult for me to enjoy it. I just can't unsee the other interpretation, and I can't enjoy it the way I used to.